Today was really great. Overall, I would put it as my best. As far as productivity is concerned, however, I am afraid that video games got the best of me. So lets jump into the ins and outs. Especially because I have come up with a great observation that is necessary to clarify.
Once I got around to my shower in the first cycle of the day (around 9 am), I found that I was able to play video games and not have that tired pressure on me. My eyes were doing fine and could concentrate on the reading that was involved as well. This is an improvement from my previous conditions where I had to adjust myself and time spent on activities to compensate for eye tiredness. I also found that I would drift off in thought easily. This is interesting, because these thoughts are really concentrated ideas that I will tangent off of and focus on. Ability to multitask (while difficult for me already) is almost impossible. I have been writing down ideas and such on my expo board to be reminders of day to day activities. Note-taking has become part of my nature. I am also very creative in my approaches to thoughts and problems and their "scenic route" solutions I come up with. Not the typical me. My appetite still consists of three meals in a 24 hour period so I am positively concluding that my metabolism has slowed to an altered hybrid state. I should be eating more food, but I am just not hungry for it. So breakfast, is around 9 am. Lunch around 5 pm and dinner around 11 pm. Everything has spaced and my stomach reminds me at these times that I should eat.
Also before my "great observation" I need to state a few more side effects. My cough is holding fine. Not bothersome, just a reminder. My temperature (as discussed before) is warmer during the nighttime (dark) and colder during the day (light). My memory is hit and miss on different things. For instance, I cannot tell you when I had my pizza. I know I had left-overs today of the remaining 4 pieces, and I had risen from bed and it was still on the stove, but I cannot conclude when I cooked it. A normal person would say that they left it on the stove and went to bed and it was there in the morning. I go to bed 6 times a day. So I cannot recall. This may seem trivial to you, but it has shown me that my days are no longer days anymore. I am seeing things as cycles and something 3-4 cycles ago is literally like thinking 3-4 days ago. It also does help with my REM, but that topic is coming up and I will discuss it there. I was just thinking about the Youth party, and realized that it was only this last night. I had to think hard to remember that. (again, discuss with REM below). Day and Night are relative terms. I understand the AM and PM I have written on the board, but I don't have activities timestamped in my mind. Like, eg., (I called Wilson around 10 am). that time is a complete guess because I have no idea (Again with REM below). And lastly in my side effects, my mind is so ADHD!!!! I have so many thoughts that go through it at a time. It is completely un-filtered. I have to re-read my blog to try to make the ideas flow from one to another smoothly. I already did this in the past when I talk to people, but it is almost a bad joke how much this characteristic has manifested in my day to day activities now.
OK, for what you all have been waiting for (well, what I have been waiting to write). I realized something today. within the last 3 cycles. I am getting more deep sleep than a normal person of my age group. My age group is supposed to get over 2 hours of REM and a little over 1 hour of DEEP sleep each day. Well, I have been taking (over the last 12 cycles) close to 25-30 minute naps instead of 20. This I concluded as a mistake 4 cycles ago, but realized that I will be sticking with this. Here is two samples I have pasted together of my two 8:45 naps (one AM, one PM today).
Anyway, so I know my previous post of my original sleep cycles doesn't have the key fact I am about to discuss, but I want to point out that when I normally fall asleep, i always jump to REM briefly before I get to LIGHT sleep and finally to DEEP. In fact, both of these graphs look like they were chopped right off of my initial sleep graphs from November-December. Which brings up an interesting point. My body is not adjusting properly. I took this as I needed to get 20 exact minutes of sleep (when I did that tonight, I got more REM). But I felt drastically more tired. Then it hit me. That is why this transition has been so easy for me. I am getting around 8-15 minutes of DEEP each nap. multiply that by 6 and you get a range of 48-90 minutes. That is in range (90 beyond it) of normal sleep. that is why my body has been fine while my mind is in chaos. My body is actually improving in the amounts or restorative rest for cells and muscles. Which brings me to the next fact. I am only getting 4-8 minutes of REM each cycle. Averaging this out to about 35 minutes of REM a day, I am in 25% of the range I should be at. This explains so much more of my lack of multitasking. I can concentrate, but only on one thing. My mind blurs easier together in cycles and some details just don't make it. That is why my memory has been so shot. My body is not getting to file my thoughts and make those connections of "who/what" "when" "where" "why" and "how" I really have to think hard and try to piece these together myself. Sometimes I can, other times (like the pizza) are left to the Lord to know. So my memories are not filed in an organized file system. I just found this interesting. Instead of getting my REM and REM only sleep in this process, I am actually getting my DEEP sleep and very little REM. This really amazes me! I am so glad I am experimenting with this!!! So much fun to learn things like this. This hopefully will change when i "adapt" but to be honest. These are the naps I am looking for. When I change to the EVERYMAN 3, I want naps that cover all bases lightly while my main core sleep of 3.5 hours gets the big stuff.
I am just amazed that I can function on little REM though. This is very vital to a person and my side effects are probably only the beginning. I had already researched some of this. So I am being keen to write down things that happen to track them. If I start halluciNATEing, I know that I need to abort the project. When you don't get REM (like in war forms of torture) you cannot handle stress. That is step one.... Two, you will give up just about anything you know (hardened people even struggle to hold on) and finally, if a person is not allowed to sleep (get their REM) they will start dreaming with their eyes open. This is when you are in trouble. So far, stress is still good, but I am looking for these other side effects too! The only thing I know about in this area of struggle is that I get a headache approximately 35 minutes before each nap time now. It is a subtle reminder that I am approaching that time. Also, i like this. Since I have a headache, I know that I will fall asleep when I hit the bed. When I fail to have this, I normally take longer to fall asleep. These have subtly gotten better today. I think it is because my body is in an equilibrium state between happy and HELP ME. :)
In closing for today. I just want to state that I feel like I am in time dilation I just finished exams Wednesday. But it feels like more than 3 days ago. For me, it actually has been over 4 days. Let me explain. a normal person has approx 16-18 hour days (using 6-8 hours of sleep). So, adding up hours, you readers should have spent about 3 days worth WED-FRI (as a whole). That is 48 hours for you (using 16 hour days). I on the other hand am getting 21-22 hours of day. So I am at (using 21.5 hours) 64.5 hours. This means that I have had an additional day to your 3. 64.5 minus 48 equals 16.5 hours extra! Just a tidbit I thought I would share! :D Until next time......
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