When I tell people about polyphasic sleeping (not that I yap about it all the time, but sometimes it comes up in conversation), the most common reaction I get is people shaking their head and saying, "I couldn't do that, because it takes more than a half hour for me to go to sleep."
If you are part of that group, allow me to give some suggestions. While this may seem like a problem to you now, if you skip your normal sleep cycle for a few days, I guarantee that you won't have any trouble falling asleep at the drop of a hat. In fact, after the first couple of days, your biggest issue is trying to stay awake.
Getting to sleep quickly is easy if you follow a few simple rules.
1) close your eyes. I know that sounds obvious, but I've spent many sleepless nights staring at the ceiling, and it really does help if you commit your body to sleep by refusing to open your eyes. No matter how awake you feel, if you close your eyes, it will help you get to sleep.
2) Stretch big. Lie down on your bed, get comfortable, then stretch every muscle in your body. Reach for all four corners of the room, really push your body to stretch as far as you can, hold that for a few seconds, then let go. Let the relief flood through you, and do your best to go with that feeling. It will feel like floating, and it helps if you imagine that you are floating.
3) Think about all your muscles. This is something I picked up from studying hypnosis as a child, but it still works if you want to go to sleep. Go from the top of your head to the tips of your toes, and think about every muscle in between. Relax every one of them individually, and you will end up relaxing the whole body. For instance, there are a series of muscles in the scalp that are tied at the top of your ears. If you close your eyes, you can feel them tensed. So, think about them, picture those muscle groups, and deliberately relax them (this will feel like relaxing your ears). Also, there are dozens of muscles around the corners of the eyes, in the cheeks, around the mouth. As you picture them, relax them, and you'll feel your whole body relax. Then, work down to the neck, find that point in the shoulders where you're always tensing, and relax that. Work your way down the body.
4) Don't think about anything interesting. This is harder than it sounds. When I try to go to sleep, I have a tendancy to think about cool new ideas, or work through a problem that I'm having in my job. I run through movie quotes in my head, and picture new dialog for stories I've come up with. I don't do it deliberately, it's just what the brain does.
In order to combat that, I chant in my head. Seriously, I know how stupid it sounds, but in order to clear my head, I will actually think the word "Ohhhhhhhmmmmmmm" like some kind of yoga or something. I try to hold the note in my mind for as long as I can, until my brain gets the message that we're not trying to solve problems right now.
Anyway, in other news, I'm on day four I think (I started this latest course on Saturday 1/21/06 at 6:00 AM). I'm getting through the nights just fine, I feel a little bit tired all day and all night, but it's entirely manageable, and they tell me that will go away eventually as well.
Oddly, I have the greatest amount of trouble from my 6:00AM and 10:00AM naps. Once I lie down for them, I just can't seem to get up. I wake up extremely groggy, and have just enough energy to set the alarm for another 30 minutes. So, my 6 and 10 AM naps have run an hour apiece, rather than a half hour. I've got to find a way around that. This is one situation where caffeine has failed me. I'm thinking about making myself get up and walk around. In the past, when I've started walking around, I've been able to shake off the wobbling grogginess. Or maybe situps and pushups or something.
Other than that, though, I'm doing fine. I'm getting lots of work done, I have time for reading and playing video games again. It's just generally cool.
sleep deprivation
