neurohack

Hey.

First, many apologies for the Epic Fail that was this blog. I had every intention of updating it daily; however, life got in the way.

The last couple of weeks have been all-over-the-place. The lack of sleep combined with the possibility of oversleeping, as well as assorted life-stuff that all hit me this week, I’ve been moving between highs and lows with ridiculous rapidity. Pretty much unable to function for the last two weeks, up until yesterday.

I did it – I’m adjusted. 80 minutes of sleep per day, and I’m feeling better than I ever have.

It was most definitely not easy. I had to restart twice due to oversleeping; the deprivation wreaked havoc on my mood; I was rendered incapable of doing pretty much anything for most of those days.

So my advice for those who want to try this: first, you’re batshit insane. If you’re happy with that, read on.

* Before you start, set aside two weeks during which little will be expected of you.

I was a moron – I started during exam week. Fortunately the exams were easy, but my performance definitely suffered, as did my people skills.

Prepare to be irritable and have your short-term memory nonexistent for about five days.

* DON’T OVERSLEEP.

Take whatever measures necessary, but do not do this. ever. My six-hour blunder left me with the IQ in the single digits for thirty-six hours afterwards. Additionally, “complete shit” does not even begin to describe how bad those 36 hours felt.

* Don’t try this if you’re short on willpower. Try staying up for four days straight without stimulants. If you can’t do it, then you probably won’t be able to do this.

* Avoid caffeine. Another mistake I made. I quit caffeine completely five days ago; I’m now fully adjusted. Doesn’t matter how tolerant you are – not a good idea.

Now, on to how my sleep is going now:

I feel fantastic. Completely, utterly. The most incredible high. I’m up for over 22 hours a day and I’m functioning better than I was when I was up for 18.

I’m dreaming during my naps – it seems like hours of experience crammed into twenty minutes.

I can get up without difficulty – my body doesn’t want to sleep past about the 19 minute mark.

My senses are heightened; my analysis has improved; and I’m able to apply this 22 hours a day.

So, a summary of what the past two weeks have been like:

Probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but oh so glad I did it.

If you’re not afraid of two weeks consisting primarily of hell and aren’t happy with your current sleep pattern, try it. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.

(as a half-day, yesterday is hereby declared ‘day 0′)

After sleeplessness during naps 1 and 2, 1730 and 2330 yesterday, ’twas a welcome surprise when I dropped off pretty much immediately at 0530 this morning. I slept the full twenty minutes, perhaps even a minute or two over.

For what it’s worth I’m awake and somewhat coherent. Not really too sleep deprived (yet). Cognition’s acceptable, if a little below ‘well-rested’ – short-term memory’s not great, but I’m functioning at a normalish level overall. I imagine my exam performance this afternoon will be a better indicator of ability during this adjustment phase.

Unsurprisingly, spent the 20 minutes in a drowsy kind of half-sleep. Ordinary sleep deprivation is catching up to me though – I should be out very quickly come 2330.