Starting Polyphasic with Lumosity reports

[vuurstorm]

I have two daughters, one 2 years the other 3 months. As you can imagine I don’t get much sleep or time for myself thus I am going to attempt polyphasic sleep.
I have been on a successful polyphasic sleep schedule about 2 years ago that I kept for 3 months then started getting sloppy and slipped up. Various attempts after that have failed.

I am about to start again tonight. I have read the thread about the sleep marathon and thought that keeping stats was a good idea thus I will try and complete a Lumosity exercise in each of my sessions to track my alertness etc.

Which me luck and please monitor my progress.

[kingabubakr]

he go for it, good luck with,

i am sure you will do it this time.


by the way what is a luminosity report?

what did you guys think of that sleeping less than an hour thread?

-heres a question.


-would it be possible to do Polyphasic sleep with naps consisting of not 30 mins(as in uberman shcedule, the one steve tried) but only consisting of micro-naps (2 to 5mins). (maybe some power naps afrer the conditioning).

-could you then condition your body to hit REM within a minute and keep that to 5, then wake up.

-so, maybe you could either spread these naps over a few hours, or keep that minimum gap which is suggested(90 mins).

-so you sleep 5 mins every 90 mins, thats quite easy to find in anyones shcedule.

-and effectively you would be sleeping 1 hour a day.


-What do you think?

-Il probably go for uberman first, then after i have succeded there, i will try and see this kind of thing.

[vuurstorm]

Kingabubakr:
I will be doing the Lumosity training as on Brain Games - Lumosity and posting the results, after a couple of days I will graph the results to see how my progress went during my adaption period.
I read your post about sleeping less than an hour. It sounds like a very difficult schedule . I usually take 5 minutes to fall asleep and don’t know if you will be able to get in and out of a REM sleep in such a short session.

My first poly sleep session:
It’s just after 12:00 am and I have just started my first day on polyphasic sleep. I took a 30 min nap at 22:00 which is more or less my usual bed time. Although I fell asleep within the first 5 minutes I did not have any dreams. When I awoke I did not feel tired but it took me awhile to get out of bed. A red light flashes in my mind, if I don’t start getting out of bed as soon as the alarm goes off, an oversleep might not be too distant in the future. I completed a Lumosity exercise as a baseline. The results is below, although I have taken a screenshot I will only post them later as I am currently in the process of migrating my Website.

Lumosity results:
Attention (Bird Watching): 795
Processing speed (Speed Match): 6740
Processing speed (Word bubbles): 540
Memory (Monster Garden): 2070
Cognitive Control (Lost In Migration): 4825

[vuurstorm]

Just got up after my 01:00 nap, did not fall asleep at all, just laid with my eyes closed struggling to fall asleep.

Attention (Bird Watching): 1498
Processing speed (Rain Drops): 2666
Processing speed (Speed Match): 5950
Processing speed (Partial Speed Match): 6740

[vuurstorm]

My 06:00 sleep session was again not a very successful. During my 30 minute nap I drifted in and out of a light sleep a couple of times, when the alarm went off I wasn’t even sure if I slept at all. I completed the lumosity challenges but it started to be a bit more difficult to concentrate especially when doing the bird watching exercises.
Upon waking up I was very thirsty which is very unusual for me. My eyes are also starting to take some strain.

Attention (Bird Watching): 2625
Processing speed (Word Bubbles): 510
Processing speed (Partial Speed Match): 6890
Memory (Monster Garden): 1970

[vuurstorm]

For some obscure reason my computer at the work is giving me gateway errors when I try to log in to the lumosity site and I will therefore not be able to run the test after my 10:00 and 14:00 sessions.

For the first time since last night 22:00 I fell asleep although I didn’t dream and the sleep wasn’t very deep either. I can also feel a slight headache starting, other that that I am still alert and not feeling fatigue at all.

[kingabubakr]

hey man..

seems like your succeeding

that lumosity thing sounds nice.

i want one of them!!

is it free? or u have 2 pay?

also, one new thing i learned from ure thread, if u dont fall asleep within the 30 mins thats the nap done!! i just would reset the time until i do , but your way seems better- it eliminates the risk of over sleeping. cool.

you made me laugh here:

For the first time since last night 22:00 I fell asleep although I didn’t dream and the sleep wasn’t very deep either. I can also feel a slight headache starting, other that that I am still alert and not feeling fatigue at all.

hhhh. hopefully you retain mental alertness hahaha.

good luck bro.

[vuurstorm]

Kingabubakr:
Thanks for the support. The lumosity comes with a free trial with 29 sessions after which you can purchase monthly credits. The reason why I rather get up after my 30 minutes even if I don’t fall asleep is because as soon as I start adjusting the alarm clock I get sleepier and fall into an endless loop of adjusting the alarm clock with 30 minutes every time it goes off.
Now I am now really starting to get tired. At the moment I am struggling just to keep my eyes open. I neglected to do the lumosity report or update the blog after my planned 18:00 session due to a sudden decision to watch Iron Man which also caused me to be an hour late for my 22:00 session. Even being an hour late didn’t affect me much; I think it may still be too early for the pattern to get hold yet.
The rain drops challenge was really challenging, it consists of having to do simple mathematical calculations but my brain just couldn’t keep up. I noticed that the scores mostly keep climbing, which is not due to better performance but rather because lumosity is increasing the level after a certain score reached. A better understanding would most probably be reached once I have more data and are able to graph it.

Attention (Bird Watching): 3048
Processing speed (Rain Drops): 1986
Processing speed (Speed Match): 7790
Cognitive Control (Color Match): 575

And finally; the end of day 1

[kingabubakr]

hey bro..
dont give up its just day one..

it will all fit into place soon. just be patient.

bro.. that was all one day!! it seems like a few days to me!!

just be patient, i will be starting PPS this thursday ( exams finished YES!)
atm i dont think it would be smart for me to do it. - bad performance in exams..

so il blog my experience.

and il get that lumosity thing too.

i reccomend this alarm clock for your computer : Citrus Alarm Clock: Alarm Clock Software

i am very hard to get up in morning etc.. but with this thing, it doesnt fail! its
very very loud!!

good luck with the lumosity, it sounds fun

bro, keep blogging i want to know how you do.

until then bro peace..

[vuurstorm]

I have been active this session, but although I feel more alert it still is very difficult to concentrate.

Memory (Monster Garden): 2630
Processing speed (Speed Match): 6760
Processing speed (Rain Drops): 1573
Cognitive Control (Color Match): 925

By comparing the results with the previous sessions it is very clear that my processing speed is dramatically dropping. A good test will be to see what the results will be after my sessions later the day as that will help to determine whether the bad results is just fatigue or also because of the time of the day.

[vuurstorm]

For the first time I actually fell asleep in a session other than the 10pm one. Although I feel fine, if I am not busy I get very sleepy and can almost feel the zombie state creeping in. My lumosity wasn’t too bad, although they added a new test which I did not understand and got a terrible score. I am still at work today and hope that I don’t go complete zombie while at work.

Memory (Memory Match): 70
Processing speed (Partial Speed Match): 7340
Cognitive Control (Lost in Migration): 3925
Attention (Bird Watching): 4160

For those wondering what I’m using for an alarm, currently I am using my cell phone which I set manually every time. I use a polyphasic wakeup MP3 which I downloaded from the web the first time I attempted polysleep because it starts soft and gradually goes louder, thus not waking up my wife. I also set my digital alarm clock for 05:30 in the morning so that if I do oversleep I’m not late for work.

[vuurstorm]

Finally, it seems that I am now starting to fall asleep more often, even after being woken up halfway in by an SMS I still managed to fall asleep again.
All my drowsiness has disappeared as well. It seems like my body is more susceptible to drowsiness and headaches during the times that I used to be asleep even while I’m still adjusting I seem to be fine during my normal waking hours.

The lumosity challenges are getting a lot more difficult as well.

Memory (Monster Garden): 2700
Processing speed (Speed Match): 5810
Memory (Memory Match): 100
Attention (Bird Watching): 4043

[schola]

Good luck on your attempt. Ironically, I was thinking about reattempting polyphasic sleep when I visited the forum just now, and yours was the first post I saw!

I think it will be interesting to see how your scores on that brain game change in a couple days.

[bobo]

I've never succeeded oding it, but obviously you´v ebeen doing it before so...
Like you I have small kids; it takes a lot of energy and time, so it owild be great to be abel to.
Good luck anyways.

[kingabubakr]

wait a sec...


what schedule are you attemtping to succeed at...???

[vuurstorm]

Thank you for the motivation bobo and schola. So far it looks like I may make it. The important thing is to keep to a strong schedule. In my previous failed attempt I failed to stick to my times and then the oversleeping started. The only worry that I currently have is that I’m struggling to get out of bed the instance the alarm goes off.

kingabubakr:
My current schedule is as follows, note that I steal an hour here or there to fit in with my working hours
01:00 – 01:30
05:00 – 05:30
10:00 – 10:30
14:00 – 14:30
18:00 – 18:30
22:00 – 22:30

So far I kept relatively close to the schedule but like they say “in-between plans life happens”. If you want I can post my actual times until now.

Processing Speed(Raindrops): 2144
Memory (Monster Garden): 3400
Attention (Birdwatching): 5681
Cognitve Control(Color Match ): 1225

[vuurstorm]

My 18:00 sleep session was a breeze. I am falling asleep more often and so far I wake up a couple of minutes before the alarm goes off. At the moment I feel exactly the same as any day before I started the poly sleep schedule. The lumosity challenges is going good as well, I am currently breaking all my previous records, whether it is the brain training going its rout or me just more alert … I will run it for about a week and then try and build some stats to get a clearer picture.

Memory (Monster Garden): 3430
Cognitive Control (Color Match): 900
Attention (Birdwatching): 6448
Cognitive Control (Lost in Migration): 5225

[vuurstorm]

Getting up at night is way more difficult than during day time. Before my 22pm nap I thought I had it in the bag but now I almost overslept. My biggest problem is still not getting out of bed directly after the alarm went off. I am tired at the moment but as usual as soon as I get busy with something the drowsiness goes away.

Processing speed (Raindrops): 3488
Processing speed (Partial Speed Match): 7340
Processing speed (Speed Match): 4010
Attention (Bird watching) : 5904

[kingabubakr]

vuurstorm


what happened?


no reply in a while man.. i hope its all going fine..

im sure u have some good excuse- computer crashed ...


anyway. just checking up.

cant wait to see how ure doing.

[vuurstorm]

I screwed up, for all of those following the blog I am very sorry but I screwed up. This weekend I was very busy during the day, still kept to my sleep cycle but did not have time for the lumosity tests. The nights I was so tired, I got up and the fell asleep on the couch. My wife just rescued me from another oversleeping session, I went to sleep at 22:00 and must have turned off the alarm at 22:30 without knowing it, and luckily my wife woke me up just before 23:00.

I am about to enter day 5th day, but because of this weekend which I failed so horribly, maybe I should start from the scratch and call it day 1 again. What have I learned … because I have done it before I do not get sleep deprived and very sleepy in the beginning, it takes me 3 to 4 days? Never and I mean never go and sit down after waking up after the 10pm or 2am sessions, rather do something physical until more alert. I will give myself one more chance, if I again turn of the alarm in my sleep, I will switch to two alarms keeping one alarm on the other end of the room.

Now a question to all those following my blog, do you want an update after every sleep session or rather a combined report at the end of the day?

[kingabubakr]

hey man!


dont worry about that over sleeping,

that was only a minor failure, very minor..soorry not even a failure but a lesson ...u learned it so .. be happy

there is 2 sides of reporting after each session..

1- it might give you encouuragement to get up, if u do report every session- so u dont oversleep

2- too lazy to write.. ? the stress of typing and stuff..

3- maybe we could keep a good track of ure succes if u do report after every session... its all up to you..


i wish you the best.. and ure soo lucky ure wife saved you- be happy

[vuurstorm]

Well … let’s stick to this being day 5 so that I can still use the previous lumosity stats when building my report. For keeping a track record I will post after each session whenever possible.I will from now on make the subject of the entry the day and my previous wake up time to try and avoid confusion as to where I currently am in my schedule. How am I doing this morning, tired to say the least! Thank goodness for spell checkers. Every sentence had two errors. I’m feeling quite proud of my lumosity track.

My wife got woken up by our baby and watched me doing the challenges. She was very amazed while I was doing the Monster Match game. At my current level there are 25 squares. They show the position of up to 6 monsters on the screen one at a time for a split second every time hiding the previous one as they show the next. Once all the monsters have been shown a man and destination icon appears, I now have to guide the man to the destination without stepping onto the squares where the monsters are located. Once I have reached the destination I have to identify all the monster squares as well.

Attention (Bird watching): 5544
Cognitive Control (Color Match): 1550
Memory (Monster Garden): 2560
Memory (Memory Match): 320

[vuurstorm]

Although I am not at zombie status at the moment I sometimes feel very close. If I’m not busy I feel all the energy leaving my body and drowsiness stepping in. This morning I got into the bath, the water was nice and warm, I blinked my eye and the water was cold, it feels like falling asleep is waiting for me around every corner, thus for now … keep busy.

Memory (Memory Match): 370
Memory (Monster Garden): 2970
Processing Speed (Raindrops): 2653
Cognitive Control (Lost in Migration): 3700