Saturday, July 7, 2012

Tips and Tricks For Your Sleep Cycle

After trying this sleep cycle for ten days now I have accumulated some knowledge of what  and what not to do if this is something that interests you.  I thought that I would be generous and share this information with the public because I'm a swell guy.  So ahead you'll find the most important things that I learned while trying this new cycle.

First up: don't ease into it.  I know this sounds appealing and you probably think by slowly cutting back your bed times and wake up alarms you'll be better adjusted.  This is false.  You will be less committed and more willing to cheat.  You may be thinking that you have a lot of will power and won't cheat when doing this.  That's great, but if that's the case then just start with schedule you're planning on using. 

Use time effectively.  At first it seems awesome that you're awake for nineteen hours a day (it is), and you have endless amounts of time to do whatever you please.  The reality is that you don't have an eternity and the day will end.  I know this sounds needless to mention or condescending but it's very important to realize.  If you decide in the morning to catch up on your favourite website or TV series and that takes you ten in the morning, you wasted more time on that than you would on any other given day.  This also leaves less time to do the important things that need to get done.  So don't spend hours playing video games because the day will end and you will have spent 24 hours playing FIFA.

The second part to the previous tip is to start being productive early.  If you can get all your hard work out of the way first thing in the morning then it opens up the entire day so that you can do whatever you'd like.  My personal example is running.  I haven't run consistently in years and had it not been for this sleep cycle I still wouldn't be running.  I didn't have time and my days were too sporadic.  But now I can get the run out of the way and still shower before anyone is up.  There's a sense of control that comes with getting annoying tasks out of the way first thing in the morning.

Know that times can change, but don't abuse this.  I used three or four different times for my afternoon naps effectively.  This was good news because that means your schedule can be flexible.  I noticed however that the more I switched it around the harder it was to go to sleep.  That's obviously because I was throwing my body off constantly.  So know that your sleep time can change, just do it cautiously.

Plan ahead.  It sucks when you're having a great time with your friends then realize you were supposed to be sleeping 47 minutes ago.  Remember to tell people in advance.  Mostly everyone finds different sleep cycles at least interesting and they will give you a couch and pillows.  Even if they just give you some quiet almost everyone respects different sleep routines.  It's important to tell people though and make sure you yourself remembers it.


That's about it for tips and tricks for now; if I remember anymore I will blog them or possibly add a tips and tricks part two.  I hope this has been helpful for you go-getters.

As for where this blog is going in the future here's the deal; my girlfriend is going to try this sleep cycle as well.  As I mentioned in a previous post, she is more forgetful than I so this will create a nice contrast between two different styles of committing to the cycle.  I or she will be blogging her thoughts and reactions for at least the transition period.  That way we will together be able to compare and see how the sleep cycle effects two people differently.  I'm excited about this new tactic and I hope to see you again very soon!

Just A Quickie

9:02 a.m.
Before I'm gone for most of the day I just wanted to throw a quick update on the blog.  I hadn't intended on doing this but I thought that these two things were important enough to share.  Last night after posting the summary, I was able to stay up until 1:00 without any tiredness.  This was exciting and it made me wonder if there was something to the transition period after all.

The view out my bedroom window every morning
The second thing that happened after I got out of bed and went for my run was that I was tired.  From about 5:00 a.m. to 7:30 I was completely fine but after that and up until a few moments ago I was extremely close to falling asleep.

These two things have gone against most of what has happened before and everything in my summary yesterday.  The blog post yesterday still should be taken at full value since it was an accurate summary up until that point.  These are just very notable occurrences.

Stay tuned because later today (5:30 between 10:00), I will be posting my tips on how to successfully transition from a monophasic cycle to a polyphasic one.  In that post I'll also be telling what's going to be happening with my cycle, the blog and other stuff that is secret right now.  So stay tuned!