I will be resuming the Dymaxion schedule after getting accustomed to this new workout routine.

By the way, it’s really working. I’m thinner and stronger! I’ll post pictures in a few day!

Well, guess what? That cold was caught by me and my wife and then it kinda changed and then my daughter caught it again and then I was the last one who had it. And then, guess what, it almost cleared up for me and then turned into an ear infection and then it’s turned into a cough and now my daughter has it again. Oh my.

Needless to say, I’ve been so paranoid about not getting well that I have gone back to my normal sleep schedule and still taking naps most times just to keep my body semi-conditioned.

I have learned two things.

One is that it’s NOT that hard to do a Dymaxion schedule and the other is that you can’t drink alcohol and expect Dymaxion to work. It just puts me under and I can’t get a short nap.

However, I’m having a tough time getting up after my 2am nap. I often wake up at 4 or 5:30 or even later on some days.

I think the reason is that some mornings I just have less work to do than others. I think if I were a bit more inspired to get up and work on something that this would be good.

Just so that you know, the watch is great. It does wake me up. However, I’m a bit too tired to get up and get out of bed every time in the middle of the night. During the day is just fine.

I think I’m still adjusting since it’s been about two weeks now although I thought I would be completely adjusted.

I do think that alcohol is really messing things up a bit as when I do share some wine with my wife one or two and sometimes more nights per week. I seem to certainly not get up when my alarm goes off by 2:45 am.

Anyway, I think I’m still getting used to the schedule and on those days when I have no alcohol in my system, I get up earlier after my 2am nap.

By the way, I must admit that much of the problems of late that I have been having are tightly related to my daughter still being sick. We’re taking her to the doctor tomorrow to check out her lungs. She’s had some issues with raspy lungs and difficulty breathing at times. When we moved from LA, we were pretty convinced that these issues had disappeared, but it looks as though they may be persisting. When I take my 2am nap, I find that I am listening to her breathing (or not breathing for a few moments) and so I’m not really SLEEPING as it were. I think that by the time that I’ve settled in for a nap that my alarm goes off 45 minutes later when I have entered into my deeper sleep.

I’m going to maintain my nap schedule but I’m not going to expect any real breakthroughs with this until she is well and I can nap in our bed at night without me having to worry/watch her when she is sleeping with mommy and daddy.

I remember waking up after the 2am alarm went off at 2:30, but man was I tired. My core sleep still isn’t being distributed yet.

So I’m going to hang with this for a while and treat this as part of the adjustment.

I’m still getting less than four hours of sleep during the day, though. Yesterday it was more like 3 and I’m only tired about a half an hour before my planned sleep time, so this is good.

I have had it set at 30 minutes so that if I fall asleep before, say 2am, and my alarm is set for 2:45 that I should wake up between 2:15 and 2:45. Well, last night my alarm went off at 2:38 and I was still quite tired and didn’t get up.

I think that I just need to not sleep quite so long (from just before 2am to 2:38 is probably over 45 minutes). That’s too long I think. I think that my body is just too comfortable sleeping and doesn’t want to get up. My mind is alert but tired still.

I think that what I’m doing for earlier in the day might be fine for these kind of 45 minute naps, so I’m going just shorten it for night.

I think that the idea here is to get my body to make the leap into going into REM sleep throughout the day instead of just at night and I think that this adjustment will get it to happen.

I went to bed at 2 and had set the alarm for 3:30. My watch went off at 3:16, but I don’t remember it at all.

My daughter has a bit of a cough and so she woke me up because she was crying for mommy to come nap with us.

I got her into our bed and looked at the time and realized what happened. It was almost 4:30am.

Well, no worries. I did only get 2:30 hours of sleep which means that I will be getting that sleep later this morning at 8.

I have to go into work (my only actual “work” schedule is Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00am to 1pm and I work from home the rest of the time) and so I need to get that sleep before I go and then do any necessary catch-up when I get back.

The weather has been really bad lately and I didn’t go into work on Tuesday; there was a tornado/waterspout that had done some damage only in the city where I do on-site work, so it’s a good thing I didn’t go in. I don’t mind driving in the rain, but I have pretty bald tires right now and it’s no fun in the rain, but it’s very dangerous with high winds.

I think I may have to do the same thing this morning unless the weather clears up or if magic elves replaced my tires during the night.

This was my first serious alteration to my sleep schedule so I don’t feel bad. I feel like I could use some sleep but I will play catch-up throughout the day.

I think this will certainly work if I get the sleep I missed from the 2am sleep in the morning and possibly afternoon and am able to get a 10pm sleep to ward off the need for lengthy 2am sleep.

Last night when it was 8pm, I did feel the desire to get a nap, but I was attending a meeting in town with the Lompoc Photographers Guild where my wife and I are members. Now I wish I had got that sleep when it was calling.

I’ve been meaning to share that I have heard about someone who used polyphasic sleeping although I don’t know what their schedule was, but I do know that they were the captain of the USS Carl Vinson and that my friend, who was in the Marines with me, shared about how he used to do these catnaps but he was always on his post. I think it’d be great if the US Navy did more research on polyphasic sleep because if a ship’s captain can do it, then it would dramatically reduce the number of people needed to do one job and would also reduce the vulnerability of a fighting force if it is awake all day and only napping occasionally. At night, a military installatoin goes dark while some people stay up on 3rd shift watching the base. What if they could all be awake all day and napping occasionally instead? What could they get done with fewer people?

Anyway, the reason I mention this is that the captain of the ship may or may not have used a clock to wake up, which is basically what many polyphasic sleepers do without. They have trained their minds to wake up after a short rest period which is pretty cool.

But is what I am doing the same thing? Because I’m using technology to do this, does it make it any less useful or valuable?

Well, you would have to be a Luddite to believe that. You’re using the internet right now to read this, so your life must in some way be improved by technology, even if it is for pure entertainment alone. If you use Microsoft Windows or Apple OS, then you probably use programs such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and any other host of software to get stuff done. If you use anti-virus software, then this is proof that you want to protect your ability to get stuff done.

Do you drive a car? Take pictures? Listen to radio, watch movies or have a cellphone? Do…you…use…electricity…?

The question is really not “Does using technology compromise us as human beings?” but instead is “At what point does the use of technology not let us be independent of technology?”

I think that people who are not in some Third World country without electricity know the difference between life without technology and with and they prefer with. Even homeless people use the bus to get across town.

But then there are the Amish, right? And Lord knows what a soft spot I have for them in my heart after heaing the incredible display of Christian principles at the Amish school shooting in 2006. Not only does it make me glad to call myself a Christian, but it also makes me question whether or not I should become Amish and abandon technology. They are clearly doing something right.

And yet I know that there is detriment in excess, but I can’t say that having more time can be an ill of excess. The only concern that I have is for my own health. However, I run at least three times a week, I am eating a largely raw food diet and my only serious nutritional flaws are caffeine and sharing a bottle of wine with my wife at least one day a week (with the intent to only have it one day a week) and perhaps the monthly or bi-monthly fast food visit. I’m certainly not at the right weight as I am technically overweight but not obese; however, I’m tracking my progress to lose the extra weight using our new Nintendo Wii.

But wait a second…

I’m using the Wii to track my weight loss and my wife uses it for exercise (as do I on occasion).

When I go running, I use an interval timer on my Timex Ironman watch.

This means that I am not only using technology to get less sleep, but I am also using technology to improve my health.

Based on everything that I have read, I can’t see that getting less sleep is as much of a problem as not exercising, so I think I’m going to be just fine doing this.

Thanks for listening.

I just thought I’d let you know what I’ve been thinking about. For example:

1. From everything I’ve read on other blogs (primarily Steve Pavlina but I have also been reading from the original polyphasic sleep master Puredoxyk) is that I should not drink coffee or otherwise ingest caffeine. Uh-oh.
2. I’ve been trying to figure out how I’m going to get sleep considering that I am married and my wife and I are very accustomed to sleeping in bed together. If I sleep in the living room, will it feel like I’m doing it right? If I sleep in the bed, will my Sleeptracker work right?
3. Will I be able to pull this thing off?

Only time will tell on all these fronts, but it should certainly be an interesting experiment none-the-less.

I am making a commitment now to write every day even though my watch is still on its way and is not expected to be here until Friday in two days.

I haven’t quite figured out if I’m going to start napping before I get the watch just to accustom my body to getting in some nappy time or not. Also, I’m really wondering if it’s a good idea to go full-bore or to ease into the a new sleep schedule. I am thinking I’d like to get accustomed to the Sleeptracker and download some of the sleep data to see my sleeping patterns and use that to figure out how to set it so that it will wake me up at the right time.

TTFN