segmented slumber

I can't sleep. Can segmented sleep help me? Let's find out.

[segmentedslumber-blog]

Day 3

I, uh, went out with friends last night and ended up staying up pretty late. Whoops. I will likely be sleeping a normal 8-hour night tonight, in preparation for staying up late tomorrow (Saturday) as I’ll be going to a concert and a Halloween party that night, so I’ll likely be up late. I’ll resume the experiment Sunday night. See you then.

I don’t think having a social life matches up with this sleep schedule terribly well. Maybe I should wait 5-10 years and try it then.

[segmentedslumber-blog]

Day 2

I don’t have the shaky too-little-sleep feeling this morning. I had trouble falling back asleep after being up; I went back to bed around 3:25ish and was awake for at least an hour (even with a melatonin boost). But I slept til about 7:15 and I feel pretty good, especially compared to the past few days.

[segmentedslumber-blog]

Night 2

I went to bed around 9:15, was probably asleep by 10. Woke up around 2:15. Hello from 2:26 am.

Waking up in the middle of the night still feels a little weird. I want to see if I can get used to it.

I actually think I figured out the cause of my insomnia (I’m coming off an antidepressant that wasn’t doing me any good), but I’m kind of committed to this experiment so let’s give it a while and see what happens.

I would have preferred to have woken up by, say, 1:30, but I can’t expect perfection on night 2. I might not stay up very long. I’ll play it by ear.

I avoided melatonin last night because I wasn’t sure how long it stays in your system and was afraid that taking it at bedtime would cause me to sleep through my “dorveille”--but some cursory googling tells me it doesn’t last very long in your system at all, so I should be good to take it.

I’m not sure 9 pm is an early enough bedtime considering how early I like to get up (I like to be up by 7 am, preferably 6) so I might look into scooting that a bit earlier, but that will take time to adjust to. I have been sleeping in lately to make up for middle-of-the-night insomnia.

When I don’t sleep enough, I feel shaky. I feel shaky right now. But I did wake up at 2 in the morning after ~4 hours of sleep. Plus I haven’t been sleeping well at all, so maybe it’s cumulative. Maybe if I keep this up, it will get better. Let’s find out.

Side note on the melatonin: apparently you really don’t need that much at all. I think my tablets are 5 mg but it sounds like I could get away with cutting those into quarters (or smaller!) with the same effectiveness, so I might try that, too. Seems like a waste not to.

Woke up with heartburn again, but I ate right before going to bed again, which you’re definitely not supposed to do when you have acid reflux, so I guess that one’s my fault. Gotta adjust to eating dinner a little earlier. Hey, maybe this will help me cut back on calories. A guy can dream.

[segmentedslumber-blog]

Day 1

It’s 7:20 am. I woke up around 6:45 after going back to bed at 2:45 and falling asleep maybe around 3:20 or so. I probably would have fallen asleep more quickly had I not been dealing with some unrelated stomach issues that were causing me pain and keeping me awake.

I didn’t get enough sleep. By my calculations, I got somewhere around 6 to 6.5 hours of sleep. I can feel it. I need 7 minimum. That said, being tired and under-rested has been pretty normal for me the past few weeks, so it’s nothing new.

If I feel bad enough this afternoon, I might take a short nap, but I’m hoping to head to bed early (9ish) again tonight to see if I fall asleep any easier.

I could take melatonin to help me sleep but I worry that would cause my body to sleep past its supposed natural waking point during the night, and I’m interested to see what kind of pattern I might settle into without the help of sleep aids.

[segmentedslumber-blog]

About

I’ve recently begun having problems sleeping and I’m interested to see if biphasic/segmented sleep can help me.

I’ll probably expand this when it’s not the middle of the night in my first night. Shit feels weird, yo.

Here’s some reading for ya.

NYT: Letter of Recommendation: Segmented Sleep

The Guardian: I used to be tired all the time too. 'Segmented sleep' solved that

The Polyphasic Society: What is Segmented Sleep?

[segmentedslumber-blog]

Night 1

It is 1:30 am. I went to bed around 9 pm but was unable to fall asleep until around 10:30. I’m not surprised, since my usual bedtime is closer to 10-11 pm. I imagine falling asleep earlier will become easier with practice.

I awoke easily at around 1:10. I hope that’s what I was supposed to do. I didn’t set an alarm; I’m trying to see if my body is going to show me what it wants to do.

Is this all a crazy, hippie-dippie experiment? Maybe. But it seems to work for some people, and I’ve got nothing to lose, so why not?

Edit 2:06 am: Forgot to mention that I had heartburn when I woke up. I had a pretty big dinner right before bed, which probably explains it. I’m going to have to keep an eye on that.

2:33, a few more thoughts before I head back to bed: I feel kind of gross, like I didn’t get enough sleep (which tends to affect me a lot.. hence this whole experiment). Maybe tomorrow night will be better.