Polyphasic day 4, the end….of day 4 that is

Haha, almost scared myself there! No, but seriously…I have had a great day, experienced several different ways of going into a nap and different ways of coming out of them as well.

As I believe I posted earlier today I had my worst run-in with sleep deprivation yet. I had a hard time concentrating and spent my time from the 2 am nap until 11 am being in the narcolepsy dangerzone. I had to really put in an effort not to close my eyes in the shower, thinking I might fall asleep standing. Me head was throbbing and my muscles were soar and stiff. I was starting to think that I’d have to go out for a walk, then I suddenly saw me as myself in this situation, not the confused person-personae I was in. I have since been thinking about all the experiences I’ve had the last 4 days….it’s unbelievable! The range of emotions I have felt has acted as some kind of opening into a world I haven’t been entering as much as I’ve been wanting the last couple of years.

I have had amazing dreams during these 4 days, I have actually been able to remember almost every single one of them…which compared to the amount I’ve remembered during my lucid dreaming project is so big of a step forward that it goes against all reasons not to continue doing it.

I have felt sleep deprivation for the first time, and because of it the naps I have been having today were “ohh so much sweeter” than previous ones. The thing is that I’ve fallen asleep fairly quickly, had dreams and woken up ( 3 times I have woken up before the alarm) without any hassle. I have been progressing on this schedule in ways I had only thought were possible for certain lucky individuals. Since the progress towards adaption has gone at such a quick pace, I can only imagine which insights and experiences continuing the schedule might bring.

I will not claim to have adapted fully yet, but I do believe I’ve had progress…having kept some records of my naps I have seen how the success rate has grown during the last few days. On the first day I had 3/6 naps where I had problems falling asleep…not being able to tell if I’d slept at all. On my second day this was reduced to 2/6 , while also having my first poly-scheduled dream. On my third day the uncertain sleeps were down to 1/6….finally having had all my naps for day 4 I am proud to say that I’ve had none of these today, having had dreams in almost every one of my naps. What lacks is a stabilised result of rest, still having naps from which I wake up and feel unrested. I suspect it might have something to do with the length of my naps, but this is something I won’t try to change until I am on my way into week 2 or 3.

I am insanely motivated to continue this fantastic journey, not because of it being a certain means to some end, but because it is the schedule in itself that is the ends I am trying to reach. The journey is so rewarding that the extra time I get to use on my other projects (ones which have helped greatly in preparing me for this one) and my studies comes only as a bonus.

Having read Puredoxyk’s Ubersleep and several accounts of other people’s lives on the polyphasic wagon, I will try to make further progress in this rewarding project in hopes of seeing and experiencing some of the great things myself.

The end of day 2…..D&D International Politics!!

This day has been slightly more challenging than the first one. Still I am only on the second day, but I have started having peculiar things happen during my naps. Today I have had two incidents where it’ hard to tell if I actually fell asleep or if I was awake the whole time. What’s interesting is that this happens when I am feeling tired before I have my nap, that’s the only times I can’t seem to sleep, but considering that they’ve felt so short I am suspecting that I’ve blacked out somewhere in the middle, coming back to myself before the alarm goes off and being under the impression that I haven’t been sleeping.

What was a pleasant surprise was my first 9.15 nap….this oddity of a nap time is as I explained caused by inconsiderately set up timetable of my uni-courses. It gave me my first encounter with the vivid dreams often experienced by phasers. The dream was about me and hundreds of other students playing a game similar to some kind of D&D board game, but instead of anything remotely fantasy related we are all representing countries in a international political assembly. It was really freaky how easily everyone understood the rules and remembered insane facts about each-others country. Often using their knowledge to come to an joint agreement considering trading or other shared interests.

Anywhen! This has turned out to be a good day. I’ve had some signs of sleep deprivation up until now, but I am fairly certain that I haven’t felt anything yet compared to what’s coming in the challenge that lies ahead of me, getting through the first week….I’m running a non-tolerance policy against oversleeping and I will not let myself be conned by my brain into thinking I am going to have to sleep “mono” again at some point,” so you might just as well do it right NOW!!!” That stuff won’t work with me, I tell you. Did I mention that I am talking to myself all the time? …makes it seem less weird…

I have decided to follow Puredoxyk’s advice; I have written a list or two with stuff to keep me busy through the night. I have triple guarded myself with alarms and I have lots of fresh fruit and veg at my disposal. I will check back in after or before my 9.15 nap in tomorrow. I have a funny feeling that it’ll be an interesting night.

A teeny-weeny Hello!

I just thought that I’d check in and do a little status report on the different things I’m doing.

Vegetarian

It’s going great! I’ve been a vegetarian for about a month, and I am just now starting to experiment a little more with different kinds of dishes and vegetables; this weeks favourite has been spinach! I never knew that there were so many different things you could make with spinach. I haven’t really been doing any over the edge gourme cooking, but I have been cooking. I seem to have a very bad habit of using way to much garlic though, today I actually felt it burn in my stomach a little while after I had eaten.  Looking forward to learning some new recipes to bring home and make for my family during the Christmas holidays.

Dreaming

I’m actually getting better at remembering my dreams. Last night I was even able to control one of them. I decided to do some downhill skiing,  after a while I lost control and ended up dreaming that I was in a commercial. It was quite weird how I went from going down a mountain and ended up right next to my house, which was frozen and looked like a icicle,  it thawed out and there suddenly was a jingle and a voice that went off right next to my ear!

I am still learning to remember my dreams though, so Lucid Dreaming is still a bit out of reach.

Time Management

It’s been going a little slower than I was hoping, but I have finally started writing on my actual essay. I figure I will finish the Philosophy one first, and then move on to do the politics essay. I might start writing more essays after I am done with these, I clearly need to practice if I’m ever going to get any better!

Dreaming, an Update!

How is it going?

This far I’d have to say that I am progressing! I have actually started remembering a lot more of my dreams than before. There are many nights when I wake up in the middle of the night clearly remembering my dreams, but unfortunatly I haven’t been writing these down. I should start having a notepad next to my bed.

What am I doing?

My approach to this was to learn how to have lucid dreams. So after reading different peoples experiences with LD I decided that I’d start with learning to remember my dreams, and this is what I’ve been doing for the last week or two.

How?

Before I go to sleep I repeat the sentence “I would like to remember my dreams when I wake up”, then I imagine myself waking up, remembering a dream, getting up and writing it down. Then I repeat this over and over again. It seems to be working, so I’ll be sticking to this until I find a more effective way.

Have I had any lucid dreams yet?

Not in the sense that I’ve actually been able to control my dreams, but I have been aware of the fact that I’m dreaming. I did however have one dream when I started to get control, but then I got excited and woke myself up.

I’ll continue with learning the basics, aka remembering, and I won’t stress trying to become lucid. Everything will eventually fall into place.

Dream a Little Dream for Me!

I have been having a hard time remembering anything from my dreams for the last couple of days. It seems like they are lingering around just too far out in my peripheral vision for me to see. I see nuances but I can’t make any sense of the “shape or feel” of them.

This seems to have something to do with the amount of sleep I am getting; Since I started the Lucid Dream project at the same time as I started getting up at 5.00 I think that I maybe got some “unstable” results the first part of last week. I have a fairly accurate sense of how my sleeping pattern has been changing and a little insight into the way it affected my dreams.

When I was getting “less” sleep than I needed (not really so, it just felt like it since I was getting up so much earlier than I used to), I had very strong memories of my dreams almost every time I woke up. Gradually as I became acclimatized to the new schedule my dreams became more like how they were before, almost nonexistent. This could be because I am no longer in mid-REM sleep when I wake up, yet judging the way I feel when I wake up, (awake and refreshed), I do think that I am somewhere in between phases or maybe in a lighter state of sleep (definitely not in deep sleep, because if someone disturbs me in deep sleep I feel like a popped balloon (picking myself off of the floor =P)

This would explain why I’m not able to recollect my dreams and my level of alertness when I wake up. I have read some forum posts from other people’s experiences with lucid dreaming, and I think I’ve found something that I’m going to try tomorrow (or today…or will it actually be tomorrow? I guess I’m doing the preparations for it today, but I will be doing it tomorrow…riiiiiiight, anyhow;

Strategy for tonight

I will set my alarm to go off at 4.15 am, when that time comes around I’ll go for a walk around in the flat, go back to bed and then sleep until 5.00

What theoretically will happen is that I will be up long enough for the conscious part of my brain to find it’s bearings, but not long enough to fully awaken…so when I go back to sleep my consciousness will have a easier time identifying the fact that I/it, or he….I think I’ll call it a he from now on =D, is actually dreaming. That way it should be easier to become lucid and to remember my dream afterwards.

I’m not sure whether or not it’ll work, so I won’t get my hopes up, but if it does work…this’ll be the first place I’ll post the update XD

First Week Aniversery

As the title says, it’s a week since I started this blog. I must say, the first week has gone by at an alarming pace…it seems that I have been writing one post per day, this might be a activity level that I’ll get a problem maintaining. Mainly because I’m not experiencing that many changes from day to day.

The projects that I am currently working on are ones which will benefit me in the long run, so a week won’t give much time to feel and see the changes that occur. Often I won’t notice them until a couple of weeks have passed.

Here’s how I’m doing on the different undertakings:

Vegetarian Diet

I am now two days into my third week as a vegetarian, and I must say that I am finding new ways of enjoying the diet every one or two days. This weekend I had my first stir-fry with rice….and of course a dash or two of soy sauce. The previous week I ate a lot of raw vegetables and fruit. I haven’t really been doing any real cooking, so this will probably be a thing to focus on as the weeks go on.

There are some things I have never tasted, like sweet potato…so I think I’ll have to muster the courage to go out and buy some, and try to make some kind of meal out of it.

Caffeine

Not really something I will be writing any more about, this turned out to be a easy habit to drop…and not really something I miss. There are some times I really feel like having something warm to drink, so to be on the safe side I should probably buy some herbal tea.

Early Riser

Now this is turning out to be a hellish thing, I am still having trouble going to bed at the right time…and as a result I wake up as a Zombie…having to fight my way out of the grave! I am just about to go to bed as I write this and I am hoping that tonight will bring some progress on my Lucid Dream project…

If I have a dream worth mentioning it’ll end up here!

G’night!

Going Strong and Moving On!

As I am starting to become used to the changes that have been taking place the last couple of weeks, I find it reasonable that I should start looking at some new ways to improve myself. Set up some new goals to make a part of my daily routine. I’ve been thinking about the next step towards raising my consciousness, and I have concluded that I should take a step towards a little more non material way. This will be about getting into new habits, ones that I haven’t had any previous experience (not any worthwhile of telling about anyway) in; Meditation and Lucid Dreaming.

These things have interested me for as long as I can remember, since I was little I can remember once or twice being able to make things happen in my dreams; once I willed a sword to appear so that I could kill the snake that was lurking around outside my house.

I should probably explain a little more about what I’m talking about. I’ll take the liberty to make a direct quote “Lucid dreaming is simply dreaming while being aware you are dreaming. You can think of lucid dreaming as being conscious while dreaming. If, by chance, during a dream it suddenly dawns on you that you are dreaming, then you have experienced a lucid dream, regardless of whether you have been able to attain control of your dream.” – http://www.dreamviews.com/whatislucid.php

So to start off I’ll be trying to remember my dreams. I’ve been reading a lot of different blogs and sites on LD, and it seems that keeping a dream journal is the best way of learning youself to remember dreams, so this will be a new addition to my daily wakeup routine..

I have only made one entry until now, which was this morning, it looked something like this: “I am fairly certain that I had a dream, and if I remember correctly it was all about a fog…haze…”

So as you see, I’ve got a lot of room for improvement….so if any of you who read this have any tips for remembering dreams, please leave a comment…I’d appreciate it.

As for meditation, I don’t have any clear information to go on at this moment, but I’ll do some research and start trying some meditations.