The Uberman Series Day 5
It was around 11 pm on day 4 and I was speaking to a friend when suddenly, the lights began flickering violently and progressively became dimmer. Fearing that they were about to blow up somehow, I rushed to the buttons and switched off everything. The room was then enveloped in utter darkness. Uncertain what had just happened, I opened my door and looked across, only to find more darkness. The entire apartment was in darkness now and I was partly relieved that it wasn't something local to my room. The next obvious step was then to check the elevator and the neighbours and they seemed to be as confused as we were. Power cuts are extremely rare in my area and even when they do occur, they never last for more than 5 minutes. Half an hour later when there was still no electricity, people began to panic. It turned out that it was the entire lane that had suffered a power cut—a string of buildings beginning from mine towards the right. The members of the building called up the responsible authorities and it turned out that the issue was not from their end, it was perhaps from ours. Consequently, they arrived at our location and investigated, discovering a badly burnt component of the device responsible for regulating the supply of electricity in the lane.
It was almost about time for the first nap of today and the hope of there being electricity by then was crushed. The men were working on fixing the issue, and we were informed that it may take several hours to perhaps the entire night to fix it. That possibility, if it would pan out, was scary. I had to take my 12 am nap in a dark and stuffy room without any ventilation and a lot of mosquitoes who kept whispering in my ears. I was also stricken with itchy bites which made napping not possible. I tried to nap but those were 20 minutes of my life spent scratching and swatting that I was never going to get back. Thinking about my 4 am nap I was concerned. I already was worried about the consequences of skipping the first nap. Skipping two naps would force me to abandon the experiment and take a week or two off to recover from the ensuing sleep-deprivation, only to start all over again afterwards.
The electricity finally was back by 3 am and the only positive that resulted from the incident was that I had a substantial amount of dark period and no eye strain. I did some reading and took my 4 am nap, which went as usual though the block that followed it wasn't a piece of very good news. The graveyard hours began and the sleep deprivation began kicking in at an alarming rate. My eyelids began sliding down, and I started going limp. I knew that I couldn't read or use any screens. I decided to stick to the list I had written out yesterday and proceeded with my wardrobe. I threw all the clothes on the bed and made sure they were a mess. I sat there surrounded by clothes and began folding each one in the dim light but the sleep-deprivation only worsened. I had barely folded two tees and I had to leave the folding business aside and switch to something with more movement. I began pacing back and forth in my room and was barely walking straight. My body was losing control and I felt weightless. I was so light-footed while I struggled to cover the distance between the two opposite walls and the attempt was so sluggish that it barely made any difference. I wanted to run, intending to raise my body temperature and improve my wakefulness but at that time, my body just wouldn't respond. Instead, I resorted to pushing myself from walls. I would push myself from one wall and onto the opposite one. It was better and faster. As soon as I would regain some sturdiness, I would resume with the clothes and a while later, revert back to the wall-pushing exercise to regain more wakefulness. I can't begin to tell you how helpless I felt when I was pushing back and forth between two walls, almost as if I were a ping-pall ball stuck between two racquets— all that only to avoid passing out. I alternated the two activities until I was done with all the clothes and then turned to make paper planes. Surprisingly, this activity was a lot more engaging and I felt a lot more awake. When the sun rose and the day started to become brighter at around 6 am, I knew it was half the battle won. I somehow had to manage it for two more hours. My speech at this point was so slurried that I was speaking slowly, mispronouncing words and speaking as if I was drunk even though I was trying hard to sound normal. The worsened block may have resulted from skipping the first nap but at least I was happy that because I had followed the dark period, I was at least not as visually strained as I during the previous days.
As it was brighter, I could switch between reading a book to reading and surfing the net on my laptop. That's how I made it to the 8 am nap. Though I have no recollection of what happened after the nap, I guess I may have overslept for maybe an hour. It is all a fuzz in my head. I have memories after 1 pm, after lunch when the brain fog had lifted. I had no exhaustion, fatigue, drowsiness or nothing and I was as alert as you could be. My attention did not wax and wane but was consistent. It was hard to believe that I was sleeping for far less than half of the recommended daily sleep values. I have only struggled mentally during the graveyard hours. I have it worst during the 4 am to 8 am block and it improves a little after the 8 am block, which is notorious for being seductive, in the sense that I oversleep. After lunch, during the afternoons, I feel average or better than average and it stays so till about the 8 pm nap after which I feel tiredness which only grows, peaking again during the graveyard hours.
Another observation I have is regarding the other symptoms of sleep deprivation. I do not experience yawning, fatigue, depressed mood, trouble learning new concepts, forgetfulness, lack of motivation, reduced hunger or acid reflux during the day. My symptoms of sleep deprivation are limited more to the graveyard hours, which improve after the 8 am nap. Lack of motivation and depression is even out of question here. Overzealous motivation gets me through the graveyard hours and if I still haven't quit so far it is because I have a strong drive which helps me through the days. I also believe that my diet plays an important role in this adaptation. In the past, whenever I have been sleep-deprived for long, I have had a bad case of acid reflux, I have even thrown up in the sink during some. However, during this experiment not even once have I had an instance of acid reflux and even my appetite hasn't been affected. It is pretty much the same. My diet either lacks completely or severely limits sugar. I also don't consume caffeine-containing products and have toned down on carbs. I do intermittent fasting with an eating window of 8 hours. These factors may have made the adaptation a little more favourable for me but in what ways or how; I can't speculate that at the moment. I also work out regularly and have been increasing my intensity ever since, but haven't experienced any muscle fatigue or soreness so far. Though I have experienced some muscle weakness lately and have even lost some weight. I do a HIIT routine for 15 minutes generally in the evening and I think that if I cut it down, I may have it easier during the graveyard hours as physical exertion increases the SWS requirement and thus total sleep time.
I am not sure how tomorrow pans out for me. If I get two continuous days wherein my total sleeping time is limited to 2 hours, I will consider it progress. The next step would then be to being consistent and seeing an improvement in mood and energy, especially during the graveyard hours and also having more recallable dreams (assuming I am getting some REM and even dreaming but not retaining anything as of now. I have had only one instance wherein I woke up after a nap, and thought that I had seen something, but could recall nothing in particular). Coming days have a lot to determine regarding this experiment. If I see a recurring pattern of oversleeping, I will have to drop this experiment or change to a different routine. Hopefully, it will not be the case. Let's hope for the best.
It was almost about time for the first nap of today and the hope of there being electricity by then was crushed. The men were working on fixing the issue, and we were informed that it may take several hours to perhaps the entire night to fix it. That possibility, if it would pan out, was scary. I had to take my 12 am nap in a dark and stuffy room without any ventilation and a lot of mosquitoes who kept whispering in my ears. I was also stricken with itchy bites which made napping not possible. I tried to nap but those were 20 minutes of my life spent scratching and swatting that I was never going to get back. Thinking about my 4 am nap I was concerned. I already was worried about the consequences of skipping the first nap. Skipping two naps would force me to abandon the experiment and take a week or two off to recover from the ensuing sleep-deprivation, only to start all over again afterwards.
The electricity finally was back by 3 am and the only positive that resulted from the incident was that I had a substantial amount of dark period and no eye strain. I did some reading and took my 4 am nap, which went as usual though the block that followed it wasn't a piece of very good news. The graveyard hours began and the sleep deprivation began kicking in at an alarming rate. My eyelids began sliding down, and I started going limp. I knew that I couldn't read or use any screens. I decided to stick to the list I had written out yesterday and proceeded with my wardrobe. I threw all the clothes on the bed and made sure they were a mess. I sat there surrounded by clothes and began folding each one in the dim light but the sleep-deprivation only worsened. I had barely folded two tees and I had to leave the folding business aside and switch to something with more movement. I began pacing back and forth in my room and was barely walking straight. My body was losing control and I felt weightless. I was so light-footed while I struggled to cover the distance between the two opposite walls and the attempt was so sluggish that it barely made any difference. I wanted to run, intending to raise my body temperature and improve my wakefulness but at that time, my body just wouldn't respond. Instead, I resorted to pushing myself from walls. I would push myself from one wall and onto the opposite one. It was better and faster. As soon as I would regain some sturdiness, I would resume with the clothes and a while later, revert back to the wall-pushing exercise to regain more wakefulness. I can't begin to tell you how helpless I felt when I was pushing back and forth between two walls, almost as if I were a ping-pall ball stuck between two racquets— all that only to avoid passing out. I alternated the two activities until I was done with all the clothes and then turned to make paper planes. Surprisingly, this activity was a lot more engaging and I felt a lot more awake. When the sun rose and the day started to become brighter at around 6 am, I knew it was half the battle won. I somehow had to manage it for two more hours. My speech at this point was so slurried that I was speaking slowly, mispronouncing words and speaking as if I was drunk even though I was trying hard to sound normal. The worsened block may have resulted from skipping the first nap but at least I was happy that because I had followed the dark period, I was at least not as visually strained as I during the previous days.
As it was brighter, I could switch between reading a book to reading and surfing the net on my laptop. That's how I made it to the 8 am nap. Though I have no recollection of what happened after the nap, I guess I may have overslept for maybe an hour. It is all a fuzz in my head. I have memories after 1 pm, after lunch when the brain fog had lifted. I had no exhaustion, fatigue, drowsiness or nothing and I was as alert as you could be. My attention did not wax and wane but was consistent. It was hard to believe that I was sleeping for far less than half of the recommended daily sleep values. I have only struggled mentally during the graveyard hours. I have it worst during the 4 am to 8 am block and it improves a little after the 8 am block, which is notorious for being seductive, in the sense that I oversleep. After lunch, during the afternoons, I feel average or better than average and it stays so till about the 8 pm nap after which I feel tiredness which only grows, peaking again during the graveyard hours.
Another observation I have is regarding the other symptoms of sleep deprivation. I do not experience yawning, fatigue, depressed mood, trouble learning new concepts, forgetfulness, lack of motivation, reduced hunger or acid reflux during the day. My symptoms of sleep deprivation are limited more to the graveyard hours, which improve after the 8 am nap. Lack of motivation and depression is even out of question here. Overzealous motivation gets me through the graveyard hours and if I still haven't quit so far it is because I have a strong drive which helps me through the days. I also believe that my diet plays an important role in this adaptation. In the past, whenever I have been sleep-deprived for long, I have had a bad case of acid reflux, I have even thrown up in the sink during some. However, during this experiment not even once have I had an instance of acid reflux and even my appetite hasn't been affected. It is pretty much the same. My diet either lacks completely or severely limits sugar. I also don't consume caffeine-containing products and have toned down on carbs. I do intermittent fasting with an eating window of 8 hours. These factors may have made the adaptation a little more favourable for me but in what ways or how; I can't speculate that at the moment. I also work out regularly and have been increasing my intensity ever since, but haven't experienced any muscle fatigue or soreness so far. Though I have experienced some muscle weakness lately and have even lost some weight. I do a HIIT routine for 15 minutes generally in the evening and I think that if I cut it down, I may have it easier during the graveyard hours as physical exertion increases the SWS requirement and thus total sleep time.
I am not sure how tomorrow pans out for me. If I get two continuous days wherein my total sleeping time is limited to 2 hours, I will consider it progress. The next step would then be to being consistent and seeing an improvement in mood and energy, especially during the graveyard hours and also having more recallable dreams (assuming I am getting some REM and even dreaming but not retaining anything as of now. I have had only one instance wherein I woke up after a nap, and thought that I had seen something, but could recall nothing in particular). Coming days have a lot to determine regarding this experiment. If I see a recurring pattern of oversleeping, I will have to drop this experiment or change to a different routine. Hopefully, it will not be the case. Let's hope for the best.
Comments
Post a Comment