Day 14
Blake
We're finally at the end of the experiment (at least the official part). I'm really glad I at least tried this out. It's amazing what your body is capable of that you never knew about.
My last night went really well. I was a little bit tired at the beginning of the night, and a bit tired at the end, but I had a really good productive time between 2-5. That's a lot bigger window of good awake-feeling time than I've been getting. I mostly spent my time reading or working on my Portuguese again. I really like having the extra time to spend on learning things that I want to know.
Now that I'm at the end, I have to start making some hard decisions. I'm having to weigh the pros and cons of being on the schedule.
The extra time has been great. The potential for what I could get done on this type of sleep schedule is huge. As far as a self-improvement aid, this is the best possible thing that I could be doing. I would have so much more time for things I always worry that I'll never get around to.
On the other hand, I miss out on a lot of 'normal' things. Even when I'm not tired, it's easy to miss the idea of sleep. It's definitely easy to miss cuddling my wife at night. It also makes for a difficult time in scheduling things with friends who are on a normal schedule. I may need to crash at 6 in the afternoon, but the rest of the world really doesn't. It's a big challenge.
It's also not something that's easy to do alone. Ever since Caitlin had to bow out, I've realized how much of a social creature I am. Being the only one I know awake is a really lonely feeling. Not one that I especially enjoy. It's not that I need other people around all the time; I just like to know that there's someone else available for me to talk to if I decide I want to. There's talk of having another go the dymaxion schedule this summer with the sig figs involved. They would be able to work it into their schedules by then.
If that happened, would you guys be interested in reading another blog like this one?
Anyway, in the meantime I haven't decided what I'm going to do going forward. I hope if I don't go dymaxion, that I can at least find something that gives me time to keep working on little projects. Either way, thanks for reading. I might check in in the next week or two to let you know how things have going post experiment.
Sleep well!
Addendum: It took me a few extra days to get this up. Sorry guys. =/
Caitlin
Caitlin is sleeping. (not really)
Unfortunately I will not be able to keep up over the summer if another experiment does occur! I will be at the US Naval Academy by July 1st for our plebe summer training and I will not have access to a computer until September the latest. ): However, when I am able to, I will be sure to find this site again and see its findings.
Good luck and sleep well!
Take care man, and if you need someone to talk to when everyone else's asleep, there's someone at the other wide of the world here knowing exactly how you feel
Secondly, I do not honestly believe that two weeks is enough time to test such a radical change to one's lifestyle. 3 weeks is the common minimum for really becoming used to something, and then an extra week would be best. To be sure, you know.
I personally am considering a similar experiment, but with three 90-minute naps spread out evenly in a 24h day. That should ensure I get at least some REM-sleep whatever happens. That would reduce my sleep time to 4,5 from current 7,5h at the cost of severely affecting my daily routine. It's kind of hard to decide wether it's really worth it..