After I decided to attempt a Polyphasic sleep schedule, I gave myself a day to let my body understand that there will no longer be alcoholic beverages in the evening. Cutting alcohol out (so far) has been a lot easier than I expected. Getting into a sleeping pattern however has been quite difficult.
I woke up around 8pm after a long period of sleep (after a previous night of my last drink). From there I walked a fair distance to buy some food and bring it home. I stayed up for approximately 4-5 hours at which point I took at 30 minute nap.
I then stayed awake for another 5-6 hours and finally went back to sleep around 6am and slept for about 2 hours, waking up at 8am. I was woken up by the doorbell of my house, and had actually planned to sleep for 4 hours this time however after trying to go back to sleep for 30 minutes decided I might as well get up and consider that sleep one of my naps rather than core sleep.
After I decided that I wasn't going to get any more sleep during that session. I got some work done, played a bit of a video game I enjoy on my phone, and finally decided it was probably time for a nap again. I wasn't especially tired, but I wanted to try to force myself into the Polyphasic sleep pattern and could tell I was losing a bit of energy. At around 2pm I finally fell back asleep, having set my Alarm for 3pm.
At 3pm I woke up to my alarm clock, but having not been entirely sure of what time I fell asleep (and still getting used to Polyphasic sleep), I hit the snooze! I then slept for another 30 minutes to 1 hour and woke up again feeling extremely tired and groggy. I felt much more tired after having slept a bit more than had I just gotten up at 3pm. Still, having committed to trying Polyphasic sleep i got myself up out of bed at around 4:00-4:30pm, had a cigarette, and went to the store to buy water, juice and milk.
On the way to the store, I could barely keep my eyes open. I nearly forgot the main things I went to the store for, couldn't make eye contact with anybody, and overall felt like a zombie. This was not good. I decided based on that, I needed to get more sleep because there was no way I was going to have the energy to do anything in this state of mind.
I went back to sleep around 5pm and did not even bother setting an Alarm this time. I woke up again around 6pm due to house noise, but I wasn't about to stay up so back to sleep I went. At 7pm I woke up again and decided it was time to stay up.
I did my morning routine, had some water, a cigarette, etc. and decided to start writing this post while I caught up with a few people on work matters in chat. I still feel a bit groggy but I have obviously had much more sleep than I originally intended so no more sleep for me until my first 'nap.
Yesterday wasn't a success, but not a total failure.
While I obviously did not stick to a good schedule today, it was my first attempt at it and I'm not entirely upset at myself. It is now 8pm so a full 24 hours since I woke up yesterday to start my first day. I essentially slept 6.5 hours in that first 24 hour period, so not a total loss, but could use a lot of improvement.
Today/Tomorrow I plan to trim that total sleep # down a bit further, and get into more of a routine so that this becomes easier and naps come more naturally rather than forced.
Today So Far
I slept again since i began this post so it gets a bit longer now. Just to reiterate my official "day 2" started at 7pm today.
I started the day with some broccoli & cheese soup and did not eat again until after my first nap which I took at 12:30am - 1:30am. I did not actually sleep for the entire hour, but got a good 30-45 minute nap.
Upon waking up i had a 6" sandwich and i feel very energetic and ready to get back to work. Here's to hoping my next nap goes as well as this first one did!