Minipost: Sleep Tech

I wanted to mention this but it didn't feel like it warranted a full post. Skullcap, hops and valerian, a combo that's a potent sleep aide. I can usually wake up from 2-4 hours sleep no problem, but I knocked a couple of these back one day to, "get more restful sleep" I thought and ended up waking up four hours after my body was up and going. They might not have the same effect on everyone, but damn they blew me away when I needed it. Check em over at Puritan's Pride.



-- The only constant is change --

Sleep Tech Part Two: Lucid Dreaming

Have any of you ever experienced lucid dreaming? A dream where you know it's a dream?

I've always been fascinated by this concept, ever since I first learned about it a few years back. I can't say I've had much success in performing it, since I've followed some ideas on how to do it but have had little luck.

Off on a tangent here, did you guys see Inception? I did, a couple times. It really rocked my world. It actually wasn't until I saw this movie that I experienced my first - and so far only - lucid dream.

I was lying face down in my bed. I had just woken up, it was sometime in the morning and my mouth felt numb. I looked down and saw that my teeth were falling out of my skull! I quickly thought, when was the last time I went to the dentist, how did my teeth get this bad; plainly, what the **** is going on here?! This doesn't happen. Your teeth can't just up and fall out like this. It's too ridiculous. This has to be a dream.

That thought woke me up. It was still dark out. I went back to sleep. But the dream is almost as vivid today as the night I had it. I haven't experienced such dreaming again, but I'm always trying new tactics out.

If you've had any experience with lucid dreaming, please do tell. If you know any tactics that help, pass them on. Maybe I'm crazy, but the idea of being able to control your dreams and to utilize that time spent unconscious occasionally seems awesome.


-- The only constant is change --

Here's a bunch of resources on the matter since I don't have much first hand experience:
Wikipedia Article
DreamViews Dreaming Community
Lucidity.com
Wiki-how

Sleep Tech Part One: Polyphasic Sleeping

Everyone's talking about it.

My polyphasic sleep schedule.

Hey everyone. It seems nowadays everybody is talking about polyphasic sleep. If you haven't heard of it, here's a quick rundown: a monophasic sleeper has one rest time, the big chunk of the day they spent producing z's where a biphasic or polyphasic sleeper sleeps less at a stretch, twice or several times a day, respectively.

I don't know quite where I fit into all of this. If you didn't know, I work two jobs and spend a lot of time writing and researching otherwise. Most days I sleep 2-4 hours at night and maybe another 2-3 hours in the middle of the day; I get about 18-20 waking hours per day in usually.

It was really hard to get used to. When I first got my second job I was downright exhausted constantly. Now, having done this for going on seven months I really like it. I get a lot done (or not done sometimes) every day, I've also become talented at sleeping. That might sound strange but I'm serious; it used to take me a while to fall asleep at any given time but now I can put down my head and be out within minutes.

Some people have asked if my health seems to have deteriorated and the answer is: I don't think so. I have a rather stout immune system to start and I'm very in tune with what's going on inside. If I run a couple days in a row with only an hour or two sleep at most I can feel illness sneaking up on me. With a day's rest I can be back to normal, no problem.

On a side note it really slays me nowadays when the girls I work with complain about being tired when they woke up three hours ago and spend, at most, 10 hours per day conscious. I'm not exaggerating those numbers either -_-

Maybe over time I'll have more thoughts on the subject. For now, what do you guys think? What sort of schedule rules your life?

-- The only constant is change --

Resources and other stuff:
Wikipedia
Steve Pavlina's Site
A blog about polyphasic sleep"
More info at Supermemo

Sleep talker in our midst.

I was going to make laundry detergent today, really! It didn't work out that way though. Yesterday my wife got sick quite suddenly and we spent last evening in the ER. I ended up staying up much later than I was supposed to and passed out for a very long night's sleep. When I woke up today, sometime late after 11am my wife had just woken up herself. She didn't go to sleep until 7am though so I'm not sure how she was able to do stuff all day and go teach dance lessons tonight without even taking a nap. Anyway, this post is on a bit of a tangent right now!

Baby steps back to where I was though. Have I mentioned I talk in my sleep? I don't do it every night, but I do it fairly frequently. Last night my wife actually wrote down the stuff I said, maybe you guys can help me decipher my mind? First,

"Don't fail windows 32 Australia"

Quickly followed by,

"Delete that or it will destroy your computer"

I'm beginning to think the forums and meme's I witness are infiltrating my subconcious. I'm not sure where the Australia part came from, maybe it's because I watched an Australian movie last night.

Next up,

I'm sorry... I can't think of the name of it now."

This was completely out of the blue and apparently a few hours after the first comment.

Lastly, the dog was laying on the sheet over me and I was trying to writhe around and move it or something so I told him in a very polite voice

"Buster, wake up."

At which point I shoved him off of me and rolled him with the sheet,

"Thank you."

Then went back to sleep.

...

It never ceases to amaze me the things I do and say in my sleep. Hopefully you find them entertaining because I haven't got much left for today! The rest of the day was spent cleaning the house and tending to my sickly wife until our friend came over and we watched the Stargate movie - awesome as usual! You should really check it out and actually, I'm gonna leave this right here. Thanks for dropping by guys, hope I'll have that laundry detergent for you tomorrow!


-- The only constant is change --