vrijdag 7 augustus 2009

First 24h finished


After 24 hours of little to no sleep, since I've only been getting microsleeps in my naps on the first day, I'm starting to feel a little tired.
To give a little bit of background information... I'm a 21 year old male finishing last Bachelor year of Japanese studies @ K.U. Leuven. I never failed an exam, although I decided to finish my bachelor thesis over the holidays because it looked convenient to me. This has to be finished by the 17th of august, so this brings quite a bit more pressure to the table than if I could just relax throughout the experiment. Good thing is that I'm almost finished. Gotta put about 15 more hours in it, so I can do that when the first five days of the adjustment period are over.
Another thing that might be a source of slight trouble for my schedule, is a perfomance I have with my band on the 15th of august. According to the data, if I stick very well to the schedule the first week, I should be getting my energy back after the first 5 to 7 days. I'm still a complete zombie the day before the performance, I'll have to make a pretty big adjustment to my schedule, and put in a few hours of sleep, which might end up ruining my attempt. It's a pretty big gig, and since I'm the main vocal I can't rly afford to be completely miserable on that day. First things first though, day 2!

Some people have asked me more details about the scientific support for this little experiment I'm doing. It's basically this: To feel awake during the day, you need REM-sleep. REM = Rapid eye movement, so basically it's the phase of sleep where your eyes start moving from their own, and when you're dreaming. Usually this phase only happens after about 90 minutes of sleep. This is the reason why the first few days of adjusting are so hard, because with only 20 minute naps, I won't be getting any of it the first few days, which gives me a feeling equal to not sleeping at all for 3 days straight before any of the REM-sleep starts happening within those 20 minute naps. Your secret weapon is your schedule. If you're doing stuff with a very steady rhythm to it, your body takes you seriously. What's supposed to happen, is that after a week into the experiment, I should be going directly into REM-sleep from the moment that I close my eyes at nap time. Let's hope that actually does happen =].

Something that I have to do today, is make a list of things that I can do that keep me awake, but don't spend a lot of energy. If you have any good idea's, I'de appreciate it ;)
The last few hours I've been playing a game called DOTA, which definately keeps me awake, but I'm afraid it's not something that I'll be able to do on day 3.
I'll post my current list of idea's later on.

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