It's 1:25 AM as I'm writing this and this marks the completion of the second full day on the 3 Hour Everyman ... and boy, what a day! I really struggled this morning and afternoon. For a better part of the morning and early afternoon I was absolutely exhausted (tantamount to pulling an all-nighter). The naps were having no restorative effect what-so-ever, so I basically felt like I was operating on the little bit of "good" sleep from the previous two nights of core sleep (4.5 and 3 hours, respectfully).
However, the afternoon nap at 2 pm was the tipping point. I think this was my *first* genuinely restorative nap. I was seriously suffering from bad sleep depravity by this point and was having a horrible time focusing on any of my work (which made me feel awful to begin with - I hate not being productive when I'm at work and on the clock). So my early afternoon was basically me watching each minute slowly tick by until it was time for the scheduled nap. Needless to say, by the time 2 pm finally rolled around, I had my yoga mat and pillow out, alarms set, and was ready to get some much needed rest.
Considering how I felt, I am extremely proud of myself for not over-sleeping. I set my alarms for 23 minutes and an 28 minutes (my backup just in case I managed to sleep through the first symphonic battery of alarms). All I remember was going to sleep and then waking up some unknown period later. I was still "out of it" when I turned my alarms off, so my next conscious moment was sitting up on my office in total silence. The first rational thought that my brain managed to process (and it took maybe 30 seconds to do this) was "!@#$ I overslept." BUT that was not the case. I had slept for exactly 23 minutes. Better yet, I know I went beyond the first 2 phases of lighter sleep. Did I reach REM during this time? I think so, perhaps for a bit. I had no memory of dreaming, but perhaps that's a poor metric to use considering I don't remember dreaming since this experiment began two days ago.
Anyways, the rest of the day was still a struggle. After progressively getting more and more sleep deprived, there's no way even one fantastic nap is going to immediately fix everything. I spoke with my supervisor after this nap and finally enlightened him with what I was doing (he seemed more interested than surprised, but God knows what he's thinking of me now). Fearing that I'd have to endure more of the early-afternoon conditions while adapting over the next few days, I requested to have today (Friday) off. I have enough Paid Time Off (PTO) to take a total of 3 days off, so it was no problem burning one of these. Plus, I now also get a 3-day weekend, huzzah!
My 6 pm nap was not as pronounced as the previous one, but I also woke from that nap feeling progressively better, yet. I managed to regain a bit of an appetite for dinner, and my ability to concentrate and focus steadily improved. While I was no where close to being *normal* I did manage to read a Newsweek cover-to-cover from 8:30 - 9:30 and remember most of what I read.
Lastly, my 3 hour core tonight went well. I'm awake, reasonably alert, and I think I can get some decent reading and cleaning done. Although my parents are extremely skeptical about this, my Mom does love how my room is getting cleaner after each night! Back to the point, while I by no means think that I'm out of the woods yet (I'm just starting day 3), I think I am moving in the right direction and might have a serious opportunity to make the 3-hour Everyman work!
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