I’m so done.
I can see myself trying again, but for now, I’m definitely canceling this experiment. Here’s why:
1. You need to be committed to it.
A lot of my friends who heard me talking about doing this would probably argue that I was committed to it, but I really wasn’t. One of the conditions of this experiment (by my parents) was for it not to interfere with my priorities. So from the get go, it was never on the top of my list of priorities. Piano was. I have a piano exam coming up which is more important. And I can confidently estimate that anyone who’s ever tried this sleep schedule would agree that if, for the adaptation process, it isn’t your sole purpose in life to succeed, then you probably won’t. I thought it sounded hard from the beginning, but until you try it, you’ll never know how ridiculous it really is.
2. It’s absolutely ridiculous.
Unless your family is made up of clones of Steve Pavlina, you’ll hardly get any support. And if you think support isn’t a problem, then you’ll find out if you try it. During the times where you’re second guessing your motives for depriving yourself of sleep like crazy, there will be no one but you to say, “Come on man, you can make it. Think of all that extra time you’ll have.” Heck no. All you’ll hear is, “I don’t like this…” or “You’re hurting yourself,” or “This is a bad idea.” And if you oversleep, no one’s going to care enough to wake you up.
3. No one cared enough to wake me up.
The main reason I failed at this experiment is from oversleeping. In the adaptation process, the only way to make it work is to miss out so much on the REM sleep stage that eventually when you lie down for your 20 minute naps, your body goes almost immediately into it because it needs it so much. So what happens when you oversleep is that you accidentally nap long enough to get REM sleep, and therefore your body doesn’t need it as much anymore and your chances of adapting successfully either decrease, or the time it takes to successfully adapt increases. I overslept so much during this. One time it was something to do with my alarm clock. The second time it had something to do with me being so tired that I think I went to bed without even noticing it. Another time it was because I wasn’t stimulated enough to stay up watching a movie. But whatever the reason is, if you oversleep, you screw yourself over. Like I said in previous posts, my most successful nights were nights I spent with friends. Friends are great. Friends aren’t required to care about anything you don’t care about. A good example of this is financial status. Think about it. When’s the last time you went shopping with a friend and when you went to buy something they said, “I don’t know if you should spend so much money on that shirt that looks amazing on you.” It doesn’t happen. When you sit down to play poker with friends, no one says, “Alright, so is everyone here financially prepared for the outcome of this game?” It’s because they’re friends. When you want to do something, they’re not going to tell you that you shouldn’t. Parents, on the other hand, will. And that’s why when I overslept, no one came and woke me up. But when I stayed with a friend, they helped me through it because it was something that I wanted to do, not because they thought it was good for my health. So if I ever try this again, this is my plan. I will have at least a seven day schedule. At all times, there will be a friend present with me. Day and night, someone will be stopping me from sleeping when I shouldn’t. And that way, I won’t ruin the project by oversleeping. Maybe in the summer…
So I’m sorry Alisa.
And I hope you’ll all keep reading my blog anyway, because I still plan to post other strange projects on here, but for now, I have to admit defeat. Like I said: I might try it again, and hopefully I’ll be better prepared.
I regret nothing by the way. I’m not sure I’ve ever had so much fun on the winter break. ‘Cause really, I pulled like four all-nighters without even having to hide it from my parents.
Sorry to anyone I disappointed… I feel weak.