Steve & Thoughts

Whoops.

Steve Torpey — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:36:00 -0700

Turns out we both overslept by 5 hours. The alarms clearly weren't effective enough. Well I've buggered that up so no more weird sleep for me.

I'm pretty disappointed I could only last one day basically, but never mind - I'm more relieved than anything to sleep. It was so nice!

The Long Stretch!

Steve Torpey — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 17:26:00 -0700

This long stretch between my last nap and my proper sleep is really rather extensive. We considered changing the timing so we wouldn't have this problem but hey, it's ok. I haven't dropped off yet, just been very tired - I'll make it till 02:00 easily and fall asleep quickly.

Funny thing - I've been ravenous virtually all day. Stomach's been rumbling constantly when I haven't had a meal in about an hour or so, weird! Only one thing for that... food!

We're going to meet and head to Tesco tomorrow morning when it opens for a fried breakfast - that'll kick so much arse/ass you wouldn't believe. Anyway, goodnight and till 5am, peace.

24 Hours Complete

Steve Torpey — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:25:00 -0700

It's just after my 17:00 sleep and once again, I didn't really want to get up. I did though, and am now feeling alright! I've been yawning and zoning out all afternoon, which appears to be continuing now. I also felt a little bit queasy in the car but otherwise I feel nothing bad apart from being tired.

So after 24 hours I can safely say I haven't at all adjusted, although I'm tired enough that I fall asleep within 5 minutes of lying down each time - this is useful!

Time for seven hours of total balls before my core three hour sleep... here we go!

Slummin' It

Steve Torpey — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 07:00:00 -0700

It's the afternoon and I'm pretty happy with life. I've got that tired feeling behind my eyes that you get when you've had a really late night and not much sleep a couple of nights before, but otherwise I feel fine! This is all well and good... but I think the stretch from 17:00 to 02:00 is going to be a bitch.

Thank god for food! Felt so hungry before I ate breakfast and lunch - I wonder if my metabolism is rising...

Good Morning Birdlife!

Steve Torpey — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 01:33:00 -0700

Well I had a nice nap from 8:00 till 8:20 - just began to drift off half way through I reckon, so I need to work on falling asleep more quickly.

Between 5:00 and 8:00 I went out for a walk along the canal just behind my house, saw what the bird life was like at dawn (6:45). Saw loads of birds, including a Kingfisher, Kestrel, Blackcaps, and a Chiffchaff. There was also a heron sitting on a house which always makes me chuckle.

Time for a shower and breakfast (I assume it's still breakfast on this sleep pattern?)

Day 1

Steve Torpey — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 22:06:00 -0700

Yaaaaaay, 5am! Was so confused as to why the hell my alarm was going off in the dark after what had clearly not been anywhere near enough sleep, but got up and feel fairly ok now. Going to go and watch the sun rise and see if I can see any owls in the beginnings of the light in an hour or two - lovely!

Here's till 8am!

Edit: This feels a lot like getting up for Marks and Spencer in the early morning...

Post-gig tiredness

Steve Torpey — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 18:00:00 -0700

After a gig I usually feel a bit fatigued... I'd like nothing more than to go to bed for several hours but alas, it'll only be three! It'll feel nice lying down though I guess. Plan tomorrow is to get up at 5am of course, and to go outside for a nice long walk, spot some owls if I'm lucky, and watch the sun rise.

At least I'll be able to get to sleep pretty fast tonight.

On a vaguely related note - what does everyone think about Derren Brown and his supposed 'making you sit in your chair' subliminalities? The film he showed us was clearly a complete distraction from what he was actually doing (a rotating notepad and something that sounds like Radiohead's late-mid years, I mean come on!) In my opinion, the people who found themselves genuinely stuck (if anyone) had listened to what he said - "you will find yourself getting heavier and heavier, feel the heavy stuck places of your body next to the chair and let them not be able to move" etc - and believed that they were unable to stand. Nothing hugely subliminal, just a lot of hype and intensity anxiously worked up by his words and the idea of it happening!

Much like his lottery trick, this one did something quite clever (if it actually did to anyone and all these people weren't lying) but he made a grand illusionary cover story to explain how he did it - similar to his lottery trick which must have used camera trickery or insane sleight-of-hand, but he passed it off as something grandiose. Fair enough, you've got a large number of people on your side, Derren!

Day 0

Steve Torpey — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 10:26:00 -0700

I have just had my first nap. It was the 17:00 nap, and I actually slept for about 10 minutes which is awesome news (although my ~5 hours last night probably meant I was tired anyway). Now it's the longish stint to 02:00 before I can have my nice 3 hours of core sleep!

Off to play a gig in Cublington (jazz bass in a quartet in a pub). Not looking forward to it as I haven't played in frikkin' ages but we'll see how it goes - £110 can't be bad!

Polyphasic Sleep Incoming

Steve Torpey — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 08:31:00 -0700

I have decided that, in the need for something new, interesting, exciting and fun to do with my time, I would like to have a shot at 'polyphasic sleeping'. I've read mixed opinions on it, and am perfectly aware that there is no real psychological data supporting it.

Essentially, polyphasic sleep is where instead of one big chunk of sleep (6-10 hours usually) in the night time, one would sleep for only 4 hours, but split them up over the day (3 hours at night, then three 20 minute naps at equal intervals throughout the day). There is a more hardcore method of this, but I think that it would be best to try the softer one!

I don't necessarily believe that this will work, but I am interested in seeing what its effects are, and if it is at all possible. Sleep deprivation will be inevitable, but once again that's quite interesting - and I'll blog as much as I can of it on here!

Another reason this will be quite interesting is that I have an element of competition, and therefore more motive, involved. I'll be doing this in conjunction with a friend of mine, Stan, who has attempted the more hardcore version before but didn't successfully adapt.

Anyhoo - I've started as of now.

My sleep cycle is going to be 02:00-05:00, then a 20-minute nap at 8:00, a 20-minute nap at 12:00, and a 20-minute nap at 17:00. I'll try to post as near to these times as possible, and let you know how it's all going!