Day 2

It's been an interesting couple of days.  Yesterday, I went to bed at 8 pm, but didn't fall asleep until almost 9:30.  My alarm failed to go off at 10, and I didn't end up waking up until 2 am, when I awoke violently ill.  I doubt it had anything to do with the sleep schedule - my boyfriend had the same problem, so it's most likely something we ate.  At any rate, I decided to just sleep the same number of hours I would have slept had everything gone according to plan, so I stayed up until 6 am and then slept until 8.  Work went by fine today ; I was alert and didn't get tired.

I went to bed as soon as I got home at 6:20 pm, but again I didn't fall asleep until almost an hour had passed.  However, during that hour, I was much closer to falling asleep than I was yesterday, so I'm still pleased with that.  My alarm didn't go off at 8:10 pm (I gave myself some extra time to allow for the fact that it takes me a long time to fall asleep), but I woke up on my own at 8:12.  It's now 12:38, and I'm up for 2 1/2 more hours.  I don't feel at the top of my game, but I'm acceptable.  I could work in this condition without difficulty, but I do have to keep resisting the urge to lay back in the recliner and close my eyes.

So currently, on paper I'm cutting about 1 1/2 hours off my sleep schedule.  That's not much by polyphasic standards, but remember I'm only sleeping about 30 min during my hour and a half naps, so it's more like 2 1/2 hours. Additionally, I'm one of those people who normally requires 9 hours of sleep to function, so that brings it up to 3 1/2 total hours, which is not a bad chunk of time to suddenly gain.

I think the biggest effects at this stage are more psychological than physical.  While I am somewhat tired, I think it's exaggerated by the fact that I'm expecting to be tired.  I keep looking at the clock, thinking it's almost time to go to bed, only to find I've got another 2-3 hours.  It'll be interesting to see how I adapt to this over the coming weeks.