A very slow fast

Augh, this is hard!

Note for future generations: If you’re a polyphasic sleeper, and you choose to endure, or are stuck enduring, something unpleasant, you can’t sleep through it nearly as much as you’d like.

“Perhaps,” she said belatedly, “It would have been better to wait to try fasting until all the Yawns were gone, at least.” I’m coming up on a week of good days, but as per normal I still have to be careful at night. So what do I do? I decide to try fasting for 24 hours. Twenty of which I get to be hungry for! I’m a grazer, too, so I find myself wanting to reach for food, like, constantly. As I said before, Augh!

I’m drinking orange juice and water, and I cheated earlier and had a half-handful of dried bananas. I had some coffee this morning (this office-trained robot is used to at least one a day, and this is challenging enough without a caffeine headache), and a cup of organic rooibus chai* earlier this evening. Not bad for a first try, eh?

I’ve always thought that the ability to fast would be a good one to have. The hunger strike is a mighty weapon … and, it seems, the fast itself may be a powerful thing. I think I’ll have to do it several more times to really tell; it’s too physically distracting for now. Every moment is a struggle…but that translates, significantly, to every moment being more conscious.

I don’t want to go longer than 24 hours for a while — at least until I get it settled and reconciled with my sleep schedule — but I plan to do it every week, every Sunday if I can, for the whole year if there are no negative effects.

Gods, but I’m thirsty, which is funny if you consider that drinking is all I’ve really done since 7:00 last morning. I’ll be Mrs. Thoroughly Hydrated by morning, heh.

-PD

*Trader Joe’s, thank you for luring my mother-in-law into your embrace…and thank you, Santa, for the stocking!