Memento Snori (don’t hurt me)

It feels like it’s been too long since I was publically grateful for how my polyphasic schedule has changed my life.

(The gratitude has an uncertain object, since I don’t know who or what makes this schedule work as well as it does.  But I’m grateful anyway.)

I’ve said it in passing a few times, how if I were monophasic, I’d get nothing done but work and school; but this weekend I was really thinking about it, about the real implications and the decisions that most other people (especially in workaholic societies like mine) are faced with.  For many people, if you want to survive, you get up and work and go to sleep and get up and work again, and it’s a rare day (or a day off) when there’s room for time with your family, for art for art’s sake, or just for quiet time to yourself to read, screw around, or do nothing at all.  Most people I know have about an hour a day that they can decide what to do with, and sadly, by the time they get that hour, they’re too exhausted to do much with it!

My dad’s a workaholic.  I remember as a child, him coming home from work, eating dinner, and going straight upstairs to study for school or do more work.  Now, some of that’s psychological.  But I’m like my dad in that, strictly on a practical level, I need my schooling in order to support my family in the future.  That means that if it weren’t for my polyphasic schedule, I’d have no choice but to live days that look like this:

6-7 a.m., wake up, go to work by 8:30
work straight through until at least 5:00, minus lunch
go home, get dinner - finish commute & eating by 7:00, if all goes well
play with kid & educate (not optional) until bedtime at 8:30 p.m.
do homework (approx. 2 hours, so until 10:30 - 11)
GO TO BED
DO IT AGAIN until the weekend, when you have 48 hours to catch up on missed sleep, errands, activities with the family, and any extra work or homework, and then find the energy to do other things!

GOOD LORD!  I mean, I know that many people have this lifestyle, and I know that some people are even okay with it, but knowing me, myself, I never could be.  There’s just too much out there that I’d feel I was missing out on!  (In fact, the times in my life when I did similar schedules — work that left room for little else except on the weekends — I thought I would go crazy.  Inevitably, something would happen to knock me out of that job or that lifestyle…)

Now, of course, an average day for me includes mostly the same stuff (except I get to work an hour earlier and take two small breaks during the day, which has helped my productivity a LOT), plus:

.5 to 1 hour’s writing time almost every morning, between 5-6
Taiji class or music practice where there used to be dinner (I generally eat dinner later on, now that I’m not as worn out at the end of a workday, or as tired in the evenings)
study from about 9:30 - 11:30, right after a refreshing nap
art projects, movies, or video games after studying (makes a good motivator, too)

…And other wonderfulness like Sunday breakfasts with relatives at 7 a.m., late-night walks in nice weather, long baths (even on weekdays), and lots and lots of time on weekends.  (Sometimes I read an entire book, or watch a whole movie, on Saturday morning and when I’m done, nobody else is up yet still!)  Plus, if the crap hits the fan and I don’t do my studying, or work piles up, I’ve got room to wiggle.  (Though make no mistake, it is an effort to make sure that work doesn’t expand to fill up all my available time — but I learned that lesson from my dad, so I keep an eye on it.  My husband also has "veto power" over the amount of extra work I can do.)

Okay, look.  I know I’m a bit rabid about how cool polyphasic sleep is, but maybe the real point is how evil "living on the weekends" is.  You know the French slogan Memento Mori?  "Remember your mortality".  Dying tomorrow isn’t just a distant possibility; it happens to thousands and thousands of people every day, of every age and lifestyle.  And it’s not bad or wrong, and being afraid of it is rather silly, but it is real and if you’re going to be happy with your life, you’d better not fail to plan it in.  I suggest making sure that every day, you can point to something, no matter how small, that makes it okay that this day’s over.   (It does help you sleep better!)

Or, you know, do whatever you have to do — polyphasic sleep certainly isn’t for everyone, though it is amazing because it lets you have more time without sacrificing things that you might not be able to (like work and school).  Maybe for you, the answer is to cut your hours, learn to live on a little less money, or reshuffle your priorities.  But however you do it, don’t be one of those people who’s always waiting to do the things that matter.  Okay?  Okay.