Too Much (Sleep!)

One thing I think I’ve actually neglected to write about here is the sensation of having had TOO MUCH SLEEP.  It’s not something that only polyphasers feel, but it may be a lot more common for us — and I think we may not realize it, either.

And of course, thanks to it being Xmas, I’m feeling it all over the place right now!  I was forced to move and miss most of my naps over the last two days, and let’s just say the holiday spirit didn’t provide much motivation to get up after my three hours in spite of being zonked. 

In spite of being quite thoroughly adapted to, and loyal to, my polyphasic schedule, I still suffer from one weakness, one I’ve had since I was very very young:  Snooze Demons.  I’m no good at getting out of bed when I wake up.  Left to myself, I’d oversleep every single day (and I mean "oversleep no matter what schedule I was on" ~ if it was monophase, I’d lay in bed for 10-12 hours, no kidding).  Even if I’m wide awake, I tend to lay and stare at the ceiling and think, which is great, except that I’m in bed, and warm and sluggish and inevitably, I usually fall back asleep.  Perhaps fixing my tendency to do that should be a resolution-y thing.  We’ll see.

"Whys" aside, I’m no stranger to the feeling of having too much sleep.  I think a lot of people aren’t as familiar with it as I am, and I think a lot of polyphasers, especially, ignore it or don’t realize that they’re suffering from it.

Getting much more sleep than you need is just as icky as getting much more food, and makes you feel just as rotten.  I think it’s the other side of the Sleep Dep coin:  Sleep Dep / Sleep Gorge.  They both make you feel sluggish, underpowered, yawny, and fuzzy in the head.  Both make you want more sleep, funnily enough.  If I may show my underbelly a little, Sleep Gorge makes you feel stoned…on really crappy dirtweed soaked in Pepsi. 

The thing is, on a monophasic schedule, you don’t usually get the Gorge until you oversleep 2+ hours or more (so, 25% of your total daily sleep); but on polyphase, that same percentage is an hour or less.  So one seemingly-innocent "oversleep" can knock you right off the rails.

For those of you who are adapting, you’re suffering from Sleep Dep, and it will peak during the first few days and diminish quickly and steadily for as long as you keep to your schedule.  We all know that oversleeping is bad because it interrupts this process, makes it take much longer for the Sleep Dep to go away, and burns your energy reserves, making it even harder to not oversleep next time.  But, especially if you’re mostly- or almost-adapted, oversleeping can be doubly evil:  It can hit you with Sleep Gorge, which makes you feel like crap and makes it much harder, again, to not oversleep the next time you nap.

Those of us who are adapted aren’t fighting Sleep Dep, which means we have more energy and less incentive to sleep in.  But if we do anyway (say, because we’re in thrall to some tricky little snooze-incubi), then we’re going to get hit with Sleep Gorge, and be in not much better shape for the next nap than someone going through adjustment would be:  We’ll want to oversleep because we’ve felt tired and cotton-stuffed for the last few hours, due to oversleeping!  It’s a nasty cycle, and it shouldn’t be underestimated, even for people who are really, totally adapted.  I doubt that oversleeping is good for anyone, on any schedule, but when you’ve paired down your schedule to an ultra-efficient model, you need to be a little more careful. 

If you oversleep, whether it’s because of Xmas or whatever else, keep in mind that it’s going to make you tired, and more likely to oversleep next time.  Fix your schedule as soon as possible, because the longer you’re "off", the more ick you build up and the less energy you have to muscle through getting back on the train.

There.  Now, I have a lot to do (Xmas is Cleaning Day around here, not leastwise to fit in the new stuff), but among other things, I’ll be spending today making darn sure I go down and get up exactly on time, so I can stop feeling like someone soaked me in Quikrete overnight!