Assuming the position
Hm, well, just as I suspected, my sleep schedule is finally firming up and working well again…just in time for a week’s vacation. *sigh*
Oh well. The point of the vacation is to stress out a bit less than I have been, so I’m going to do my best to not much care what happens. I’ll try to take my naps when I can, and other than that, just relax a bit. Several people have told me that I need it, and they’re right. At some point, you get so worried about so many things that you start to lose all focus and perspective, and nothing you do is helpful anymore.
Funny question I realized I’d never asked: How do other polyphasers sleep? I do it on my back, with my hands on my thighs or lower stomach. Occasionally I’ll roll onto my side for my core, but for naps I *have* to sleep on my back, preferably with my hands “just so”. Somehow it seems to both help me sleep and help me wake up — either because of the position itself, or because I’ve come to associate it with naps; I don’t know which.
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Hey, that’s funny, same here for naps. I think part of it is that you can breathe better which helps you fall asleep faster. For me my stomach is more the ‘crash zone’ when I’m crashing for a core, or after a long week/day of no naps/etc. Maybe it’s because it lets me bury my head in something to hide…
:-D
~Aximilation
(Long time reader of your blog… well, approx 6 months and counting… also purchased your book! Thanks for putting that together!)
I am similar - for my naps, I actually go to bed (I work from home). I lie on my right side, and (don’t laugh!) I put a pillow over my head! (Seems to have a strange comforting/cocooning effect, and reduces noise a tiny bit too, which is why I first tried it, heh). I also have to have my hands “just so”. For my core, I go to bed lying on my left side, with no pillow, but which way I wake up from that is anyone’s guess!
I deliberately go to bed in different positions for naps vs core precisely because I’m hoping that my brain will subconsciously realise the difference and sleep accordingly. No idea if it works that way though!
For both this foray and the previous one into polyphasic sleeping, I’ve had to sleep ‘just so’ as well. I have no idea why, when I slept monophasic, I had to sleep on my side. For polyphasic sleeping, I sleep on my back with my hands folded or at my sides. That’s an interesting trend.
hi!! Are you still a “moderator” for the polyphasic google group? If so, maybe you can help me… about 4-5 months ago I stopped getting all the emails that have what everyone posted recently in them. I’m just wondering if there’s a reason or if it’s just a glitch that can be reversed… I really miss reading what everyone has to say and there are always good tips and things to learn. I’d also like to tell you that your book is awesome and that I’m excited to Finally Try going polyphasic in 2009!! I do dabble in naps right now and it’s funny because (like someone already mentioned above) for my naps I usually sleep on my back with my hands either at my side or on my tummy, or if I’m doing a laying-down meditation that’s how I’ll be, but if I’m dead tired and just need to crash I’ll most likely be on my tummy with my head burried in a pillow or covered up somehow too! I think it is really funny how people interested in polyphasic sleeping really do have so much in common… I remember a thread on the google thing that was discussing that too… a lot of people into eating healthy, many vegetarians (or former), many people into yoga and tai chi, I’m also beginning to notice a prominent interest in philosophy as well. Maybe we’re all predisposed to thinking differently and “outside the box” which leads this population of people to not think polyphasic sleeping is insane and that it actually has quite a potential… speaking of which, I am having a consultation with a sleep physician next week, and while I’m there I want to bring up polyphasic sleeping with him. I guess I’m just a little worried that right -off-the-bat he’s going to tell me not to do it and be really closed minded about it, so I kind of want to go in there super prepared. Not sure what I’m trying to get out of it, but I guess I just want to hear some sort of “sleep expert’s” opinion on the whole thing. Any suggestions on how I should approach this or exactly what materials I could bring with? All I have right now is your book, some random articles which probably aren’t very reliable or respectable in a medical/scientific sense, and I’m working on getting access to the free-online copy of Stampi’s book (even though his articles are tough for me to get through and I havent really been able to apply many of them…) Anyway, any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated… my email address is volo0012@umn.edu if you ever get the time or feel like responding :) thanks in advance!!