Well, I’ve passed the one week benchmark, and I am officially on Day 8. Today I made an interesting discovery in terms of my own polyphasic sleeping patterns and habits: Sheer willpower works.
Well, of course this is the case. “After all, isn’t adapting polyphasic sleep just a test of mental strength?” you say. Well, yes, it is. What I didn’t realize was how easily I am able to control my sleep deprivation, and not let it take hold of me. For those who know me personally, you would know that I am a pessimist. For me, every cloud is ominous, with no trace of a silver lining… well, I’m not that bad. I guess I just tend to look on the bad side of things. When I was on Uberman, it was always short lived joy as I knew that with every successful day, chances I will have an unsuccessful day the next.
With Everyman, however, I feel as if I am adapting successfully. Once again, I don’t have a great track record. Out of now 8 days, I have overslept for 3 of them. Still, this is already blowing away my terrible Uberman results. I feel far less tired than I would be on Uberman, and I seem to be waking up from my naps. Because of this, I have become somewhat optimistic. Despite the chance of me failing and becoming severely sleep deprived for a few weeks, I can say quite happily that I am becoming a Polyphaser.
Last night a stayed at my girlfriend’s house. My girlfriend knew about my polyphasic schedule, so that was no problem. However, I couldn’t wake up her mum, who is a light sleeper. Despite her mum being very nice, I don’t like people getting annoyed at me. We looked at possible options:
- I could use my phone/laptop alarm as per usual.
- I could use my girlfriend’s phone on vibrate to wake me up.
- I could use my headphones to play the alarm and wake me up.
- I could go sleep outside, far away from waking anyone up.
- I could go sleep monophasically.
Well, obviously 1, 4 and 5 were out, as I couldn’t wake others up, it’s becoming winter and terribly cold, and I was not going to give up my polyphasic schedule anytime soon, if I could help it. Her phone was not charged, so the only option was to use headphones. So, I put my headphones on, hooded jumper over the top to make sure it doesn’t fall out. We decided that I would wake her up after I got up, so I sat propped up against the foot of the bed, and went to sleep. I told myself over and over that I must wake up at 2 am, otherwise my girlfriend would hate me…
And what do you know? I woke up 
I suppose an incentive to wake up is good. Before the core nap I felt terrible, but I still managed to rouse. The room was pitch black, and my alarm wasn’t that loud, so not really my idea circumstances. Shows what motivation does to your willpower. We then watched more movies, and went for an early morning walk. After all of this, I still feel great. I mean, I don’t feel particularly tired, despite sleeping awkwardly and being sleep deprived. It’s surprising what a little motivation can do to your sleeping habits. I was sure I was going to oversleep.
Turns out that I do have a bit of willpower. Hopefully I will be able to make it through tonight, breaking through the adaptation period into the sweet sugary goodness of real polyphasic sleep. 
Wish me luck,
Raap!d