2 Simple Ways to Be a Happy Parent
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Do you have moments throughout the day when you feel great as a parent? When your kids are happy, you are happy, you are all hugging, laughing and kissing one other? You know the feeling of wonderment. Now, do you also have times when you don’t love being a parent? Have you felt at your wits end, frustrated, angry and resentful? Here are two simple ways you can be a happy parent more often than passing moments in your day.
Ask yourself two very important questions:
1. When are you happiest with your kids?
2. What part of the normal day with your family routinely causes suffering?
After you have answered these questions, you will see that there tends to be patterns or times during the day when things go haywire for you or when life is flowing smoothly.
When does life flow in your home? What are you doing with your children when everyone is most happy? Is there a way to increase these times? What is going on with you that you feel so happy to be around your kids?
Parents say that morning, after school, dinner time and bed time are the most stressful for them. Would you agree? Look at each time period more closely and see what leads up to the stress. Is it that there really is not a routine in place? Is there no structure around a certain activity? Do your children know your expectations and if necessary, the consequences? And, do you follow through on your word or just give up to appease the situation?
Kids love and adore routine and structure; not rigid, but consistent and calm structure. They also love predictability, so be sure to sit down and talk to your children about any routines you see that need to be put into place.
Now that you will have some comforting routines in place for your children, begin to think about ones YOU might need. Do you feel stressed after coming home from work? Find a way to wind down for 15-20 mins before you move into the next phase of the evening. Ideas?
• You could go to your room, change into comfy clothes and take 10 deep breaths.
• You could read a book
• You could do a short yoga routine
• You could lie down and close your eyes for 15 minutes
• You could lie on your bed or the sofa and listen to classical musical
Find whatever it is you think would help you re-energize before moving on to the task that usually stresses you.
Becoming conscious of the certain times when you are happiest with your kids and when you’re not allows you to stop, think, and redesign your family’s routine. It’s doable, you just have to make the necessary decisions, share and discuss them with your family and then be consistent. Your motivator will be the calm and habitual happiness you will feel.
Image: Autumm
Erin Kurt, B.Ed, spent 16 years as a teacher and nanny around the world. Now, she applies her expertise as a parenting expert and author of Juggling Family Life. You can learn more about Erin and her simple, loving parenting method, and subscribe to her weekly parenting tips e-zine at ErinParenting.com.
12 Useful Ways To Get Out Of Ruts
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Have you gotten into a rut before? Or are you in a rut right now?
You know you’re in a rut when you run out of ideas and inspiration. I personally see a rut as a productivity vacuum. It might very well be a reason why you aren’t getting results. Even as you spend more time on your work, you can’t seem to get anything constructive done. While I’m normally productive, I get into occasional ruts (especially when I’ve been working back-to-back without rest). During those times, I can spend an entire day in front of the computer and get nothing done. It can be quite frustrating.
Over time, I have tried and found several methods that are helpful to pull me out of a rut. If you experience ruts too, whether as a working professional, a writer, a blogger, a student or other work, you will find these useful. Here are 12 of my personal tips to get out of ruts:
- Work on the small tasks. When you are in a rut, tackle it by starting small. Clear away your smaller tasks which have been piling up. Reply to your emails, organize your documents, declutter your work space, and reply to private messages. Whenever I finish doing that, I generate a positive momentum which I bring forward to my work.
- Take a break from your work desk. Get yourself away from your desk and go take a walk. Go to the washroom, walk around the office, go out and get a snack. Your mind is too bogged down and needs some airing. Sometimes I get new ideas right after I walk away from my computer.
- Upgrade yourself. Take the down time to upgrade yourself. Go to a seminar. Read up on new materials (#7). Pick up a new language. Or any of the 42 ways here to improve yourself. The modern computer uses different typefaces because Steve Jobs dropped in on a calligraphy class back in college. How’s that for inspiration?
- Talk to a friend. Talk to someone and get your mind off work for a while. Talk about anything, from casual chatting to a deep conversation about something you really care about. You will be surprised at how the short encounter can be rejuvenating in its own way.
- Forget about trying to be perfect. If you are in a rut, the last thing you want to do is step on your own toes with perfectionist tendencies. Just start small. Do what you can, at your own pace. Let yourself make mistakes. Soon, a little trickle of inspiration will come. And then it’ll build up with more trickles. Before you know it, you have a whole stream of ideas.
- Paint a vision to work towards. If you are continuously getting in a rut with your work, maybe there’s no vision inspiring you to move forward. Think about why you are doing this, and what you are doing it for. What is the end vision in mind? Make it as vivid as possible. Make sure it’s a vision that inspires you and use that to trigger you to action.
- Read a book (or blog). The things we read are like food to our brain. If you are out of ideas, it’s time to feed your brain with great materials. Here’s a list of 40 books you can start off with. Stock your browser with only the feeds of high quality blogs, such as Lifehack.org, DumbLittleMan, Seth Godin’s Blog, Tim Ferris’ Blog, Zen Habits or The Personal Excellence Blog. Check out the best selling books; those are generally packed with great wisdom.
- Have a quick nap. If you are at home, take a quick nap for about 20-30 minutes. This clears up your mind and gives you a quick boost. Nothing quite like starting off on a fresh start after catching up on sleep.
- Remember why you are doing this. Sometimes we lose sight of why we do what we do, and after a while we become jaded. A quick refresher on why you even started on this project will help. What were you thinking when you thought of doing this? Retrace your thoughts back to that moment. Recall why you are doing this. Then reconnect with your muse.
- Find some competition. Nothing quite like healthy competition to spur us forward. If you are out of ideas, then check up on what people are doing in your space. Colleagues at work, competitors in the industry, competitors’ products and websites, networking conventions.. you get the drill.
- Go exercise. Since you are not making headway at work, might as well spend the time shaping yourself up. Sometimes we work so much that we neglect our health and fitness. Go jog, swim, cycle, whichever exercise you prefer. As you improve your physical health, your mental health will improve, too. The different facets of ourselves are all interlinked.
- Take a good break. Ruts are usually signs that you have been working too long and too hard. It’s time to get a break. Beyond the quick tips above, arrange for a 1-day or 2-days of break from your work. Don’t check your (work) emails or do anything work-related. Relax and do your favorite activities. You will return to your work recharged and ready to start. Contrary to popular belief, the world will not end from taking a break from your work. In fact, you will be much more ready to make an impact after proper rest. My best ideas and inspiration always hit me whenever I’m away from my work.
Are there any useful methods which help you get out of your ruts? Do share with everyone in the comments area below. :)
I'm Celes and I write at The Personal Excellence Blog on how to achieve our highest potential and live our best life. Get my free ebook 101 Things To Do Before You Die by joining my free newsletter (unsubscribe whenever you want). Get my RSS feed and add me on Twitter @celestinechua.
Polyphasic Sleep Cycle: 1 Week
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I am alive.
For those of you who were concerned that I died from sleep deprivation, I’m still here! In fact, I’m doing extremely well :) Sorry to worry you, I’ve just had a LOT on my to-do list the last 2 days even with my extra awake time.
I just woke up from a nap and I’m feeling very energetic, alert and ready for the night part of my day. My naps have become much easier to take, more satisfying, and filled with increasingly lucid dreams. My only real obstacle that I’ve yet to overcome is the need for an extra nap between 2 and 6am. That stretch is still a little too long and drowsy to continue without a quick 20-minute nap.
The Lucid Dreaming Phenomenon
If you’ve been following along, you know that my experiences with dreaming have gotten more and more bizarre as this transition has gone along. Well finally my dreams have become just plain awesome instead of weird! I’m happy to report that I had my first ever lucid dream that lasted longer than 5 minutes (dream time). In fact the dream seemed to last about an hour in dream time and I still woke up 2 minutes before my alarm!
It started out with a dream that I was still falling asleep in my bed, and then changed into a normal dream so I immediately became lucid. I’ve gotten really good at containing my excitement at this point because if you get too psyched about it, you wake up. I proceeded to do all the things I had been wanting to try while lucid including flying, fighting someone, switching dream scenarios by twirling in a circle and altering parts of my body by thinking about it. Yes, it was just as fun as it sounds.
The really cool part is that I realized the dream world is just like the Matrix: You can do whatever you believe you can do. In this particular dream, I had 2 of my best friends with me and at one point and I grabbed both of their hands and attempted to fly with them. But just before doing this, I thought to myself, “Can I really make them fly too?” Sure enough, I was the only one that lifted into the sky. “No one ever makes the first jump.” :)
More Lessons Learned
- As soon as you can start on a strict sleep cycle, as in taking naps right at certain times of the day, DO IT. I find that if I feel tired because it’s time to nap and I wait even 15 minutes so I can finish a project or do something else, I have trouble falling asleep. Don’t wait til you’re done, just go to sleep and finish it after your nap.
- Giving into temptation not only screws you, but it doesn’t feel good either. Remember my rules from Day 1? Well I gave in last night and had a small cup of coffee. This resulted in me feeling really weird and having massive trouble falling asleep. I had to try to take a nap 3 times before I found success!
- You have to set a boundary with friends and family early on so they never tempt you with skipping a nap or breaking a rule. If your friends are not doing this sleep cycle, they will not understand what you are going through. Make sure you are very clear from day 1 with what you are trying to accomplish and what rules they will have to help you abide by. The transition is hard enough without 100% support from your friends and family!
- If you hate getting bedhead (as in messy hair because you were in bed) then this cycle is not for you :)
8 Reasons Why Children Misbehave (With Solutions!)
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One of the most common expressions parents can be heard saying is, “I don’t understand why he’s/she’s doing that”. There are eight, very common reasons why children misbehave. It is extremely useful for parents to know these because if they can pinpoint the root cause of the misbehavior, they can be more successful at reducing it.
Listed here are the eight most common reasons why children misbehave and a solution to help reduce or eliminate the problem:
1) They want to test whether caregivers will enforce rules.
Children’s main job is to figure out how their complex world works. In order to master the things they need to at each developmental level they will test their parents. They are literally trying to see where the boundaries are, or, if they exist at all. Although testing is frustrating for parents they should know that it is normal and that this is their chance to really make a difference in their child’s life.
How? By setting boundaries and limits and consistently following through on them. This way, their children will adopt positive values and gain self-esteem
2) They experience different sets of expectations between school and home.
Consistency is hugely important in making a child feel safe and secure and able to have a comfortable understanding of the world and how it works. If they are receiving mixed messages from home and school they will feel uneasy inside and express this through more testing than normal and will feel an inner sense of stress.
The best thing a parent can do is learn a simple method to discipline and then have a conversation with their child’s teacher. During this conversation, the parents should explain their method and ask how the teacher handles situations. The goal is to try and use some of the same language at both the school and at home. With a consistent, clear message, children will rise to the expectation and be happier in the process.
3) They do not understand the rules, or are held to expectations that are beyond their developmental levels.
Sometimes, parent expectations go beyond their child’s abilities. Discipline and guidance strategies should always take into account the child’s developmental level. For example, it would be unreasonable to tell a 2 year old to clean up his room and expect that he will finish the job. At this age, children need a lot of support and guidance to do a job like this.
Reading books about what children can do at each age is helpful with this problem so that parents can know what is developmentally appropriate for them to expect of their child.
4) They want to assert themselves and their independence.
Children begin to show their desire for more independence at around age two. They start to want control over certain areas of their life so that they can feel capable and independent. It doesn’t take long for children to identify the areas they CAN control, much to the chagrin of parents. Situations like eating, sleeping, brushing teeth, and dressing are great examples of times when children recognize their power to get you upset and therefore make them feel in control.
What is the solution? Give them loads of choice in their daily life so that they feel in control of their life in other, more positive ways. As well, it is key to learn a simple, loving method to discipline so that misbehavior are taken care of easily, without any emotion required. Without emotion, there is no reason for the child to want to rebel in order to gain control.
5) They feel ill, bored, hungry or sleepy.
When children’s basic needs aren’t met regularly each day they are always more likely to misbehave, cry, throw a tantrum, etc.
The solution to this is simple: have a routine where the child eats, has individual play time, parent and child play or interaction time and sleeps.
6) They lack accurate information and prior experience.
When children do something such as go to cross a road for the first time, they do not know that they are supposed to look both ways, so we all know that we must explain to them to look left and look right, etc. However, the same technique needs to be applied to discipline situations. Children will repeat a behavior over and over until they have accurate information as to what they should be doing instead and prior experience of the consequence if they continue the behavior.
Using clear, concise language stating what they “need” to be doing rather than what they “shouldn’t” be doing is extremely important. Better to say, “Carry this carefully”, rather than, “Don’t drop this”. In other words, give them something to use as prior knowledge for next time.
7) They have been previously “rewarded” for their misbehavior with adult attention.
No parent would ever think of purposefully rewarding bad behavior, but it subtly happens quite often.
Remember, negative attention is still attention so if they misbehave and their parent either yells or spanks, they have just been rewarded.
If the child whines, cries or throws a tantrum and mom or dad eventually gives in to make them become quiet, they have just been rewarded.
The solution? Say what you expect without emotion and then follow through consistently if they continue the negative behavior. The two keys here are: no emotion and little talking.
8) They copy the actions of their parents.
The best teacher of how to misbehave or act and speak inappropriately is by watching mom or dad misbehave or act and speak inappropriately. Remember, what children see and experience in the home is what their normal is. So, if they see mom and dad yelling, they will yell. If they get spanked, they will likely use hitting to express their anger or frustration. If they hear, “What?” instead of “Pardon?” that is what they will use. How can we expect any different?
Although not always simple, parents need to look at parenting as a life lesson in personal growth. I always say that children can make open and willing parents into the best human beings in the world because they have the opportunity to practice being their best selves every single day of the year. Looking at parenting this way makes it easier to catch oneself more often and start demonstrating good behavior by modeling it.
Image: MagnusRules
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Erin Kurt, B.Ed, spent 16 years as a teacher and nanny around the world. Now, she applies her expertise as a parenting expert and author of Juggling Family Life. You can learn more about Erin and her simple, loving parenting method, and subscribe to her weekly parenting tips e-zine at ErinParenting.com.
Self Education Is Motivating
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In Daniel H. Pink’s book, Drive, one of the main points he emphasizes is that true motivation comes from an individual feeling they have three elements present during their efforts:
- Autonomy – the ability to control their destiny to the greatest extent possible.
- Mastery – the opportunity to truly master one or more domains of knowledge or skill.
- Purpose – a meaningful reason behind their efforts.
I agree with Pink’s assertions and realized while I was reading his book that self education fits nicely into his motivation paradigm.
No form of learning gives you more autonomy than self education. Whether you call it informal learning, self-directed learning, project-based learning, or some other flavor of self education, the level of autonomy these approaches offer is significant. Formal education often takes autonomy out of the educational equation.
Self education fosters mastery. Without the constraints of a predetermined curriculum agenda, we can learn as much about a topic as we wish. Going deeply into a particular area of study is one of the luxuries self education offers. Formal education curriculum tends to want to move you along at a certain pace and in a certain order. If you want to go off on a tangent and study something in more depth, you’ll be left behind and you’ll be judged as not keeping up.
Education efforts we undertake on our own typically have an identified purpose in our lives, even if that purpose is simple curiosity. Self educators tend not to waste time on subjects that have little relevance to their lives. So a sense of purpose tends to encourage our learning in ways that a rigid set of curriculum guidelines or degree requirements often do not.
True motivation is energizing. Getting a good grade or getting an annual bonus at work might appear to be good motivational tools, but research doesn’t support this contention. Real motivation requires that the elements of autonomy, mastery and purpose be present and self education provides these three things in abundance.
Feng Shui Dilemmas: Put Empowerment First
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In feng shui the goal is to create environments that are utterly comfortable, spaces with a predominance of positive energy and few sources of negative energy. There are times when environments present insurmountable energy challenges and a choice must be made between two options, neither of which is optimal. It’s then a matter of determining which solution has the least negative effects.
This past weekend I ran into that type of situation in a meeting room in a hotel. “You won’t believe what this room looked like when I got here,” said Mark LeBlanc of Small Business Success, the presenter. “There was a sofa bed and large black chairs in here. It looked like a storage room.” In Mark’s new arrangement the chairs were arranged in a U with Mark’s flip chart positioned at the open end of the U. He was immediately visible upon entering the room.
“It looks nice,” I said, “unfortunately you’re not in the power position.” When he looked at me quizzically I explained, “To be fully empowered, you need to have a solid wall behind you and a full view of the door. In your current position you are facing into the room, not toward the door. And, the energy coming through the door just slams right into you. You would be more empowered if we flipped the U and had you present from the other end of the room.”
“That’s how I initially had it set up, but then I noticed that the large light fixture is at this end of the room. The only light sources at the other end are those two side table lamps. Do you think that would be enough light?” Mark responded. I agreed with Mark that the light was rather dim. So, now we were at a choice point. Was it more important that Mark be well lit? After all, light would stimulate his thinking, inspiration and energy. Or, was it more important that he be speaking from the power position?
“Well, you could speak from this end today and then tomorrow we can rearrange the room for you to speak at the other end. That way you can compare and decide which works best for you,” I suggested.
Mark agreed to that plan. The next morning we rearranged the room and Mark spoke from the other end of the room for the next day and a half. As I was driving Mark to the airport I asked him whether moving him to the power position in the more dimly lit end of the room had been a good decision. He said, “I definitely felt better at that end of the room, away from all the distractions near the door. And, though the light was dim, it was preferable to the light at the other end. That light was just too bright (it was lit by a high power fluorescent fixture). At the end of the first day (3 hours of presenting), I was exhausted!”
We talked about the fact that in some circumstances you just cannot get a perfect feng shui solution and must make choices. In this case Mark and I decided that putting him in the power position was the priority with lighting being a secondary concern. Though the lighting in the power position was not optimal, as it turned out, it was preferable to being in the path of energy coming from the door, the noise and distractions at the door end of the room, and being drained of energy from the bright light of a fluorescent fixture. Mark and I also noted that he is a strong, compelling speaker with a powerful message whose inner light of passion for his message was bright enough to offset the light deficit.
When you find yourself at a feng shui choice point when no solution is ideal, remember to look for the arrangement that has the least negative impact on the people that will be affected by it. When ever possible, place yourself in the most empowered position possible and minimize other sources of negative energy.
Image: Ben Tanabata
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My passion is helping people discover the profound impact that environment has on performance. I want people to know they can change their lives by changing the spaces in which they live and work. Check out my blog or my book, Rock Scissors Paper: Understanding How Environment Affects Your Performance on a Daily Basis.
Polyphasic Sleep Cycle: Day 5
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I apparently turned off three different alarms this morning at 5am and slept for an extra three hours, but I have no recollection of doing so. I take full responsibility for this, but I will say that the 2 naps I took before the one at 5am rendered zero minutes of sleep due to a very noisy house. During the second attempted nap, my sister decided she needs to scream at the top of her lungs because of a spider in her room. Lovely…
But I’m still going strong. I’ve been taking naps every 6 hours today and once again I’m having that weird sensation of dreaming without being asleep. When I’m trying to fall asleep, I’m continually trying to empty my mind of any thoughts and basically get lost in the emptiness.
What ends up happening is this:
1) Random, illogical thoughts come into my head out of no where. For example, during my first nap today I found myself thinking that this unknown guy was my uncle and that I had secretly known that fact my whole life. And that’s probably the least random one that I can *kind of* remember. It’s all pretty hazy…
2) I enter into a dream storyline, but I know consciously that I can wake up whenever I choose to because I can still move my body around in bed (but I tend to forget this fact throughout these sequences because they’re so vivid and real). The one I remember most clearly from today consisted of my family and I driving up to the top of a mountain. At the top, the pressure in my ears began to spread to my entire face to the point where I was begging my mom to drive back down. Then I remembered that I was still conscious-ish and opened my eyes immediately, the pain dissipating right away.
WEIRD right? I cannot describe how ridiculously bizarre yet cool these experiences are. You have to try it for yourself to believe and understand exactly what it feels like. That last “dream” was quite unpleasant, but all of the other ones have been enjoyable.
Polyphasic + Workouts = OKAY
It’s a little past 11pm right now and I’m feeling great. After my 6pm nap, I went to the local high school and did a bunch of stadiums (running up and down stairs) and followed that with an intense abdominal workout. So even with exhausting cardio, this cycle is leaving me with enough energy to get work done and stay alert until my next nap. My only concern was that the lack of other sleep cycles besides REM would render me unable to continue with my workout schedule, but so far so good.
Changes for tonight/tomorrow:
- Both my phone alarm and my super-annoying alarm clock are being placed further away from my sleepwalking-self
- I’m going to try sleeping on my couch instead of the bed to reduce the chances of oversleeping. If I can’t fall asleep on the couch, I’ll go back to the bed but I will sleep with no covers so that I won’t be as comfortable.
- I feel that I’m far enough along to ignore tired feelings and push through to only taking naps every 6 hours. No more taking naps in smaller intervals since I usually take over 10 minutes to fall asleep anyways
I’m really hoping these changes will prevent another unconscious breaking of my rules :) I’m really enjoying this learning process and I know it will be perfected eventually.
Navigating Productivity Advice: Finding What Actually Works
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I’ve been writing about productivity for years. I’ve reviewed books, audio courses and what feels like every piece of productivity advice out there. Along the way, I’ve discovered a secret: What works for David Allen doesn’t work for me, at least not exactly. The same goes for Steve Pavlina, Gina Trapani and every other productivity expert active online and in print. What’s more, they almost certainly don’t work perfectly for you, either.
Don’t get me wrong — odds are good that, over the years, you’ve found something that comes close. Maybe your system is very recognizable to someone who’s read up on your favorite productivity guru. But you’ve probably made a few tweaks and hacked the system a bit. It could be something small, like finding a way to force yourself to look at your task list on a regular schedule or giving your significant other a way to add tasks to your to-do list.
Generalized Productivity Advice for Individuals
While it may sound trite to say that we’re each unique snowflakes, it’s not entirely inaccurate when it comes to productivity advice. Different people process information differently, prioritize tasks differently, even procrastinate differently. That makes sorting through all the productivity advice out there both crucial and difficult. No one wants to try out every new system that comes along for organizing your task list — besides simply going crazy, you’d probably drop the ball on about half the tasks you wanted to complete as you shifted between systems.
The alternative seems to be finding something that generally works (although rarely works perfectly) and going with it, keeping the changes to a minimum. Making a major adjustment more than every year or so is too often. But that essentially means that most of us settle for the first half-way decent approach to managing tasks that comes along. There must be a reasonable compromise that doesn’t leave us limping along with a system that doesn’t quite work for us, but that we can’t afford to change.
Narrowing Down the Hunt
The first step to getting a grasp on everything you need to get done shouldn’t be to find a system that seems to work well for a lot of people. Instead, start with yourself. You have to know how you operate — how you think. Are you motivated by checking boxes off on your list? Do you need a physical reminder to check in on your next step? The more you know about how you function, the easier it is to be able to dismiss productivity advice that doesn’t work for you. The more you can dismiss, the better. It leaves far less to sort through.
You can also develop the ability to identify advice that will work without necessarily having to try it out. If you find a core system that allows you to function pretty well, you’ll be able to tweak it with the smaller pieces of productivity advice that comes along without having to scrap the whole system and start over. Finding the right core for your system lets you stay in charge, rather than letting an uppity organizer or web application run your life.
Beyond the Standard Advice
There is a certain amount of cross-pollination going on among the acknowledged productivity and self-development experts out there. One blogger may link to another’s post; one writer may use another’s idea as a principle in a new approach. That can be good, but it does mean that many of the systems out there look surprisingly similar when you get them out of the box and on to the table. If you can draw on ideas from outside the field, you can find some tips and help that may surprise you. Personally, I’ve found a lot of tricks that work well for my approach to getting my work done in how athletes train.
Be open to new perspectives on productivity, even when they don’t look like productivity on the surface. You may be surprised at how well new ideas will work.
Image: Chirag D. Shah
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The only thing I wasn't able to do was update my bio to the following: Since her last post on Lifehack, Thursday Bram has been exploring perspectives in productivity. You can find Thursday on Twitter.
Polyphasic Sleep Cycle: Day 3/4 — Video
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Hey guys, this is my first video post. Let me know what you think! I apologize for sounding so out of it but I haven’t been sleeping much lately ;)
I’m also including a summary below for those of you who don’t like watching videos.
**Special thanks to Kiesha Jean for suggesting that I post a video**
Day 3 Report
Day 3 started off with my first (and last) breaking of my rules. After waking up from a nap at 4am, I grabbed my laptop and brought it back to my bed so I could start working. I was sitting in an upright position as to not fall asleep, but my exhaust apparently got the better of me. Next thing I knew I was waking up at 6am.
However, I see this as being both good and bad. It’s a really good sign in that I only slept for 2 hours and woke up automatically with no alarm or stimulus whatsoever. That means I’m officially off of monophasic sleep or I would have just keep sleeping for another 6 hours to make up for lost sleep. It’s only bad because it broke one of my initial rules (no sleeping for more than 30 minutes at a time).
Other than that, day 3 went perfectly. I had lucid dreams with all five of my naps, all of which were more vivid than any lucid dream I have ever had before. It’s getting very easy to carry over consciousness into my naps which excites me. Although I will note that I am still having significant trouble falling asleep during the light hours of the day. I think that my body is still tuned into being diurnal despite my progress towards becoming polyphasic. Hopefully this will change in the next two days because I’m tired of having to come out of relaxation mode to set my alarm for a later time!
How do I feel?
- Mentally sluggish. I’m still not getting enough REM sleep to keep myself at 100% alertness. I feel the most debilitated in the hour leading up to a nap and at night.
- Surprisingly energetic (physically). I am still completing daily workouts with the same intensity as before I started the polyphasic cycle. My muscles seem to be recovering normally but I guess it’s hard to tell at this point. But I’m not just laying around all day or changing my schedule to suit the cycle in any way.
- Optimistic! Currently it’s 6am and I feel great. Last night at this time was when I screwed up and fell back asleep, but today I have no such calling towards my pillow.
What do I still need to improve upon?
- Falling asleep. I want to be unconscious as soon as I hit the pillow regardless of the time of day. Currently if there is too much ambient noise or if it’s too early in the day, it’s really difficult to fall asleep.
- Dymaxion, not Uberman. Right now I’m taking naps whenever I feel too tired to go on without one. On day 3 that translated to 6 attempted naps, 4 of which were successful. Plus I don’t think I’m getting the full 30 minutes in because of tossing and turning. The Uberman cycle is okay, but I would much prefer to only have to lay down 4 times a day instead of 6.
That’s about it for now. I’m going to keep pushing on and will continue to update. Thanks for reading :)