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You've probably noticed a lack of content as of late. I had a wonderful visit to DC and I went back to monophasic sleep, to be normal on vacation.

We've also been given some reading material as food for thought about whether to reconvene with the project.

For now it is on indefinite suspension. I'm sure we'll update again before long - and once we've made a decision.

It's been fun so far. Let's see if we continue. We'll be in touch again soon.

Yesterday I left Ames around 7:45 AM, napped at a rest area along the interstate, and made it to Iowa City just after 10AM. If anybody reading this actually knows me, they could probably guess that I had a 10AM appointment that had to be rescheduled for later in the day. That's OK, though, and pretty much beside the point.

So anyway, my 'before 11AM' appointment went well, and gave me time to nap outside the home of my 1PM appointment. The nap went swimmingly. It seems that naps inside my car are the easiest to control, and I snap out of them and become alert within 1 minute or so. When I'm in bed, however, there is about a 10 minute period where I either struggle to get up, hit snooze and catch some more sleep, or lay there angry that I'm not sleeping anymore.

So anyway, I had already rescheduled the 'before 10AM' appt to 4:30 and was able to catch a quick nap on the way. Once again, I felt great and was able to get the customer taken care of no problem. I headed back to the 1PM house - since one of the computers was acting dog slow and I let it churn away when I left to do the other appointments. I ended up leaving there around 9:15, missing my 8PM nap. I had one more stop - which turned out to be great conversation with a couple that was referred to me by my old boss at the IMU. Thanks Clark!

So by the time I left and was on the road again it was 10:30 or so. I was 2 1/2 hrs late for my nap. Stopped at a rest stop and woke up when Anne called me after her show. I'll admit I overslept a pinch, but I'm OK with that...

So I made it home around 2AM to take my midnight nap. Somehow I made it through the night without more than an extra snooze or two, and I'm still kicking today. Tuesday's Iowa City trip was good. It will help us pay some bills. Going back again on Friday...

Today? Yeah, it was a good day. I got some worky work done, and fit in a jog after my 4PM nap. Then some crunches, and now I'll go to work on my arms for a bit...

Thanks for reading. Here's a treat: Jake punching himself in the face!

We've been doing pretty well. Aside from Sunday morning - when I couldn't(or didn't) stay awake during Jake's 8AM nap - we haven't really overslept. I have needed 10 or 15 more minutes here and there, but there haven't been any ridiculous oversleeping. Even on Sunday, I slept from 8:45 - 10:30 and it felt like a full night :-)

We've been trying to eat healthier, and I've been exercising every time I think of it. I've been doing a lot of push-ups, bicep curls, and crunches. I've also been jogging a couple of times recently. Today I jogged with the dog down to the bank and back. It is about 1.5 miles round trip, and I only walked 3 or 4 blocks of the total trip. Yes - that is an accomplishment for me. I'm going to attribute it to my ability to avoid cigarettes over the last 9 days.

We got back from playing disc golf tonight, and the doorbell rang. We had literally been home for 3 minutes. I ended up having to kill some time with the customers while I was waiting for Mike to get everything ready. I was pleasantly surprised by their interest in Project Sleepy(they have seen my Facebook posts) and the encouragement I received in trying this experiment. Every once in a while, I have an encounter that makes me happy to do what I do. I don't think I'd be very happy living a "normal" life. I need a pinch more excitement than the standard 9-5...

On that note, my laptop is out of commission for the next few days. It has been donated to the shop so video posts may be a few days away.

So what about me, and how have I been feeling? I'm glad you asked. Honestly, it's been very hit or miss. I went to Iowa City last Friday and stopped in Cedar Rapids on the way home. Got in a nice round of disc golf, but the trip threw my nap schedule way off kilter. I laid down for a nap at 8PM and slept through a couple of phone calls. Then I woke up to a "good night" phone call from my girlfriend around 1:30AM. At this point, I hopped into the car and drove back to Ames. I was grumpy - pissed off, tired, almost ready to quit - all day Saturday. Something inside me kept the dedication alive and I've been able to push through. My mood fluctuates significantly and seems to be tied to my level of sleepiness. I kinda feel bad for those that have had to put up with me.

For now, though, I'm in good spirits and am looking forward to napping successfully through the night and a productive trip to Iowa City tomorrow. I'm gonna set a rule now - no napping at my parents' house. Only in the car, since I won't have Clocky available to me. We've been mostly hitting the uberman schedule. When not ubermanning it up, everyman has been pretty solid. I can't say that we fail at polyphasic sleep, we just don't always make uberman happen.

I feel rambly...

So we had a rough weekend. I'll admit that. We also had a rough Wednesday morning.

I had a realization early during the overnight that I wouldn't be able to safely drive to Iowa City on Wednesday. I was really, really tired after 24 hours on the schedule after so much sleeping (about 12 hours combined Sunday and Monday) during our out of town "failure."

I decided to take a series of power naps starting at 4AM. I napped until 4:30, woke up, and then until 5:00. I also napped at 5:30 and 6:00. Then something happened - maybe Sleepy Karl came home - and I didn't wake up until 10:10. I was really discouraged. I didn't tell Jake, but I was actually ready to throw in the towel and pull the plug on Project Sleepy. We had made 4 attempts, and each one seemed to be weaker and weaker - at least on my part.

He ended up sleeping until 3PM or so yesterday, but attempted to nap at 8PM. Since he had made the effort to nap and get back on the schedule, I decided not to mention anything to him. After all, I had taken a nap at 6PM after working all day in Iowa City. I napped at 10PM, 2AM, 6AM, and am about to take one at 10AM. I'm getting close to 24 hours since my last sleep, and I feel better at this point than I have during any of my Uberman attempts.

I'll be sure to keep everyone updated with my progress. Hopefully Jake can find some time to give an update himself. We have an unofficial agreement to post at least once per day. As long as I'm hitting my naps, I can do it. Prepare to hear more - and hopefully see some new video soon.

Tailgating was a ton of fun! We hit our noon naps before getting to Iowa City, and traded off sleeping times at 4PM - during the festivities before the game. 8PM was also bearable - I slept on the floor at the bar/restaurant and Jake napped in the car. 12PM was at a bar, where I just put my head down on the table. All was good. We were feeling happy and getting naps in.

4AM is where we fell off the wagon. We were escorted back to a friend's house where everyone proceeded to fall asleep quickly. Jake and I decided to cave in and sleep - not because we were drunk and needed to, but because there was nothing to do there except for sit on the couch. We slept about 5 hours - which was the most in one given period for what, a week or so? Sunday was just as bad. I napped at 4PM and 8PM, and then slept. I'm not sure about Jake, but I got off the phone with Anne around midnight and slept until 8AM.

I felt pretty refreshed after Saturday's 5 hour sleep, but pretty groggy after Sunday's 8 hrs. I actually had trouble making the drive back to Ames on Monday morning. I had to wake Jake up just so we could stay on the road.

We started back on the schedule last night at midnight. We're trading off nap periods this time - holding each other doubly accountable. It should help us to push through the rough spots and avoid oversleeping.

I do have some exciting video from the weekend, it's just a matter of getting around to editing it and posting it up here for everyone to see...

Facebook has a special power. It can drag me to Iowa City for special events, like Hawkeye football tailgaiting. We're getting ready - and will have vat and video cameras in hand when we get there.

Anyway, we made some chocolate coffee smoothies at 5AM, and I proved to Jake that I could nap while hopped up on caffeine. It worked fine, but I had to force myself awake because of a slightly embarrasing, yet terrifying dream. It all started inside my office. I was looking at a card table, chairs, and Brock Lesnar(of WWE, and now MMA fame). See picture.

He had a steel chair in his hands, so I picked one up to "protect myself"... Then he picked up the table, and was furious. I had to wake up. So I did.

When I fell back to sleep, all was fine. Craziness. But, yeah, I woke up on time. I wasn't happy about it, but it happened and I got right out of bed. Groggy for a bit, and then I showered. Now I'm pumped and ready to go to IC for a day of ridiculousness. Video to follow - tomorrow, hopefully!

So I woke up feeling great on Wednesday. Jake did not.

So after my last post, I was waiting for a data transfer to finish so I could get out of here and over to Iowa City to get my stuff done today. I realized that it had been a long time since Jake set the 20 minute alarm, so I went in and checked on Clocky. He was set for 9:45(not 8:45), so I brought him into my room and laid down. After all, it was only about 15 more minutes - I figured I could nap for that long without any problems.

Stuff happened - I heard Clocky, got up to reset him(or so I thought), I hit snooze on my phone, I slept. Woke up at 11:00. Very disappointing. Now I'm still working to get out of Ames so I can get to Iowa City and back here within a reasonable amount of time. Maybe something exciting will happen while I'm away - if so, I'll come back and write about it :-)

I've got bad news to report. I just slept for 90 minutes straight, and that was after a 20 minute nap. I think the problem stemmed from the very close nature of the 2 sleep periods. I am also tired right now - just after waking up - for the first time in 1 1/2 days. As I type, I'm realizing more and more that I'm struggling. Typos galore. Trouble forming sentences, etc...

Sooooooooo... What happened?

Well, we had some friends over between 2 and 3:45 last night. Jake and Brett had a bit of a jam session on the guitars, it was a fun time. I fixed my laptop, too!(Another story - I tend to tinker and "break" things) Aaanyway, we laid down at 4 and I woke up feeling nearly perfect at 4:23. I woke Jake up and he requested 4 minutes to sit upright in bed. Based on the events of this time (830 - video to elaborate soon) yesterday, I obliged. I made us a couple of salads: Romaine lettuce mix, spinach, italian dressing, and a handful of mixed nuts for each. The salads took about 8 minutes to prepare, so I woke Jake up and we ate.

While we were eating, I got the bright idea to put on a movie. Notice I said bright, and not good. During the movie, I caught myself nodding off a few times, so I got up and gathered some stuff for my trip to Iowa City today. I also checked on some of the tech work I had been working on. I ended up getting off the couch about 5 times during the 90 minute movie session. At 6AM, I suggested that we take a nap to break up the 4AM-8AM period. Jake was very supportive of the idea. I woke up at 6:24, and went in to wake Jake. He acknowledged being awoken, and I saw him roll back over to sleep. This kinda killed my spirits, so I decided to reset Clocky for 22 more minutes and wake up at 6:49. Either Clocky decided not to go off, or I slept through it, or I got up and shut him off - then went back to bed. I can't tell you, since I didn't wake up until 8:05AM...

At 8:05, I woke Jake and then went to take care of some morning duties. At 8:15, I woke him again, and he requested clocky so he could sleep for "20 more minutes" because he was "ridiculously tired." It is now 8:52, and I'm writing while he's out cold in bed. A very disappointing morning. I can't blame my oversleeping on Jake. It's my own fault for letting my spirits get crushed. I'm just disappointed since I was doing so damned good at sticking to the schedule. I was working on 6 days straight without oversleeping by more than 15 minutes. I guess my streak of awesome will have to start over...

Jake and I have unique perspectives when it comes to 4AM on day 5.