Yeah, it is quite hard. I have a bunch of tips though, after getting to day 10 and feeling great .
My biggest suggestion is to eat healthy and detox for a few days before trying it. Your nutrition has a lot to do with it. I’ve just started a web log that will discuss each day of my experiment and keep commentary as things progress. You can find that here: placebo.serv.co.za
Here’s a list of tips that worked for me, for those interested:
1 Heavy dance music seems to wake me up quite nicely, even without getting out of bed. Use good headphones.
2 If you’re really struggling, do some light jogging or other mild exercise. Works a charm
3 Eat small meals, and aim for a fair amount of good residual energy food. Fruit, nuts, etc. Heavy meals will make you regret them later.
4 Don’t seriously overexert yourself in the adaptation phase. Back pain will take some time to heal during this time.
5 Don’t underexert yourself. Do something useful and physical from time to time. Not only does it keep you awake and get something done, but it also helps you sleep better in naps.
6 Use an MP3 such as my one and earphones or something similar. It seriously helps. For those interested in making their own, I got my hands on a noise generating program like soundmasker for sleeping soundly, and audicity to mix the wake up sounds.
7 If you have a significant other, do something useful for them every night. They’ll learn to love your new routine. In fact my wife changed her mind very quick when she realised that she can have more time with me simply by waking up earlier or going to bed later. She loves the choice apparently.
8 Definitely find something engrossing to do in this time. Otherwise you’ll struggle. Reading and TV watching isn’t a lot of help. Do something creative and constructive. Preferably away from the PC, unlike my choices Razz
9 In contradiction to the above, don’t expect to get a lot done in the first few days of this routine. You’ll be mentally tired and will struggle to motivate yourself, let alone do things properly
10 Have a shower after one of your late afternoon naps. This seems to revitalise and give your body the sense of starting a new shift.
11 I strongly do not recommend pushing your naps to anything more than 5 or 6 hours apart, at least in the adaptation. I did 7 hours, and it may have been the cause of some unpleasantness.
12 Caffiene seems to have a bad impact on my naps. I hope you aren’t an addict Wink
I’ve cut down my coffee to one good cup right after my morning nap. This gives me some time to work it out of my system.
I’m unsure of alcohol so far. I would suspect it might cause havoc as well, so be cautious.
15 Try to eat food that is easy for your body to break down, or if you can’t help it, small portions of the difficult-to-digest food. A box of salty popcorn is a bad bad idea. A handful of it probably isn’t a trainsmash, so if you want something that you know is a problem, do it in moderation. If you go to the cinema and have a tradition of salty popcorn to scoff, consider sharing most of it to someone else, and eat it slowly.
Or take the rest home. Trust me, you’ll regret eating the whole lot if you’re on this schedule.
