Four Hours of Sleep – Update #1

This is the first update to this post, a week into an abbreviated four-hour sleep schedule.

Due to the long 4th of July weekend, I only had a few nights to try to sleep only four hours since (for now) I’m not using the schedule on weekends when I’m out and about with friends, drinking, enjoying summertime activities.

Actually, there really isn’t much to update at this point, but I did notice some interesting things during the four days after I slept only four hours.

How to Wake up After Four Hours of Sleep

1. Alarm across the room so you have to get up to turn it off.
2. Turn on bright lights immediately (put alarm clock near light switch).
3. Wash face with cold water.
4. Do push ups or something else to get the blood flowing.
5. Caffeine.

Doing 1-5 will enable you to get up no matter how tired you are. The only difficulty is actually forcing yourself to do the steps instead of hitting snooze and going back to that warm, oh-so-inviting bed.

Effects of Sleeping Only Four Hours

This is going to take some getting used to. I was (and still am) very tired for several hours upon waking, and spent those hours looking forward to my afternoon nap, which ended up being a full three hours the first day. Oops. After that I kept it to an hour nap, and felt completely refreshed afterwards with no trouble staying up until midnight.

Although I was tired and groggy, I definitely felt a melding, if you will, of my conscious and subconscious minds. I look forward to gaining the ability to meld them effectively to produce nice combinations of words and other things.

Both during night time sleep and naps, I had more-vivid-than-usual dreams. I became conscious in them several times, although I wouldn’t say they were fully lucid dreams, but I was able to, in a way, passively observe what I was doing in them. Often I was actually working through “virtual” situations, if you will, that I’m trying to work out in my life. I was basically a witness to my subconscious workings.

In the dream state early one morning, I was in and out of sleep, working on a post for this site. The profound words flowed effortlessly onto the page, and almost the whole thing was finished, in front of me, and I was able to move around and read different parts. It was titled The Energetic Universe, and it’s a something I’ve been meaning to write for a while. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten everything from that experience. I really should have woken up and just written, but I was tired. It’s in there somewhere though and I’ll link to it above when it’s complete.

That’s the kind of skill I want to develop: being able to write as fluidly and profoundly in the conscious state as I can subconsciously. It will take some work, but I’m confident I can do it.

I also “watched” myself working out some life situations I’m in the process of improving. Truly, a lot goes on in our dreams of which we’re simply not consciously aware. I’m more excited by the day with the prospect of improving the connection between the minds, and I hope to have something good for you by the time I finish this experiment.

Conclusion

We’ll see how it goes over the next three weeks (or 100 years?). I’ve just gotten the slightest taste of the advantages of a four-hour sleeping schedule, but I’m confident that with a little work and persistence, it will pay off big time in the end.

Let’s just hope I can soon stop being so physically tired. This difficulty is not much of a surprise, however, considering the fact that for over thirty years I’ve gotten used to sleeping seven or eight hours each night.

Read the 2nd update here.