Sleep Deprivation 101

One of the most interesting side effects of polyphasic sleep (not that I’m doing it — I’ve just read) is the alteration of the perception of time. In polyphasic sleep, people take short naps (usually six 30 minute naps each day) scattered throughout the day instead of sleeping 8 hours at one time. After doing it for two weeks, one guy reported thinking he had been doing it for over a month. Messing with your sleep schedule messes with your day. Or, in our case, the entire weekend.

Saturday, Susan planned on heading up to work “late” to finish patching some server. I went to Stephen’s to watch basketball (the Hornets) and then boxing (James “Lights Out” Toney) — neither of which performed particularly well. I came home around 11pm and woke her up so she could go into work. She left around 11:30pm, assuring me she’d be back in an hour or two. The last time I called her was 3am, and she still wasn’t done. Thus began the sleep-shuffle. I went to bed at 3:30am. Morgan woke up at 5:30am (2 hours later) crying, which woke Mason up. Susan got home a half hour after that at 6am. Then I went back to bed for two more hours, sleeping from 6am-8am. When I woke up, Susan was falling asleep with Morgan in her arms on the couch. Morgan went back to bed, Susan slept from 8:45am – 9:30am, and Mason … well, once he’s up, he’s up. At 11 we went to lunch at quite possibly the nicest McDonald’s on the planet (it was so nice it deserves its own entry later in the week). Then after lunch we came back and traded off a few more napping shifts.

The weirdest thing about today’s whole sleep shift is it has broken up today into what seems like three completely separate days. My weekend literally feels like it was four days long.

In other news, everybody’s sick. Susan’s really sick. Mason’s getting sicker. Morgan and I are just “sorta” sick. We’ve all had this “creeping crud” cough (as Susan calls it) for a week or so now. Mason’s got a doctor’s appt. in the morning that it looks like I’ll be taking him to (Susan’s got a meeting she can’t miss). Whatever’s going around has made Mason and Susan cough, but Morgan just fussy. Just a whole fishbowl full of happiness around here this weekend.

Weekend of March 25th – Shiner’s Circus
Weekend of April 1st – Medievel Fair (Norman)
Weekend of April 22nd – Sun Valley Garage Sale

EDIT: 8:30pm, Sunday night, Susan left for work again.