I've just been reading about delayed sleep phase disorder (DSPD), which is a disorder that makes you a night owl. You feel like you perform best during the night feeling alert and awake whereas during the day you would just sleep, sleep and sleep. I could say that I have DSPD, but that's not the point, because I'm aware that this disorder, at least in my case, has it's origin in my social anxiety. I'd rather sleep, instead of having to deal with people, and then when everyone is asleep during the night time I'd reach my energy peak. During the day time I have moments when I'm feeling like I'm about to fall asleep while standing. Sometimes I just feel so tired. And I know it's a sort of vicious circle, because if I don't get a proper sleep during the night, then I will be dead tired during the day. But in the end, it's my choice not to sleep like everyone else, because it's an easy way out for me. OK, so that was me and my messed up sleeping routine. Now, here comes the part related to my question.
Today when I woke up around 11 am I was feeling very low and wasn't feeling like getting up at all. I was waiting for my roommates to leave for their classes, before I finally got up. I absolutely hate having to see anyone in the mornings when I wake up. It's one of the worst things ever. I remember back home, I couldn't stand the idea of seeing my own parents in the morning so I was just waiting them out, getting up just after they left home even though I knew I would be late for my classes because of that. Back to the point, today I went to sleep around 5 am and woke up at 11 am feeling like $#%^. Then around 7 pm, I started feeling very sleepy. (Now that I think back to it, coincidentally[?] it was around the same time when my roommates started coming back home.)
Anyway, at 7 pm I took a 1 hour nap. The thing is that when I woke up I felt just amazing and what's important had no symptoms of social anxiety. I woke up, went to the kitchen to make myself some tea or something and actually felt very comfortable around people. Normally I'm so self-conscious, it's basically impossible to truly enjoy anyone's companionship (unless I'm very drunk.) This time I actually talked to people, not out of a painful neceessity, but simply because I felt like being friendly. It's actually not the first time, that after taking a nap I feel so good I'm able to storm into the kitchen without giving two sh*ts about people around me. No comparison between how I felt after my today's attempt at getting a night's sleep and after this nap.
And I started thinking. If naps as opposed to full time sleep can make me feel so good, why not give up on full time sleeping altogether and substitute it with naps. I googled „no sleep only naps” and what I got is polyphasic sleep. Does anyone have any experience with it? I'm willing to give it a try, since my sleeping routine is already pretty messed up. Any ideas on how this works? Or why today I felt so much better after the nap than the 6 hours “night” sleep? Did anyone have similar experiences? I know that there may be no strict correlation between napping and feeling good, it all may have been accidental, I may not be able to repeat this, and it may not work in the long run but I guess I will never find out, unless I give it a try.