Breath

Someone was recomending at breathing exercise that I am going to try out.

___
It is simple to do. It only takes 324 seconds to do it. 18 breath
cycles. This is how it's done:

Breath in four counts through the nose. Breath out variable counts
through the mouth. Breath in through the nose, breathe out through the
mouth...

IN : OUT
4:6
4:8
4:10
4:12
4:14
4:16
4:18
4:20
4:22
4:22
4:20
4:18
4:16
4:14
4:12
4:10
4:8
4:6
rest
_____

Historical sleep manipulation?

I am on day six of my everyman polyphasic adventure. (Core sleep 3am - 6am then 20min naps at 11:30am - 5:30pm - 11:30pm)

I am having fun with my immersion into the study of sleep. Along with actively changing my schedule I have been doing some enjoyable Armchair/Google study on sleep. I wish that I had undertaken this study sooner, but I think it is one of those subjects that is almost invisible due to its integral place in our very existence. We just plain 'take it for granted'. While breath might be also placed in this category it is also been the subject of extensive study and manipulation, modern and anciently. Why not sleep? I am convinced in my dazed state that somewhere in history I can find references to secret society or otherwise separatist order that has abandoned monophasic sleep for the sake of secret knowledge. I read that Lord Byron was a rumored adapter of strange sleeping schedules..

Our life is twofold; Sleep hath its own world,
A boundary between the things misnamed
Death and existence: Sleep hath its own world,
And a wide realm of wild reality,
And dreams in their development have breath,
And tears, and tortures, and the touch of joy;
They leave a weight upon our waking thoughts,
They take a weight from off waking toils,
They do divide our being; they become
A portion of ourselves as of our time,
And look like heralds of eternity...

My other theory peaking its head out of the fog is that this kind of schedule is only made realistic by technology. However alarm clocks have been around since the 15th century and I am sure there are ways around 'cheating' with robots. Especially if you can make it past the adaptation stages.

An earlier experiment I had been doing (http://www.dreaminglucid.com/articlejc.html) with lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis has been on the forefront of my thoughts because it seems very clear to me that my conscious awareness has been waking up before my body. Mainly, I wake up and worry about the fact I can feel my jaw open. I really want to close it but I am afraid doing so will wake my body up. The good news is there is no drool... no drool that I am aware of.