#polyphasic sleeping

[equihexiphasic-blog]

Day 1

  Polyphasic sleep is splitting one’s sleep period into multiple parts (“poly-phasic” = “multiple-parts”). I will be splitting my days into six equal parts, each consisting of 3 hr 40 min awake, followed by 20 min asleep. This is called an equihexiphasic schedule (“equi-hexi-phasic” = “equal-six-parts”). There is no night time core sleep like a regular monophaser gets. Instead, all of my sleep will be taken in only these six 20-minute naps a day.   This equihexiphasic sleep pattern is said to go back at least a few hundred years, though documentation is poor. Right now, we are creating data for future scientists/experimenters to use! Exciting, right? Although there hasn’t been much formal laboratory testing, this equihexiphasic sleep pattern is common enough to have a slang term: Uberman.   Aside from having plenty of spare time opening up (Uberman sleepers only nap a total of 2 hours per 24!), reports of elevated energy levels, increased productivity, and increased sleep hygiene/efficiency are extremely common after the adaptation period (lasting only the first week or so).   I have been diagnosed medically as a “long-sleeper”, someone whose body needs 9 hours of sleep per night to recharge instead of the usual 8. So for me, Uberman will open up another 7 hours to each of my days. Considering I have only been getting 15 hours of wake time per day, this is almost a 50% increase in available time! Wow!

[t-nee]

uuuuhm so my sister and brother-in-law are doing a thing?

[sleepless-livemore]

End of Day 0 -- Feeling More Optimistic

So I took my 10.30PM nap and although I didn't actually sleep, I felt a bit better. I had my dinner at around 9PM, and that was late, yeah, and because I was too lazy to cook, I had McDonald's. -.- I'm realising that I'm going to have to make serious dietary changes if I'm going to get on a polyphasic sleeping schedule.

I fought drowsiness after that for an hour or two by reading Steve Pavlin's polyphasic journey, and I must say, it inspired and motivated me a whole lot.

Dietary changes. After reading Steve's thoughts on why he thought he adapted more easily to being a polyphasic sleeper because of his vegan diet, I thought about how I was feeling, and for the first time in... ever, really, I'm seriously thinking about becoming a vegetarian (I doubt I could ever be a vegan), or at least cutting down meat significantly from my diet.

Many of the blogs I've read and vlogs I've watched on polyphasic sleeping have shown that most people feel the need to change their diet and have lighter meals to accommodate the frequent napping.

Plus, for some reason, quite a few mentioned having grape related cravings, which I found quirky. Personally, my nose has been turning up at the thought of heavy meals today and I'm just craving something lighter -- like fresh salads and smoothies. I have never craved a salad before -- odd.

Caffeine. I'm avoiding it. I might slip up after a while because I love the taste and smell of coffee, but for now I'm avoiding it. I'm going to try and stock up on decaffeinated tea and coffee.

Nicotine. The urge to smoke has decreased quite a bit. My lips chap every time I have a smoke and I feel uncomfortable being dehydrated, so I'm not smoking quite as much.

Plus, the nicotine's giving me a sort of caffeine-rush feeling -- I feel energised for about half an hour, then I get drowsy again.

Physiological changes. I feel a bit dehydrated even though I am constantly sipping on water, and I feel the need to drink more fruit juices, so I'm going to stock my fridge up with those, plus a whole lot of fruits and veggies. I have a slight flu, and phlegm in my throat, but they've been on and off over the past week, so I don't think it's related to the sleeping changes.

I also mentioned feeling achey, and I've realised that warm showers and stretching helps with that. I might add yoga into my daily routine as well.

Psychological changes. I sat down and reevaluated my reasons for doing this. Sure, it'd be nice to have more free time, but I'm mostly curious, and I feel like this would be a huge achievement for me and a huge confidence boost in my will power and self-discipline. Plus, it's making me want to go on a healthier diet and cut out smoking, which is an added perk.

The higher level of productivity and a higher sense of consciousness I've read and heard about sounds amazing, so I can't wait to experience that.

Motivation. I think I need to go easy on myself and not get so discouraged every time I slip up. I have been sleeping monophasically for about two decades, and naps have never been a part of my daily routine (I always oversleep), so I need to understand that it might take me more time to adapt to the Uberman way.

I'm focussing on how positive the results are going to be once I get through the uphill period, and I'm excited to get there, but I'm making a mental note to phase myself and not get ahead of myself.

To-do list. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but I have a lot of interests and an endless collection of movies and TV series to keep me entertained if all else fails, so I think I'll be okay. Meanwhile, I'll keep my eyes peeled for more interesting and productive things to spend my time on.

It's 2.10AM now and I have a nap scheduled for 2.30 but I'm not all that tired tired so maybe I'll delay it a bit.

x

[sleepless-livemore]

One thing I’ve noticed is that instead of making a daily to-do list as I used to, I now chop up my intended actions by cycle. So I have very short to-do lists of what I want to do during the 3.5-hour periods between naps. And since there’s no real end to the day, this process is continuous.

Because the nap times are so short (30 minutes maximum with actual time spent asleep of 15-20 minutes), it feels like I’m awake around the clock. The naps are just short breaks in a state of otherwise continuous consciousness. This results in a very different perception of time. There’s no sense of fighting fatigue before it’s time to quit for the night. I can be in the middle of a project, take a nap break, and go right back to work without the massive interruption of a nighttime reboot. The process of living shifts away from the day-to-day intervals and instead becomes like a continuously flowing stream. This felt very alien at first, but I’m growing to like this new approach better. My days are no longer so quantized — one day flows smoothly into the next.

In a way this does make me feel more conscious than I used to. The sun comes up, the sun goes down, other people wake up and go to sleep, and I’m always there to perceive it happening. I don’t disappear from the conscious world for hours at a time. The day-to-day calendar is no longer a good model for my sense of the passage of time. Those sharp lines between days no longer exist. I’m going to need to do some restructuring of my time management tools to adapt to this new way of living.

-- Steve Pavlina

[sleepless-livemore]

Well, I overslept. I set a dozen alarms for my 2.30PM nap, and I did wake up. I felt slightly refreshed, but my brain was convinced it wasn't enough, and I just couldn't muster up enough will power to drag myself out of bed.

So I slept for another four hours.

I'm still not totally refreshed. My back is aching and I'm kind of nauseous, for some reason.

I'm debating giving it up till Thursday when I'm done with classes for the week, then trying again during the weekend, but I don't know.

:-/

[sleepless-livemore]

Why am I doing this to myself?

Only four hours since I started and I already cannot remember why I ever wanted to do this.

Through the course of our lives, I think I can safely say that most of us have learnt that sleep is to be valued. As a university student, sleep is almost priceless -- every chance you get, take it.

And now, here I am, denying myself sleep. Yes, I could take an early nap, but it would still only be twenty minutes long. I could take it whenever I want, but it would STILL ONLY BE FREAKING TWENTY MINUTES.

It doesn't matter if I turn in early or late, BECAUSE IT WILL ALWAYS BE A TWENTY MINUTE NAP.

...

This was a stupid idea. I like sleeping too much to be doing this.

And I want to cry a little because I won't technically be able to 'turn in' anymore. No more 'hitting the sheets'. No more 'calling it a night'. God, this is unnatural.

But okay. Thinking rationally. Recalculating priorities. Focussing on maximising my conscious time.

What I'm worried most about now is actually being able to sleep well. I've never been able to sleep properly or even fall asleep quickly when I know that I have very few hours to sleep. With only twenty minutes, you can only imagine the tantrum my brain is throwing. But I guess both my brain and I are going to have to learn that it's always going to be twenty minutes -- take it or leave it.

Another thing I'm worried about is feeling physically well. When I go without sleep for over twelve hours, I start getting achey and tired. My limbs feel heavy and I literally won't be in the mood for anything except lying down. I'm feeling that way now, and I don't know if my upcoming nap is going to fix it. And that's worrying because I have two essays to hand in this week.

If I'm not blogging in three hours, you'll know I overslept. :-|

[sleepless-livemore]

Day 0 -- How I Changed My Mind

I crawled into bed at 8AM, after being awake for about thirteen hours or so. I've been sleeping a bit too much lately, and a bit too well -- in fact, a Google search on that is what landed me on an Uberman article. My theory is that because I was sleeping later each night, I eventually started waking up later during the day as well, and got fewer hours of daylight, thereby possibly increasing my melatonin levels.

The reason why my good luck with sleep recently was bothering me a bit is because I've always been a troubled sleeper. No nightmares or anything of that sort, but I've always had trouble falling asleep and sleeping peacefully. Somehow, I wasn't quite a light sleeper, yet I had difficulty getting a peaceful night's sleep. All that changed recently, and I don't have any answers besides my melatonin theory.

Anyway, I guess a few of my search words were something along the lines of sleeping less, because eventually I found out about Uberman and polyphasic sleeping. I was excited at first to try something new, but the math was just not fitting in with my schedule, so I decided to try the Everyman with two naps. I was supposed to start yesterday but I overslept, which now feels like a blessing in disguise.

Anyway, I was just reading a few articles on my phone in bed earlier, when I decided to read more about Uberman (I was just that drawn). I tried putting my phone away and sleeping a couple of times, but I just couldn't. I decided spontaneously, after reading Vlad's comments on how there can be a slight buffer in nap timings.

I took a twenty-minute 'nap' at 9AM -- I didn't sleep at all, but it was quite refreshing to close my eyes and lie down comfortably. As I haven't been up for over twenty-four hours just yet (that's when most officially start the schedule), I'll have my next nap after five and a half hours, at 2.30PM, to set my schedule into motion.

I'm feeling a bit insane for starting this project on a freaking Monday, so wish me luck!

[conspiracy-mystic-blog]

My first three hour core sleep went well.

I don't feel as painfully tired as I expected.

The point of sleeping 3 hours is to complete two REM cycles.  It supposedly takes about 45 minutes to hit a REM cycle, and I know from past polyphasic experience that one feels MUCH less tired if you wake up in a REM cycle. If you miss the REM, you slip into a deeper cycle that makes you feel extremely slow, and groggy when you wake.

I amused myself until 2:30am, and then I went, and sat in the middle of my bed and meditated for 15ish minutes.  In the middle of the night is one of my favorite times to meditate.

Then I laid down, and did some energy movement exercises.  These are great for relieving tension and relaxing the body.  I also find I'm more likely to have lucid dreams after doing some energy movement, although that unfortunately wasn't the case this time.

I easily dropped right off into sleep about 3am.  I only remember one dream, and while I wouldn't label it as a nightmare, I wouldn't say it was pleasant. (Boo!)  I awoke from that dream at 6am.

I felt strangely refreshed, and was able to get up immediately with even less grogginess than usual.  I hit the ground running, and went straight into the kitchen, and made a homemade hash brown, sausage patties, and fried eggs for my 7th grader.

I don't normally have so much motivation that early in the morning.

∞