Polyphasic Sleep

[theanimal]

I was surprised after a search on the forums that this hasn't been brought up before. Anyone do it?

In college, I followed a bi-phasic schedule for a semester. A 6 hour core sleep with a 20 min nap in the early afternoon. It was pretty easy to follow but I didn't continue it once I went home. The uberman schedule has really intrigued me for quite some time now. That is a 20 min nap every 4 hours (6 a day). I realize its the hardest to adapt to but for those with a flexible schedule it sure provides a huge chunk of time!

[JamesR]

I recommend Everyman schedule over Uberman. Much easier to do. Just 3 hour core sleep, plus three 20 minute naps spread out roughly equally. The biggest advantage of everyman is you can move your naps around relatively easily whereas with Uberman you basically can't.

Also, health is huge in order to pull this off. It seems vegetarians have the most success with this.

Personally I was able to pull off the Everyman sleep schedule for 10 days, without even using an alarm clock. Having 12+ years of living without an alarm-clock, I can wake up on demand when necessary. I ended up getting a swollen lymph node on my throat on the 8th day which I didn't recognize until the 10th day - so I went back to regular and it went away.

Another key factor to my success was tracking. I setup scripts on the computer to track my sleep schedule, so when I woke up, I had to get up and type in 'wake' immediately in order to be accurate about my times. This forced me to get up and fight against the incredible amounts of sleep inertia long enough to wake up (usually takes 5-10 minutes before inertia disappears). Sleep inertia is defined as "incredible urge to go to sleep", as opposed to fatigue which doesn't necessarily imply sleep - two useful metrics to measure as well. That way you can schedule your naps around your highest points of sleep inertia.

[theanimal]

How difficult did you find the adaptation process? I've read that the Everyman schedule is pretty hard to adapt to as well. I just read a blog about someone who adapted to an Uberman schedule. He found that after a month he ran out of things to do and became very bored. He went back to a normal schedule before ultimately following the Everyman. It does seem more practical.

I have been vegan for over 2 years, so I guess I've got that going for me if I attempt it soon.

[JamesR]

I didn't make it far enough to adapt. I heard that it takes 4 to 6 weeks to get used to Everyman. Longer than uberman for some reason.

Puredoxy, the lady that named & popularized both sleep schedules did uberman for years and then switched to Everyman.

Being vegan probably will help make it doable. I definitely recommend trying to track your sleep times as well as polling yourself for fatigue & inertia levels. Also you will basically be useless for weeks.. Don't plan on doing much work

You also need to setup your alarm such that you have to get out of bed in order to turn it off. And then gotta resist going back to sleep for 15 minutes until the urge passes. It's tough!

[m741]

These adjusted sleep schedules are appealing (particularly polyphasic). However, from everything I've heard the adoption process is extremely difficult, and it's also difficult to maintain the schedule. I followed a few bloggers who did polyphasic sleep for a few months - year, but none of them stuck with it. To me, that says I wouldn't stick with it even if I managed to make it past the hump (which is unlikely).

I can't comment on everyman, but it does seem more reasonable.

[theanimal]

Here's a guy who followed the Everyman for 2 years (maybe 3 now?). He was attempting to create an app to help polyphasic sleepers. I don't have a smartphone so I can't check out if he ended up creating it or not. http://www.businessinsider.com/this-guy ... rs-2013-11

I've read some of Puredoxyk writing and it certainly is helpful. He or she (?) has been doing it for 7 years now! The Everyman schedule that is. That's 14 months of extra time compared to the average monophasic sleeper. Crazy to think about. Puredoxyk wrote something explaining why Everyman is more difficult but I can't seem to find it now. This post is chock full of info on it though:http://www.puredoxyk.com/index.php/2007 ... -everyman/

Although, Uberman schedule is not practical or flexible. It would be cool to experience it for a while to feel that flow of each day morphed together. The people who have done it for a while say there are some very cool psychological experiences and feelings that go along with it.

[JamesR]

I liked the businessinsider article, particularly the breakdown of the steps to ease into everyman schedule. Also missing a nap and having to make up for it with the next nap being 1.5 hours makes sense, I'm not sure if I forgot about that. Also I liked that he maintained 4 hour sleeps when sick, that's a good approach - by avoiding falling back into fully monophasic sleep it probably makes it easier to get back to everyman schedule quickly.

[jennypenny]

I do everyman with two naps. I don't remember the adjustment being that hard, but I was older than most of you when I switched. Stick to the schedule for your long sleep, but add in extra naps while you adjust. Figure out which naps work best and keep those in the schedule. Don't be too rigid. My naps aren't evenly spaced and they aren't the same length. For me, the more natural light I get in during the day, the easier it is to follow.

When I was doing really long runs, they would screw up my sleep pattern that day and I'd have to add an extra nap. Hubby also screws it up sometimes when he's in town and doesn't want me leaving our bed at 3am.

I LOVE it. It gives me long blocks of time to trade, write/edit, read, and garden/prep in addition to the hours required to do normal daily tasks. The naps also help to clear my head so I can focus better when I wake up. I'm a morning person, and I feel like I get that 'morning' feeling after each nap.

[theanimal]

JP-Thanks for that info. How long is your core sleep? And your naps'?

[jacob]

How does this work with coffee?

[jennypenny]

My main sleep is about 4 hours. My first nap is 20 minutes and my second is 45. I don't use an alarm or time them anymore, but I did in the beginning. I think it's easier if you figure out your natural rhythm and time your naps accordingly.

I drink coffee (2 strong cups) after my main sleep. I drink tea after my second nap. I usually exercise after my first nap so I only drink water then.

Edit: I'm not rigid with my sleep totals. If I'm sick, I'll add more sleep time. I find it easier to add more naps than adjust the main sleep. I occasionally sleep longer if something is going on, but not often and not more than an additional 2 hours.

[jennypenny]

I wonder if polyphasic sleep is harder on a carb-heavy or warrior-type diet. I eat low carb, so I don't get sleepy after meals. I'm not sure I could do it on a warrior diet unless I ate right before the long sleep.

[JamesR]

Coffee seems to be recommended against, particularly in uberman schedule where it's incredibly strict and there's no real leeway. But it also depends on how strongly adapted to coffee you are. I know there are loads of people that drink coffee before bed, particularly the older generation such as my grandparents.

[sky]

After having done the single handed sailor's sleep 20 minutes, then check out the 360d horizon, then sleep for 20 more minutes for many days at a time, my plan is to sleep as long as my body wants when I am no longer a wageslave. Freedom = no alarm clocks. However, given the chance, I would take on teh burden of polyphasic sleep to do the sailor's life foreverandever.

[jennypenny]

I ignored the no-coffee rule (and a lot if others ). I was just trying to figure out what worked for me.

I think the biggest benefit is learning how to be an efficient napper. Being able to nap anytime and anywhere is a useful skill (I took my second nap in an airport yesterday). Self-hypnosis techniques can help if you have trouble napping.

I also find that needing only 4 straight hours of sleep every day helps with traveling and reducing jet lag.

I wish I had known about this when I had babies. It explains the advice other mothers intuitively give to new moms to 'sleep when the baby sleeps' since it mirrors a baby's sleep pattern.

[BeyondtheWrap]

I attempted to sleep on an uberman schedule a few years back, inspired by a series on Steve Pavlina's blog.

At the time I was considering homelessness as a way of reducing my housing and transportation expenses, and polyphasic sleep seemed to be a way to make homelessness much more practical, as you don't have to worry as much about being discovered sleeping.

Unfortunately, I overslept a few times and then had a long social outing to attend, so I gave up after about 3 days.

Since uberman sleep requires such a strict schedule, it requires life to be free of deviations from a very strict routine. Long social outings are also mostly a no-no.

A big reason why I don't see myself trying again any time soon is that I lack the ability to fall asleep on command. I often spend a long time lying awake and trying to fall asleep (being tired doesn't always help), so this problem will be amplified if I have to take naps at different times of day and in strange places.

[jennypenny]

If you click on the photo and then click again on flickr, the image will be big enough to read. The entire image is here.

[DSKla]

Here is a good cautionary argument on the topic.

http://robbwolf.com/2011/11/30/polyphasic-sleep-part-1/
http://robbwolf.com/2011/12/09/polyphas ... part-deux/

If you don't want to read it, basically the jury is still out on how effective it is. Probably not a good replacement for 8 hours, could be effective solution for people with terrible sleep patterns by necessity--new parents, Navy SEALs, etc.

[jennypenny]

@DSKla--I gave up polyphasic sleep last spring (I was asked to), and I find I'm much less productive now. I'm going back to it. I'm not sure if it works for everyone, but it definitely works for me. Maybe it's related to age and sleep needs? I'm also giving up the WD. I can't stand getting all of my calories in one sitting, and I don't like eating so late in the day. Maybe both are only compatible with certain temperaments. I might ask in the WD thread if anyone who's successful on the WD also does PS.

[Stahlmann]

Anybody introduced small nap after work to get refreshed with success?

My obstacles:
- too much on my head, at least in my head :/
- if nap happens, this is usually much more than 1h and following night is destroyed -,-
- ATM I'm trying IF high carb for eating. 13-15-18h fasting for last 2-4 weeks. In bad scenarios I eat something at 1pm in work (some tasks are difficult to bear during fast). Trying to eat first meal at 2-3pm. I'll give a shot MCT oil for early cravings. I'm at home at 5pm.
- going to bed at 11pm - 12 midnight. Waking up at 6-7 am. Enervy crashes mainly occurs after 12 noon.