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Sunday, September 27, 2009 - 10:01amSanction this postReply
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Really interesting concept. Please keep updates coming. I've toyed with this idea for a while, but haven't ever been able to fully implement. Seeing as how I seem to be in an escalating pattern of activity, this could be the way to go (assuming it actually proves healthy).

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Sunday, September 27, 2009 - 8:15pmSanction this postReply
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Good luck!

Post 2

Sunday, September 27, 2009 - 10:41pmSanction this postReply
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Well, for sure polyphase sleeping is what I do, tho nothing to any 'uberman' extent - more like four or five naps of about an hour or less [sometimes more - it varies], so there is sleep, but not all in one lump... refresher naps is how I have termed it... seems to work ok - but then am retired and as such under no pressure to have to be awake at any time as a general rule... there is no specific scheduling, just when feel tired, letting the body determine the when times... works well for my renderings, as get more done with less stress of continual inking for long periods...

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Post 3

Monday, September 28, 2009 - 2:17pmSanction this postReply
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God speed =)

Might as well post a link to wiki

(Edited by Doug Fischer on 9/28, 2:24pm)


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Post 4

Monday, September 28, 2009 - 10:23pmSanction this postReply
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Warren,
Please update often. I'm getting excited about this and by next week might try it myself.

This study has some mixed results. Everything seems fine until day 44 or 45, when the subject succumbs to "sleep pressure". By the end of the study the subject is glad to be free.













Post 5

Monday, September 28, 2009 - 11:25pmSanction this postReply
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Day 2: 

Today was the first day I had to go to work on this schedule. It is advised to go through the adaptation stage when you are fully in control of your schedule and presumably free of responsibilities, but I'd rather adapt sooner than later -- especially so I can apply the polyphasic sleep during school (which starts this week).
 
I work part-time as a cashier at Lowe's on weekends only. Given the less control that I have over my time for the 8 or so hours that I work, I knew this was going to be a challenge -- especially in my adaptation period. In fact, I had chosen the 1am, 5am, 9am,...etc. sleeping cycle specifically because those are the times that least conflict with my usual 15 minute breaks, which I could use to roughly cover my 9am and 1pm nap times. The key word here is: Usual.  And indeed, my expectations were confirmed: My first break was scheduled a half-hour earlier than usual, but that was no biggie. The somewhat biggie was not getting my final break at the usual time of 1pm (or close to it). I waited until 2:30pm, and specifically requested a break immediately. They were compliant, fortunately.. Next time, I'm going to be more vigilant about that 1pm-ish break. But even after my 15 minute nap which substituted for what would be the 20-30 minute nap, I wasn't too bogged down about the delayal. I expected this, and I think it's fairly clear that the weekends during the workdays will simply have deal with "wobbles" here and there.

Today I noticed that I've already started "deep-sleeping" just mere minutes after I begin napping. And naturally, the deeper the nap, the more refreshed and energetic I came back. It's pretty neat. 
On the other hand, I have a deeper understanding of what polyphasers are talking about when they say you feel like "you got hit by a truck" during the adaptation phase. When I took my naps, I woke up with my arms amazingly stiff and achey. My elbow joints didn't seem to want to extend. 

My right eye became very red in the outer corner, which led me to purchase some advanced eye-care Visine after I got off work -- just to ensure optimal preventative care. I also bought a sleep mask, to aid in my napping during the daytime. 

When I got home, it was about time for my 5pm nap. Here is where I made my first (and I hope, last) screw up: I napped on the couch, thereby placing myself far away from my bedroom where all my back-up alarms are located -- only my phone was used.. Problem is, I forgot I had my phone on "silent" mode, so no vibration woke me up. So what was supposed to be a 20-30 minute nap, ended up being about a 3 hour nap. Overall, I'm not that disappointed because: 
1) It was a pretty tough day working while adapting to this new schedule. So I was fairly exhausted.
2) Three hours of sleep is just a wobble - though the fewer the better. If I had fallen asleep for 8 or so hours, then I'd be really upset: I'd basically reset my entire sleeping schedule to square one, and all the hard work down the drain. Interestingly, I think that my nap was that only 3 hours short because of the continuous napping prior to. In the past when I was a monophasic sleeper, I would at times come home from work, exhausted and fall-asleep much in the same way -- except I wouldn't get up until early morning the next day. But with this polyphasic sleeping, the continuous napping itself seems to be a mitigating factor in potential "screw ups", which is nice. That being said, however, I recognize that there are some variables that I will have to control from here on forth every time I take a nap at home (at least, in the crucial adaptation stage). Namely, the location and alarms. Taking my home naps on the bed (where my three alarm clocks are at), in addition to my properly-activated phone, will provide an optimal, controlled environment. 

Day 3:

Today was pretty good -- it wasn't perfect, but it was very good. I've noticed that the hardest times to maintain my alertness was during the 5am - 9am period. After my 9am nap, it's already sunny out, which I think stimulates myself on a physiological level; it "wakes me up" a little more. So I went and did some grocery shopping at Wal Mart and Costco at unprecedented times of the morning, and as I was driving, the "strangeness" of being a polyphaser creeped up on me. Just having spent the previous several hours in the dark of the night, and now it was daylight out. It was precisely because of the continuity of my experience and the lack of "grogginess", that it was such an odd and surreal experience. I also had to keep reminding myself: "Today is Monday. MONDAY." It will be interesting to see more of how my perception of time changes as I continue to make progress. 

I also notice that I have to remind myself to brush my teeth at night now. Before, I would simply group the "brushing teeth routine" with my other monophasic-based routines that revolve around going to bed and hibernating for the night. In the absence of these other sub-routines, I notice that I am easily "forgetting" to brush my teeth. The fix is trivially easy, though -- just a simple matter of re-arranging my routines according to other fixed factors (e.g. time). But interesting to note, nonetheless.

I find that I am having to eat much more food and on a much more continuous basis -- this was expected, based on my research. What I find very nice is the fact that I actually CAN eat much more healthier now, simpy because I am not in any rush during the mornings. During my monophasic sleeping, I would typically wake up at the last second, leaving me with just enough time to shower, do my hair, get dressed, and make coffee -- that's it. No big country breakfasts, no elaborate meals. Now, it seems like I have ALL THE FREAKING TIME to eat, eat, eat -- and to make meals for when I head out to school or work. Not only must I eat more, but I can actually eat more healthier at the same time! It's beautiful! 
So today at Wal Mart, I bought a bunch of high-energy foods for me to graze on: Diet (no sugar, etc) trail mix, celery, baby carrots, apples, walnuts, etc. Btw, Steve Pavlina blogs about his vegetarianism having crucial role in his success -- but vegetarianism is far from necessary. PureDoxyk, author of "Uber Sleep", mentions this, and further points out that the majority of polyphasers are omnivores, just as are the majority of humans. What's more important is the timing and sizing of your meals. Eating too soon before a nap or too much at once will clearly create forces to be reckoned with. 

So what was it today that made it short of perfect? First of all, I was late for my 1pm nap because of an absurdly loquacious neighbor -- an encounter that I tried my best to end while maintaining politeness and discreetness. I am going to have to devise strategies for this kind of situation. And when I finally rush to take my nap, I neglect to create the controlled napping environment, again -- this time, I slept on my bed, but naively relied on my phone and didn't bother to turn on my back-up alarms, and slept for three hours (same as yesterday). I'm not that bogged down by it, not only because a three hour nap is just a mere "wobble" and not a wreck, but also because this inadvertently coincides with an "Everyman Schedule", which (as prescribed) has a core nap (what I call a "wobble") of 3 or 1.5 hours (the two main variations)::

So at least even with my "wobbles", I'm still polyphasin' it up. At any rate, in pursuit of "perfecting" the Uberman schedule, I'm going to raise the standards of my environmental control: Back up alarms, every time. 

One last detail for this entry: I'm still deciding whether the face mask is doing me any good. When I don't use the face mask, I exhibit an amazing ability to open my eyes at EXACTLY 20 minutes into my nap -- like clockwork. But when I use my sleep mask, I tend to sleep until the alarm goes off. Most likely, I will do away with the sleep mask.



Post 6

Monday, September 28, 2009 - 11:44pmSanction this postReply
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Doug, I must recommend PureDoxyk's book if you are interested -- it's loaded with helpful guidelines. It's available for instant download:
http://www.lulu.com/content/2649551
Or for the real, physical book at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Ubersleep-Nap-Based-Schedules-Polyphasic-Lifestyle/dp/B0025UH7WM







Post 7

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 - 4:25amSanction this postReply
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Really interesting. Think I'm going to try this, as my work can be very accomodating of this kind of schedule (I think).

If it were me and I HAD to get away from a social situation semi-gracefully I would probably just say I had a condition I had to address every few hours or so. It would be the truth. They'd probably assume I was diabetic, but it wouldn't be my responsibility to correct assumptions.

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Post 8

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 - 9:07amSanction this postReply
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Well, if it works, it works, and I do wish you success.

But I do have to say that attempting the uberman schedule seems like nothing less than a deliberate attempt to drive oneself insane. The few people I have known with such schedules have been manic and obviously suffered some sort of sleep disorder.

A person with no external constraints will probably gravitate to biphasic sleeping or the everyman schedule. The problem with the everyman schedule is that the sleep cycle all too easily becomes unhinged from the external day-night cycle. I have a long daily cycle and would naturally prefer to go to bed about one hour later every night. I can't see a polyphasic cycle working very well except for someone with a hermit's lifestyle. If you have friends and a job needing a nap every four hours will be somewhat inconvenient.

Of course everyone wishes there were more hours in a day. The monophasic cycle reflects that in its 16 hour stretch without sleep. A regular biphasic cycle is the happiest. It is the one adopted by children and Spaniards and retired adults. The everyman schedule works if you are under stress which prevents a prolonged sleep time, such as being in a hospital on a morphine drip. The uberman schedule is most approximated in nature by men in constant combat ready situations. I think that speaks for itself.

The bad premise I suspect here is the idea that there is something wrong with sleep. Two of the greatest joys in life are going to bed tired and waking up leisurely without stress. I firmly believe that time spent sleeping is not deducted from one's allotted lifespan.

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Post 9

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 - 9:59amSanction this postReply
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I have a long daily cycle and would naturally prefer to go to bed about one hour later every night.
I noticed, from my teen years onward, that I seem to function best on a 25 hour cycle, going to bed an hour later and rising an hour later each day. Because this doesn't work well with my work schedule, I've learned the benefits of "power napping." Sometimes just 10 minutes does wonders for my alertness.

A sleep expert at Brown University, whose name completely escapes me now, once said it best, "Sleep happens."


Post 10

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 - 7:23pmSanction this postReply
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I do wish you well. I hope that you are successful in increasing your awake hours. I am also very concerned that this sort of sleep pattern will cause a bad case of sleep deprivation.

I know very well as an engineer that has tried sleeping less that sleep deprivation has a big nagative effect on my mental performance.

I would take the signs of my body feeling stiff and not wanting to move as a serious sign that I am not getting enough sleep. Isn't there any way you can more slowly shift into this sleep cycle? Like gradually reducing the night sleeping hours while inserting the naps?

Cheers,
Dean

Post 11

Thursday, October 1, 2009 - 5:10amSanction this postReply
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Been doing some reading up on this. There seems to be some opinion out there that biphasic is pretty effective as well, and obviously a lot easier to maintain. Going to keep looking into it.

Post 12

Friday, October 2, 2009 - 12:53pmSanction this postReply
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Day 4

I must've forgot to set my alarm when I went for my 1am nap last night. I overslept till about 7ish -- 6 hours. Although this is the biggest setback (though by how much is unknown) I've had, I am oddly not the slightest bit discouraged. I am still sticking my by napping times like clockwork, and feel enthusiastic about moving forward. I am starting to fully grasp the mentality that the Uberman schedule requires in order to maintain it -- it really isn't much different from someone who is a diabetic and, as a matter of life and death, absolutely must administrate insulin shots at regular intervals throughout the period (borrowing from Ryan's mentioning of diabetes). You have to have that same kind of strict, severe determination (at least in the beginning, anyway); whenever I wake up from my nap, I have to already be planning for my next nap in 3.5 hours -- it's always in the back of my head, and during the meantime, I often have to be moving at a brisk pace with whatever I'm doing, because my next nap is just around the corner. I like it. I like it alot. 

Day 5

Today was the first day of school for the quarter. No wobbles so far, no over sleeps; everything has gone perfectly. The "brain fog" that I experienced during the earlier stages of the adaptation phase was absent, although I wasn't "100%" -- more like 93%. I take this as a good sign, that things are progressing quite nicely. 

I've also made some tweaks to my sleeping arrangements. I now sleep on my chair, with my feet resting on my bed. Quite comfortable, but not "bed-time" type of comfortable. As a result, I wake up with far less resistance. I've also changed my sleep mask. The first one I got was the kind that presses flush against your eyes. I got a new kind, that is concaved, and therefore does not touch the eyes. So far, I think it has made all the difference, dreamwise and sleepwise. 

My grasp on this schedule has grown firmer and steadier. 


Day 6

Second day of school today, and so far so good. It was a struggle between 1am and 5am, to stay awake, though. I was in zombie mode, trying to walk and stand in order to not fall asleep. I was micro-sleeping all over the place though. I've become more intimate with how microsleeping works, or of the experience itself. It is basically dreaming hardcore (entering REM sleep) everytime I microsleeped, that led me to think more about it. It's much more fascinating than the usual microsleeping where you simply black out for a few seconds. There's no conscious shift from wakefulness to dreaming, although I certainly am conscious of "waking UP" from the microsleep, but it's really as if the transition from wakefulness to dreaming were seamless as can be. It's more like a full-blown hallucination that envelopes your entire realm, from which you wake up, realizing it was a dream. Anyways, after my 9am nap, things started to smoothen out. Throughout the whole day at school, my mental clarity was *there*, I could read sharply, reason sharply, and write clearly -- although my writing seemed slower than usual. There was no bodily sluggishness, no zombie hangover, no weariness. After yesterday and today, I've gotten a better handle on what it's like living polyphasically successfully -- although I'm still aware that this is really more of a glimpse, as I'm not fully adapted yet. And at this point, there's no turning back, unless absolute necessity dictates it. It's as if I've been sitting on top of a mountain of treasure for nearly all of my life, and now I've finally discovered it. This mode of living is simply far too valuable to give up. I'm thrilled to have learned of this. If it weren't for the great Internet, sometimes I wonder...

Here's some links for those of you interested in pursuing polyphasic living:

Polyphasic Sleep Group:
Between Steve Pavlina's obstinate vegetarianism and Puredoxyk's rigid rules of polyphasic success, I've found a wide variation of examples to the contrary in this group; lots of people eat meat and lots of people have varying degrees of adaptation periods and above all else, lots of people fail (i.e. oversleeping, etc) before they finally adapt. The creator of this group, Aya, who is a successful polyphaser (uberman) also has "vlogs" on youtube about her journey toward polyphasic sleeping:
She has been very motivating and uplifting during my 1am-5am zombie modes. All of her (relevant) videos are quite insightful.

Another site with great info on how to improve sleep in general:

(Edited by Warren Chase Anspaugh on 10/02, 3:07pm)


Post 13

Sunday, October 4, 2009 - 7:52pmSanction this postReply
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Okay, I've crashed twice in the past few days: one on Friday and one on Saturday. Consequently, I am essentially starting all over. In light of the fact that the crashes have conflicted with my school work (hard to do homework when you slept in till 4am after coming home from work), I'm not sure if I can continue this experiment for the time being. My success in school clearly must come first.

It's so frustrating because I probably could've been past the initial adaptation stage by now; the timeframe isn't necessarily long, but it's definitely not easy. The closer success is, the more frustrating it to lose it. In any case, I am definitely not "giving up" per se, I'm definitely going to master this sooner or later -- I may have to wait until December, when I have no school for a few weeks -- enough time to get through the adaptation stage. Then again, I may still give this one more shot now. Either way, I will update this blog only when I've actually succeeded in adapting to the Uberman schedule; there's no sense in simply blogging what has already been experienced and blogged to begin with.
I've seen the glimpse of what I am capable of on that kind of schedule, and at this age and stage of my life, the opportunity cost of not mastering that schedule is far too high. I haven't divulged the full scope of the series of issues and challenges that this kind of schedule can fully eradicate (albeit with its own challenges), but I'll say that the Uberman's schedule is damn near a panacea for a person like me. So I definitely have my heart settled on it, and I look forward to my next attempt. Thank you all for your support.


Also, to those of you interested in, or are actually pursuing a polyphasic schedule, I would be highly interested and very appreciative of your reports on your experiences -- whether they're daily blogs or post-success/fail summaries. I even offer this blog to anyone here who wishes to use it for that purpose alone.

I'll be back. :)

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Post 14

Sunday, October 4, 2009 - 8:30pmSanction this postReply
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All animals eat. All animals breath. All animals sleep. If we could get away with not sleeping and be more successful, evolution would favor not doing so. That is not the case. We don't fully understand sleep or the reason we need it. We didn't really understand what oxidative respiration was until recently, but there have been few movements historically to cut down on breathing as an inconvenience we would be better off without.

If sleeping at a certain time is inconvenient, there are ways to modulate it. I find that after a good seven hours of sleep on a Sunday night, I get an hour less each night dow to maybe three hours Thursday night. I can function fine, and then I crash and sleep til 2pm on Saturday.

There doesn't seem to me to be any particular virtue to depriving oneself of food just because one can. I am not sure what the reason is to deprive oneself of sleep if it leads to unhappy wakefulness and crashes that are worse than a simple, happy regular schedule of good nights' sleep. If the purpose was to find out by which schedule you would lead a more full and productive life I think your experiment was a crashing success.

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Sunday, October 4, 2009 - 9:32pmSanction this postReply
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Ted writes:

 I am not sure what the reason is to deprive oneself of sleep if it leads to unhappy wakefulness and crashes that are worse than a simple, happy regular schedule of good nights' sleep.
But the unhappy wakefulness and crashes are part of the adaptation phase, and should not be be treated as the modus operandi of a fully adapted and successful Uberman or Everyman polyphaser. Ideally, it leads to a greater wakefulness -- greater in terms of quality AND quantity. Across all the reports of fully adapted "Ubermensche" (Steve Pavlina and Puredoxyk being two of them, the rest over at the googlegroups), there is a common thread of reporting the qualitative factors of greater vim, greater elatedness, and naturally all the emotional responses to the presumably greater levels of productiveness (reading more books, getting more tasks done, having more leisure time, etc.) that follows from being (and feeling like) "Superman". And of course, the quantitative factor of more time is a given.

If it weren't for this wealth of beneficial qualities that mastering these kind of polyphasic lifestyles bestows, then obviously depriving oneself of sleep, enduring the agony of sleep deprivation, and the frustrating crashes would serve no or little benefit, and neither Steve Pavlina nor Puredoxyk (nor the countless others) would've bothered to attempt polyphasic living (much less continue to do so for years). But in fact all of the above mentioned folks have pursued it, which in principle, establishes the viability of such a lifestyle with all of its goodies and perks.

Ted writes:

There doesn't seem to me to be any particular virtue to depriving oneself of food just because one can.
But there is one virtue to depriving oneself of food: dieting. If eating less leads to a leaner, and healthier body -- even if in the initial, shall we say, "adaptation" phase there is extreme discomfort, unpleasantness, and withdrawal symptoms -- then dieting can indeed be a virtuous endeavor. Likewise, I think the same can be said for sleep. :)


Post 16

Sunday, October 4, 2009 - 9:52pmSanction this postReply
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Warren, you are the one who has to judge if this benefits you. And if it truly works I congratulate you. Like I said, I have my doubts based on science and personal experience, and the fact that animals are not evolved to lack sleep is one. I express them to provide perspective based on experience, not to make a personal or ideological criticism.

I have had all sorts of sleep schedules, including the uberman, which was imposed on me when I had a stapled suture running from sternum to crotch, several drainage tubes, a catheter, and a morphine drip - but obviously this was not the best of experimental conditions, and I was not actively trying to keep to that schedule. Like I said before, the everyman and the biphasic work fine if they fit your schedule.

I suppose the best summarization of my objection would be that just because we decide to do something because we think it is good does not necessarily mean that it will work, and perhaps "failure" is not due to lack of will but due to choosing the wrong end.

Success is the ability to learn from failure.

As for the diet analogy, yes, if you are sleeping too much to begin with.

I hope you success in finding a happy sleep schedule whether you find out that this particular schedule does or does not work. I don't think anyone is rooting for this not to work and all will be happy if they hear it does. I think everyone would be most happy if you are most happy, however that is achieved.

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