The Beginning - Transitioning to Polyphasic Sleep #1
Have you ever felt like the day has too few hours to do everything your current life asks of you? Do you feel sleeping at night is overrated? Do the chains of morpheus bind you to normality and limit your possibilities?
Source for background: Seph the Zeth via DeviantArt
I may very well have a little something for you. It's 4:00am, February 28th and I'm nearing the start of my 2nd sleep block of the day. Yes, the second, of four total. Confused?
Well, let me tell you the story of how it all began
One morning, a couple days ago, I found myself perusing Youtube videos about how to care for my plants, from their nutrition to their light cycle. Perhaps because of this last bit, Youtube ended up playing a video about sleep cycles by the account BRIGHT SIDE in which a guy talks about his experience both during his transition to and his day to day life with polyphasic sleep.
I was convinced by the end of the video. The only thing going through my mind at the time was "I gotta try this".
But, what is polyphasic sleep?
According to the Polyphasic Society website, polyphasic sleep is the ancient practice of sleeping, rather than 8 hours straight, in several different blocks during the day. A pretty easy example for polyphasic sleep would be taking a relatively long nap after lunch, like Spanish siestas and what your average college student does.
Historical records exist indicating a segmented sleep schedule was pretty normal around the 15th century, and several aboriginal tribes all around the world practice variations of polyphasic sleep. Supposedly, the need to be aware of predators and always active in case one needed to run made polyphasic sleep the logical, natural choice back in the day, and our brains could work in just the same way even now--if one takes the time to adapt to it.
Doing so can, according to the aforementioned website and several individual testimonials, increase your productivity, your energy, your clearheadedness and most importantly give you more time to live your life. That's because most polyphasic sleep schedules end up making you sleep less time, relying on a better sleep quality and falling into the important sleep cycles of REM and DEEP SLEEP faster and at more beneficial times.
It's a schedule more in tune to the body's circadian rhythm, which in theory makes it more efficient. It worked for Churchill, Napoleon, DaVinci and even Nikola Tesla. Why wouldn't it work for me?
Yeah, exactly the same. Source 1 and 2.
That is what I've decided to do for the next couple of weeks, and...
I'll be posting my progress to Steemit.
Much like the guy in the video, I've decided to document my progress as I get accustomed to the new schedules. I'll talk about the difficulties and strategies I use to manage them, and I'll eventually talk about what effect it has on my life. I expect the series to go on for around two weeks at to-be-determined periods for a total of 4 posts.
I believe this could be both entertaining and informative, specially to those interested in giving themselves an extra push to get things done. It's important to note that I'll also be covering how relatively frequent cannabis use affects my transition and if it somehow interferes with the system. I haven't been able to find any such testimonial online.
So, let's get technical
There are several possible polyphasic sleep schedules. I've chosen to present three of them to give you an idea.
Uberman
This is easily one of the most famous options, probably because of how insane it is. Six 20 minute naps evenly spaced throughout the day. A total of 2 hours. This is rumored to be extremely efficient and energizing, but it's clearly not for everybody. Personally, just because of practical reasons (needing to interact with a monophasic society), I doubt I'd pull it off.
Everyman
This is by far the most common and reportedly easy to pull off options. It relies both on the circadian and ultradian rhythms of the body. One must be highly strict with timing to manage adapting, but once you do it interferes little with your daily life and interactions with other members of society. If by chance I fail at the one I'm attempting, this is the one I'm falling back on to continue the experiment.
Dual Core 2 - This is the one I'm trying out.
Finally, my personal challenge. Much like the Everyman, it's easier than a nap-only schedule, but the dual core sleeps during the night will allow me to have 3.5 hours of productivity in complete isolation. As a writer and translator, I couldn't possibly ask for more. I'll sleep a grand total of 5 hours each day (I made the naps slightly longer). Not so different from what college students need to pull off during mid-terms, but more organized and hopefully efficient.
Let the experiment begin.
I'm hopeful this will not only give me more time and make me more alert and productive, but also force me to keep a more strict sleeping, eating and exercising schedules. En fin, a healthier life.
If you have any experience, suggestions or simply questions about this, do leave a comment! I'll be very happy to answer and know what's going through your mind!
Steem on!
Images are accompanied by their sources. Some were modified by adding Bitmoji.
I tried the uberman a couple of times, but with 7 phases and an extra one on weekends, 30 minutes naps because I'm active in sports, to get enough slow wave sleep for growth hormone production. I had it all planned out, for every single minute an activity to not fall asleep again, not a effin chance, I could do 2-3 days max, then I started to babble, tried over and over again, even shortened to a nap every 1.5 hours to phase it out slowly, never made it through the zombie phase which lasts 2 weeks. You absolutely need a partner for that to wake you up, good luck finding one waking you up every 3 hours :) Dual core should be a walk in the park though, looking forward to your report!
It hasn't been all that easy so far! Not so much because of being tired, but because falling asleep when I have to for the naps is difficult. Also, waking up in the middle of the night has proven to be a challenge as my mind and body simply don't understand that what they've been doing for more than 2 decades has to change. I'm moving forward, though!
Yes that was my problem too, in the beginning cycles you can't fall asleep and from the later cycles you can't wake up :)
Nice post thanks for sharing
Nice post. I really love the fact that you're sharing it. Now let me go read it ;)
Ow, well. that sounds like a good experiment. If it fails while using cannabis, will you also try it out without?
And why not try the uberman method. It sounds/looks insane yes, but would be AMAZING if that would actually work....
Are all of these patterns based on a 24hour-schedule? Because I had looked into something once, which divides the week into six days, and each block you sleep eight hours, but jsut stay up longer. Whcih has the downside you have to sometimes sleep during the day. But seemed quite interesting also, to up the amount of hours you have to live your life.
Will be interested to know what you will find out by this experiment!
It's a daily schedule! And yes, if I notice cannabis to really make it too hard, I'll try without. It's quite likely as it affects REM sleep length. I've gotta try it out, though.
I'm quite honestly really intimidated by the Uberman schedule. I work out pretty regularly and I feel I need at least a little sleep to recover, other than "washing and rinsing" my brain. Perhaps in the future I'll try it, but I'd rather start here!
Oh damn, I forgot to add a couple of links actually. Thanks for checking it out though, I'm sure we'll learn... something from the experience.
Keep us posted on the results. I'm always interested in 'life hacks/body hacks', or lifestyle changes in general that challenge the norm.
Will do, Neg! I've always been really interested in this kind of alternative ways to do everyday things. Who knows, maybe this is the road to my first masterpiece, written during the night for weeks. It will be fun to see if I start writing like Stephen King or deteriorate until I'm writing Maroon 5 lyrics.
Very interesting, keep us updated. Don't would love to see if you can actually pull it off. That's like a super power: increased time!
It's totally a super power! It's more or less worked out so far but I hope by the time of the next post I at least have the falling-asleep part down. Thanks for reading!
Congratulations! Your post has been selected as a daily Steemit truffle! It is listed on rank 22 of all contributions awarded today. You can find the TOP DAILY TRUFFLE PICKS HERE.
I upvoted your contribution because to my mind your post is at least 69 SBD worth and should receive 138 votes. It's now up to the lovely Steemit community to make this come true.
I am
TrufflePig, an Artificial Intelligence Bot that helps minnows and content curators using Machine Learning. If you are curious how I select content, you can find an explanation here!Have a nice day and sincerely yours,
TrufflePigAwesome! Thanks. I read about the project and I think you're doing good work.
Hello, I think it is not an exaggeration to give the most important sleep, I think it is the stage of life in which the brain, the true champion of survival takes full control of the body, and performs important functions of detoxification and cell regeneration , if your experiment does not work, do not worry, I have a product that will help you to increase the "quality" of your rest, and even if you sleep a little, you will do it with more benefit, it is called Bionic Rest System, I really like it if you want experience because the dream and our nightlife is a dark area within human knowledge and almost nobody deals with that.
One thing I discovered in my research, among others, is that if you tilt your bed a bit, that your head is higher, improve your digestion and therefore your rest too.
Greetings and see my first post, when I do.