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    1. #1
      Member Placebo's Avatar
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      In the newbie section, Asher made reference to another member that has experimented with polyphasic sleep.
      That'd be me

      At the end of 2005, I completed 1 month of 'uberman' or 'hexaphasic' sleep, napping 6 times a day for 23 minutes exactly (virtually to the second).
      Unfortunately, family responsibilities stepped in - like end of year parties, etc.
      That is really the biggest challenge for me, when it comes to polyphasic sleep. Social events, etc.
      I'm a married programmer, so yeah..

      For most of 2006 and 2007, I've been doing easier schedules that are more lenient.
      For example, 3 hours of sleep at night, and 3 naps of 23 minutes during the day - midday, after work, and about 10pm.

      I'm keen to start uberman again, but I'm just getting over some flu (the wife keeps re-infecting me)
      I loved the experience (despite the initial sleep deprivation, which feels like it'll never end), and spent most of my time programming, playing games, watching anime and brainstorming general artificial intelligence algorithms.

      Oh, and I became a health nut during that time too, doing a lot of exercise (which helped keep me awake too) and strictly avoiding all unhealthy food.
      Especially KFC - it seems to be deadly to polyphasic sleep. In my case anyway.
      I found that if you eat little bits all day, avoid the heavy sat/trans fats, drink a lot of water, and avoid refined sugars ... it helped me a lot.
      Or at least it seemed to - perhaps it all came down to the exercise. It's hard to tell, there were too many factors.

      Any questions for me?
      I'll make my way through the other topics on this section as I get the time
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    2. #2
      Member asher's Avatar
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      Hi Placebo,

      I'm glad you finally posted. I've tried to do the Uberman cycle a couple times but never got past a few days. At present I've split my day into 2 or 3 chunks but am well above 4 total hours sleep per day. I'd actually be quite happy just to get to where you are with one 3 hour sleep plus a few short naps. More than that and I'd have the same issues you do in terms of conflict with wife and social life.

      Some questions:

      - Did you ease yourself into the schedule or did you try to start right up with the hardcore regime?

      - After a few days on Uberman my body starts fighting the chage really hard. When I wake up I'm completely apathetic to continuing the schedule. Did you find this hurdle and how did you get past it?

      - Why 23 minutes?

      - When you take your naps, do you fall asleep within seconds?

      Thanks!

      -asher
      Secret destroyers, hold you up to the flames.

    3. #3
      Member Placebo's Avatar
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      Thanks for the response.

      Did you ease yourself into the schedule or did you try to start right up with the hardcore regime?[/b]
      For uberman, I jumped right into it cold turkey.
      And I failed.
      Then I tried again, and I think that's when I succeeded.

      I'm not entirely sure it's even possible to go cold turkey first time without a hiccup, unless you're one unusual fella like Steve Pavlina (http://www.stevepavlina.com)

      My take is that cold turkey has shorter adaptation, but only if you pull it off well. Which is bloody, bloody hard.
      If you consistently oversleep, then you're better off easing into it, since oversleeping will extend your adaptation anyway.

      Another technique is to spend a week or two getting into a good exercise routine, eating very healthy, in small portions many times a day.
      Avoid red meat, wheat, junk food. Eat lots of nuts, veggies, fruit, dairy and the correct amount of wheat meat/fish.
      No coffee or coke (no, not the sniffing sort). Or if you really have to have coffee, then have it right after a nap.
      Lots of water. If you feel lacking in energy, drink lots of fruit juice like red grape or apple.

      For the first week or two of uberman I was scared of what to eat. I ate mostly fruit and nuts.
      This is because I tried a bowl of pronutro (protein cereal) on the second day and couldn't keep it down for some reason.
      After getting yourself in shape, etc, then jump into uberman cold turkey.

      And if all this is too much, then easing in is still the best IMO.

      - After a few days on Uberman my body starts fighting the chage really hard. When I wake up I'm completely apathetic to continuing the schedule. Did you find this hurdle and how did you get past it?[/b]
      Oh yeah. That's part of sleep deprivation. It's a survival technique, you become depressed and start questioning what you're doing.
      When you decide to go with uberman, make the decision fully. Consider all angles, and commit yourself.
      Don't ALLOW yourself to change your mind.
      Start a blog, or even a video blog. That way you don't want to stop, because you'll look like a fool.
      Eventually the sleep deprivation will pass, and you'll feel amazing.

      I think it just takes the discipline to say 'I've decided to do it, and there's no going back, no matter what'.
      The only backdoor I allowed was to tell my wife that if I started to act dangerously, then she must get me to stop.

      Why 23 minutes?[/b]
      When I first started uberman, I tried 26 minutes. That quickly turned into too long a nap (I was groggy after waking) and I turned it down to 23.
      I tried 20 minutes, but it seemed a little too short sometimes.
      23 just seems right for me.

      When I'm really well adapted, then I can do with 20 minutes or even less.

      - When you take your naps, do you fall asleep within seconds?[/b]
      I timed it once.. but now I can't remember how long it was... :/
      It was a few minutes at least. Perhaps that's another reason why I use 23 minutes and not 20

      My secret weapon is to use an mp3 that I created specifically for polyphasic sleep.
      It starts gently into a soothing white, blue & brown noise and fades off after eg. 23 minutes. Then it starts trying to wake me up with a variety of noises - starting with chickens.
      I'm so used to my nap mp3 that I seldom even hear the chickens anymore. I wake up as soon as the noise fades away.

      There's a lot of polyphasers on the google email group that use my mp3. Most of them find it to be really helpful. A small minority say that the noise stops them from going to sleep.
      Personally, I just think they need to learn how to fall asleep, by practicing some meditation and relaxation techniques.

      You can find the mp3's on my site - http://www.placebo.serv.co.za
      The page is listed on the left menu.

      And you?
      How long have you been trying? How does your wife feel about it? How old is your kid?
      I'd love to try uberman when my wife has a baby. Might solve the sleep nightmares of a screaming child.
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    4. #4
      Member asher's Avatar
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      Quote Originally Posted by Placebo View Post
      And you?
      How long have you been trying? How does your wife feel about it? How old is your kid?
      I'd love to try uberman when my wife has a baby. Might solve the sleep nightmares of a screaming child.[/b]
      Thanks for all the info! I'm downloading some of your MP3's right now.

      I've been messing with my sleep schedule off-and-on for about 5 years now. That doesn't include taking one regular nap a day, which I did for some years before that. I tried straight Uberman the first time before my wife was pregnant. She wasn't very happy about the idea, since it meant much less time sleeping together. After our daughter was born there was a long period of our daughter waking up at least once per night, and up to 4 or five times per night. I got better at splitting up my night's sleep and doing more napping during the day. She's now almost 4 years old. I tried Uberman at least once more, and right now I experiment quite a bit with different schedules.

      My wife has gotten a lot more tolerant over the years; so long as we get to bed at the same time most nights of the week, she no longer minds me getting up after a couple hours, and even an alarm doesn't seem to bother her.

      I'm fairly healthy overall (ran in a 10 mile race over the weekend) but could definitely improve when it comes to diet and eating more frequent, lighter meals with more fruit and veggies. I'll try to focus on that more starting now.

      -asher
      Secret destroyers, hold you up to the flames.

    5. #5
      Member Placebo's Avatar
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      Ah okay.
      My wife is practically begging me to go uberman again - she made me nap at lunchtime.
      She was uneasy at first, but she prefers me being polyphasic now.
      More time to give me chores, and I don't hog the bed
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    6. #6
      Into the clouds... TalkingHead's Avatar
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      So on this schedule you are getting about 2 hours and 18 minutes of sleep daily?

    7. #7
      Member Placebo's Avatar
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      Thanks correct.
      I'm still slowly working towards it (Again) - at the moment I'm getting about 3 hours 40 minutes total.
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    8. #8
      Toast
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      OK some questions:
      • - please post a link describing why this works... surely with under 4 hours of sleep per day, you'd be constantly tired. Or is it just that you need unusually little sleep, and it's the napping that is the technique
      • - what are the pros of doing this?
      • - is it safe for someone who is not an adult to try this?
      Thanks

      Toast

    9. #9
      Member Placebo's Avatar
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      - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep and http://www.placebo.serv.co.za/?p=23
      - Oodles of time and a sense of freedom and achieving something really amazing
      - Probably not, as the lessened delta sleep most likely causes a lower amount of growth hormones. However this is just an opinion, there's no firm evidence either way.
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    10. #10
      Callapygian Superstar Goldney's Avatar
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      So you don't feel tired throughout the rest of the day, even though you only get a few hours sleep?
      *............*............*

    11. #11
      Member Placebo's Avatar
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      Nope, not at all. It just takes a while to train yourself not to feel sleepy at night.
      I suggest reading here: http://www.placebo.serv.co.za/?p=23
      It describes how I feel about it, although it was written some time ago.
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    12. #12
      Toast
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      Hmmm, fascinating. Unfortunately I'm still growing and don't want to jeopardise that yet. I may come back to this in a few years. What do you mean when you say less healing and building of the body? That wounds heal slower, or are you illness-prone?
      Thanks
      Toast

    13. #13
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      It sounds interesting but have you consulted a doctor or someone medicly trained before doing this to get their opinion. Im sorry if you have already mentioned this, just I kind of skim read the thread.

    14. #14
      Member Placebo's Avatar
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      Lord Toaster: I meant recovery of muscles and wounds, but during the adapation phase, you're more susceptible to illness too, since your body doesn't know what you're up to and you're simply depriving yourself of sleep.

      HyperNova: Yes, but it's not much help. According to most experts, this schedule isn't even possible. They seem to know less on the matter than they should, as Dr Stampi has more than enough evidence to show that it's maintainable. Not necessarily healthier than normal sleep, but maintainable nevertheless.

      My GP and pharmacist are interested in the whole idea and do help me in keeping my immune system strong during the adaptation, with varying success.
      They don't think I should be experimenting with my sleep like this, but they accept that I have my mind set already.

      They also took a blood test a few weeks ago while I was sleeping normally, to get a baseline to compare when I'm fully adapted to uberman again.
      That way I can look for any obvious medical problems at a later stage.

      At the end of the day, there's just not enough research on the effects of polyphasic sleep to know what the long term cons are.
      A researcher by the name of Sara Mednick and someone from Men's Health are interested in doing some work on the whole subject sometime soon.
      I hope to be one of the volunteers.
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    15. #15
      Callapygian Superstar Goldney's Avatar
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      It sounds quite interesting. I may have a go at it when I'm older. Here's the big question though. Don't you get bored with so much spare time on your hands?
      *............*............*

    16. #16
      Member Placebo's Avatar
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      If you're accustomed to getting bored with yourself, then yes.
      I grew up with a lot of time to myself, so I'm used to amusing myself, so I don't usually get bored
      There was one day recently when I got bored, which suprised me.
      Tips For Newbies | What to do in an LD

      Unless otherwise stated, views expressed in this post are not necessarily representative of the official Dream Views stance. Hell, it's probably not even representative of me.

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