Lessons learned from Everyman
Upon serious request ;-) , here is a summary of the interesting information I've found on Everyman. Both from the web as from my own (5 weeks and ongoing...) experience. I'm not completely adjusted to polyphasic sleeping, but so far I LOVE this way of going through my days and I've had much more lucid dreams than I'd ever imagined possible. I'm not an expert on this matter at all, so please fire any questions or correct me on mistakes.
What is Polyphasic Sleeping?
Polyphasic sleeping means nothing more than sleeping more than 2 times per day. It does not necessarily mean that you sleep less hours during the day. So if you sleep normal during the night and take a nap in the afternoon and one in the evening, this is also considered polyphasic sleeping. Having only 1 nap, or a siesta as this is called, is a biphasic sleeping schedule.
It's the 'die hard' polyphasic sleeping schedules, with sleeping as little as 2 hours per day, that triggered my curiosity.
There are a few schedules for polyphasic sleeping:
Dymaxion = 4 x 30 mins sleeping (every 6 hours)
Uberman = 6 x 20 mins sleeping (every 4 hours), the 'Leonardo daVinci method.
Everyman = Unequally sleeping times (eg: a core sleep and several naps), usually seen as 3h core + 3x20 mins naps (more or less equally spread over the day) but with many variations possible.
You're own schedule? = plan several moments of sleep during the day, find your own schedule that you can adapt to without being continuously sleep deprived.
Both "Uberman" and "Everyman" are terms 'invented' by Puredoxyk. She lived succesfully on Uberman for half a year and is now successfully living on Everyman for almost 1,5 year.
WHY???
What's the reason one would try to follow such a ridiculous sleeping schedule...?
Well, good question, cause it's not all that easy to adjust to such a weird way of sleeping and your environment may think you are crazy ;)
My two main reasons: Have more waking ours and increase my chances on lucid dreaming.
In more detail:
- You have more waking hours in a day (ideal if you want to combine your studies with running a company and also invest time in lucid dreaming :) )
- You get a higher % of REM sleep, especially during naps you can get the full 20 mins REM right from the start. This provides a great condition for WILDing, no further explanation needed I guess :)
- You can sleep multiple times during the day, so you don't have to relate on the night to get dreams, but instead: have dreams throughout the day. Actually, you're on like a continuous 'WBTB' schedule...
- You can be both up late at night AND be an early riser.
- You are more awake during the whole day. I always loved to stay up late, but I felt so tired when my alarm went of at 8. And when I had a relaxed evening, I could as well fall asleep at 23h, much to the annoyance of my BF with whom I was watching a movie... (I remember falling asleep even in the cinema :O boring movie, hehe)
- [B]You feel great the day after going to a party and sleeping only 3 hours before going to work/school (well, as long as you don't drink excessive amounts of alcohol :P)
So you want to be polyphasic too?
Here are some tips to get started:
- read as much info about it as you can. This will give you more motivation as well as a realistic view on the matter.
- decide whether you have the flexibility in your daily schedule to fit in some naps. Being on Everyman or Uberman is not really possible if you have an 8 hour job, but then you could try a siesta after work, so you could still get some benefit of polyphasic sleeping.
- figure out a good schedule that fits your daily activities. Being on university, I have only 1 napping option during the lunchbreak at noon, so I planned my other naps and core around this unmovable napping time.
Where can you find more info?
First thing to read is PureDoxyk's blog!
There is a polyphasic sleeping group on Google, but I'm not really into that.
And if you just google on 'polyphasic sleep' or 'everyman sleep' you'll find a lot of interesting websites.
If you search YouTube, you'll find dozens of videoblogs from people, mostly trying to adapt to uberman.
Oh, not forget to mention one of my favo other blogs: Steve Pavlina (he already makes millions with his blog, has been on uberman for 6 months, but not anymore)
Adaptation : the way from monophasic to polyphasic
There are many people who have tried to adapt to polyphasic sleeping, mostly uberman, but have given up before they were fully adapted. Since this is a whole new 'way of living', you can't expect your body to go polyphasic within a day or two, it really takes time. Some people manage to adapt to Uberman within a week, while it can take others 4+ months to completely adapt to their Everyman schedule. Your body needs to get into the rhythm of taking naps, find out how to fall asleep fast enough, change its sleep cycle (the natural rhythm of different brainwaves during your sleep) and so on.
How fast and how easily you will adapt, cannot be said in advance. It depends totally on your body, your dedication, your willingness to make changes and the ability to change your daily schedule.
As far as I've experienced in the past 5 weeks, my adaptation to Everman has been fairly easy. I've been able to continue my daily business just as usual, I haven't been overly tired or suffered from the negative effects of sleep deprivation. I won't say that I'm fully adapted yet, cause I'm still not on the ideal 4-4,5 hours of sleep per day (5,7 on average, with 4,7 as normal days and 7 in the weekends) I'd rather go slow and right, than fast and wrong, but if you have a lot of willpower and you want to 'get it over and done with' as soon as possible, go ahead! It's done before, so it's really possible.
Here are some personal tips on adjustment. Some are from before mentioned webpages, others are from my own experience:
- Probably the most important: keep yourself busy! Make an extensive list on easy tasks to do when you feel tired. Like sorting out your closet, cleaning windows, cooking a nice recipe. All sorts of activities that involve little mental action and are not too hard physically either. I'm sure everybody has those tasks that 'need to be done sometimes' but you never feel like it or had the time for. Now is your chance! You'll feel great when you did them, which gives you a small energy boost to stay awake. My room has never been this tidy!
- Start napping before cutting back on your core sleep, get your body used to sleeping short periods of time during the day. Feel what it's like to be sleeping on daylight hours (good to see if napping really is something for you)
- Cut back your core sleep gradually (like one hour every two days)
- Change your nap times if you feel tired. Don't worry about taking an extra nap if needed, but make sure it's only 20-30 minutes that you sleep!
- Do NOT lenghten your naps! I've made the mistake of hitting snooze when I felt to tired after a nap. When you finally wake up, you'll feel even worse :(
Usually, the tiredness from just after a nap will disappear if you get up quickly and start some physical activity - Eat after a nap, not just before one
- Exercise after a nap, or at least 1 hour before you go to sleep
- Find a relaxing song that you play every time when you go to sleep (and never when staying awake). This song will become a good cue to fall asleep.
- Don't snooze or go back to sleep if you didn't have or didn't recall a dream (my personal mistake)
- Keep a journal of your experiences! It helps you to stay motivated and see progress.
Well, ehm, that has become a pretty long post. And it's not complete by far, so please post any questions. I'll be adding info to this first post, to make it more complete. I'm thinking about writing an article on polyphasic sleeping in Dutch when I have the feeling I'm fully adapted. It would be great to have more polyphasic people in the world :)
