PolyPhasic Day 1

Today has been a successful start to my polyphasic sleeping.  It has only begun, but I am glad that I have not failed yet!  After taking my final examination in BioChemistry, which started Christmas Break, I rushed home just in time to hit my first nap.  I slept terrible the night before (anxiety) so I was ready for this nap.  UnfortuNATEly, I did not actually fall asleep.  I lied there and rested and my mind was filling with thoughts on the excitement of this opportunity.  I have been looking forward to this since early-mid semester.  3 hours and 40 minutes later.....  Same thing.  I lied down and couldn't turn off my mind.  This sounds normal since I am shooting at 20-25 minute naps.  But it was quite strange......  When the alarm went off, I saw that I had actually gotten REM (rapid eye movement).  I really wondered if this was a fluke of my ZEO (EEG that measures my brainwave activity as I rest).  Either way, it could be possible that I was actually doing both.  Either way, I had Over 80% REM to the less than 20% Light Sleep.  Picture Below:

It also took me 7 minutes to fall asleep.  This is high for me normally, but, in the course of this experiement, that number should drop dramatically.  So I went about my day and took my other naps.  Each was a restful fail where my mind would not shut off.  O well.  I continually and progressively became more tired.  :)  So I finally got a nap in from 4:50 am till 5:15.  This nap was crucial and it was a bit difficult to get up.  But once I did, it was easier to keep moving.  Typing this blog takes some of the time and effort away from me since it is not as demanding as other tasks.

Ok, so let me give you an overview of what I am looking at doing:  For those that don't know:

Comparison of sleep patterns

Monophasic

Biphasic

Everyman

Dymaxium

Uberman

 ^[19]

Name	Total sleeping time	Sleeping %	Method
Monophasic	8.0 h	33.0%	8 hours major sleep episode.
Biphasic	6.3 h	26.4%	6 hours major sleep episode and one 20 minute power nap.
Biphasic (90-minute nap)	6.0 h	25.0%	4.5 hours major sleep episode and one 90 minute nap.
Heidiphasic (with 2 naps)	5.3 h	22.2%	4.5 hours major sleep episode and two 20-minute power naps.
Everyman (with 3 naps)	4.0-4.5 h	16.7-18.8%	3-3.5 hours major sleep episode and three 20-minute power naps.
Everyman (with 4 - 5 naps)	2.8-3.2 h	11.8-13.2%	1.5 hours major sleep episode and four to five twenty-minute power naps.
Dymaxion	2.0 h	8.33%	Four 30-minute naps (every 6 hours).
Uberman (from German 'Übermensch')	2.0 h	8.33%	Six 20-minute naps (every 4 hours).

The insert above is from wikipedia....  So let me elaborate.  I have had tons of time to research this over the last few months.  A normal person generally adheres to the Monophasic method of sleeping.  This is all sleep in one shot.  A good time for most people is either around 7.5 hours to 9 hours.  This is because our bodies link together sleep patterns of 90 minutes together in our sleep.  That is why I was always puzzled when I was younger when sometimes I would work on a report and only get around 4-5 hours of rest and feel better than I had all week getting my normal 8 hours of sleep.  It is because I (unintentionally) was getting 4.5 hours of sleep (which fits my sleep patterns as well as the average person).  When you finish a 90 minute block of sleep and you are privileged to wake up, you feel very refreshed!  So estimating a normal extra 10-15 minutes for normal people to fall asleep, you should always sleep in 90 minute increments..... so 90 min, 3 hours, 4.5 hours, 6 hours, 7.5 hours, 9 hours.  :)  Try it!  It will defiNATEly give you more energy.

So I have purchased a ZEO that records my sleep patterns.  It is a nifty thing.  Using my research and that device, I have learned a lot about how I sleep.  For instance, when I set my alarm, I allocate my bedtime with the sleep cycles of 90 minutes and tell the zeo to wake me in a 40 minute "wake window" where I finish my REM cycle.  When I exit REM or transition to another stage, it will sound the alarm and wake me at peak times so I am refreshed.  If I linger in the stage, it will wake me up when I exceed the wake window.. :D  So lets talk about my sleep.

RED is WAKE----GREEN is REM------GREY is LIGHT--------DARK GREEN is DEEP

This is just a sample of a night of my sleep.  It differs each night due to sleep pressure and activities (caffeine intake).  Most of the time my rem time increases in each 90 min block.  But this will give you a good picture of what I was explaining above.

Now back to phases.....  Most college students and even Central and South Americans use the Biphasic style of sleep.  Here, you take about a 4.5 hour core sleep at night and take a nap (or two).  These siestas give you the boost you need to continue on throughout the day.  This is the phase I have been on for portions of the semester.  Now, as you can see from Wikipedia, the more blocks of sleep you take, the less sleep you theoretically need.  This is due to the Light sleep aspect.  Looking above, you will see a ton of grey.  In fact, this picture is made up of 61% of light sleep.  While a lot of studies are being done to still learn from sleep, here is what I know.  An average 20-30 year old needs ~2 hours of REM each night.  REM is important in the function of the mind and remembering and categorizing it.  Think of it as a defragmentor of a computer hard-drive.  That is what it does to us.  Very vital for our function and ability to handle stress!  Deep sleep is necessary for bodily restoration of muscles and cells and needs to be around 1 hour each day.  When we are in REM, blood goes to our heads..... When we are in deep, blood goes to our body's extremities.  Light sleep, on the other hand, has functions, but they are not well known.  As far as normal function, we gain some but nothing fancy (that we know of from it scientifically).  So The more blocks of sleep, the less light sleep you get.  Because your body goes directly to REM and DEEP to get you restored.  So by stretching out your sleep, you starve your body of REM and actually make your body do REM first.  In doing this, in 20 min, you will have gained your REM and you are actually saving the lag time for the light sleep.  (NOW I HAVE TO NOTE: that you actually get DEEP in here too, which is another reason I am doing this experiement.)   [as you age, you need less REM and DEEP fyi].

Now lastly for my morning rant as I press forward till my next nap :p  I am adopting the Uberman 6 (20min) naps.  My actual goal is to achieve that Everyman 3.  If you are confused, it is fine.  Let me explain.  I am shooting high so that I can fall back on the Everyman when I fail the Uberman.  I could adapt it, but for my needs, I believe the Everyman 3 will better suit me.  But here is the reason for Uberman.  The Uberman quickly forces your body to be starved of REM and allocate it to the beginning of your sleep cycles.  This will quickly (and painfully) get me there.  Because, currently, my body is starving of REM.  It is not used to getting so little of it and only have 20 minutes to get it.  This will force me to become tired as my body adjusts itself to this desired profile.  I will not be rested, until my body gets this..... OR my will breaks and I rest :( Once my napping success is achieved, I will be in optimum starvation and satisfaction of REM.... Enough to keep me going, but not enough to satisfy my body from the immediate REM cycle at the beginning of my sleep cycles.  Once I have this, I will be able to get my 3 naps effectively in Everyman and yet get some DEEP and even some light in the 3.5 hour core sleep block that will be adding when finished.    That way I can function in the best of both worlds of less sleep and yet having light and deep since they are important for other reasons.  Plus, I will see how I function with and without those stages of sleep. :)  That is enough for now..  I hope you all enjoyed this update.  As long as I continue this process, you can expect updates at least once a day.