Das Ubermensch is brutal, but in my experience (and collected vicarious ones), shorter than any version that incorporates a core nap. (To put a finer point on the distinction, I sometimes use the words “equiphasic” versus “nonequiphasic” to denote the difference.)

If I was forced, say, by a snarky commenter, to speculate as to why… ;) … I would probably say that when you switch to an equiphasic “naps-only” schedule, you pull your body cold-turkey off the tendency to sleep as a reset mechanism, to break up your days, etc. Leaving behind the “sleep in a chunk” habit is hard, but like most habits, dropping it entirely is faster than trying to wean down off it. Adopting Everyman, you’re trying to bend, but not break, your body’s tendency to sleep in a chunk…you want a *smaller* chunk, which, rather than making you feel like you’re not sleeping at all (a la Uberman), makes you feel like you’re simply not sleeping enough, and for a while your body fights the transition, trying to make up the sleep debt you’re building instead of just giving up and adjusting.

Good enough guess? -PD

I agree about the 5-minute nap — it doesn’t last very long. But it can get me through to a nap that’s an hour away, and it’s hella preferable to just trying to yawn through that hour. The best part about it, IMO, is that it’s to be taken sitting up, so virtually no risk of falling truly asleep — and if you can’t snoz for five minutes sitting up, well, you weren’t that tired anyway. (At least, I wasn’t.)

With regards to the core, I’d start playing with the times ina systematic way and see what you stumble upon: Try 1.5 hours, then 1.75, then 2, then 2.25…when you find something that works a *little* better, keep narrowing it. I’m to the point of realizing that my best core nap is three hours and twenty-five minutes long!

Best o’ luck,
PD

I too am following a very flexible schedule — I just don’t have your success re: core sleep. I’ll sleep for 2-4.5 hours and whatever the lenght waking up is always a pain. I get up because of family obligations, otherwise I would sleep much longer. Seems like I’m always in deep comatose sleep when the alarm goes off :(

I’ll try eventually to get up earlier, even if it doesn’t appeal to me at all.

To report back on the 5-minute nap: it can help somewhat but does no miracle. Sometimes I won’t sleep but just slightly drift off, and feel nonetheless refreshed. Yet the tiredness starts to get bad again 1-1.5 hour later, after which I know I need a real nap. I’ll continue to experiment with it though, since on 2 occasions it allowed me to have a productive morning.

Yan

P.S. I much prefer this site’s template!

please speculate, why do you think it takes longer to adapt to everyman?

Also, have you ever experimented with supplements to help you nap when you just don’t feel like it, but know you need to? L-Typtophan would be good, and is widely used to help folks go nigh-nighs. It’s just an amino acid.
I’m using 5-HTP at present for the same reason, it increases seratonin levels. It works.

Do allow me an introduction. They call me fogmoth, as I prefer the vague, retiring, obscured and subtle.
I’m a newbie to polyphase, this is only my second week. Week one was spent atttempting ‘der uberman’ – but I suffered horribly and crashed a little on day 6, precipitating everyman – which is going creamy and smoothy. It’s been 5 days and I feel wonderful, napping like a bubba with 3.5 hours of core. I’m laughing.
I salute you PD – you are the namer, and the NAMER is the expert, please appreciate that. Uber and Every are fine names indeed.

FM

I had been taking a core nap from 2-5, and then split the core but kept the second “half” from 3:30 – 5. I was tired every morning. But waking up “earlier” than five seemed excessive or scary to me in some way (staying up late doesn’t intimidate me, but getting up at four a.m.?!). Then one day I fell out accidentally at one, and woke up on my own at four, and felt excellent. Re-reading the above, it might not be clear enough (it was really hard to figure out how to put this down in “schedule” terms, since I’ve been winging it with gradual changes for weeks now…I think that’s just how it goes, when you’re trying to read all of your body’s clues as well as your “lifestyle” requirements at once…or perhaps I’m just not smart or organized enough to do it more systematically!). I will tryto write this all out again in another week or so, when I have a better grasp on it (in the meantime, I need to start collecting source material and links to polyphasic stuff, something this site is desperately missing I think.)

But here’s another try at clarification: If I take a nap *before* ten or so, I’ll sleep from 12 or 1 to 3 or 4. I always wake up between twoish and four, even without an alarm (though I do try to remember to set one anyway). Often, especially if I do the naps right and don’t skip the before-ten nap (which I tend to, because I get busy with fun things), I’ll wake up well in advance of my alarm, after having slept only an hour or two. On the weekends, I may nap at 9 or 10, stay awake until 3 or 4, and sleep as much as I want, which means waking up by myself at six or seven. The core nap seems pretty automatic in length now; I’m not too worried about sleeping any more than four hours at most (and it’s only been four when I’ve missed a nap previously, or haven’t felt well or something).

If I skip that 10-ish nap, though, I get tired by 11:30 or so, and I may either sleep straight through until three or four, or sleep until one or two and then get up and take a quick (no more than 15 minute) nap around 3:30 or 4:00. As long as I’m up and moving before five, I’m fine (and in order to not be, I have to ignore the fact that I woke up, and stay in bed and go back to sleep — I can do this, but then I’m exhausted until later in the day. Go figure!).

Hope that helps some…as I said, I’ll try to codify this better when I’ve been doing it a little longer; it’s really only been five days of waking-automatically and feeling rested and just “knowing” when to nap and when not to, at this point.

One thing is certain: Everyman is WEIRD.

;)