Everyman 6/1: You can take the neophile out of the polyphasic schedule, but…
OK, so I've decided that the closest to monophasic I'm comfortable getting is 6/1 Everyman. I flat can't stand this zombie-in-the-morning, yawny-in-the-afternoon crap anymore, to be honest; so it's down to "something else–anything else!".
(6/1 Everyman: One 6-hour core nap + 1 nap. The length of the nap can vary, though 45 minutes seems to be the best base length; 20 minutes is too short when there's just one nap.)
We can argue about whether Everyman 6/1 is even polyphasic, or whether it's a form of siesta/biphasic, or just "cleverly taking a nap so you can sleep a little less at night" — but whatever it is, it still saves me over an hour of sleeping a day to do it, and preliminarily it seems I'm less tired doing 6/1 than I am doing 8 hours of nighttime sleep. Plus, 6 hours is definitely my limit for one comfortable sleep: If I sleep any longer than that at once, I feel like half-eaten roadkill when I wake up. Six hours or less, though, and I feel fine.
(Is that just me? Or has anyone else noticed that they have a "lump-of-sleep" limit too?)
Remember that, for me, 8 hours is not really enough on a monophasic schedule; I need 9 to feel rested, and I always have. (It is this drawing-the-sh!t-end-of-the-stick, sleep-needs-wise, that's one of the reasons polyphasic sleep has always been so attractive and amazing for me.) So to get about 7 hours sleep total and feel great is, while nowhere near as cool as my Everyman 3 schedule, still a whole lot better than "normal".
So once again, I'm hopping onto a little-practiced schedule to see if it works, because I can't do the more intensive polyphasic schedules I really want. (This is now a seriously long-running theme for me, innit?) Also, I'm finally breaking my personal trend of never documenting anything, and I'm keeping daily notes on this "adaptation" (if you can really call it that; it's not exactly hard to adapt to!). They're currently pretty depressing, since they document two days of 6/1 going great, and then me catching this flu that my mom was so kind to bring home from work; but I'm keeping it up anyway, just notating a break for flu. ;) I'll post the notes when they're "done" enough — E6/1 is a small enough change from "other people's monophasic" (heck, for some people 6 hours by itself is enough sleep — I wish I was one of them!) that I suspect it'll need at least a good solid month or two of adherence to make sure it isn't causing a small build-up of sleep-debt that's hard to notice.
Thankfully, I am now a good solid Expert in noticing sleep-dep. Seriously, when I should have slept 15 minutes longer, I can tell. I can do crazy things now like time a 20-minute nap in the mid-morning to make up for being woken up during the night, or place one carefully in the late afternoon to ensure I can stay up late without repercussion — and it works! Which, even though I know what I'm doing, still surprises me more often than not. ;)
Does anybody remember Magic: The Gathering (oh, do I ever — I had a HUGE habit until all my cards were stolen by a Denny's manager in Santa Fe; then I never had the heart to pick it back up) and how some creatures would have "Mountainwalk" or "Plainswalk", and that meant that they could always navigate those terrains; i.e. if those lands were present on another player's spread, your creature couldn't be blocked.
I feel like I have "Napwalk". Seriously. I've been mostly-monophasic for two whole months now, but I still can (and will) whip out a well-placed snooze (which I can somehow instinctively tell if it needs to be 15 minutes, 30, 45 or 60) and correct my own sleep-debt, almost no matter what is going on. I still fall asleep in minutes, sometimes seconds; and if I've been allowed to sleep as long as I need to, I'll wake up right before my alarm more than 75% of the time.
NAPWALK. Woot!
And speaking of WOOT!, I've met TWO more people doing Uberman this week! This is both wonderful — since I love to see Uberman doing for other people what it did for me — and terrible, because it makes me want to get back on that schedule so so badly. I miss it!!
So that's that.
Happy napping!
…
Unrelatedly, if you like Matthew Good (i.e. if you're a sucker for a highly-controlled voice and well-turned lyrics, like me), there are some free tickets for the Spring tour of the U.S. goin' on:
16 comments
I too never feel rested after 8 hours of sleep! It's SO difficult to wake up in the morning, but I feel groggy when I sleep in. I haven't tried polyphasic sleep, but I've had some interesting experiences in the last couple of months, which I think have affected my sleep patterns for the better. I'd like to gather as much information as I can to help characterize my sleep patterns (i.e. to figure out what works best for me!).
I started staying up later and later each night, until I was sleeping during the day. But I kept staying up later and later, until my bedtime was 6, 7, 8, 9, and then 10:00 pm. Here's what I've observed:
– When sleeping during the day, I slept much less (4-6 hours).
– Since getting back on a sleeping-at-night schedule, I have been waking up several times in the night (usually between 4 and 6 am).
– It has also been a lot easier to get up in the morning.
– I am exhausted at the end of the day, and I fall asleep so much quicker than I used to (I used to get insomnia).
– I have been more productive.
– If I sleep in past 7:00 am, I get groggy. But, if I wake up at 6:00 am everyday, I won't be able to keep up and I'll probably have to catchup every now and then (e.g. on the weekend). Your 6/1 schedule might be the perfect solution for me!
NAPWALK. Woot!
Darn skippy WOOT! ;)
Hi Philip,
I think the route you’re going — to gather information and figure out what YOUR sleep needs & wants are — is brilliant. It’s always amazed me how individual our sleep needs are, in spite of how much we for the most part try to keep the same schedule(s). And it’s certainly not that odd to have time-of-day be a big factor: I can wake up at four or six a.m., for instance, but five? Noooo waaaay. Not even if I’ve gotten plenty of sleep! There are definitely rhythms and anchors the body uses to regulate sleeping and waking, and while some of them can be changed (usually not without a bit of work, mind), others are just THERE and should be worked with or around, polyphasic or not.
If you decide to try Everyman 6/1 for yourself, let us know how it goes, eh? And best of luck!
PD
MTG, fun game, so many copycats, of course I wonder if there was much like it before it went big…ah the days. 6/1, interesting, I may give that a try, I'm wanting something different, I hate mornings! Blegh!
I'm going to try to start with one rule: up at 6:00 am no matter what.
I frequently wake up at this time, so I suspect it is something my body is quite anchored to.
Then, I will figure out how to make this rule work, whether it's by napping during the day or going to bed earlier.
This sounds so easy, but it's not. I have a very very hard time forcing myself to get up in the morning. It doesn't matter what kind of contract I've made with myself when I go to bed, I can't hold to it in the morning.
I used to own that precise card!!
wouldn't a 45min nap leave you waking up in a deeper stage of sleep?
Hi Philip,
I think your plan sounds good — that’s basically how I figure out my schedules now (granted, I’ve had years of napping to figure out how long & when I need one, so YMMV); one needs at least one solid anchor to start with.
Do you find that you wake up easier on mornings where something special is going on? I do, and if I need to wake up in the morning, I can make sure it happens by arranging something I wouldn’t normally do — an early breakfast with someone, long-distance conversation with someone special, or attending a class or doing an activity that jars my brain a bit. Sometimes setting up “special” things for a few days, or even weeks, will keep me doing it long enough to form the habit. (Trust me, the habit will form after a while, and then it’s much easier!)
Luck!
PD
Brice — ::geekhighfive!::
James — I think the answer is “Maybe”. Sleep-cycles may be 15 minutes long, or 20, or 30, depending on the person. I sleep well for 20 minutes, and for 90, and for four hours…that’s a pretty crazy spread, and without a monitor I’m not sure I can tell for sure. But I’m definitely liking the 45 minute nap less than the 20. I wake up on my own after 18-19 minutes like clockwork; but I’m definitely groggier with the 45, and I can’t really crawl out of bed until after an hour. Ugh.
Oh that idea of doing something "special" is a great idea. I know that if I have something *really* important, like catching a flight in the morning, then I will actually sleep very poorly and wake up constantly. I used to get this way before the first day of school, or a job interview, etc., because I was so afraid of oversleeping. However, a simpler event (like meeting someone for coffee) sounds like it might work.
Philip — It works for me! Let me know how you fare.
LOL — Magic the Gathering. That was indeed a good game. I played it in primary school but it was fun. My friend sold them to me because his dad was a trader of sorts so I supposedly got a bargain, although I wouldn't have had any idea if he ripped me off. Either way, I was happy but then I had no one to play with because no one was interested, so i gradually lost interest.
MTG – I still play!
And I agree with the napwalk. I'm fairly proud of my ability to snooze, only because at first it was difficult and other people I know are simply incapable of it. One thing that the schedule brings to me at least is a sort of relaxed state of mind, which is a pre-req to napping i find. Just being able to …let go….
It's awesome. I'm still a lightweight in some respects though, I can't nap around people other than my fiance, and I need my face covered for some weird reason. Vulnerability issues i suppose :)
Other day at a family event there was a guy who blew my world, napping out on a couch.
I’m still a lightweight in a lot of respects too — I can’t sleep around most people either, though I can knock off in a car just about anywhere. ;) It’s all about training! ;)