They’re small; take three!
Mm, another Lifehacker article by a tech-startup-consultant-rockstar who's going to teach us all to be clean, slick and productive through the magic of a daytime nap. *yawn* (No, I'm not tired. ;) Anyway, dutifully I read the article, amusedly I chuckled at the first comment being about polyphasic sleep (which is either too weird a topic for LH to really cover, or lacks the prerequisite of being presented by a sufficiently slick techstar) — and verily I note for you, who are probably curious but also probably know more about napping than this guy, the short version:
- You don't have to actually fall asleep to nap – it's enough to drift off to a half-sleep state
- Even if it normally takes you 30+ minutes to fall asleep, you can benefit from 20 minute power naps
- First, learn what you're aiming for, for example by using something like pzizz. Then, practice reproducing that feeling – plan for a few months before you get good at it
- Don't over-sleep when power-napping, it will only make you feel groggy
…And all of those are good points, I suppose, even though they all come down, as far as I can tell, to "have some discipline and really try it".
Which does–I freely admit–work!
5 comments
Hi,
I just ordered your book on amazon and this is the first way i could think to reach you. I am really excited to read it, can you send me an ecopy so I can get a headstart?
I have 3 days in uberman and I don’t feel tired at all. Am I doing something wrong?
Also glad to know that naps aren’t exactly like sleeping because I can’t fall asleep with them.
Sounds like you may be having a slow start — you aren’t yet sleep-deprived enough to fall asleep for your naps, which is a hallmark of the beginning part of the adaptation process. Keep it up, don’t make any mistakes, and don’t be surprised if it gets super-hard for a few days! Stick with it and you’ll feel great again soon. Luck!
Good post. Ever read any wei wu wei? He is my favorite writer on the subject. By the way, here's a trick I like: Just watch your mind. It somehow forces me to stop jabbering in my head almost instantly. A variation is to look for the spaces in between thoughts.
Hi Puredoxyk,
I'm on my fifth day of adapting to uberman, (or not adapting, in this case.)
I can easily get through the night without any oversleeps. (I stopped oversleeping since I got a new alarm.)
The thing that bothers me the most is that I keep falling asleep during class.
(That means that I cannot pay attention, and I will have trouble falling asleep for the next nap!)
What irritates me further is that once I am out of class, I don't feel tired anymore. (and that was my scheduled nap slot.)
I am quite worried about how this is going, but I really want to make this polyphasic thing work out.
Do you have any tips?
I also have a question, since this is my first attempt:
When does an attempt end? Only when one says so? Or if one crashes, that's the end of the attempt?