Polyphasic Sleep, Day 8 January 8, 2007
Posted by The Probabilist in : [News], Dreams, Exercise, Sleep , add a comment
48 hours since my previous oversleep I repeated the loop. I simply end up unconsciously turning off my alarms, polynap audio files or removing my earphones altogether. The kind of sudden tiredness that arrives every time I end up oversleeping from, arose about 30 minutes before my scheduled noon nap. Even though I could find myself reasonably satisfied with this pattern, I’m still not convinced of its sustainability because the gap between level 2 tiredness periods is increasingly increasing. 
I did some running again at 4 am identically to last night, except that this time I got some minor soar joints and muscles afterwards. They dissipated during my oversleeping nap and might have aided to feed the urge to sleep and recover for that extended period of time. Overall, I’ve decided to turn up the stakes and try some changes for a change.
The first alteration is increased dream induction. This was the first time for me that I actually recalled having a dream. I’m not saying I’ve been getting very little REM sleep during this experiment, but actually remembering my dreams would certainly help to evaluate at which naps I definitely did get a dose of REM. Simply reading more material about lucid dreaming and dream recall is bound to have an impact, something I haven’t been focusing on very much for about a month now. When I get totally occupied with something new, the old sources of inspiration start to stagnate and drop lower down on my subconscious’ pile of to do tasks.
Secondly, I’m stepping up to get more disciplined over my schedule. By this I mean what I tangibly do between the naps. I’ve found myself falling astray and doing different things at different times strongly according to my inspiration. Everything I do is still in tune with personal development, but I’m thinking that stronger discipline may induce the subconscious mind to feel an obligation to wake up from every 20-minute naps, because what’s in the schedule, must be done. This may be against my best interest, but I don’t really know for sure which one of them is dominant until I give them both a go. I may start to update my advancements every two days from now on unless radical events start happening on a frequent basis. The final verdict is 1.
(No Ratings Yet)
Polyphasic Sleep December 17, 2006
Posted by The Probabilist in : [Articles], Consciousness, Dreams, Food, Health, Productivity, Sleep, Time, Weird, Work , 6 comments
Why is it that we get an average of eight hours of sleep per day and all of it in a single chunk? Is there an alternative method, what is it called and what does it include? What are the pros and cons of choosing this alternative sleep rhythm, called polyphasic sleep? And what does it require and how does one go about to succesfully adapt it?
Polyphasic sleep is the term for sleeping more than once during the existing 24 hour rotation of our planet. The common sleep pattern of sleeping once per day is therefore called monophasic sleep. There are several variations to polyphasic sleep. Primarily, it can be separated into two approaches - schedules that include equally long naps within equal lengths of waking time between them, and schedules that contain a “core sleep” period of a few hours with one to three short naps on the side.
Choosing a schedule without core sleep, the naps can for instance be split into six per day, every four hours and their lengths are 20-25 minutes. This method is called the Uberman’s sleep schedule. Another choice could be to sleep four times per day 30 minutes at a time. Buckminster Fuller is said to have used this schedule for two years, called the dymaxion sleep schedule.
Can this be considered normal? Healthy? Sane? Haughty? There’s only one way to find out. Previous results by other testers show no crucial ailments of conducting this experiment. What is normal anyway? Babies sleep polyphasically. Maybe we’re all being programmed to follow the rotation of our planet since being awake during night time wasn’t very productive until the invention of electricity. Perhaps sleeping polyphasically is more normal and healthy than it may first seem, and that’s just what social conditioning and following others’ examples can do to our minds.
We sleep to get a portion of the REM-stage, which both the mind and body requires. In monophasic sleep it usually sums up to about 90 minutes of an adult’s total sleep time, and most of it at its last stages. This is why we often experience more dreams during the very end of our sleeping time. Polyphasic sleeping therefore aims to convert the mind to start the REM-phase immediately after we doze off. It is sort of a defence mechanism for being robbed off REM for too long after one starts out on this schedule. In total, a succesful transitioning to a polyphasic sleep pattern sums up to a healthy 90-120 minutes of REM per day.
Why choose polyphasic sleep?
First off, a succesful adaptation means 22 hours of waking time and two hours of sleep per day. There’s no more room for complaining about not having the time to get things done. In fact, while trying to transition, one will do anything to get the mind off of the sleep deprivation that is experienced. It is said that after about 7-10 days the overall confusion and fatigue will start to rebound. Sleeping in on a nap is a setback and makes it harder and longer to make the change.
It is also said that once successfully adapted, one has an even greater clarity of mind, level of energy, motivation and ability to focus than during a monophasic schedule. Perhaps it’s a result of hormones and chemicals adjusting to different levels. Sipping coffee and allowing various influencers of body functions make it a rougher starting point to make the transition to polyphasic sleep. So even the diet one subscribes to makes a difference. It is said that a vegetarian or vegan diet makes it even easier to make the change.
Additionally, the chance of having lucid dreams are said to increase. Since lucid dreaming is the skill to allow a certain degree of awareness into the dream world, it sounds probable. This is because reports say that once in a polyphasic pattern, one gets quite dependant on it and falling asleep is quite easy. Once four or five hours are up, it can be very tough to stay awake any further and it may lead to harsh deprivation if the schedule gets out of balance. This can be a big negative side effect of polynapping.
A fourth positive side effect is eliminating jet lag. This depends naturally on how often one travels. Being awake this much raises the question if 24 hours is still a day. Living with a polyphasic rhythm could actually mean that the week is separated into 14 “days” - seven nights and seven days, because weeks and months literally feel like they are moving at a slower pace.
Limits and requirements
This goes without saying, but turning polyphasic requires a pretty flexible schedule. Most full time jobs simply won’t allow the attempt to try it out. Not only are the holidays a good gap to fit the experiment in, but I’m not studying or working on anything until March, except on this blog/business and my own personal development. My business gives me the option to write and publish posts whenever I want to around the clock.
The transition is no walk in the park either. Most people quit after a day or a few out of sheer tiredness and boredom. Keeping the mind occupied is the best remedy to make it through the first week when the going gets gradually tougher. Therefore it’s more or less a requirement to have a list of things to do before one starts out. I still haven’t set a date to start out, my list of things to do and my final schedule are still incomplete. I’m on the verge of moving to another apartment in the near future as well. So I’ll post them closer to the launch of this experiment.
I’ve also collected some polyphasic audio that consists of white noise that swooshes on during the sleep and is followed by loud noises guaranteed to wake me up. Or at least I hope they will.
This experience/experiment is all in the name of trying for myself to get my own opinion on the subject. If it’s too difficult to adapt to, or it simply isn’t a smarter or better way to live (and sleep), then I can always turn back to monophasic sleep. During my endeavors I’ll keep everyone posted on my progress, level of clarity, use of senses and tiredness. So stay updated in the near future on my polyphasic journey.
(4 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
