Polyphasic Sleep Schedule | The Probabilist . com

Polyphasic Sleep Schedule December 27, 2006

Posted by The Probabilist in : [News], Productivity, Sleep, Time, Work , trackback

I’m starting my polyphasic sleep experiment on January 1st 2007. Sunday morning is the last day I awaken from my monophasic sleep pattern and my first polynap is in the following night. I finished up an alpha version of my weekly schedule for you to look into. Even though it is mainly aimed to show how sleep and waking time is blocked into a systematic pattern, it also shows what I do when I’m up and fighting the sleep deprivation.

PolySchedule.xls

I’ve separated the week into 14 “days”, but I kept the 24 hour digital system we use over here when I did the text translation into English. A polyphasic sleep pattern works even better with AM & PM since the naps are every day at the same time. I chose 4-8-12 because it will fit in with my studies when I return to taking classes in March.

I then decided that the best place for workouts would be directly after a nap since it’ll surely help to awaken properly. The reason one should eat as early as possible is due to food digestion. Otherwise it will be tougher to awaken and get up since the body feels it needs more time to digest as it requires energy. I’m still tweaking my exercise program and my diet so I won’t get into the details here as they are slightly off-topic, but nevertheless important so that there’s at least some variation to the day.

The toughest part will be night time between 0:00 and 8:00 since there aren’t many other people around that I can interact with. That’s why I felt it natural to do the bulk of my writing and reading at those hours. ESCA stands for Email, Statistics, Comment moderation and miscellaneous blog Administration. The empty spaces are left for socializing, fun & recreation and completing my to do list of tasks that have been waiting for my attention.

This might all seem like overkill, but I really want to establish a sense of purpose for doing what I’m about to, so that there’s no problem in getting out of bed every single time I’m supposed to. If you’re interested in trying this out for yourself, then get your own polynap soundtracks over at this site. I’ll be using the 23 min version.

As I mentioned earlier, I’ll be adding updates on how I’m doing, that is if I’m still capable of writing readable content when I’m behaving like a zombie. Safe to say, I won’t be jogging around busy streets or driving at all during my transition period. Even reading a book may prove impossible to concentrate on. It’s once again pointless to set any expectations on beforehand. Instead I’ll just face one challenge at a time and try to make the best out of it. The results will then determine which sleep pattern is more feasible and productive to live by. To each its own though.