Polyphasic Sleeping Experiment - Day 1

Today I began my first one-month polyphasic sleeping experiment.

I decided to try the Uberman sleep cycle, which involves 20-40 minute naps at regular intervals throughout the day. Thirty minutes per map is my target. The naps will be at 4, 8, and 12 AM and PM, for a total of six naps per day. That adds up to a total of three hours of sleep per 24-hour-period, which will give me five more hours of wake time per day.

I slept normally last night and got up at 7:30. I ran 2.5 miles and lifted weights before a nice breakfast of corn flakes, oats, and soy milk. Then I did some more research on polyphasic sleeping, just to iron out a few of the details. At about 12:15, I took my first nap. I fell asleep to a white noise sleep track which lasts 27 minutes. It worked so well that I didn't even realize I had been sleeping, so when it ended, I reset the track and tried again :). I fell right asleep the second time. So my first nap ended up being about forty-five minutes long, with a break somewhere in the middle. I felt just fine when I got up, with a tiny bit of grogginess.

My second nap was at 4:15 on the floor of the library at Brigham Young University. This one did not go as well as the first, because I could not fall asleep! It is probably because my body is not used to sleeping so much during the day - I was just not tired at all. I lay on the floor for about 45 minutes in a very relaxed state. It was enough that my muscles twitched and I daydreamed a little; I just never entered normal sleep. Oh well. Surely I will be plenty tired tonight when I usually sleep. Perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to spend the wee hours of the night/morning at the gym tonight. Late-night lap-swimming, here I come! :)

I haven't had any problems so far, although I can see that I may need to take off my contact lenses every couple of naps. Sleeping in them is fine, but they are a little bit irritating when I wake up.

This is NOT a scientifically rigorous experiment, but I will try to keep track of some variables and report on the important ones here on my blog. This include:

1. body weight
2. diet
3. nap frequency, length, quality
4. how awake I feel /energy level
5. mood
6. effectiveness
   

Here are answers to some of the questions you might have:

• Why are you conducting this sleep experiment?
• To have five more hours of wakeful time each day!
• Why are you beginning now?
• I did not begin the experiment immediately after my mission because I wanted to give myself time to adjust to normal life before making any drastic lifestyle changes. I do not currently have a job (I am working on being profitably self-employed), so I can be extremely tired at the beginning and it will not make me lose my job. At this time I have few time commitments, which will allow me to try different schedules without worrying about missing appointments. If I succeed in becoming a polyphasic sleeper and decide that I want to stick with it after the trial month, it will open up very useful opportunities, especially in college. Studying in the deepest hours of the night/morning will free up my evenings and days for socializing and other extracurricular pursuits (such as talking to people in China or starting up a business).
  
• How long will it take to get adjusted to polyphasic sleeping?
• The transition period from monophasic to polyphasic sleeping supposedly takes from a week to two weeks. If what other polyphasic sleepers have written is correct, then this transition period will be shortened and made easier by eating healthily, not skipping naps and not oversleeping.
• Isn't sleeping eight hours a day and getting up early good enough?
• It usually works well. The exception is when I stay up late. When that happens, I usually get up later than I should and end up sleeping up to ten or eleven hours. I am very good at waking up early in the morning when I get 7-8 hours of sleep during the night.
  
• Won't it be harmful to your health?
• To the best of my knowledge, there have not been any long-term clinical trials on the effects of such a sleep cycle. If I start to get really sick, go crazy, lose large amounts of weight, lose energy or become lethargic, I will strongly reconsider finishing the experiment.
  
• Will you go crazy?
• I will be asking my brothers occasionally whether I am exhibiting any strange or erratic behavior. More likely is that I will be a bit cranky after each nap. I might have to be especially careful not to offend anyone right after waking up.
  
• What will you do with all that extra time?
  
• I have a list of things that I would like to do but have not gotten around to doing. It includes learning several programming languages (Python, PHP, HTML), relearning all the calculus and physics I forgot, reading books, and creating passive income. Perhaps I will also get back into photography, which I have not really done since my mission. Frisbee and joining a ballroom dancing club are also options.
  
• What will you do in the middle of the night?
• Once everyone else has gone to bed, I will head to the gym to swim laps and lift weights. This is also the perfect time to improve my Russian by talking with language exchange partners in Russia and Ukraine on Skype. I may also prepare meals for the day.
• Will it be worth the risks if you don't use your time effectively anyway?
• No. If I waste the extra time, I might as well not have it. So I will be careful not to spend very much time watching TV/movies or surfing the Internet purposelessly. If I fail to manage my time effectively, I will revert back to monophasic sleeping.

That just about sums it up. I will be posting daily to keep you up to date on my experiment. Please feel free to comment and/or email me!

Chris