So, as one could guess, I’ve had a rough go—the past couple of weeks have been non-stop deadline, deadline, deadline’s; tests, papers, etc., along with sickness—and who wants to be weak on sleep during all of that? I wasn’t going to continue posting, but then I realized no one wanted to read, “oh hai GuYZ I’ve perfected the evriman sleep stuff and im on day 132 and iz just great n im doin so much stuff with my time, check out all the cool stuff I do wit my tIME.”

I know I wouldn’t read that, at least. It is all about the struggle—which I knew would happen—no matter how long. And if you ever want to do something, while you need to hold yourself back and take it easy, reserve your energy and excitement towards your goal—you’ve got to jump in. So I’m essentially restarting, though I’ve had some “handy” practice on long napping lately—far too long and whacking up my sleep schedule, but maybe any whacked up sleep schedule is good to get me to move towards a new one.

So, I’m keepin’ my shoes on and at least laying down for the specific times I need to nap (I’ve decided on using my phone’s timer, by the way, as I feel it’s more appropriate than the actual alarm, even if it’s essentially the same thing—along with the binaural beats, upon occasion). If anything, it’s some nice meditation time (although that’s partially the problem…I can’t stop thinking or coming up with brilliant ideas at the most inopportune times). I figure the more sleep I cut out of the main block, eventually the habit will work due to exhaustion, eventually I’ve got to start falling asleep quickly. 

In the meantime, I plan on trying to keep myself up until 1 and waking up at the time I would for the end of my main block, and slowly cutting off from the beginning as I master the impossible art of napping. ‘Til next time!

bring-me-tea asked: Are you trying Uberman as well? I just took my first nap!

While I may eventually evolve into the Uberman, I’m trying to start off by casually sliding into Everyman mode (and that’s hard enough for me, I’m not a nap-taker!). That’s very courageous of you to go directly into Uberman! I’d love to hear how that works out for you!

I wanted a picture of Rick Astley asleep, and this is what Google gave me. I guess he’s never gonna give waking hours up, or let himself lay down.

Alright! I just successfully…laid down…for my first nap! Considering it’s been taking hours for me to fall asleep lately, I wasn’t exactly surprised, but I’ve decided to make the process run, hopefully, a little smoother by conditioning myself. 

Much like your drugged out body, used to striped wallpaper lit by sundown, is awfully whoaaaaaaaaaaaOD’d by some new solid afternoon lime, I figure if I crawl into this here cozy chair (though perhaps a different one in a week back at the dorm): 

Curled up with my handy dandy Get High Now app’s binaural beats: 

My body will eventually whip up into shape and realize that sound in that spot means a conditioned reaction of short-time Zz’s. 

On the matter, however, I’ll add that I may allow myself a bit longer to fall asleep tonight, hitting the hay closer to 3 than 3:30, until I get a little more skilled. I’ll be sure to dream of ya.

Anyways, I’ve realized that what it takes little ole me to be able to do anything, at least anything of remote significance such as this, is dedicating myself to another. For instance, here, I’ve pre-set myself up to a public log, and can’t fail you as another unfinished. No matter how long this adjustment takes, I will go through with it. Just like a huge research proposal, for instance the one I just applied for a grant for: I’m promising my time to my partner and my grant-givers.

I’m just sayin’. I’m never gonna let you down, guys.

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DYK?! At least with the Uberman, some polyphasic sleepers find an increased lucid dreaming ability. —I’ll let you know if that occurs, as it’s another fascination of mine…one that I’ve mostly only accomplished through heavy pain medications post-surgery. 

Just…be careful about sleeping on the job.

Now, although this is normally to be expected to begin with, I really did know this was going to happen—too many last minute application requirements and a three hour drive home, I didn’t get to practice taking naps, and after an incredibly sleepless night, I slept in a couple of more hours than necessary.

But like I said, don’t lose faith: this is why I said tomorrow would be my official first day. This is simply officially me getting into the mindset. 

However, you might be wondering, much like myself, as to what my plan as an insomniac will be when training myself how to nap. So, let’s chat. 

1. First, I plan on laying down, horizontally, for twenty minutes, regardless of whether or not I’m falling asleep at the appropriate times. (Technically 25-27, as I always want to exclude a few minutes to give myself an eventual full twenty minute rest. We’ve all at least heard of the 7-minutes-is-what-it-takes-the-average-person-to-fall-asleep thing, and whether or not that’s precisely correct, I know I won’t fall asleep automatically. I’ll probably need to test myself to figure out my own optimal nap time to make sure I wake just after REM.)
2. Second, I plan on waking up when the alarm goes off, period—breaking a nasty habit I’ve adopted recently. 
3. I could try binaural beats or white noise—better yet, timed, eventually becoming comfortable enough to go without an actual alarm. 
4. I may attempt a “caffeine” nap. 
5. If all else fails, I’ll read a textbook or boring article on my phone. The trick is just playing around until I figure out what works for me. (You may try this extra-trippy technique if it makes sense for you.)

Remember, even if you aren’t up for switching your entire sleep schedule, a well-controlled (not an I’m bored) nap has great benefits! Naps improve your mood, judgement, and productiveness; decrease your stress; provide a moment to meditate and reflect; plus, they just help make up for a lack of sleep otherwise. Get counting those sheep, folks!

If I lived in the jungle (because clearly I’d be high on wifi in the Amazon), handsdown, my pick would be the Dymaxion—easily the most efficient, right? Or perhaps I’d go with the more lackadaisical “sleep-when-you-need-it” pattern. 

However, I’m not in a jungle, or at least not by definition. A quick profile of myself, in case something comes into play, seeing as this is an individual case study:

• 20 years old
• female
• American
• Arkansan
• Caucasian
• Crohn’s disease
• full-time college student (15 hours a week)
• Psychology major, Creative Writing minor
• current 3.54 GPA, 77 hours
• (fairly middle-ground) INFJ

Isn’t it neat how we can classify our individual selves in a few bullets? I’m not even sure if that’s sarcasm. That’s another talk we could have at a different time. 

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First, ask yourself why? Why are you wanting to try a different sleep cycle? Are you just bored? Did it sound neat? For most, being a boss at time management was the calling. I know for myself, constantly full of guilt at any time wasted (which, I might add, is a lot), this was certainly the case. I mean, we get, what, 27-30,000 days on this planet, and I’ve already spent 7,400 of mine without contributing anything worthwhile to myself or my community. Plus, I’ve recently begun a nasty habit of sleeping half of the day (after taking a few hours of torturous insomnia to fall asleep), and I know I needed a change anyways.

After all, I must have noticed a big change in my life when I, once a protester of all things macchiato and latte and expresso, converted myself to Coffolocism a couple of weeks ago after over two strenuous years of university. 

There’s only so much energy we can dedicate to multitasking, after all (and it seems that activity is a little less affective than we think, anyways). 

Besides, life is constantly, for me, about improvement of said life. How can I become a better me? And in the mix of learning how to juggle, publishing a novel, and teaching English to a developing country (very American of me, no? PS: I’m sometimes offensive.), bettering my time management skills fell in there somewhere. How better to begin such a task than by giving myself more time? After all, vampires are saved for the Stephenie Meyer drones—humans don’t have all of eternity and they must be recharged daily. 

Having said that, many are concerned about health issues and sleeping. Besides, don’t we always hear, “you need your 8 hours!” And that Einstein slept 10 hours a night—make that 11 or so if he had some “real” thinkin’ to do. Yes, we have to do our research on what could be unhealthy and REM (note that switching to a polyphasic cycle is about training your body into getting the beneficial parts of sleep without wasting the extra time of the monophasic cycle)… But did you know that da Vinci, Newton, Tesla, Jefferson, Edison, Franklin, and Napoleon (first name basis, here) are all said to have gotten less than 5 hours of sleep per night?

A number of animals use polyphasic cycles, why can’t humans? Anyways, didn’t we pretty much adapt to sleeping at night due to agriculture and the terrors of the night? I’m no farmer, and my dormitory requires a student ID to enter. Most cats—that I historically would have been afraid of eating me—won’t have those. 

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Then there was a problem of when, which in turn, ties in with the what (a.k.a.: which cycle). Keep in mind that switching sleep patterns: first of all, may not work for you, and second, takes time. You’ll probably be a bit of a zombie until the new cycle settles in with your body, if it works to begin with. And though I’ve been planning on switching for months, there was always something keeping me from doing so: work, rehearsals, bad scheduling in general, trips, plans. I kept a lookout ahead for a time that seemed fairly clear with a flexible schedule so that once I fixed my sleeping schedule, I could work around it instead of the (unstable) other way around. 

Finally, rehearsals (for a one-act that I somehow volunteered myself for, more as a joke than anything) were over and Fall Break was ahead, meaning no tests or obligations for a week, meaning I could go without being fully energized if necessary. Well, Fall Break technically starts for me about…two hours ago, until next Tuesday at noon. 

I have located it! The proper time to make the switch!

Now, something that I found in common when reading various accounts of people who’ve tried polyphasic sleep cycles—particularly of Bucky Fuller, inventor of the Dymaxion, and Steve Pavlina, a fellow blogger—was that many of them return to a monophasic pattern due to the pattern of society. This will probably happen to me as well, but I thought this was probably the best time to try it. 

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I personally have selected the Everyman (3 hours base + 3x20 minute naps, for a total of 4 hours of sleep) as it fits my personal schedule the best, as well as being fairly efficient, leaving the other 5/6ths of my day free. 

I’ve played around with my current schedule of classes and have decided, sleep-wise, upon something that looks like:

• 3:40-6:40 AM
• 11:40-12:00
• 5:00-5:20
• 10:20-10:40 PM

I plan on jumping right in—other than I’ve just missed my nap, it would seem. I’ll probably fall asleep shortly and officially start by waking up tomorrow morning (Wednesday, October 19, 2011) at 6:40 AM. I will do my best to consistently post an update of sorts daily, calling Thursday my full first day on the cycle. 

This following week will probably be the most entertaining for you, maybe even for me if I start seeing things. In that case, it would make for a much cheaper Fall Break, not having to pay someone off for ‘shrooms and all. 

Wish me luck on making this last. I hope for everyone’s sake this tumblr can promise some success for those wanting a total account of this switch, as often it seems they go unfinished. 

Sleep tight.