Day 3

Hello yall.
It's going pretty well. The naps are starting to feel different. Not necessarily the way they're supposed to feel, but different nonetheless. Probably a step in the right direction.

I think I'm starting to get some REM during the naps. I've been seeing some colors and flashes of light while asleep, and during the 9:30 AM cycle I distinctly remember being inside a truck with someone. I wouldn't call it a full blown dream, but it's a start. Exciting huh?

I thought so. That is, until I woke up and felt like crap haha. It was drowsiness at it's worst. The kind that makes you feel all confused and disoriented, like waking up from anesthesia. Somehow I managed to haul myself out of bed despite the zombification. I've been reading through Steve Pavlina's sleep logs again and this caught my attention. (Happened to be day 3 for him too)
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep-log-day-3/

He was thinking about taking more naps of the same length. The idea makes sense, you would still be depriving yourself of REM sleep if the naps were short. I thought it was a good idea, (I was also very tired) so I decided to try it. I stuck an extra nap right in the middle of two cycle at 11:30 AM. It seemed to help a good deal, even if it was just a mental thing. Far less drowsiness upon awakening.

I got hit with the same drowsiness after the 5:30 PM nap and tried the extra nap technique again. I woke up easy and quick from the second nap. Had enough energy to play DDR and then write this. :)

No superhuman benefits yet. Other than the ability to eat my own weight in food everyday. =P
The thing is, I really don't feel much worse than usual. (And I usually feel decent, for the record)

Thanks to everyone who took the poll!

Results from Day 3
Adherence to schedule: 9/10 - Didn't oversleep, but I kinda lied around in bed doing nothing for a few minutes. I also added the two extra naps, but I'm not counting that against me.

Mental awareness: 7/10 - Good with the exception of right after those two naps.

Physical energy: 7/10 - Got some decent exercise thanks to Dance Dance Revolution. Wasn't feeling up to running with the ol' XC team though. :( Maybe next week.

Productivity: 6/10 - Didn't finish my book, but I learned how to fold a paper crane. =) I'm not going to worry about productivity too much until the adaptation is over though.

Comments: I found out that I really like listening to classical music at night. It's especially nice while reading too. Another thing I noticed is that I'm losing the ability to sense what time of day it is. I guess it's an understandable side effect of napping so often.

Day 2

Edit: I added a poll to a.) get an idea how many people (if any) are reading this, and b.) get some other people's opinions. I know you probably only have sixteen waking hours in the day, but I'd really appreciate it if you took two seconds and checked it out! Much thanks! =)

Today was more challenging for sure, but I still don't feel like the walking dead.
All the AM naps went well except 9:30. I had bowling at 10, I figured Chris could drive and I'd sleep in the car. He had work after bowling though, so I ended up driving. :P I managed to get a tiny bit of sleep in just before 9:30. My motor skills and awareness were pretty good I think. (Seeing as how I'm still alive.)

My first spot of real confusion as to the time of day happened! :)
After the 1:30 nap I still felt like I was asleep, and didn't physically get out of bed. Big mistake. I must have nodded off eventually, possibly a few times. I woke up for good just before 6 o'clock the way I should have, but I think it might just be a lucky coincidence.
Sometime between these naps I hear my Mom coming down the stairs, thinking, "What in God's name is she doing in the basement at this hour?" She asked me if I wanted to eat, I said sure automatically they was I always do. It seriously took me a few minutes to realize that it was the middle of the afternoon and not early morning. Oi.

So anyways, falling asleep is becoming a lot easier. Probably due to the deprivation mostly, but as long as it works. Waking up doesn't seem to be a problem either, I actually woke up before a few alarms. Staying up after the first few minutes of being awake is where the challenge is. I think I'll start sleeping with the light on starting at today's 9:30 PM nap. If i still can't get myself up and about I might try a little caffeine before the nap.

9:30 PM
Last nap was good. I don't think I'm getting much if any REM sleep yet, but the naps are refreshing. And leaving the lights on worked really well, 3 minutes ago my eyes were closed. :)

Hopefully that REM sleep is right around the corner. All this free time to do stuff is nice, but it'll be all the more useful when I can concentrate on something other than not falling asleep!

Results from Day 2
Adherence to schedule: 6/10 - 9:30 AM nap was cut short cause of bowling. Then there was the time between 1:30 and 5:30 which I can't seem to remember. *face palm*

Mental awareness: 8/10 - I drove this morning (right after trying to sleep) down to South Side, then to Taylor, and home no problem. I even did some quick math in my head! It was rather surprising.

Physical energy: 7/10 - Satisfactory. Bowling doesn't require a whole lot.

Adding a new category to keep myself motivated. After all, what's the point if I spend the extra six hours doing nothing?
Productivity: 5/10 - I read some more of the Parable of the Sower. I think I'll set a goal to finish it tomorrow.

Comments: Getting up after I'm awake is crucial. I'll continue to sleep with the light on, especially during the next night or two. Keeping your mind off sleeping isn't necessary but makes it a whole lot easier. There were times when I was fully occupied with something and I felt absolutely normal, and that's even before I'm adapted. The mind truly is the weakest part of the body.

Day 1

Today is the first day of the Uberman. Or rather, my adaptation to it.
I decided to sleep at 1:30, 5:30, and 9:30 since that actually fits my college schedule barring any changes. I'll probably have to go back to monophasic for the first week or so of college until things enter a routine. But that's not until late August, right now I need to concentrate on this.

AM
1:30
I lied down for my nap but couldn't get to sleep, no prob.

5:30
I think I may have gotten to sleep for a few minutes of NREM. Not exactly refreshing, but who cares.

9:30
Same thing basically. I just felt a little crummier when I woke up.

Went for a quick bike ride. It was nice but tiring. =P
I've found that I'm eating a lot already haha.

PM
1:30
Didn't really sleep. Lying down was nice though.

5:30
No sleep again, it was too loud in the house. It's getting harder to get up after the alarm. =P

Played volleyball/ultimate/beat people at Golden Park! Wasn't at my physical best, but it was much needed exercise after sitting here all through the AM. I kind of wish 9:30 rolled around while I was out so I could try sleeping in the grass, it seemed comfy. :)

9:30
It was still surprisingly noisy in the house, but I think I actually sleep some. It was also pretty easy to wake up. (???)

Day 1 complete!? Sure why not.
It sounds like day two is when your body really hits a wall, so I believe the worst is yet to come. Tomorrow I also have bowling at 10AM. I think I'll ask Chris to drive and try to sleep on the way down. If it's too difficult I can either bump back the nap times before they get ingrained into my head, or just say to hell with it, bowling's only once a week anyways.

Results from Day 1
Adherence to schedule: 10/10 - Didn't miss/postpone any naps or oversleep.

Mental awareness: 6/10 - Not bad considering I haven't had any real sleep in about forty hours. I have been particularly slow with mental math today.

Physical energy: 7/10 - It was surprisingly high for how little sleep I got I did get tired more quickly than normal at Golden Park, but I also haven't gotten any exercise lately.

Comments: I think my extreme excitement about starting this project helped to stave off some effects of the sleep deprivation.

Well, I'm hungry again. So that's all for now. Tomorrow ought to be interesting.

100 Things to Do

I had heard someone made a list of things to do while they were in between naps and it seemed like a really good idea.
If anyone can think of something cool to do/read leave a comment and I'll add it. Doubt I'll actually come up with a hundred different things, but it made a good title. ;-)

1. Finish Parable of the Sower
2. Answer PotS questions on forum. Hah..pots.
   
3. Finish Harry Potter 5
   
4. Read HP 6
5. Read HP 7
6. Read Angels and Demons
7. Read The DaVinci Code (DaVinci was said to have used polyphasic sleeping himself btw!)
8. Read Catcher in the Rye
9. Beat FFVII
10. Learn to juggle (or at least work on it)
11. Fix my speakers
12. Organize music folders
13. Learn some new songs for the guitar
14. Finish learning songs I half know
15. Make an Uberman page on Squidoo
16. Get some light exercise
17. Finish C++ programming book
18. Look for more free ways to promote website
19. Organize adwords campaigns
20. Read a random wikipedia article
21. Learn more about electronics
22. Rubik's Cube!
23. Clean room
24. Record dreams on DreamViews
25. DDR
26. Record VHS tapes and burn to DVD
27. Visit StevePavlina.com
28. Write thank you notes
29. Finish The Four Hour Work Week
30. Laundry
    

That's all for now, I'll add things and cross them out as necessary.

What is the Uberman?

The Uberman is not Superman's German twin, it's an alternative sleep schedule. A typical sleep schedule would be your 8 hours asleep, 16 hours awake method. This is often called monophasic sleep since it's done all at once. The Uberman is a polyphasic sleep schedule, meaning one rests in several phases. In my opinion it's a fancy way of saying, "I take naps."

How many naps?
The Uberman involves taking a twenty minute nap every four hours. In a twenty-four hour period that's six naps totaling a mere two hours of sleep. Crazy huh?

How can this possibly work?
Sleep can be divided into five stages. The first four, where there is no rapid eye movement, are grouped by the term NREM. The fifth stage, or REM stage, is where the body gets it's valuable REM sleep.
http://www.dreamviews.com/sleepstages.php
Using the Uberman schedule effectively eliminates NREM sleep. The body is conditioned to "cut to the chase" and enter REM sleep extraordinarily fast.

What about the other stages?
Well to be honest with you, I don't know. =P Certainly the first four stages aren't useless. However, it also seems that they aren't necessary either. Necessary for survival that is. I have a feeling the body will have a much more difficult time repairing itself physically while on the Uberman. That is, things like sore muscles and sickness will linger around longer than normal. As far as I know, polyphasic sleep has never been studied scientifically, so who knows what will happen?

Why in God's name would anyone want to do this?
Curiosity. At least for me. Then there's the obvious benefit of being up and about for twenty-two hours a day. Interestingly, people on the Uberman are reported to get slightly more REM sleep than those who sleep monophasically. (Again, at the expense of zero NREM sleep.) Having the additional REM sleep, people have said to feel an overall better sense of well being.
Additionally, some people have reported that they have incredibly vivid, and often lucid, dreams during the naps. One journal I read said that the Uberman had effectively cured the person of several sleep disorders she had, such has night terrors and sleep walking.

The downside.
It's just plain weird! I'm prepared to be looked at like a weirdo though. =)
Naps must be taken every four hours, on the dot. It sounds like delaying a nap even an hour is very bad. Oversleeping and missing naps are big no-nos.
The long terms effects are unknown.
The adaptation phase will suck.
Boredom could set in if you plan to watch television for 22 hours a day.
I wouldn't particularly call this a con, but you need to a eat a lot more since you're awake a lot more.

So I think I'm just about ready to start it. I would like to make a list of things to do before I go into serious sleep deprivation though. That should be the next post.


Additional links:

A personal experience, and tips about Uberman
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/4/15/103358/720

Info about polyphasic sleeping in general
Uh oh: "...the medical establishment, including sleep specialists, do not recommend this technique."
http://www.sleepdex.org/polyphasic.htm

Purpose

This blog was created to document my experience with the Uberman sleep schedule.
Each day I will record how well I adhered to the schedule as well as any thoughts, feelings, or possibly angry bouts of dementia I may experience.