Polyphasic sleep - a story of successful experience
The article you are reading is an extract from more than 20 historical reports describing in detail the course of the experiment with the polyphasic sleep of the American blogger and self-development guru, Steve Peacocks.
If you are seriously interested in polyphasic sleep, and you are ready to spend several hours reading one of the most detailed reports on this topic, go here: Polyphasic sleep . For the rest - this digest.
')
The essence of polyphase sleep is that instead of one long sleep per day, we sleep a little, several times during the day. One of the popular polyphase sleep patterns is Uberman Mode, which offers a day split into 6 short (20-30 minutes) sleep periods, alternating with even (about 4 hours) waking periods. This means that the total sleep time is reduced to 2-3 hours per day.
Normal human sleep consists of 90-minute cycles, and each such cycle ends with a REM phase. REM is the most important phase of sleep, it is during it that we see dreams, and depriving a person of REM, a phase, for a long time leads to serious nervous disorders. During the practice of polyphasic sleep, the body learns to enter REM immediately after falling asleep, and not at the end of the cycle. Therefore, the first week, while the body will adapt to shorter sleep cycles, it will experience increased stress. But then it will feel great, perhaps even better than before.
Probably, the readers of my articles “How to become a lark” and “How to learn to get up on an alarm clock” sent me several links to information about polyphasic sleep. Of course, I'm interested. The thought of the extra 30-40 hours of time a week for several days does not give me rest.
Among other things, this is just a crazy idea. She is so crazy that I want to try. It pushes me to this step, above all, curiosity and the desire to test the strength of my self-discipline. In addition, it is perfectly combined with my other eccentricities.
I am starting my polyphase sleep experiment today, so last night was the last "normal" night. Today, as usual, I woke up at 5 am, and I will go to bed every 4 hours. In order not to oversleep, I will set a countdown timer for 30 minutes. I decided that I would go to bed at 1:00, 5:00, 9:00, 13:00, 17:00, 21:00. I intend to hold out, at least until Halloween ... or die, depending on what comes first.
It has been almost 36 hours since I slept through my last “normal” night. There is fatigue, decreased concentration and drowsiness, but they are not a serious problem. I estimate my performance, both mental and physical, at about 50% of the norm. Therefore, the main work that I was engaged in today was limited to the selection of articles for later reading and the preparation of ingredients for food. In the morning, after a peresyp at 9:00, I was so alert that I recorded a planned podcast. But this is the last serious thing that was in my plans before Halloween. I deliberately endured all the more or less important things, so now I have a rest in some way. Including from sleep :)
I received several letters from people who tried to sleep polyphasically, but none of them passed the adaptation completely (did not last more than a few days), so I am wary of their advice.
My main strategic task now is to undergo adaptation, in other words, to withstand this regime for several days (approximately 4-7) until the body is reconstructed. The main tactical task is to find employment for the current 3.5 hours, until the next reload, so as not to focus on fatigue. The publication of these reports also helps to solve this problem.
The second day was much harder than the previous one. But I hold on.
I feel conscious and attentive, but the brain is too tired to think adequately. The worst periods of wakefulness are nighttime (from 1:00 to 5:00). Cooking is well suited as an activity at this time, while reading, on the contrary, leads to a nap.
It helps my skill to instantly wake up on an alarm clock and immediately get up, which I have already described in my blog. For myself, I decided that if I feel that I am close to falling from fatigue or drowsiness, I can try to enter some extra 20 minutes of sleep in order not to upset the experiment at all.
There is almost no desire, apparently the stomach is also rebuilt. From coffee, I immediately decided to refuse. Caffeine, of course, will help for a short period, but most likely will lengthen the adaptation period. Many reviews have tips on giving up meat and heavy meals for a while, but since I’m already a vegan, I keep my regular menu.
At some point I spent an hour and a half, lying on the couch and watching the movement of other family members. Feel like a half-dead zombie.
It seems that the adaptation process has moved forward. I began to dream, which indicates the achievement of the REM phase of sleep. If yesterday I estimated my condition on 5 out of 10, then today I am ready to give myself 7 points. I'm not the same zombie that was yesterday.
I am finally inclined to the idea of ​​increasing the number of peresyp from 6 to 8 or even 10 at the time of adaptation, while leaving their duration the same. Last night, I made myself two additional 20 minute peresyp, and this probably allows me to still stand, get up every time with the alarm bell and continue the experiment. Let me remind you that my goal is not to deprive oneself from sleep and rest, but only to deprive the REM phase, and only until the adaptation has passed.
At the moment, from the beginning of the experiment, I slept only 10 hours out of 80.
It seems that the turning point is left behind. I feel a clear improvement in my condition. Last night I added one additional 20-minute reload to my schedule at 3:00 (between scheduled at 1:00 and 5:00), and as a result, for the first time in these days, I feel slept. Ready to evaluate your energy and mental clarity on 8 out of 10.
Began to return appetite. I caught myself thinking that I felt hypersensitive to cold. I am cold to work in a room with the usual temperature (I had to increase it from 20 to 22 degrees) and I feel cold during a walk in clothes that are usual for this temperature. I hope this is a temporary phenomenon.
In principle, I am already able to function normally and the time has come to think about where to spend the released time.
I began to think about the naturalness of our usual monophasic regime. My 2-year-old son, who is now living in a mode very reminiscent of mine, is pushing me towards these thoughts. It is possible that the monophasic sleep model is not so natural.
Many people are interested in my motivation, which pushed me to this experiment. As I expected, many believe that this desire to increase their own effectiveness. This is a good guess, but the real answer is a banal curiosity.
It seems to me that people who think of switching to polyphasic sleep, guided by the desire to increase their productivity, are less likely to successfully complete the adaptation period. Increasing long-term productivity is bad motivation for most people. If this is your only goal, then it is likely that you will spit and break after a few days of lack of sleep, in the absence of positive results. It will surely seem to you that exchanging undisturbed sleep for hard work is too great a sacrifice.
And today I have plans to conduct a brainstorm, the purpose of which will be to search for options for spending night time. I want to find a way to reduce or completely defeat nighttime sleepiness, and not just find a way to ignore it.
Today was definitely the best day since the beginning of the experiment. Right now I can say that I feel exactly the same as it was in monophasic sleep mode (10 on a 10-point scale).
Print speed and motor skills almost returned to normal. It is almost unbelievable that I am able to feel as cheerful, attentive and energetic as usual, giving sleep only 2-3 hours a day. It is a pity that I did not try polyphasic sleep 10 years ago.
And also my perception of time has changed. Life ceased to be divided into day and night and turned into a single, continuous stream. At first it is very unusual, but every day I get more and more used to it and find more and more advantages in it.
Today I felt even better than yesterday. There was no trace of fog in the head. Reflexes work as before. Today, for the first time in the last week, I got behind the wheel of a car and did not feel any discomfort. It's just amazing, considering that all this week I slept no more than 20 hours.
I continue to practice the 7th pour at 3:00, when I feel the most sleepy, but each time I feel less and less need for it. Today I began to set my countdown timer to 25 minutes, instead of 30. It seems to me that this would be better. 30 minutes is too long. I wake up more and more to the alarm bell.
I am going to continue the experiment for another week before drawing any conclusions and making long-term plans. I'm tired of keeping daily reports, so now I will do them less often and only when I have some new, interesting information for you.
Since my experiment with polyphasic sleep is quite successful, I decided in the last couple of days to complicate my task a little. It is interesting for me to feel the limits of my capabilities.
I made my first trip since the beginning of the polyphase experiment. I did not have the opportunity to adhere to my standard sleep schedule (every 4 hours), and I sometimes had to increase the intervals between sleep to more than 6 hours or try to pokemar in the car while my wife was driving. Overall, I was amazed at how well this works. I had no problems either with sleeping in the car or with a 6-hour break in my sleep.
Of course, car naps, this is half measure. Of course, I am able to sleep and sit, but still lying in bed or on the couch, I rest much better. Nevertheless, this was enough for me to feel great until the next opportunity to sleep.
Now I have learned to fall asleep in 1-2 minutes, every time I go to bed. On average, I go to bed, fall asleep, sleep and see dreams, wake up and get up in 15 minutes. So it's not a long time, even if you leave the company in the middle of a conversation.
In general, I realized that polyphasic sleep is a very practical and very flexible tool. I am still impressed by how easily I adapted to this trip.
Today is the 18th day of my experiment. Compared to last week, now I am able to conduct more tests, to pay attention to more fine-tuning my sleep, and in general I am pleased with my progress.
I came to the conclusion that polyphasic sleep is much more flexible than it seemed to me initially. I completely refused to sleep on a schedule. Now I let my body tell me about the need to take a nap, and this is completely fine with me. I feel good if I go to bed 6-7 times a day, but not always at regular intervals. The intervals between bedtime are usually 5-6 hours during the day and 2-4 hours at night. I freely change my sleep time from day to day. There is no need for a clear schedule.
The 12th day of my experiment was not very successful. I missed one day’s sleep and the gap between the daytime sleep pieces was over 7 hours. And when I woke up at 10:30 pm after another sleep, I decided not to get up right away, but to relax a little bit ... I woke up at 4 am the next day. I could not believe my eyes that I slept more than 6 hours in a row. Of course, then I went back to my normal polyphase sleep schedule.
At first I was a little upset by this incident, but now, looking back, I am even glad that this has happened. This case helped me more clearly understand the limits of my capabilities, in particular, that you should not miss one of the naps.
On day 18, I experienced a lucid dream. And yesterday, just after midnight, another thing happened to me. This dream was not as bright as the previous one, but I considered this an important event, because I almost never had lucid dreams for two nights in a row. If polyphasic sleep increases the frequency of lucid dreams, then this will be a great bonus for me.
Since now my life has no pronounced breaks for sleep, I experiment with the modes of operation. I found the period from 2:00 to 10:00 most suitable for my main job. I like to use this particular time for a number of reasons. Silence in the house, general relaxation, lack of hunger, lack of telephone calls, but most importantly - by 10 am, when homework wakes up, I have already done all the work planned for the day and am ready to spend time with my family.
Now that I have found the optimal time for work, I am going to experiment with the routine of the rest of my daily activities. Plan out exercise, fun, reading / education, meditation, family leisure, etc. I had so much extra time that I needed to decide what to spend on it.
The third week of this amazing experiment has come to an end. During this time I noticed the following changes.
In food, I am less attracted to any products cooked or processed. About 70% of my diet now consists of raw fruits, vegetables and nuts, in all its diversity (remember, I've been a vegan since 1997).
I resumed playing sports and already managed to recover from a break associated with adaptation.
I am stating an increase in attentiveness and vigor compared to a monophasic past. It seems to me that my depth, clarity and speed of thoughts have increased. Changes have undergone and decision-making. Now I make decisions very quickly, almost without analyzing them. The correct decision comes out by itself, without the participation of my verbal system. This is similar to many times increased intuition.
One of the most important (and extremely unexpected) events that occurred to me during the practice of polyphasic sleep was a change in the perception of the passage of time, during my naps. Now, after waking up, I feel that much more time has passed than the clock shows. Almost every time I wake up, I am sure (on physical sensations) that I have slept for at least 1-2 hours. My sleep is deeper and stronger than ever before. I have very intense and vivid dreams.
I feel that time flows much slower than it actually is. Combined with the fact that I am awake 21-22 hours a day, the illusion of stretching time in a dream gives me the feeling that the day is stretched almost twice. By the way, I also almost lost the intuitive feeling of the day.
For me, this turns into a beyond, almost mystical experience. I was well accustomed to the feeling of the passage of time, and suddenly this feeling left me. Time has become thick and viscous for me.
The feeling that time flows very slowly, which I mentioned in the previous report, continues. I am amazed how long this weekend has lasted and how much has happened.
To measure time by the number of days does not seem relevant to me. Technically, the day ends and a new one begins, when the clock strikes midnight. But, since the night dream dividing our days was left for me in the past, the chain of days turned into a single, continuous time continuum for me. The specific date or day of the week has lost its former meaning. Now I appreciate the passage of time in terms of the order in which I performed various tasks while working on my projects. Binding to a date or time is meaningless to me. Therefore, I cannot answer what I did on Wednesday or Thursday, but I can tell you in what sequence I solved the problems.
External signals, such as sunrise, a clock showing 12:00 or children going to bed, stopped carrying important information for me. Now I listen more to my internal signals. If I feel tired, then I understand that it's time to sleep, I take a break to take a nap, and then return to interrupted business and continue them from the place where I stopped. As if my internal clock is no longer synchronized with the external one. I observe external signals only as a passive witness.
Today is the 31st day of my experiment. 30 full days spent in polyphasic sleep mode are over.
The past week was notable for its stability. The adaptation period was rather chaotic, but now I feel as comfortable as possible. I found a convenient and reasonable mode for myself, and it practically does not need further configuration. I am pleased with the sense of slow motion of time and the whole set of advantages that my current lifestyle gives.
To evaluate the whole experiment as a whole, the phrase “it works is amazing” is best suited. The first week was the most difficult because the physical adjustment took place, during the second and third weeks the mind was tuned. Now I feel nothing but pleasure.
I can not believe that only 60 days have passed. I feel that at least 120 days have passed.
Yes, I still sleep polyphasically. And yes, I'm still alive. As for my responsibility, I heard the opinion that it was lost long before the start of this experiment, so decide whether to read further or not.
Probably the most popular question asked of me in the last 30 days was: “Why did I manage to adapt to polyphasic sleep, while many failed?”
I was able to highlight some of the differences that gave me an advantage: the flexibility of the working and life schedule, the developed habit of getting up at 5 am, the lack of attachment to coffee, perennial veganism, increased motivation in the form of thousands of readers following the experiment, self-discipline skills, feel eccentric, rich experience in self-development ... (All these points are described in detail in the full version of the report ).
On day 90, it already seems strange to call it an experiment, since polyphasic sleep has become a part of my life.
Physically and emotionally, I feel great. I am extremely happy. It is more like a physical sensation, as if my body began to produce more endorphins. Sometimes I get terrible thoughts about how I can explode from my overwhelming energy.
Now it is difficult to say whether I will continue to sleep polyphasically all my life, go back to monophasic sleep, or try something else. I will stick with my current regime until I have a good reason to switch to something else.
This week I tried to make some adjustments to my polyphase sleep mode. I felt that I had already reached a certain stability and I can afford a small experiment. I decided that since I was so used to the current pattern of the day, there would not be much risk if I tried something else for a couple of days. And this turned out to be the correct assumption.
I tried: Skipping sleep, skipping sleep with coffee, sleeping without an alarm clock, 30 minutes sleep, 30 minutes sleeping every 6 hours and some other deviations from the basic scheme.
Most of these experiments were not successful, but they made me feel the limits of my own capabilities. Anyway, I'm back to the base model of Uberman (6 x 20 min)
After about 5 ½ months of polyphasic sleep, I decided to go back to monophasic. I made this decision about 10 days ago, and by now I have already managed to say goodbye to polyphasic sleep.
First of all, I should note that I did not have any valid reasons for this step. I could easily continue to live in a polyphase mode and further. As I have repeatedly noted in my reports, I find in the polyphase mode many positive points.
Also, I want to emphasize that my decision to terminate the experiment is not related to health. During the life in the polyphase mode, I never got sick, not even a cold.
The main reason I decided to return is that the rest of the world around me is monophasic. If a sufficient number of people around me lived in a polyphase mode, I most likely would have stayed here.
Another problem was the need to often be distracted by sleep, on average, once every 4 hours. Of course, I could stretch a little time between the two peresypami, but then I needed to fill this time. Considering that I have always loved working for 5-6 hours without a break, this annoys me a little. I do not like to crush all my works into 3.5-hour blocks, and I am very annoyed that daytime sleep is constantly pulling me out of the flow state.
Another problem was family relationships. How not cool, and the couple must sleep together in one bed. The children didn’t like it when, while watching the movie, dad asked to do a half-hour intermission and went off to take a nap.
Each of these factors separately is rather insignificant, but together they led me to the decision to return to monophasic sleep. In a polyphasic dream there were things that I really liked, but there were some that were very annoying. Even now, when I returned to the monophasic mode, I can not say exactly what was more. I also cannot say that I will never return to a polyphase regime in the future, under favorable circumstances. Now, with my current life, I find the monophasic mode more convenient for myself. So, from now on, I am again ready for hibernation :)
If you are seriously interested in polyphasic sleep, and you are ready to spend several hours reading one of the most detailed reports on this topic, go here: Polyphasic sleep . For the rest - this digest.
')
The essence of polyphase sleep is that instead of one long sleep per day, we sleep a little, several times during the day. One of the popular polyphase sleep patterns is Uberman Mode, which offers a day split into 6 short (20-30 minutes) sleep periods, alternating with even (about 4 hours) waking periods. This means that the total sleep time is reduced to 2-3 hours per day.
Normal human sleep consists of 90-minute cycles, and each such cycle ends with a REM phase. REM is the most important phase of sleep, it is during it that we see dreams, and depriving a person of REM, a phase, for a long time leads to serious nervous disorders. During the practice of polyphasic sleep, the body learns to enter REM immediately after falling asleep, and not at the end of the cycle. Therefore, the first week, while the body will adapt to shorter sleep cycles, it will experience increased stress. But then it will feel great, perhaps even better than before.
0 day
Probably, the readers of my articles “How to become a lark” and “How to learn to get up on an alarm clock” sent me several links to information about polyphasic sleep. Of course, I'm interested. The thought of the extra 30-40 hours of time a week for several days does not give me rest.
Among other things, this is just a crazy idea. She is so crazy that I want to try. It pushes me to this step, above all, curiosity and the desire to test the strength of my self-discipline. In addition, it is perfectly combined with my other eccentricities.
I am starting my polyphase sleep experiment today, so last night was the last "normal" night. Today, as usual, I woke up at 5 am, and I will go to bed every 4 hours. In order not to oversleep, I will set a countdown timer for 30 minutes. I decided that I would go to bed at 1:00, 5:00, 9:00, 13:00, 17:00, 21:00. I intend to hold out, at least until Halloween ... or die, depending on what comes first.
1 day
It has been almost 36 hours since I slept through my last “normal” night. There is fatigue, decreased concentration and drowsiness, but they are not a serious problem. I estimate my performance, both mental and physical, at about 50% of the norm. Therefore, the main work that I was engaged in today was limited to the selection of articles for later reading and the preparation of ingredients for food. In the morning, after a peresyp at 9:00, I was so alert that I recorded a planned podcast. But this is the last serious thing that was in my plans before Halloween. I deliberately endured all the more or less important things, so now I have a rest in some way. Including from sleep :)
I received several letters from people who tried to sleep polyphasically, but none of them passed the adaptation completely (did not last more than a few days), so I am wary of their advice.
My main strategic task now is to undergo adaptation, in other words, to withstand this regime for several days (approximately 4-7) until the body is reconstructed. The main tactical task is to find employment for the current 3.5 hours, until the next reload, so as not to focus on fatigue. The publication of these reports also helps to solve this problem.
2 day
The second day was much harder than the previous one. But I hold on.
I feel conscious and attentive, but the brain is too tired to think adequately. The worst periods of wakefulness are nighttime (from 1:00 to 5:00). Cooking is well suited as an activity at this time, while reading, on the contrary, leads to a nap.
It helps my skill to instantly wake up on an alarm clock and immediately get up, which I have already described in my blog. For myself, I decided that if I feel that I am close to falling from fatigue or drowsiness, I can try to enter some extra 20 minutes of sleep in order not to upset the experiment at all.
There is almost no desire, apparently the stomach is also rebuilt. From coffee, I immediately decided to refuse. Caffeine, of course, will help for a short period, but most likely will lengthen the adaptation period. Many reviews have tips on giving up meat and heavy meals for a while, but since I’m already a vegan, I keep my regular menu.
At some point I spent an hour and a half, lying on the couch and watching the movement of other family members. Feel like a half-dead zombie.
3 day
It seems that the adaptation process has moved forward. I began to dream, which indicates the achievement of the REM phase of sleep. If yesterday I estimated my condition on 5 out of 10, then today I am ready to give myself 7 points. I'm not the same zombie that was yesterday.
I am finally inclined to the idea of ​​increasing the number of peresyp from 6 to 8 or even 10 at the time of adaptation, while leaving their duration the same. Last night, I made myself two additional 20 minute peresyp, and this probably allows me to still stand, get up every time with the alarm bell and continue the experiment. Let me remind you that my goal is not to deprive oneself from sleep and rest, but only to deprive the REM phase, and only until the adaptation has passed.
At the moment, from the beginning of the experiment, I slept only 10 hours out of 80.
4 day
It seems that the turning point is left behind. I feel a clear improvement in my condition. Last night I added one additional 20-minute reload to my schedule at 3:00 (between scheduled at 1:00 and 5:00), and as a result, for the first time in these days, I feel slept. Ready to evaluate your energy and mental clarity on 8 out of 10.
Began to return appetite. I caught myself thinking that I felt hypersensitive to cold. I am cold to work in a room with the usual temperature (I had to increase it from 20 to 22 degrees) and I feel cold during a walk in clothes that are usual for this temperature. I hope this is a temporary phenomenon.
In principle, I am already able to function normally and the time has come to think about where to spend the released time.
I began to think about the naturalness of our usual monophasic regime. My 2-year-old son, who is now living in a mode very reminiscent of mine, is pushing me towards these thoughts. It is possible that the monophasic sleep model is not so natural.
5 day
Many people are interested in my motivation, which pushed me to this experiment. As I expected, many believe that this desire to increase their own effectiveness. This is a good guess, but the real answer is a banal curiosity.
It seems to me that people who think of switching to polyphasic sleep, guided by the desire to increase their productivity, are less likely to successfully complete the adaptation period. Increasing long-term productivity is bad motivation for most people. If this is your only goal, then it is likely that you will spit and break after a few days of lack of sleep, in the absence of positive results. It will surely seem to you that exchanging undisturbed sleep for hard work is too great a sacrifice.
And today I have plans to conduct a brainstorm, the purpose of which will be to search for options for spending night time. I want to find a way to reduce or completely defeat nighttime sleepiness, and not just find a way to ignore it.
6 day
Today was definitely the best day since the beginning of the experiment. Right now I can say that I feel exactly the same as it was in monophasic sleep mode (10 on a 10-point scale).
Print speed and motor skills almost returned to normal. It is almost unbelievable that I am able to feel as cheerful, attentive and energetic as usual, giving sleep only 2-3 hours a day. It is a pity that I did not try polyphasic sleep 10 years ago.
And also my perception of time has changed. Life ceased to be divided into day and night and turned into a single, continuous stream. At first it is very unusual, but every day I get more and more used to it and find more and more advantages in it.
7 day
Today I felt even better than yesterday. There was no trace of fog in the head. Reflexes work as before. Today, for the first time in the last week, I got behind the wheel of a car and did not feel any discomfort. It's just amazing, considering that all this week I slept no more than 20 hours.
I continue to practice the 7th pour at 3:00, when I feel the most sleepy, but each time I feel less and less need for it. Today I began to set my countdown timer to 25 minutes, instead of 30. It seems to me that this would be better. 30 minutes is too long. I wake up more and more to the alarm bell.
I am going to continue the experiment for another week before drawing any conclusions and making long-term plans. I'm tired of keeping daily reports, so now I will do them less often and only when I have some new, interesting information for you.
11 day
Since my experiment with polyphasic sleep is quite successful, I decided in the last couple of days to complicate my task a little. It is interesting for me to feel the limits of my capabilities.
I made my first trip since the beginning of the polyphase experiment. I did not have the opportunity to adhere to my standard sleep schedule (every 4 hours), and I sometimes had to increase the intervals between sleep to more than 6 hours or try to pokemar in the car while my wife was driving. Overall, I was amazed at how well this works. I had no problems either with sleeping in the car or with a 6-hour break in my sleep.
Of course, car naps, this is half measure. Of course, I am able to sleep and sit, but still lying in bed or on the couch, I rest much better. Nevertheless, this was enough for me to feel great until the next opportunity to sleep.
Now I have learned to fall asleep in 1-2 minutes, every time I go to bed. On average, I go to bed, fall asleep, sleep and see dreams, wake up and get up in 15 minutes. So it's not a long time, even if you leave the company in the middle of a conversation.
In general, I realized that polyphasic sleep is a very practical and very flexible tool. I am still impressed by how easily I adapted to this trip.
18 day
Today is the 18th day of my experiment. Compared to last week, now I am able to conduct more tests, to pay attention to more fine-tuning my sleep, and in general I am pleased with my progress.
I came to the conclusion that polyphasic sleep is much more flexible than it seemed to me initially. I completely refused to sleep on a schedule. Now I let my body tell me about the need to take a nap, and this is completely fine with me. I feel good if I go to bed 6-7 times a day, but not always at regular intervals. The intervals between bedtime are usually 5-6 hours during the day and 2-4 hours at night. I freely change my sleep time from day to day. There is no need for a clear schedule.
The 12th day of my experiment was not very successful. I missed one day’s sleep and the gap between the daytime sleep pieces was over 7 hours. And when I woke up at 10:30 pm after another sleep, I decided not to get up right away, but to relax a little bit ... I woke up at 4 am the next day. I could not believe my eyes that I slept more than 6 hours in a row. Of course, then I went back to my normal polyphase sleep schedule.
At first I was a little upset by this incident, but now, looking back, I am even glad that this has happened. This case helped me more clearly understand the limits of my capabilities, in particular, that you should not miss one of the naps.
20 day
On day 18, I experienced a lucid dream. And yesterday, just after midnight, another thing happened to me. This dream was not as bright as the previous one, but I considered this an important event, because I almost never had lucid dreams for two nights in a row. If polyphasic sleep increases the frequency of lucid dreams, then this will be a great bonus for me.
Since now my life has no pronounced breaks for sleep, I experiment with the modes of operation. I found the period from 2:00 to 10:00 most suitable for my main job. I like to use this particular time for a number of reasons. Silence in the house, general relaxation, lack of hunger, lack of telephone calls, but most importantly - by 10 am, when homework wakes up, I have already done all the work planned for the day and am ready to spend time with my family.
Now that I have found the optimal time for work, I am going to experiment with the routine of the rest of my daily activities. Plan out exercise, fun, reading / education, meditation, family leisure, etc. I had so much extra time that I needed to decide what to spend on it.
21 day
The third week of this amazing experiment has come to an end. During this time I noticed the following changes.
In food, I am less attracted to any products cooked or processed. About 70% of my diet now consists of raw fruits, vegetables and nuts, in all its diversity (remember, I've been a vegan since 1997).
I resumed playing sports and already managed to recover from a break associated with adaptation.
I am stating an increase in attentiveness and vigor compared to a monophasic past. It seems to me that my depth, clarity and speed of thoughts have increased. Changes have undergone and decision-making. Now I make decisions very quickly, almost without analyzing them. The correct decision comes out by itself, without the participation of my verbal system. This is similar to many times increased intuition.
22 day
One of the most important (and extremely unexpected) events that occurred to me during the practice of polyphasic sleep was a change in the perception of the passage of time, during my naps. Now, after waking up, I feel that much more time has passed than the clock shows. Almost every time I wake up, I am sure (on physical sensations) that I have slept for at least 1-2 hours. My sleep is deeper and stronger than ever before. I have very intense and vivid dreams.
I feel that time flows much slower than it actually is. Combined with the fact that I am awake 21-22 hours a day, the illusion of stretching time in a dream gives me the feeling that the day is stretched almost twice. By the way, I also almost lost the intuitive feeling of the day.
For me, this turns into a beyond, almost mystical experience. I was well accustomed to the feeling of the passage of time, and suddenly this feeling left me. Time has become thick and viscous for me.
24 day
The feeling that time flows very slowly, which I mentioned in the previous report, continues. I am amazed how long this weekend has lasted and how much has happened.
To measure time by the number of days does not seem relevant to me. Technically, the day ends and a new one begins, when the clock strikes midnight. But, since the night dream dividing our days was left for me in the past, the chain of days turned into a single, continuous time continuum for me. The specific date or day of the week has lost its former meaning. Now I appreciate the passage of time in terms of the order in which I performed various tasks while working on my projects. Binding to a date or time is meaningless to me. Therefore, I cannot answer what I did on Wednesday or Thursday, but I can tell you in what sequence I solved the problems.
External signals, such as sunrise, a clock showing 12:00 or children going to bed, stopped carrying important information for me. Now I listen more to my internal signals. If I feel tired, then I understand that it's time to sleep, I take a break to take a nap, and then return to interrupted business and continue them from the place where I stopped. As if my internal clock is no longer synchronized with the external one. I observe external signals only as a passive witness.
30 day
Today is the 31st day of my experiment. 30 full days spent in polyphasic sleep mode are over.
The past week was notable for its stability. The adaptation period was rather chaotic, but now I feel as comfortable as possible. I found a convenient and reasonable mode for myself, and it practically does not need further configuration. I am pleased with the sense of slow motion of time and the whole set of advantages that my current lifestyle gives.
To evaluate the whole experiment as a whole, the phrase “it works is amazing” is best suited. The first week was the most difficult because the physical adjustment took place, during the second and third weeks the mind was tuned. Now I feel nothing but pleasure.
60 day
I can not believe that only 60 days have passed. I feel that at least 120 days have passed.
Yes, I still sleep polyphasically. And yes, I'm still alive. As for my responsibility, I heard the opinion that it was lost long before the start of this experiment, so decide whether to read further or not.
Probably the most popular question asked of me in the last 30 days was: “Why did I manage to adapt to polyphasic sleep, while many failed?”
I was able to highlight some of the differences that gave me an advantage: the flexibility of the working and life schedule, the developed habit of getting up at 5 am, the lack of attachment to coffee, perennial veganism, increased motivation in the form of thousands of readers following the experiment, self-discipline skills, feel eccentric, rich experience in self-development ... (All these points are described in detail in the full version of the report ).
90 day
On day 90, it already seems strange to call it an experiment, since polyphasic sleep has become a part of my life.
Physically and emotionally, I feel great. I am extremely happy. It is more like a physical sensation, as if my body began to produce more endorphins. Sometimes I get terrible thoughts about how I can explode from my overwhelming energy.
Now it is difficult to say whether I will continue to sleep polyphasically all my life, go back to monophasic sleep, or try something else. I will stick with my current regime until I have a good reason to switch to something else.
120 day
This week I tried to make some adjustments to my polyphase sleep mode. I felt that I had already reached a certain stability and I can afford a small experiment. I decided that since I was so used to the current pattern of the day, there would not be much risk if I tried something else for a couple of days. And this turned out to be the correct assumption.
I tried: Skipping sleep, skipping sleep with coffee, sleeping without an alarm clock, 30 minutes sleep, 30 minutes sleeping every 6 hours and some other deviations from the basic scheme.
Most of these experiments were not successful, but they made me feel the limits of my own capabilities. Anyway, I'm back to the base model of Uberman (6 x 20 min)
Return to monophasic sleep
After about 5 ½ months of polyphasic sleep, I decided to go back to monophasic. I made this decision about 10 days ago, and by now I have already managed to say goodbye to polyphasic sleep.
First of all, I should note that I did not have any valid reasons for this step. I could easily continue to live in a polyphase mode and further. As I have repeatedly noted in my reports, I find in the polyphase mode many positive points.
Also, I want to emphasize that my decision to terminate the experiment is not related to health. During the life in the polyphase mode, I never got sick, not even a cold.
The main reason I decided to return is that the rest of the world around me is monophasic. If a sufficient number of people around me lived in a polyphase mode, I most likely would have stayed here.
Another problem was the need to often be distracted by sleep, on average, once every 4 hours. Of course, I could stretch a little time between the two peresypami, but then I needed to fill this time. Considering that I have always loved working for 5-6 hours without a break, this annoys me a little. I do not like to crush all my works into 3.5-hour blocks, and I am very annoyed that daytime sleep is constantly pulling me out of the flow state.
Another problem was family relationships. How not cool, and the couple must sleep together in one bed. The children didn’t like it when, while watching the movie, dad asked to do a half-hour intermission and went off to take a nap.
Each of these factors separately is rather insignificant, but together they led me to the decision to return to monophasic sleep. In a polyphasic dream there were things that I really liked, but there were some that were very annoying. Even now, when I returned to the monophasic mode, I can not say exactly what was more. I also cannot say that I will never return to a polyphase regime in the future, under favorable circumstances. Now, with my current life, I find the monophasic mode more convenient for myself. So, from now on, I am again ready for hibernation :)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/402999/
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