Well it’s been almost a month now since being on the Everyman sleep schedule. Since I last wrote, there has not been any changes or developments that are worth writing here and unless something changes, this will probably be the last post on the subject. I still want to try the 1.5-hour core sleep with 4 naps spread throughout the day, so if that happens I’ll definitely keep you posted.
If this is the first time you’ve read about my polyphasic sleep experiment check out my first post on polyphasic sleep to get some background on what I’m doing. In a nutshell, I’ve been successful at adapting to a multi- or “poly”-phased sleep schedule that consists of sleeping one core sleep period for 3 hours (typically 11pm to 2am) and then taking three 20-min naps spread throughout the day (again typically 7am, 12pm, and 7pm).
As far as sticking to the schedule in the last week, I’ve had no issues except during my Christmas vacation. Given that I’ve had a lot of various Christmas parties, it’s been pretty difficult taking some of my scheduled naps — the most difficult being the 7pm nap.
In the last post I was explaining how I’ve been able to push out a nap or two for a couple of hours without losing any mental alertness or becoming overly tired. However, due to one of the parties, this last week I had to skip a nap entirely, because I didn’t have anywhere to go take one. By the time I did my core sleep (which I had to postpone for a few hours because the party went late) I ended up sleeping through the alarm and waking up after 6 hours instead of 3. So it seems that much like people’s experiences with the Uberman sleep schedule, the Everyman isn’t very forgiving when it comes to skipping your regularly-scheduled naps.
As a side note, I’d like to mention that I broke one of my ribs while training in Martial Arts this last week. The doctor told me to hold off doing anything strenuous for about six weeks. It will be interesting to see if polyphasic sleep has any effect (good or bad) on the healing process.
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“As a side note, I’d like to mention that I broke one of my ribs while training in Martial Arts this last week. The doctor told me to hold off doing anything strenuous for about six weeks. It will be interesting to see if polyphasic sleep has any effect (good or bad) on the healing process. ”
Has it seemed to have any discernable effect on your healing process?
Left by Richard Lincks on January 30th, 2008
Richard,
Good question. From what I’ve observed I don’t think it has had any negative effect on the healing process but neither has it seemed to speed it up. I’ve just started up with my training again (as of Feb 1st) and so far so good. It seems to be completely healed.
- Erich
Left by Erich on February 2nd, 2008
It’s been about 4 months or so since you finished your experiment. I am curious, are you still following the routine or have you gone back to a more traditional sleep pattern? If you have continued to do it, have you noticed anything new of significance that may not have shown up in the initial 30 days?
Thanks for a great website!
- Matt
Left by Matty Matt-Matt on May 1st, 2008
Great question Matt. I continued with the sleep schedule until about the end of February of this year for reasons of work-related travel (one of the client sites I was at did not make it possible for me to take one of my naps) so I had to stop. Since then, I’ve been intermittently on it but never made the complete transition again as something keeps interrupting my ability to take consistent naps (which is key to the success of this schedule).
I do enjoy the extra time and will be going back on it in the near future.
Left by Erich on May 2nd, 2008
Hey,
I just stumbled on your site somehow, and think it is a fantastic site!
How ‘active’ is your lifestyle? I’ve always been fascinated by the ideas around power-naps, and I’m always trying to get more into, or out of my life somehow…
I’m just starting back at the gym, and I know that sleep is one of the key factors for muscle repair… how was your recovery from the broken ribs?
I might be keen on trying polyphasic sleep… I guess Google can tell me the basic rules of the game.
Long story short:
- Great Site!!!
- How active is your lifestyle?
- How did polyphasic sleep affect your recovery from rib-broken-ness
Left by Zane on June 2nd, 2008
Thanks for the comments Zane.
My ribs are fully healed now, however I’m not sure how the time difference would have been had I been sleeping a normal schedule.
As far as my activity level, I lead a fairly active lifestyle (exercise 6 days/week, train in martial arts, try to get out on the weekends etc.) and I have not seen any detriment with polyphasic sleeping on my overall activity level (except for the fact that I have to regularly take naps which can be annoying).
- Erich
Left by Erich on June 3rd, 2008
Hey Erich, I’ve been researching this topic lately since I saw it on your site. Your log has convinced me to give it a try, so thanks for taking the time and care to post it. I wonder if this could have any application to wilderness living or the understanding of zoological behaviors?
Good Medicine,
Travis
Left by Travis aka skrat on June 19th, 2008
A friend who’s doing it during finals time of the semester (20min naps every 4 hours I believe) told me it can be dangerous to fully adopt this lifestyle, meaning doing it for over certain # of months at a time. I believe it was something like 9 consequent months, because your brain can’t go back anymore, or something like that.
Everytime he does it he loses a lot of weight. Was this the case with you? Were there any negative consequences you noticed?
Thank you and thanks 4 the post!
Left by Toni on June 27th, 2008
Toni,
I did lose weight, but I think it was a function of being more active when my body was used to resting. In other words I burned more calories on a daily basis. As far as your friend mentioning that it is unhealthy over the long term, he may be right. The longest I’ve heard anyone doing polyphasic sleeping was for 1 year straight (without any negative effects).
While your friend mentioned a specific time period (9 months), I’m not sure, I’ve never heard of that nor have I ever gone that far (yet). I do imagine it would be more difficult to revert back to a monophasic lifestyle the longer you live polyphasically, but I’m sure it would just be a matter of adapting to it — just like it takes about 2 weeks to fully adapt from a monophasic to a polyphasic lifestyle.
thanks for the comments!
- Erich
Left by Erich on June 28th, 2008