Only nap when tired?

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RGB

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Dec 22, 2009, 3:43:38 PM12/22/09
to Polyphasic Sleep
I've always disliked the idea of conditioning yourself to take naps at
specific times in Uberman. It forces you to be tired because you are
used to napping at those times (Like Pavlov's dog salivating at the
bell). You could be taking a nap when you don't really need it.

I was reading this thread http://groups.google.com/group/polyphasic/browse_thread/thread/93382305ac7586bb
and started wondering if you could just continue to take naps whenever
you were tired instead of forcing them at certain times.

I did some searching and found a post on Steve's forum about someone
who tried it.

http://www.stevepavlina.com/forums/health-fitness/27330-uberman-2-0-polyphasic-sleep.html

The guy ends up taking it to the extreme and staying up past his
tiredness for quite a long time. He also starts taking "daydream naps"
instead of naps, but those seem like a little too much for me. The
main info I got from there was that he managed to stopped sleeping on
the fixed schedule and just napped when he was tired and it worked
fine.

Has anyone tried something like this? I'm not currently on Uberman,
I'm trying to adapt to Everyman, but I plan on switching and trying it
sometime between Christmas and New Years.

I think if it works it would be much better than Uberman because you
have much more flexibility in when you nap and you wouldn't have to
worry about missing naps.

Ken Earl

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Dec 22, 2009, 4:53:32 PM12/22/09
to polyp...@googlegroups.com
I used to think this was the way to go.  I'm not sure anymore for a couple reasons.  On uberman, the schedule is very strict, and although you may think napping when you're tired gives you more flexibility, in my experience, it just makes it so you don't know when you'll need a nap... but you still have to take a nap right then, if you don't you'll totally crash.  At least I think that's the case on uberman.  I do everyman, and I take naps when I'm tired instead of on a specific schedule.  I do like it, but I think that's because on everyman, you can already push your naps a few hours either way without too much trouble, so when I get tired, I can take a nap at my leisure.  I'm not totally sure, but it still seems like if you're doing uberman, when your body tells you that it needs a nap, you'd better take one right away, or suffer the consequences.  At least if you take a nap every 4 hours, you know when you'll need one and can schedule stuff around it.  It would suck to be in the middle of a movie at a theatre and suddenly find out you need a nap.

I'm definitely interested to see how this goes, though, so please let us know.

thanks,
Ken


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RGB

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Dec 23, 2009, 12:42:44 AM12/23/09
to Polyphasic Sleep
Hmm, that's a good point about not knowing when you'll need it. My
idea (I have no idea if it's right) is that you only crash fast on
uberman because of the conditioning. If you were on monophasic and you
went to bed at exactly 10pm every day for a few months and then
suddenly stay up past 10, I think you would feel the same crash that
you get from missing a nap from uberman.

Another thing I started thinking about is that even if you only nap
when you are tired, you would probably get tired at around the same
time every day so I guess you would end up sleeping on a schedule
anyway. Hopefully it would be a more lenient schedule than if you
forced yourself onto one, I guess I'll just have to test it.

On Dec 22, 3:53 pm, Ken Earl <kenjo.e...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I used to think this was the way to go.  I'm not sure anymore for a couple
> reasons.  On uberman, the schedule is very strict, and although you may
> think napping when you're tired gives you more flexibility, in my
> experience, it just makes it so you don't know when you'll need a nap... but
> you still have to take a nap right then, if you don't you'll totally crash.
>  At least I think that's the case on uberman.  I do everyman, and I take
> naps when I'm tired instead of on a specific schedule.  I do like it, but I
> think that's because on everyman, you can already push your naps a few hours
> either way without too much trouble, so when I get tired, I can take a nap
> at my leisure.  I'm not totally sure, but it still seems like if you're
> doing uberman, when your body tells you that it needs a nap, you'd better
> take one right away, or suffer the consequences.  At least if you take a nap
> every 4 hours, you know when you'll need one and can schedule stuff around
> it.  It would suck to be in the middle of a movie at a theatre and suddenly
> find out you need a nap.
>
> I'm definitely interested to see how this goes, though, so please let us
> know.
>
> thanks,
> Ken
>

> On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 1:43 PM, RGB <grocke...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I've always disliked the idea of conditioning yourself to take naps at
> > specific times in Uberman. It forces you to be tired because you are
> > used to napping at those times (Like Pavlov's dog salivating at the
> > bell). You could be taking a nap when you don't really need it.
>
> > I was reading this thread

> >http://groups.google.com/group/polyphasic/browse_thread/thread/933823...


> > and started wondering if you could just continue to take naps whenever
> > you were tired instead of forcing them at certain times.
>
> > I did some searching and found a post on Steve's forum about someone
> > who tried it.
>

> >http://www.stevepavlina.com/forums/health-fitness/27330-uberman-2-0-p...

Aya Hu

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Dec 23, 2009, 7:52:08 AM12/23/09
to Polyphasic Sleep
Im an uberman, and while it is BEST to take a rigorous structure when
adapting, it will speed up the adaptation, it's not truly imperative.
However, if you have a nice, structured naptime during adaptation,
once you ARE adapted, you can do mostly anything. Just last night I
skipped a nap to see avatar 3d. While you might feel slightly tired,
if you are out doing something exciting, like seeing a movie in 3d,
you won't notice at all. Its very easy to move around and skip naps
when you are fully adapted. I have been uberman for over half a year
now. You don't 'crash' until you skip two naps, its almost impossible
to skip two naps, but moving naps around has never been a detriment
since being fully adapted.

On Dec 22, 1:43 pm, RGB <grocke...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've always disliked the idea of conditioning yourself to take naps at
> specific times in Uberman. It forces you to be tired because you are
> used to napping at those times (Like Pavlov's dog salivating at the
> bell). You could be taking a nap when you don't really need it.
>

> I was reading this threadhttp://groups.google.com/group/polyphasic/browse_thread/thread/933823...


> and started wondering if you could just continue to take naps whenever
> you were tired instead of forcing them at certain times.
>
> I did some searching and found a post on Steve's forum about someone
> who tried it.
>

> http://www.stevepavlina.com/forums/health-fitness/27330-uberman-2-0-p...

Message has been deleted

Aya Hu

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Dec 27, 2009, 6:16:09 AM12/27/09
to Polyphasic Sleep
The benefit of having a schedule on polyphasic sleep, is that no
matter what VARYING amounts of activity you do, you are always ONLY
tired within about 10 minutes of naptime, no matter what, period.
That's why people go 'uberman' so they have energy 99.9% of the time.
I work out hardcore, I do running, etc, and never once since being
fully adapted have I felt tired shy of 10 minutes from my nap, save
that time of month.

Something to consider.

On Dec 23, 11:52 am, Charlotte Ellett <charlottemell...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> I'm considering doing this, only napping when tired.  It is the only thing
> that makes sense to me, and basically what I end up doing anyway.  I have
> never been very good at sleeping on a schedule, because varying amounts of
> activity make me tired at different times.  Mental activity can tire me out,
> physical activity can leave me too "pumped" to sleep, and doing something
> mentally engaging before a nap can leave me too excited to sleep right then,
> but more tired when I do feel like sleeping, and I may be in need of two
> naps close together then.  I can see the benefit of having a schedule for
> monphasic sleep, when a calming sleep ritual is necessary to prepare
> yourself to go to sleep (at least, if you're an insomniac like me who cannot
> fall asleep on command or just because it's 10 PM), but if you're sleeping
> less, I can see the benefit in only sleeping when you're tired, and letting
> your body's activities dictate that, rather than trying to develop a
> circadian rhythm (something that I find difficult to do anyway).  I think
> some people are scheduled sleepers and others aren't, it just depends upon
> your aptitude, your biology, and the habits you developed throughout your
> life.
>
> Anyway, I will give this a try.  If it seems doable after several days'
> trial, I will keep it up into the start of the next school term.


>
> On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 2:43 PM, RGB <grocke...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I've always disliked the idea of conditioning yourself to take naps at
> > specific times in Uberman. It forces you to be tired because you are
> > used to napping at those times (Like Pavlov's dog salivating at the
> > bell). You could be taking a nap when you don't really need it.
>
> > I was reading this thread

> >http://groups.google.com/group/polyphasic/browse_thread/thread/933823...


> > and started wondering if you could just continue to take naps whenever
> > you were tired instead of forcing them at certain times.
>
> > I did some searching and found a post on Steve's forum about someone
> > who tried it.
>

> >http://www.stevepavlina.com/forums/health-fitness/27330-uberman-2-0-p...


>
> > The guy ends up taking it to the extreme and staying up past his
> > tiredness for quite a long time. He also starts taking "daydream naps"
> > instead of naps, but those seem like a little too much for me. The
> > main info I got from there was that he managed to stopped sleeping on
> > the fixed schedule and just napped when he was tired and it worked
> > fine.
>
> > Has anyone tried something like this? I'm not currently on Uberman,
> > I'm trying to adapt to Everyman, but I plan on switching and trying it
> > sometime between Christmas and New Years.
>
> > I think if it works it would be much better than Uberman because you
> > have much more flexibility in when you nap and you wouldn't have to
> > worry about missing naps.
>

Message has been deleted

Aya Hu

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Dec 28, 2009, 2:23:45 AM12/28/09
to Polyphasic Sleep
Charlotte,

No need to be defensive, I was not claiming that everything works for
everyone. Sleeping "Only When tired" means you can be tired within an
hour of your last nap, and sleep. The benefit of having a schedule is
that no matter how much rigorous activity I have put my body through,
I only get tired on schedule, every time. If I were to do freerunning
napping, it may be different. I might go to bed 3 times in 3 hours and
then again in 2 hours, etc. What have been your experiences? How long
have you been polyphasic sleeping? What type do you do?

I don't understand why you bring up whether running is bad for your
knees, I don't see the relation to freenapping? I run because I like
to run and have never had troubles, and even while running and being a
dancer and working out, I don't get tired anytime but naptime. This is
the benefit of not free-running, you can rely on a time you will be
tired, instead of say, coming up 3 hours in a row 'tired' then going
for 5 hours and not being tired, etc, something you can't rely on,
something that can be affected by hard physical activity. I think you
mentioned that physical activity makes you weary. Being an uberman,
there are only certain times I am ever 'tired' and naps are
'extremely' flexible (To an extent, you can be 'flexible' 3 days in a
row, but a few days of moving things around doesn't hurt). You can
skip one nap, and move any nap around almost as much as you like.

I speak from over a year of research and over half a year as an
uberman experience here. I have yet to meet a successful free-running
napper, but I do hope to, because it was something I'd considered in
the beginning. My twin tried it for a while and failed, but she is
more sensitive than some. It may be that you body may pick up a
natural rythym anyways, I am eager to see your results if you pursue
it. Structured polyphasic sleeping has been proven to be 'successful'
so to speak. Anyone on earth can train themselves to sleep on a
schedule, regardless of biology and genetic material. That is why it
takes 30 days to adapt, it is you training yourself a completely
abnormal schedule. Forcing yourself into sleep in these pockets of
time and not allowing sleep in any other. Even if you free run, it
still may take you 30 days for your body to fully understand what you
are doing and adapt to it. Either way I wish the best of luck.

On Dec 27, 11:25 am, Charlotte Ellett <charlottemell...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> I must apologize, because I don't see the relevance of this.  If someone
> only naps when they're sleepy, it's rather the same thing, isn't it?  You
> can't train yourself to only be tired at certain times.  There is a
> difference between being sleepy and being tired, actually.  If you have a
> ritual of sleeping at a certain time, and your brain functions in such a way
> that it prepares you to sleep then by releasing melatonin, then you will
> feel sleepy at that time, no matter if you are physically or mentally tired
> or not.  Individual experiences of the effects of DaVinci sleep will vary,
> as will how someone produces melatonin, their quotidian rhythms, etc.
>
> On an unrelated note, isn't running bad for your knees and hips?  Working
> out hard doesn't really produce better results.
>
> I appreciate your input on your experiences, but I just want to stress that
> everyone is different and so we can't really be experts on what others
> experience with their individual needs and chosen sleeping patterns.

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