Questions about Everyman schedule

[bogdy]

Hi there,
I've recently found out about polyphasic sleep and, to me, it's
one of the most interesting and potentially useful things I've read
about in a while. While my current lifestyle will not allow me to go
all the way with experimenting polyphasic sleep schedules (no Uberman
for me), I'm very much interested in getting as much extra free time
as I can. I've read quite a lot of posts I found on the internet
regarding this subject in the past week, so I believe I already have a
good understanding of the basic principle, so the next step would
probably be to actually try and adapt to a certain polyphasic sleep
schedule.
That being said, I have a few questions for the more experienced
polyphasers out there, just so that I better understand the whole
process of switching sleep schedules, with the hope that eventually I
will decide on the best way to do the transition, and the best
schedule to use.

1) Imagine this scenario: you've completely adapted to an Everyman's
sleeping schedule, with a core sleep of 3 hours and 3 extra naps,
which should provide you with 4-5 sleep cycles per day, equivalent to
6-7.5 hours of monophasic sleep. Would you ever wake up (from either
the core nap or one of the mini-naps) without setting an alarm? I
mean, being monophasic right now, if I'm on vacation and I don't need
to wake up using an alarm, my body settles down on a specific sleep
length each day, presumably containing exactly the number of sleep
cycles that would keep me up and running until the next time I go to
sleep. So, if I go to sleep at 00:00, I know pretty much for certain
that I will wake up around 7:30, or 9:00, depending on how tired I was
before going to sleep. I'm wondering if this also applies to a
polyphaser; I mean: if you forget to set the alarm before the core
nap, do you end up sleeping for 3-4 hours or more like 7-9 hours? Same
question goes for the mini-naps: do you ever get used to sleeping
exactly 20 minutes, or is an alarm needed all the time?

2) I'm in no hurry to make the transition, so I was wondering: do you
think I could FIRST get used to having the naps at certain moments and
THEN start to reduce the length of my core nap? I mean, could I do the
transition iteratively: first add a nap in the afternoon, then reduce
the 'core nap' (which would at first be 6 hours) by 1.5 hours, then
add a nap in the evening, then further reduce the core nap length,
etc ? From what I've read, this would lead to a loooong adaptation
time (hoping it would be a month or two), but if I eventually get
there, I imagine it would reduce the sleep deprivation period to a
minimum, if any at all, which would be preferable, considering the
amount of stress I currently get at work.

3) Going to the extreme, and just theoretically speaking: could you
replace a 7.5-hour chunk of continuous sleep with 5x20 minute naps
that would occupy the same time period (one nap every 1.5 hours)? I
know it wouldn't be practical, because you would have only 1 hour of
awake time during these naps, but it's just a theoretical question.
You would still have 5 sleep cycles, each starting at the same time it
would start before, but each one would be reduced to 20 minutes, for
maximum efficiency. Or, to put it another way: can you have an
Everyman schedule where the mini-naps are very close to the core nap?

4) This one is pretty much equivalent to questions 2 and 3, but I'm
asking it separately anyway: do you have to be quite tired when you
take a mini-nap, in order for it to have full effect? Actually, would
a mini-nap have ANY effect if you're quite well-rested before you take
it? Assume, for example, that you've just woken up from the core nap
(and, presumably, are well rested), only to realize that you have a
very hard day ahead of you, and/or you might actually be forced to
skip the next mini-nap; would it help in any way to take an extra mini-
nap within a short time after the core nap, to give you an energy
boost that would help you the rest of the day?

Thanks.

[Joseph Stoppelbein]

Ok, I'll give this a shot. Note: I am Everyman with 3 hour core and 3
20 min naps for 10 months now. (2 week vacation period I was off last
December).
Note: this is personal experience and others may have different opinions.
Core is 11 PM - 2 AM; Naps at 7, 12:20 and 4:40

1) Waking up without an alarm. The idea that once fully adapted you
would sleep significantly past an alarm, if it did not go off, assumes
(wrongly I believe) that you are still in some kind of sleep dep. This
is just not true. Now being fully adjusted in an Everyman you are not
under any sleep dep...not any more so than a monophasic sleeper. Now
would a polyphaser possibly sleep past an alarm that doesn't go
off...sure. But so would a monophaser.
In my experience I frequently find myself waking up just minutes
before my 2 am alarm. Frequently = 30%. Now, I still want to use my
alarm. But when it goes off I am ready to get up and have absolutely no
difficulties in doing this. I don't think I've ever not set an alarm or
that it didn't go off. But again, it is perfectly natural for me to now
wake up after my 3hour core.
When I was off everyman for a couple weeks and went to mono on
vacation I found that when I slept without an alarm, I could sleep for
only about 6 hours at once. Later I read PureDokyx book and found her
experience of the 150% rule to be the same. Also, I find that often i
wake up before my nap alarm (20 minutes). It is not unusual for me to
wake up at 15 minutes. I just get up and get going....obviously my
brain thought 15 was enough. Most of the time, though, I wake up at the
20 min alarm.
Again, once fully adjusted, a polyphaser is experiencing no sleep
deprivation and is not back-logging needed sleep.

2) No. Find the schedule that will work for you and do it for no less
than 30 days. If you want to go Everyman 3 then do that day 1 and don't
touch a thing until day 30. Then maybe start tweaking your nap lengths
etc if you feel you need to. My opinion. I haven't seen many people
succeed when they start messing it with it from the beginning. Take a
big breath...no matter what, you are going to have to fight that sleep
dep beast head on. No way around it.

3) Not sure about that. I think you would have to put a nap or two
later in the day. And by that point you're talking 7+ naps. Like you
said...not really practical.

4) I have taken a 10 min mini-nap from time to time. Maybe once or
twice a month. Sometimes things are really hectic and you are extra
tired. I did this when I was mono too. I don't think there's anything
wrong with that. But I believe that should be minimal. If you are
relying on a mini-nap to make it through each day, then there is a
problem with your schedule or you aren't keeping your schedule.

My advice: pick the everyman that suits you and your schedule. Take
time to plan your core and nap times. No nap should exceed 20 minutes.
Commit to it for at least 30 days. Toughest sleep dep period (IMO) is
days 6-10 (so you may need a week where worker is easier, etc). After
that it gets easier until full adjustment in about 30 days. Don't tweak
anything until its been a month.

All the above is just my opinion and my experience.
Good luck,
Joe

[Bogdan Stan]

    Thanks for the answer, I just wanted to know more about what I'm getting into, and since I really like tweaking and optimizing things whatever I do, I wanted to know what the limits are when going polyphasic. So far I've only experimented a bit with sleeping during the lunch break (at 13:00) and taking a nap just after my wife goes to work in the morning (I wake up at 6:00 and take a nap at 7:30), while basically maintaining a 6-hours core sleep. I know that the naps are not correctly timed, according to the normal Everyman schedules, but they were only designed to be a test of how easy I can go to sleep at different moments during the day, and they also seem to help, even though I don't really go to sleep during those 20 minutes (I remain conscious almost the entire time). I know they have an effect because for the last 2 days I've woken up without an alarm at 4:30 in the morning, even though I usually sleep between 00:00 and 6:00 (and that's not really enough for me, I have days when I'm very sleepy at work, but I make up for it during the weekend). That's mainly why I was asking these questions, because it seems to me that by adding those 2 extra naps my body automatically adjusted and is starting to sleep less during the core nap, which is kinda neat. I'll have to see if the pattern of waking up early continues during the following days, but considering how awake I was this morning (I actually WANTED to go back to sleep, and couldn't), I have pretty high hopes.
    Another thing that I was wondering about is: how do you usually cope with situations when you HAVE to be awake the whole day (and possibly skip 2 consecutive naps)? For example, suppose you want to go on a one-day trip to the mountains, you leave early in the morning (6-7 am) and you're back home late in the evening, maybe 8-9 pm? Do you just try to sleep more during the previous and the next core nap and get back on your normal schedule right after that? Or do you reschedule your naps, trying to take one right before you leave and one right after you get back? If you skip a nap, when do you start feeling sleepy, right afterward, or later in the day?
   Also, I've read quite a bit of opinions about whether it is fine to change the schedule a bit during the weekend, but nothing clear enough. My monophasic sleep schedule would usually translate into 6 hours of sleep during the weekdays and 9 hours of sleep during the weekend, so I'm used to treating those 2 weekend days differently. Obviously, I could try to keep the Everyman schedule precisely during the weekend also (and I probably should), but there are certain factors that might prevent me from doing that, like the fact that I'm usually at my parent's house then, in the countryside, and trust me, there's almost nothing I could do there in the middle of the night (no internet, not advisable to go jogging because loose dogs + darkness is bad for you, nothing interesting on TV that late at night anyway, etc.). I could maybe try to read something, but for me, that's a very effective recipe for falling asleep fast, so I'd rather not. Also, during these 2 days I often have activities that would overlap with my nap times (like going on trips, as said above), so, unless there is no way to make it work, I'd rather skip at least one of the naps, and compensate with more time during the core nap. I'm just wondering how much of an effect that might have on my sleeping patterns. I'm pretty sure that I'll end up experimenting with this myself, but if anyone has experience with this, please share the info, as it's always good to know what to expect in advance.

Thanks.