Comment author: JGWeissman 11 July 2013 03:16:46PM 6 points [-]

How do they cope with sickness/wounds ? If you get the flu, will you be able to heal as fast using a Uberman or Everyman sleep pattern ? People doing monophasic will tend to sleep much more when sick, both increase the size of the monophasic sleep and doing naps. What happens if you follow Uberman/Everyman ? Can you get this additional sleep when sick, without breaking the whole adaptation ?

When I get sick, I add more sleep to my everyman 3 schedule. I can extend naps to 90 minutes or 3 hours, and add extra hours onto my core. In extreme cases, I can just ignore the normal schedule and sleep as much as I feel like. When I notice early that I am getting sick, I can sometimes prevent the worst of it my sleeping for 6 total hours that day. In all cases, I am able to resume normal everyman 3 after recovering.

Comment author: Puredoxyk 27 July 2013 03:16:37PM 3 points [-]

That's been pretty much exactly my experience as well, with the possible addendum that I work really hard to make sure I can sleep as long as I want if I notice that I might be getting sick, since if I catch it early, doing this is VERY likely to prevent the illness altogether.

Comment author: kilobug 11 July 2013 02:31:29PM 6 points [-]

I've a few questions about those "atypical sleep patterns" :

  1. Are there studies about their long-term effect on health, lifespan, IQ, ... ?

  2. How do they cope with sickness/wounds ? If you get the flu, will you be able to heal as fast using a Uberman or Everyman sleep pattern ? People doing monophasic will tend to sleep much more when sick, both increase the size of the monophasic sleep and doing naps. What happens if you follow Uberman/Everyman ? Can you get this additional sleep when sick, without breaking the whole adaptation ?

  3. How do they cope with various kind of schedule/social constraints ? With monophasic sleep, you can relatively easily adapt your sleep schedule (staying awake late, waking up early) to cope with any event, from a family dinner to a RPG night to a plane to catch, what happens when you disturb the sleep pattern of Uberman/Everyman ? Do they handle such "transgression" as well ass monophasic ?

Comment author: Puredoxyk 27 July 2013 02:10:39PM 2 points [-]

Studies, no. I wrote a book (ubersleepbook.com, if ya'll don't mind me dropping that link -- if it's verboten, I'll remove it and sorry) that compiles as much as I've been able to get ahold of as far as information after a decade of running a site and communicating with people on the subject, and it has chapters that address your other two (very good!) questions. The short answer is: AFTER adaptation, polyphasic sleep copes with events (including sickness, travel, and "just life") just like monophasic sleep does, only in a compressed / hyperefficient manner. DURING adaptation it's super strict and will get thrown off by these, but once it's well-ingrained, things work surprisingly similarly -- just shorter.

Comment author: [deleted] 12 July 2013 11:29:07AM 2 points [-]

No, though I have stopped using Ride of the Valkyries because it was too abrupt.

I used to use "Time" by Pink Floyd.

Comment author: Puredoxyk 27 July 2013 02:06:40PM 0 points [-]

I've developed a hilariously pavlovian response to songs I used for alarms at some point or another -- I can still hear "The Authority Song" by Jimmy Eat World and, if I'm sitting or reclining, feel a physical itch to stand.

I only use a very quiet beepy thing anymore, or my phone if that's what I've got, and it usually doesn't even go off before I wake up (I deliberately set alarms a few minutes later than I'll wake up so that I have a chance to get up and pre-emptively shut them off), but for a while using songs was a fun way to play with the ol' brain!

Comment author: VincenzoLingley 11 July 2013 04:25:22PM *  3 points [-]

Do you expect to reach a point where you don't need an alarm clock?

(People already doing this: do you need an alarm clock? How long have you been doing this for?)

Comment author: Puredoxyk 27 July 2013 02:04:02PM 2 points [-]

I've been some kind of polyphasic for a solid decade (more, but with breaks that bring it to about that overall). I use an alarm if my schedule is changing -- i.e. I'm doing a day of Uberman to get more done; or I missed a nap and so am sleeping 4.5h tonight instead of 3 -- but even then I often don't need it. Once I'm on my regular Everyman 3 schedule for a few days straight, no alarms are necessary, including popping right awake at 4am feeling great. I only use alarms for naps anymore if I want to read when I wake up, so that I don't get sucked into my book and waste too much time; I wake up so reliably after 20 minutes that my friends have used me as a timer.

I love being made of programmable firmware. ;)

Comment author: shminux 11 July 2013 05:06:04PM 12 points [-]

I hope none of you polyphasers drive to school/work, or we are likely to be a few rationalists short by the time this experiment is over.

Comment author: Puredoxyk 27 July 2013 02:00:59PM 2 points [-]

I would hope that I'm not the only source that insists on limiting or eliminating driving for at least the few really hard days of an Uberman adaptation, yeah. Also, you know, don't perform surgery or operate giant cranes. Just in case we needed to add that. ;)

Comment author: JQuinton 11 July 2013 09:04:42PM 3 points [-]

Would this be advisable/possible for someone who does moderate to heavy physical activity (lifting heavy at the gym, dancing) almost daily?

Comment author: Puredoxyk 27 July 2013 01:59:24PM 1 point [-]

Based on my experience and that of people I've spoken to, I would say dancing is fine, lifting is not. I can swim almost infinitely, do martial arts, and even climb moderately with no effect on my sleep; but those things are not tearing muscle generally. Things like lifting and heavy climbing, which tear down / build muscle -- and insanely calorie-intense things like whole days of skin-diving; I learned that one the hard way -- will necessitate extra sleep, often even after adaptation (just like they do when you're monophasic); but during adaptation, they could really screw you up by preventing you from sticking to the schedule. Stay in shape by keeping your cardio and fitness activities, but cut out the serious limits-pushing training for those few weeks, and plan to take some extra naps or a longer core when you do them afterwards, and polyphasic sleep and athletics seem to get along just fine.

Comment author: wedrifid 11 July 2013 10:04:25PM 9 points [-]

I'd like to see study comparing the above approach to regular modafinil use at whatever dose allows alertness with that amount of sleep on an ongoing basis.

Comment author: Puredoxyk 27 July 2013 01:55:28PM 0 points [-]

Oo, so would I! I don't think I'd be willing to be the guinea pig for that though... ;)

Comment author: lavalamp 26 July 2013 12:58:40AM *  2 points [-]

Disagree about optimal nap length being 24 minutes for everyone. For me, when I was doing polysleeping, anything longer than about 18 minutes of actual sleeping caused my body to switch into a longer sleep cycle.

ETA: Use a Zeo to measure this. Or just go by the "time at which you naturally wake up before the 25 minutes expire".

Comment author: Puredoxyk 27 July 2013 01:54:49PM 2 points [-]

I disagree as well -- my optimal sleep time is 19 minutes, and I take 1-2 to fall asleep, so I set my alarms for 23 and usually wake up before they go off.

I'm not sure this can be formulated in a way that "works for everybody" though. Aiming for 20 minutes of sleep and doing the picky adjustments of a minute here, a minute there after you're adapted seems the most sensible to me.

Comment author: diegocaleiro 12 July 2013 08:07:22PM 0 points [-]

Seconding the Sleep mask, or scarf, or Anything that takes the photons away!

Comment author: Puredoxyk 27 July 2013 01:53:30PM 0 points [-]

Thirding! I LOVE my sleep masks.

Comment author: gothgirl420666 12 July 2013 04:14:43AM 6 points [-]

Also, what's the point of the fasting, exactly?

Seconded, I'm curious about this.

Comment author: Puredoxyk 27 July 2013 01:52:54PM 1 point [-]

Thirded; I'm curious about that too.

As to brainless activity, cleaning tasks are my favorite. Stupid, picky, clean the shit out of EVERYTHING cleaning tasks. Polishing the silver. Dusting the ceiling. Organizing the socks. Toothbrush-scrubbing the corners. I was lucky enough to stumble on that my first adaptation, and for every one since, or even when I just miss sleep and know I'm going to have a tired night, I make a big list of picky cleaning tasks and just plow through them while I'm tired. They're physical enough to stay awake for, repetitive/stupid enough to not think during, AND they make you feel really great about how you spent the time afterwards!

View more: Next