So, I’ve tried uberman twice, and failed both times. A report for the first time is here, and I thought I had written up the second time but I’m not finding it easily. The second time, one of my friends tried Everyman, and got the impression that it was physiologically similar to only sleeping 5-6 hours a night; he had more time to do stuff, but was less rested for that time.
I strongly recommend having someone else there to make sure you’re awake when you should be. Otherwise, you very likely will crash and sleep for eight hours. Many people have the ‘answering machine’ wake up with their alarm, do whatever is necessary to shut the alarm off, and then go back to sleep, without remembering any of it. This is not an experience I had until I hadn’t slept more than 30 minutes in ~five days.
Also, at some point my ability to make coherent sentences took a hit, and I would sometimes say word salad. Since the experiment, I have had occasional word recall problems, which I notice about once a month (though I think the frequency was higher closer to the experiment). Thinking they’re connected may be post hoc ergo propter hoc (there are several other plausible explanations), but I’m trying to avoid the failure mode of “well, no one’s reported detrimental effects yet, so I should discount my experience.”
Many people have the ‘answering machine’ wake up with their alarm, do whatever is necessary to shut the alarm off, and then go back to sleep, without remembering any of it.
This is business as usual for me, but then I have a somewhat abusive relationship with my subconscious. Feeling well-rested and getting ‘enough’ sleep only occurs when I don’t have anything sufficiently interesting to keep me up.
That being said, I have tried uberman before, and it was devastating in the short term: I felt very burnt out and constantly fatigued. However it’s possible that I just wasn’t doing it correctly.
That being said, I have tried uberman before, and it was devastating in the short term: I felt very burnt out and constantly fatigued. However it’s possible that I just wasn’t doing it correctly.
This is the intended result, for some values of “short term.” In theory, after approximately a week of only napping, you begin to get REM sleep during naps and then recover. This did not happen to me in 7 days, and I had only arranged to be continuously watched for 7 days, and so I promptly crashed day 8 or 9.
So, I’ve tried uberman twice, and failed both times. A report for the first time is here, and I thought I had written up the second time but I’m not finding it easily. The second time, one of my friends tried Everyman, and got the impression that it was physiologically similar to only sleeping 5-6 hours a night; he had more time to do stuff, but was less rested for that time.
I strongly recommend having someone else there to make sure you’re awake when you should be. Otherwise, you very likely will crash and sleep for eight hours. Many people have the ‘answering machine’ wake up with their alarm, do whatever is necessary to shut the alarm off, and then go back to sleep, without remembering any of it. This is not an experience I had until I hadn’t slept more than 30 minutes in ~five days.
Also, at some point my ability to make coherent sentences took a hit, and I would sometimes say word salad. Since the experiment, I have had occasional word recall problems, which I notice about once a month (though I think the frequency was higher closer to the experiment). Thinking they’re connected may be post hoc ergo propter hoc (there are several other plausible explanations), but I’m trying to avoid the failure mode of “well, no one’s reported detrimental effects yet, so I should discount my experience.”
This is business as usual for me, but then I have a somewhat abusive relationship with my subconscious. Feeling well-rested and getting ‘enough’ sleep only occurs when I don’t have anything sufficiently interesting to keep me up.
That being said, I have tried uberman before, and it was devastating in the short term: I felt very burnt out and constantly fatigued. However it’s possible that I just wasn’t doing it correctly.
This is the intended result, for some values of “short term.” In theory, after approximately a week of only napping, you begin to get REM sleep during naps and then recover. This did not happen to me in 7 days, and I had only arranged to be continuously watched for 7 days, and so I promptly crashed day 8 or 9.