Having done Uberman in the past, I’d like to recommend a few tweaks and general advice.
1) Consider swapping from 20 minute naps to 24 minute naps. The optimal is 24 minutes asleep with 1-2 minutes to fall asleep. I can’t seem to find the original article by NASA atm, but here’s an article referencing NASA’s original study on optimal naps.
2) Devise a program to get from part 7 to part 10 instead of “try to space out longer”. I did a standard uberman schedule and going even 20 minutes past my appointed nap time would immediately put me into sleep deprivation which risked oversleeping an alarm. I’m not sure how you plan to soft adjust to longer spaces between naps, but just winging it while sleep deprived seems like a recipe for danger.
3) Stock up on food. Expect to eat 50% more.
4) Make a list of things to do while sleep deprived at 4am for the adjustment period. I thought I was going to learn a new language with Rosetta Stone; I ended up reading fanfiction and watching through TV series. I simply didn’t have the mental juice to do anything until after I’d adjusted.
5) Set up a sleep cycle calendar so you’ll know what you’re going to do every wedge, and what you’re doing every day. It’s very easy to lose track of days on a polyphasic schedule.
6) Buy a sleep mask. It’s so much easier to sleep during the day with one.
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”.
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.
Do you happen to know an alternative to the Zeo? I googled a bit after I read your comment and the company is out of business since 2012. But there seems to be no alternative device that measures the brain-waves to detect the different phases of sleep.
Having done Uberman in the past, I’d like to recommend a few tweaks and general advice.
1) Consider swapping from 20 minute naps to 24 minute naps. The optimal is 24 minutes asleep with 1-2 minutes to fall asleep. I can’t seem to find the original article by NASA atm, but here’s an article referencing NASA’s original study on optimal naps.
2) Devise a program to get from part 7 to part 10 instead of “try to space out longer”. I did a standard uberman schedule and going even 20 minutes past my appointed nap time would immediately put me into sleep deprivation which risked oversleeping an alarm. I’m not sure how you plan to soft adjust to longer spaces between naps, but just winging it while sleep deprived seems like a recipe for danger.
3) Stock up on food. Expect to eat 50% more.
4) Make a list of things to do while sleep deprived at 4am for the adjustment period. I thought I was going to learn a new language with Rosetta Stone; I ended up reading fanfiction and watching through TV series. I simply didn’t have the mental juice to do anything until after I’d adjusted.
5) Set up a sleep cycle calendar so you’ll know what you’re going to do every wedge, and what you’re doing every day. It’s very easy to lose track of days on a polyphasic schedule.
6) Buy a sleep mask. It’s so much easier to sleep during the day with one.
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”.
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.
Do you happen to know an alternative to the Zeo? I googled a bit after I read your comment and the company is out of business since 2012. But there seems to be no alternative device that measures the brain-waves to detect the different phases of sleep.
Might be able to get a used one on eBay.
Check out: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tanttle/emotiv-insight-optimize-your-brain-fitness-and-per
and: http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/14/the-zizz-is-an-intelligent-sleep-mask-which-helps-you-get-better-zzzs/
I am not sure I want a device that has no longer any support :/
But the Zzzs thing sounds really cool, I just reserved one for 15$. Thanks for the links!
Seconding the Sleep mask, or scarf, or Anything that takes the photons away!
Thirding! I LOVE my sleep masks.