It's Over

After careful consideration over the past couple hours, I have decided to quit the Uberman sleep schedule. I realized that although the extra time in my day is a great boon, and even though it does outweigh the con of having to find time to sleep every four hours, it is still not worth it. I've only been doing it for a day, and I feel horrible. It's just not worth the mental torment.

Not counting little bits of sleeping here and there, it has been 35 hours. I don't think it's healthy. If this were optimal, then humans would have evolved that way. But we didn't. Even though 85% of life on earth has some sort of polyphasic sleeping schedule, humans don't. Obviously it's not optimal for our species.

I was reading some more articles on the topic, and I have noticed that many authors failed, at the expense of their mental health for up to two weeks. There are only a handful of articles by authors who succeeded in sleeping like this for an extended period of time.

Even if you would feel rejuvanated, awake, creative, and energetic on this sleep schedule, it's just a trick. You tricked your mind into getting REM sleep almost exclusively. Yes, it's probably the most important stage of sleep, but what about the other stages? If they had little or no value, then humans would not have evolved to include them. Just because you can feel awake with getting only REM sleep does not mean you are still getting everything you need out of sleep.

In conclusion, I do not regret my decision to try polyphasic sleeping. I wanted to try it, and I did. I did not even come close to finishing the transition period, but at least I know what it feels like now. I will probably not attempt this again in the future. I will most likely focus on lucid dreaming, as that is a completely normal, safe practice of controlling your own dreams.

For anybody reading this who is considering trying the Uberman sleep schedule, my advice to you is this: try it if you want, but expect to feel horrible during the transition period. It's worse than you think it is, and it might not be worth it. Even if you do make it through, realize that it's just not natural. It may be a novelty, an interesting conversation topic, and give you lots of free time, but remember, there's a biological reason we didn't evolve to sleep this way.

Day Two, Nap One

The first mishap just happened. :(

I accidently slept until 2:20am instead of waking up at 12:24am. I'm not sure whether my alarm didn't work, or I turned it off. It's so tempting to just cancel the experiment and go to sleep.

I'm going to continue on as if it did not happen.

After my last nap, I watched some TV, a friend came over for a little bit, I did some more programming, and then it was time for my next nap. I did not feel very tired, which does not explain what just happened.

See you after my next nap.

Day One, Nap Four

I just finished my fourth nap. I say finished, rather than woke up, because I'm not quite sure I was actually asleep. I tried counting, which I'm sure added up to over two hundred, when you factor in how many times I restarted. That didn't work. So I kinda just layed there for the entire 24 minutes. Although I can't say I was fully aware the entire time, I can say I did not fall asleep. I can't really describe it.

After my previous nap, I watched Room Raiders on MTV, followed by Fear Factor on whatever channel that's on, and then I cleaned my room for a little bit. After that, I talked on AIM and did some programming before it was time for my nap. Not very productive.

Right now, I do not feel very tired. I felt much more tired after my previous nap, but not now. Hopefully I will be able to get some sleep in a few hours, when it's time for my next nap.

Day One, Nap Three

I just woke up from my third nap of the day. It was much easier falling asleep this time, because now I'm really tired. After fidgeting around for maybe two or three minutes, I quickly fell asleep. All I had to do was lie still on my back, focus on my forehead, and count to twenty-something. I was able to quickly get up once my alarm went off.

After my previous nap, I took a shower, talked to a friend on AIM, made some calls, and cleaned my room. I had to cut cleaning my room a little short, because by then, it was time for my nap. I'm not as tired right now as I was waking up from my previous naps.

Look out for my next post, after my next nap.

Day One, Nap Two

I just finished my second nap. It took between 10 and 15 minutes to fall asleep, which was ridiculous. I kept having to fidget around, constantly scratching different itches. I got next to no sleep at all. It was extremely difficult to get up and turn off my alarm, but once I was up, I knew I had to stay up.

After my previous nap, I watched a movie that I got from Netflix, including some bonus features. Overall, I would give a solid 5/5 stars to Assault on Precint 13. Afterwards, I went online for a little bit, and drank a meal shake before getting to my next nap. I noticed that during the time after my previous nap, I becomes less tired. But now I'm all tired again. Probably because I didn't get any sleep.

I'll post again after my third nap.

Day One, Nap One

I just finished my first nap on the Uberman sleep schedule. Since it takes a bit of time for my body to adjust, I'm going to feel extremely tired at least for the first couple days.

Until 8am, I was awake for 15 hours straight. I just had a 24 minute nap, and I still feel tired. I am already looking forward to my nap at noon. One thing I find weird is that I woke up covered in sweat.

In a few minutes, I am going to pop Assault on Precinct 13 into the DVD player. I will post again after my next nap.

Introduction

As my first post, I would like to introduce myself to all of you, and state the purpose of this blog.

My name is Brandon Goldman, and I am a 19 year old business major at the University of California, Riverside (UCR). I am an Eagle Scout, a proud brother of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity, an avid poker player, and a frequent reader of Slashdot and Wikipedia.

I will be putting myself on the Uberman sleep schedule.

What is the Uberman sleep schedule? Also known as polyphasic sleeping, it is a sleep pattern that involves taking a 20-30 minute nap every four hours. I read somewhere that NASA uses 24 minutes, so I will be doing just that.

How does it work? Apparently, this type of sleep deprivation will trick my brain into going into REM sleep, which is widely believed to be the most important stage of sleep, for almost the entire duration of my naps. While most people only get about 90-120 minutes of REM sleep per night, I will be getting almost 144 minutes.

Why am I doing this? Because I feel like it. I've been on summer vacation for two weeks, and there could not be a better time to do it. I have always been fascinated by polyphasic sleeping and lucid dreaming. Hopefully, during this experiment, I will be able to experience both.

I have been telling myself I will go on the Uberman sleep schedule for over a year, and now I'm actually going to do it. And I'm going to be keeping this blog to document my experiences.

What do I hope to gain from this experience? Possibly more free time, but that's not really a big deal. I just thought it would be fun and interesting to try.

I have read that the first ten days is the hardest. In recognition of this, I will be updating six times per day for the first ten days; once for each nap. I will start off at the 4-8-12 schedule, which involves me starting my naps at those hours (both AM and PM) of the day.

I will make my next post after my very first Uberman nap, which starts at 8am.