(Note: I moved this from being its own page to a post in the “Polyphasic sleep” category. I’m new to this blogging thing.)
Some time ago I stumbled across the idea of sleep polyphasia in the writings of a man named Steve Pavlina. Steve has given me many wonderful tools and I urge you to check him out. I’m sure you can use Google to find out more about him. Anyhow, Steve went completely “Uberman polyphasic,” which means he slept 6 20 minute naps, for a total of 2 hours per day.
Now, I’ve been saying for years I sleep too much and fantasized about what my life would be like if I could successfully reduce sleep. My friends all know this about me. In my early 20’s I experimented with reducing sleep by charting my sleep amounts on a daily basis. The results were less than impressive. I sleep about 8-9 hours per day. Period. This has not changed since I was a teenager. When I was a Mormon missionary I had to sleep 8 hours or less, and the result was I would become narcoleptic in the afternoons.
Enter polyphasia. I now have hope of reducing my sleep by dividinng my sleep into multiple phases during the day. I have been toying with “siesta biphasic sleep” for a couple days, but tonight I’m going to take more of a plunge and do a modified “everyman 2 or 3.” It basically just boils down to sleeping a “core” 4.5 hours at night, then napping 2-3 times during the day for 20 minutes at a time. Also I have a goal to move to SPAMAYL which means “sleep polyphonically as much as you like.” This is just basically catnapping all day long, round the clock. In addition, I’m going to employ a technique I just discovered at DIY Superman/. I will elevate my legs while napping to increase efficacy. Another great modification to SPAMAYL is called “Naptation.”
I learned most of this by Googling “Polyphasic sleep.” A great website for polyphasic is TryPolyphasic.com Cicky clicky!
So the big concerns for me are obvious: will I lose energy, have lower sex drive, less strength in the gym or volleyball court, and will my mental focus wane? Time will tell. The point in doing this is to have more time to do the things I have fun doing, which are studying music, playing sports, performing arts, writing, reading, etc, basically exercising my mind, body and soul to the utmost. Obviously I need to work to earn a living, at least at the moment, so I want my cake and eat it too.
