frederic

Last night I have started my new sleeping routine.
I have decided that I would take naps by 12pm, 4am, 8am, 12am, 4pm and 8pm.

I started by 12pm and I did not sleep since then. I could not sleep for my first nap, as well as my second nap by 4am. Indeed, I used to go to bed late around 3am and wake up late morning by 12. Therefore, I can say that I could not fall asleep at all for my first few naps. I did feel tired but I need longer time to fall asleep. By 6am, I felt like my body was quite tired and even I could not see so clearly, everything was a little blur. I decided to go to the park and take some fresh air. I met a friend and had a short talk. Then I went back to my routine: cleaning my apartment, reading news and blogs, doing yoga and exercises and so on…
by 8am, I still did not manage to sleep but I felt like my body was like on a cloud… drifting away from the reality… I did not sleep though and I got up with a feeling of tiredness… After each nap it was getting more difficult to emerge.

I had a very busy day … and I could not attend my naps properly. By 4pm I slept on a chair for only 15mn… By 8pm I also skipped the nap. I felt ok though as I was very active. I took my nap by 12pm and woke up properly by 1230pm but I felt like my body was not so energetic and my mind had difficulties to focus. I could not look at the computer screen already. By 4am i took my nap, it was my second day only and I was feeling really tired. I felt asleep immediately and when I woke up, it was almost 12.30am. I had slept for a continuous 8hours….

I was very upset but I will continue my rythm and try to get my body to adapt. But so far, no bad results, no good results. I just know that I need a more powerful alarm clock.

Have you heard of polyphasic sleep before

This particular day, I was stumbling by boredom and I found Steve Pavlina’s blog which is dedicated to personal development. It immediately picked my interest and more specifically this post about polyphasic sleep captivated my attention.
Indeed, since I have been back from France, I have been quite unsatisfied with my life style and more specifically with my sleeping schedule. I got used to go to bed late, far beyond midnight and wake up late. The worst part was that I did not feel any rested. My energy level was low and I had difficulties to find the motivation to achieve my daily routine. Going to school itself became a hassle…

The first day I found this material, I red it entirely including definitions from Wikipedia online encyclopedia and other links. I weighted the pros and the cons… Immediately I felt excited. I talked about it to my flatmate and likewise, he enjoyed the idea. We both were on to start an incredible journey. At last, I remain alone. His lifestyle indeed does not allow such transition as he is having lots of classes and exams.

To make a long story short, the idea behind polyphasic sleep is to reduce your sleeping time from the usual average 8 hours per day to an amazing 2 to 3 hours per day. The method is simple, it requires shifting from the monolythic 8 hours sleep trunk to a set of 6 naps of 25 to 30 minutes each spread throughout the day every 4 hours.

Is it possible not to sleep more than 25 minute at a time? The research made by practitionners have demonstrated that it was completely feasable. A little understanding of the sleeping pattern is needed. When sleeping, the body goes into different phases of sleep: simply put, there is the non-REM slow-wave sleep and the REM sleep. REM sleep is popularly associated with dreaming. By shifting your body to polyphasic sleep, you actually make your body go immediately into the REM phase instead of much later in the sleep cycle. Of course it takes time to adapt, practitionners estimate it to approximatively one week but after that, everything will be on track and no sleep deprivation should be felt at all.

So I have decided to adapt my body to this new schedule. From today onward, I will try to blog on a daily basis about my experience and my feelings about it.

Please feel free to send me feedback and questions, I’ll be glad to answer you.