Making concrete

The best blogging resource I've found is that of Steve Pavlina (see the list of his log at the bottom of that entry). I have decided to do the Uberman schedule (6x20min) because this appears to be much more flexible than I had previously thought. Now that I've finished his log, I'm going to read Ubersleep which I purchased in pdf form. It is a book written by Puredoxyk, who is the person responsible for making polyphasic sleep more popular in recent years.

The Uberman schedule is based on the fact that in a normal monophasic sleep pattern of 8 hours one will go through 6 REM cycles. When doing the Uberman, for the first few days (3 to 4) the person trying it will become sleep deprived because their body does not naturally enter REM within a 20 minute sleep period, which forces acclimation to entering REM as soon as falling asleep. With 6 naps a day, this becomes the normal amount of rest of a monophaser, and because REM lasts about 16 minutes will easily fit into a 20 minute chunk.

It is popular to set the alarm timer (or two or three depending on what you need) to 25 minutes to allow 5 minutes to fall asleep. Setting to more than 25 usually is too long because you do not want to enter the deeper sleep that comes after REM; it will leave you groggy.

Another option that I've heard about for the adaptation period (you won't need it later) is instead of only sleeping for 6 naps, you can sleep 8, 10, or even 12 times in a 24 hour period. As long as the naps are far enough apart to guarantee that you become fully awake (equidistantly far apart for maximum benefit) then this allows the body more chances to attempt to enter REM. I don't know if this hastens or prolongs the training period, but when it's 3:30 in the morning and the next nap isn't scheduled for another 2 and a half hours you can be sure that I'm going to try an extra nap :).

Next is to decide on the date to start. Pavlina started on the thursday night of October the 20th, 2005. This is really close to my date, which is kind of interesting. My vacation is a plane ride to Mexico on the 20th, the beach of Mexico from the 21st to the 26th, and a plane ride back home on the 27th. I have a Saturday/Sunday weekend for the 18th and 19th. I'm planning on going to a Reign of Kindo concert on the night of the 19th, and it's 7pm to whenever (probably 9:30 or 10) which means I will most likely have to take a nap some time during the duration of the concert so as to avoid not getting home in time for a nap and having to do it in the car. I am hesitant to shift my naps up or down more than 10 minutes from their scheduled time, which is another problem. I have a few options for starting times.

1. I could start Thursday, similar to what Steve did, and probably be into REM naps for a bit by Sunday night. This means that work Friday will suffer, which I was hoping to avoid.
2. I could start Friday, and be somewhat dead at the concert, but with REM starting to pick up. It would be nice to be around people to give me motivation to not fail, but it would probably not be fun for the people for me to be around.
3. I could start Saturday, and basically guarantee that I will be dead at the concert with no REM, and probably be unable to pack for Mexico effectively that weekend.
4. I could start Sunday, be fine for the concert, be packed correctly, and die on the plane. Attempting the adaptation while confined to a 3x5 foot box would not be enjoyable, and I have no idea how nap time would line up with we-have-to-hurry-to-the-next-connection-or-we-will-be-late time. Traditionally I stay up almost all of Sunday night and sleep most of the duration of the plane flights. I sleep well on planes and the droning engine makes me drowsey.
5. I could wait until we actually get to Mexico, and completely lose my will to forcefully shut myself away from the food and ocean so that I can deprive myself of sleep. This may also create problems of bumping into the tail end of the trip. I hope to be fully adapted before I leave for home.

I'll be pondering this for a bit. We'll see.

;hunter