# Sleep and Dreams > Sleep and Health >  >  Starting Everyman (4.5 hr core + 2 naps)

## The Subatomic Level

I have heard about a lot of people trying polyphasic sleeping generally without good results except for a very small few.  In spite of all the failed attempts, I'm giving it a shot.  My polyphasic schedule should make adaptation the easiest of any polyphasic schedule I have seen.  I plan on sleeping from 2:00-6:30am with naps from 12:15-12:30pm and 8:15-8:45.  

Once adjusted I will be decreasing my core by 5 minutes every couple of days until I get down to a 4 hour core.  So I should be sleeping 5 hours or less everyday.  This fits my schedule perfectly for my college classes and work, and I'm very excited to see if it will work.  

Throughout my experiment I will be doing easy sudoku puzzles 15 minutes before and after sleeping periods along with an online reaction test.  I will record my times for both to help analyze my alertness level.

Sudoku: http://www.phptutorial.info/scripts/...ku/index.php?3

Reaction: http://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/...time/index.php

If all works well and I make it through adaptation, and I will graph my results using excel charts.  Hopefully the results will show something interesting about the timing of that adaptation period and how long one can expect to reach their normal focus and alertness level.  Also it should show at which times I am the most vulnerable to falling asleep.

Any and all comments are welcome.  I plan on posting and editing a post for each day for as long as I'm successful at least until I'm through adaptation.

I can explain more about my motivation, plans, etc. later when I have more time.

EDIT:

Ok, time for a little more information...

I am currently a senior in college on a integrated program to get my Master's and Bachelor's of Science at the end of 5 years.  The integrated part means that I can take graduate classes (Master classes) during my senior year, and I am in my first graduate class right now.  That class and some other really tough classes have left me with almost no time for other things this semester, and that is my biggest motivation for trying polyphasic sleeping.

I'm not going to say that I'm the perfect candidate for polyphasic sleeping because even if I did think that I would probably be eating those words in less than a week if I fail, but suffice it to say that I believe I have strong self-control and am very self-motivated.  Having a huge core sleep of 4.5 hours will also help make this doable.  As I stated earlier, I will plan on reducing that core to 4 hours with an ultimated goal of getting down to the 3 hour core with 3 naps.

Finally, I have consulted my doctor about my plans and he thinks if I can get adapted to where they are getting that extra REM sleep during the naps then it should not be detrimental to my health.

Well, wish me luck. Advice is welcomed.  Also, if anyone has any other "tests" of alertness or health that they would like to see me record let me know and I will definitely give it some consideration.

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## The Subatomic Level

Well, I started my core about 20 minutes later than the plan, but I so my best to keep a tighter schedule in the future.  However, I did get up to my alarm exactly 4.5 hours later, and I feel alright.  I'm normally an early riser so getting out of bed and staying out should not be a problem for me I hope.  

I used the restroom then did a sudoku puzzle on difficulty level 3 which took 6 minutes and 28 seconds.  For 10 reaction benchmarks my average time was 224.2ms.

I actually feel like I'm already going through some of the adaptation because I've a test each day for the past three days and have only slept for about 5 hours for the past 3 nights (4 nights now).  I have also been doing 2 naps for the past three days at basically the same time I have a planned on doing them so I feel like I have a "head start" on the adaptation.  I only actually fell asleep on one and maybe the end of another nap though.

Today and/or tonight I'll edit this post with updated info. on how the naps went.

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## The Subatomic Level

I did not realize that you could not edit a post after 24 hours so this post will have the rest of day 1, and I should be able to get all of day 2 in here.

*Day 1*
__________________________________________________  _______________

*Nap 1*:  I napped from 12:15-12:45pm.  Did not fall asleep, but felt fine.

*Nap 2*:  I napped from 9:10-9:40pm.  Fell asleep for maybe 15 minutes max, but felt fine.

*Day 2*
__________________________________________________  _______________

*Core Sleep*:  Slept from 2:45-7:15.  Passed out immediately in my room.  Woke up on the living room couch from hearing the alarm in my room.  This was really weird because I had no memory of moving to the living room.  Also, I heard the hot water in the shower running after I turned off the alarm, and I felt that it was cold at this point cus it had been running so long.  I turned it off thinking that while I did not remember anything about it, it probably had something to do with me.  

An issue I have yet to talk about is that I, like most college students, often drink socially on the weekends.  I plan on eliminating nights where I get completely hammered, and I want to start limiting myself to 3 beers (or hard alcohol equivalent) + the allowance of another beer for every hour that I'm drinking.  So last night I had 8 beers (I think), and I drank over a period of 4 hours.  Technically, using that formula of 3 beers plus 1 per hour I should have only had 7, but oh well.  Basically, I've made the decision that I'm not going to not drink because I'm trying polyphasic sleeping although most "how-to" polyphasic sleep articles say absolutely no alcohol during adaptation.  

Well, I think I passed my first test of the alcohol effects.  When I got up this morning to turn off the alarm (and the running water) I was ridiculously tired.  Normally when I get up and move around there is no chance of me going back to sleep even if I feel tired, but I am pretty sure I could have easily passed out this morning.  It literally took about half an hour to get rid of that groggy feeling, and that's when I mustered up the energy to do my test of reaction time and sudoku puzzle.  I actually had good times on these tests this morning compared to the tests after I had my naps yesterday, but I can guarantee that if I performed those tests in the first 10 minutes like I did for the naps that the time would have been way worse.

It is definitely going to be a challenge throughout the day today to see if I can only take those half an hour naps and sleep my core tonight of 4.5 hours.  I am definitely willing to keep trying and continue the adjustment period even if I happen to fail and oversleep a core sleep period.  If I believe it is due to lack of REM sleep from alcohol I will simply sleep for like 6 or 7 hours on nights that I drink a decent amount.  I have actually read from a few successful polyphasic sleepers on the everyman schedule that every week for one day (usually a day on the weekend) they will "catch up" on some sleep and have an 8-10 hour core sleep.  I want to avoid doing this during adaptation, but I could definitely see myself doing this once a week and especially after drinking.

I will let everyone know how this day goes as it may be my one of my biggest challenges during the adaptation phase.

*Nap 1*:  I was feeling pretty exhausted the hour before I took this nap.  It was hard to focus on something for a long time, and I was really wanting to lay down.  While I didnt end up falling asleep, the nap still felt somewhat refreshing.  This was not surprising to me because I don't ever fall asleep when I've tried to take naps in the past.  I think I'm going to get to some homework now while I'm refreshed for a bit.

*Nap 2*:  Laid down from 8:25-8:55pm, but couldn't fall asleep.  It will be tough to stay up until 2:00am for my core.  I'm already starting to yawn quite a bit, and I have 4 hours to go.  During the two naps today I feel like I was very close to WILDing.  I was getting strong hypnogogic imagery for both naps.  I even held very short conversations with my roommates at different points, but whenever I realized that this was my imagination the imagery would fade.  

I found out that during my core sleep this morning I must have been sleepwalking because none of my roommates turned on the water in the shower.  To my knowledge, I have never been sleepwalking before so this kind of freaked me out, but I'm not going worry about it and am attributing it to sleep deprivation mixed with alcohol.  Well I'll try to get some more homework done for a while and then attempt to find ways to stay up until 2:00am.

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## The Subatomic Level

*Core Sleep*:  2:00-6:30am.  I fell asleep within probably 5 or 10 minutes at the very latests, and did not get up until my alarm went off.  I feel well rested at this point, but there is still a little bit of that lingering thought that's telling me to "go back to sleep for a few more hours."  Sounds like I'll still be fighting off adaptation today, which is what I would expect, but, hey, my 12:15 nap is just around around the corner  ::wink:: .

I think I'm going to try getting some light exercise (push-ups, sit-ups, and stretches) in before I take a shower.  Hopefully this will help me actually get some sleep during my nap times.

*Nap 1*:  12:15-12:45pm (maybe drifted off for about 5 or 10 minutes).  I've felt really well all morning, and have been getting a lot of homework/studying done.  I've had no problem focusing like I had the last two days.  I was not even tired before my nap, but I knew I should stick to the schedule.  For the next few days if I still feel alert before my first nap, I think that when I start shortening my core sleep I'll make it so that I'm getting up earlier.  This way there will be more time in between my core sleep and my first nap.

*Nap 2*:  9:45-10:15pm (slept for at least 15 minutes).  I'm feeling pretty groggy probably because 15 minutes is not enough sleep, but it was still a good sign that I fell alseep.  I started this nap over an hour late because I simply was not tired.  I work at a boring job where I sit at a computer in the library and don't do much.  I worked from 4-8pm tonight, but then went out for sushi with my roommate.  I was surprised that I felt so alert, and I definitely could have gone longer with out a nap.  I think my body kind of felt teased... thinking that I was getting a full 7 or 8 hours in tonight, and so it has been a slow wake up.  I'm feeling ok now but 2 o clock seems like a long way off.  

It just occurred to me that Monday and Wednesday mornings I work at 7am and so I should probably go to sleep around 1:45 so that I can get up at 6:15 and have time to shower.  This week will be a good test as to how well I can focus during classes, and I will be hoping that my quality of sleep during naps improves.  

Well this completes my 3rd day, and I'm proud to say no oversleeps so far and no extra naps.  Hopefully I can keep it up.

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## The Subatomic Level

Just Kidding!   ::lol::   Today has gone pretty well besides a few minor headaches.  Before my core sleep for about an hour and a half starting at 11pm I had a slight headache that was bothersome.  It was definitely nowhere near a migraine or anything, and while I considered tylenol it was not bad enough to have to take it.  

*Core Sleep*:  1:50-6:20am (fell asleep soon after hitting the mattress).  I woke up a little groggy, and had a similar headache for about 2 hours towards the beginning of the waking period after this core sleep.  Once that headache was over the rest of the day has gone really well.  

*Nap 1*:  12:20-12:50pm (first time I actually fell asleep during first nap which was about 15 minutes).  During my 2 o clock class I yawned a good amount and was tired but I think it has more to do with the class being extremely boring as opposed to actually how tired I was.  

*Nap 2*:  8:20-8:50pm (asleep roughly 20 minutes).  I started getting a slight headache about 5 minutes before I took this nap, but it wasn't much of anything.  I'm feeling very alert at this point, and do not think staying up until my core sleep will be a problem.  I think I'll finish watching Monday Night Football, start a research paper, and end the night playing some Starcraft (lol, installed this old classic RTS last night when I wanted to eat up some free time).

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## The Subatomic Level

*Core Sleep*:  1:40-6:10am (slept really well).  

*Nap 1*:  12:25-12:55pm (did not fall asleep).  Still having trouble falling asleep during this first nap.  Part of the problem was that our apartment maintenance was over fixing a toilet and a sink handle while I napped.  That was distracting because I could hear what was going on even with my headphones on.  Actually, I don't think I have mentioned it yet that I have been using Placebo's nap mp3 for the past 2 days or so.  It's basically white background noise that plays for 26 minutes and then starts makes some noises to wake you up.  I also use my alarm and plan it so that they both go off at about the same time.  Either way the rest still helps even though I did not fall asleep.

One other thing... I realized why I was having slight headaches yesterday.  For some reason one of my contacts caused one of my eyes to get really red so I didnt wear them yesterday.  The problem with this is that one of my eyes is way better than the other one and so my mind tries to start using the one eye on overdrive and it causes a slight headache.  I actually went through the same kind of headache when I first got these contacts about a month and a half ago.  Anyway, just thought I'd share that in case some one was worried about those headaches being something serious from lack asleep.  It could have been a some of both actually, but I'll probably never know unless I keep getting headaches for the next few days.

*Nap 2*:  8:20-8:50pm (best nap I've had so far).  I definitely feel like the worst is over and I am over the hill of adaptation now.  I still will stick to the schedule as close as I can as it can take 1-2 months to completely adapt to Everyman.  So far I am very happy with the results, and am looking forward to having to take some more tests this semester and see how my grades turn out.  I am really enjoying having the extra time.  For example, for the whole first half of this semester I had maybe played a video game the Wii I bought last year like 2 or 3 times max, and probably not for a very long time.  In the last 3 or 4 days, I have played probably 3 times the total time of the first half of the semester.  Having time to relax and play video games is something I like to do and it's nice to have time for it now.  I have also been working on a long to-do-list and it has been coming along quite nicely as well.  Day 5 has definitely been my best day so far.

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## The Subatomic Level

*Core Sleep*:  2:05-6:35am (slept 4.25 hrs).

*Nap 1*:  12:10-12:40pm (slept 20 min).

*Nap 2*:  8:55-9:20pm (slept 0 min).

I had to take my 2nd nap late because I met up for a group project at 8:00pm.  I then had 3 beers which made me really tired until my upcoming core, and waking up from that core was no easy task.  Now that I'm up I should be okay.  We'll see how the rest of the day goes.

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## The Subatomic Level

During this time I have definitely had some learning experiences about some of what I can and cannot do.  And while some may call day 7 a complete failure and that I am "starting from square 1" because of an oversleep, I simply consider it a minor setback.  Anyway, here's what has happened since day 7.

*Day 7*

Core:  1:50-6:20am (good sleep)

Nap 1:  12:25-12:55pm (didnt fall asleep)

Nap 2:  8:30pm-3:00am (passed out the entire time)

*Day 8*

Core:  I considered nap 2 from day 7 my core and did not attempt to sleep

Nap 1:  12:00-12:30pm (didnt fall asleep)

Nap 2:  8:15-8:45pm (didnt fall asleep)

*Day 9*

Core:  2:45-7:15am (asleep whole time)

Nap 1: 12:05-12:35pm (no sleep)

Nap 2:  8:15-9:00pm (slept 15min)

*Day 10*

Core:  1:45-6:15am (asleep whole time)

Nap 1:  10:45-11:15am (slept 10 min)

Nap 2:  8:45-9:20pm (slept 20 min)

A few comments:

On day 7 at about 5:00pm I started playing some beer pong with friends and drank about 7-8 beers in 3.5 hours.  I then went to take my nap as usual and planned on getting up and probably drinking more once it was done.  Well, long story short, my alarm was going off for over half an hour until my gf woke me up by banging on the door.  I don't remember any of it but I guess she was trying to get me to stay up, and I wasn't having any of it and just told her I was going back to bed.  Woke up 6.5 hours after I first laid in bed for nap.  I then decided although it was very early I would consider that my "core" for the next day and keep on with the polyphasic schedule.  

I learned that if I am going to start drinking early I am just going to skip past that 2nd nap from now on and try to stay up until its time for my core.  If I do end up skipping a nap I've decided to add 1.5 hours to my core on the night of the skip.  (I've also read that some people on the everyman schedule get a 7-8 hour core sleep once a week so I will probably start that as soon as I am adapted better.)

You may have also noticed that my day 9 core sleep started an hour late, and that is simply because it was Halloween and I was drinking at a party.  I am really set on trying to make this schedule as adaptable as possible.  I know people say "don't drink while trying to adapt or don't even drink more than 2 or 3 beers while doing polyphasic sleeping," but I don't feel like changing that part of my life.  Maybe I won't ever get past adaptation, and maybe I'm wasting my time.  But my social life is important to me, and I hope I can still get extra hours of waking time in a day.

Well it's time for my nap... I have a few more things I want to add to this post a little later though.

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## The Subatomic Level

For anyone who may still be interested I am still on a polyphasic schedule, and I have had some successes and failures since my last post.  Let's start with the failures...

Failures basically include not sticking to my schedule exactly by sleeping longer during my core or occasionally skipping a nap.  Up until a few days ago, I had literally put zero effort into trying to LD or even trying to remember my dreams because I wanted to get the best quality of sleep possible.  These last few days I've been trying to remember my dreams and they have been quite vivid.  I havent specifically noticed a vivid dream during a nap, but it often feels that I am seconds away from WILDing during a lot of my naps.  It only takes a minute or two of lying down and I get very vivid hypnagogic imagery.  Sometimes I even feel like I get this imagery for a whole 25 minutes during the nap, and I don't even fall asleep during that time.

The times that I have overslept a core sleep is probably 3 or 4 times in the past 2 weeks, but those are always planned because they are my core sleeps that occur right after a night of drinking.  My thought process:  Drinking = less REM sleep, so more sleep = recover from the alcohol and more REM, so I basically add 1.5 hours to my core on drinking nights. 

An exception would be when I turned off my alarm on the 14th and then laid back down to try to stay still and remember my dream... well that turned out to be a 2 hour oversleep on top of my added 1.5hr due to drinking.  

Let's look at successes now.  I have successfully reduced my core to 4 hours and have moved it back a bit so that I am sleeping from 1:45-5:45am.  This is helping me get a better quality of sleep during that first nap, and if I still don't get the quality of sleep I would like during this nap I will move my core even earlier.  

Also, I just made it through the toughest part of my semester (testing and projects/presentation-wise) and so far my test scores have been awesome.  ACC 263 test: 100%, MQM 227: 86%, ACC 235: 98%, and I havent recieved my grades for the other two classes yet, but they both felt like A's.  Not trying to toot my own horn about any of this just wanted to show that I am adapting and I havent just been in that zombie stage this entire polyphasic experiment.  Because if that were the case I would expect my grades to be dropping, while it has been the exact opposite lately.  I dont know, I could just be... in the zone or whatever because scores close to 100% aren't a rare occurrence for me.  I would need a lot more evidence to claim that this schedule has drastically improved my grades.  I can say, however, that it has given me a ton of extra free time that I otherwise would not have had.

It's nice to be able to catch up on things that I never had time for.  I feel much more organized and can sometimes even plan out every minute of the day when I have a lot of studying to do.  I am able to plan for lots of breaks, which is nice.  Hmm... I actually have a big research project due Wednesday so I think I may get started on that and hopefully have a few pages done before any of my roommates get up  ::D: . 

If anyone has any questions or anything to add go ahead and post or pm me and I'll do my best to answer.

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## hungrymanz

This is very interesting and helpful... I encourage you to continue.

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## The Subatomic Level

After about a month and a week of Everyman I had to put it on hold for a couple of weeks.  I actually have a legitimate excuse, but it's personal and don't feel like getting into it.  Anyway, I don't want to try to get back on it until after finals week, which is in two weeks.  Obviously, wouldn't be a good idea to try to adapt during that time.

During Christmas break I should have an easy adaptation with limited distractions and plan on getting back on a 4hr core with 2 naps.  If this works out well, I will try to maintain this schedule during my internship in the Spring.  The company I will be working for is supposedly very good about flexible schedules and I am renting an apartment that is literally a 5 minute walk from where I will be working.  My plan is to get a 2 hr lunch (maybe 1.5 hrs would be fine) so I have plenty of time to nap, exercise and eat.  I'm already starting to miss all of that extra time I had, but I hope to be back on it in 2 weeks and will update this thread at that time.

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## Mad Stratter

> I actually have a legitimate excuse, but it's personal and don't feel like getting into it.



What exactly is a legitimate excuse to change your sleep schedule? You write like you owe someone an explanation. Your sleep schedule is your business and no one else's, so the idea of a "legitimate" excuse to change it is absurd. You do what you have to do and that's all.

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## The Subatomic Level

> What exactly is a legitimate excuse to change your sleep schedule? You write like you owe someone an explanation. Your sleep schedule is your business and no one else's, so the idea of a "legitimate" excuse to change it is absurd. You do what you have to do and that's all.



I wasn't trying to discredit anyone's reason for stopping a polyphasic schedule.  And I know I don't owe anyone an explanation.  I was merely trying to distinguish between someone who has stopped their schedule because they are throwing in the towel due to oversleeps for example, and someone who was forced to quit due to particular circumstances outside their control.  Your right though, "excuse" was probably the wrong word.  "Reason" is more of what I was looking for.  The point was to reiterate that I plan on getting back on the schedule here soon.

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## Mad Stratter

Okay, that makes sense... It just sounded to me when I read that like you felt bad or something about taking a break. I've tried to go polyphasic several times, believe me, it's tough! 

I seem to do a little better everytime around though, so get back at at when you can and don't feel back if you need a break.. this is a major change we're talking about here.

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## DeltaModz

How has this worked? I have designed a E2 similar to this one except because of school my first nap would have to be at 2 - 2:30 and second 8 - 8:30. Any complications?

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