Experiment, Phase 2

Yesterday was a big day for me: I successfully presented my curriculum paper to the accounting faculty and moved into candidacy! Now the "only" thing between me and a Ph.D is a dissertation. Only.

This is quite significant for my sleep habits. I've used polyphasic sleep almost as a necessity over the past month to get through that presentation. There was just a lot of work to do, and I wasn't getting it done and balancing family duties with 8 hours of sleep. As mentioned earlier, I feel I've successfully reduced my average hours sleeping to about 5. Now that the "pressure" has been released, will I keep this up?

I can't quite describe how fun it was for me to have an alarm go off at 3:00 AM this morning and feel rested enough to get up and read a few papers, check email, check the news, and make a blog post.

Sleep Status

Dear World,

Yep, I'm still here. Been busy, but I haven't forgotten about you. Time marches on, deadlines grow ever closer, and thankfully spring has finally come to Chicago. My child turns one this week, my wife has two finals, I have intramural soccer and Frisbee tournament games, have to present my curriculum paper in 12 days, etc. So with all this going on, am I still on this crazy sleep schedule? You better believe it.

I have to admit that I have backed off from the initial intensity. I no longer try to go on only 3 hours of sleep (the Uberman). I just crashed too often and felt like I was punishing myself. I "let" myself get 3-4 hours of core sleep at night and then take 2-4 naps during the day. So my average sleep time is about 5 hours. Not bad.

Another disclaimer: I have slept longer than that! On occasion I've overslept, but it's crazy how oftentimes I'll wake up on my own around 4am (if say I went down around midnight and intended to only sleep for 30 minutes) and be ready to get up and work. That would never have happened before.

I also had to deal with an inflexible conference last weekend. Knowing there was no chance of getting a nap, I went ahead and slept 7-8 hours the night before. The conference was great, I felt alert and survived from 7am - 10 pm, at which point I completely crashed. I think my wife wanted to talk to me when I got home that night (I was gone all day), but I really don't remember much of that conversation.

So my "professional" judgment is that this is working for me. Why then don't more people do this? I was posed this question by a very educated behavioral economist. If this is so optimal, why don't we see more people doing it, particularly A-type personalities? I didn't have a good answer then, and I still don't have a good answer. One friend suggested alcohol and coffee consumption, which would make this schedule very difficult. Part of it is just living in a monophasic world, where co-workers, subordinates, companies, suppliers, staff all work during the day. But why more academics don't do this, I'm not sure. It seems fairly optimal from my current vantage point, and will hopefully get me a lot closer to graduating at a reasonable cost.

Please, world, let me know if I'm crazy, or what I'm missing from this analysis.

Listening to your body

I've had a pretty good day, but must admit I'm tired right now. I slightly overslept a few of my naps today by hitting the snooze button, something I hadn't done previously. And while visiting a friend tonight I found myself fighting urges to nod off during the conversation. Her place was pretty warm, so that definitely didn't help. I've got a slight sore throat, and in general I've felt better before. I've gone three days/nights straight, and have gotten a lot done. I think I'll listen to my body and go sleep for the rest of the night and hit the reset button.

Wednesday Update

Everything went according to plan today--four naps and I'm still up at 3:30 am working on school projects. I've had a decently high level of focus, which is really excellent (doing some rather technical academic reading). I had two intramural sports games this evening, and I'm guessing the physical activity is going to result in some stiffness and exhaustion tomorrow, but I'll do my best to stick to the schedule. I'll sleep now until 7 and try to do this again tomorrow/today (Thursday).

A Loss then a Win

I ended up really missing my child Tuesday morning. I typically get him when he wakes in the morning, which works as a great alarm to make sure I'm up around 7. Consistent with my strategy I stayed up most of Monday night but went to bed around 3 to get a "few" core hours of sleep. With no child though, I ended up waking up at 9 instead of 7! Oops.

Last night I decided to correct this inherent weakness by setting two alarms and mentally preparing myself. It worked! I slept from 4-7 and managed to pull myself out of bed and get started on my day. Of course I wanted to sleep, but I told my body I'd take a nap in an hour and I ended up with a pretty good morning--much better than yesterday anyway. My goal today is to get 3-4 30 minute naps for a total sleep time of approx. 5 hours, and then to repeat this for the rest of the week.

Commitment Week

My wife and baby are visiting family this week, which makes it an ideal lab to perfect my sleeping schedule. Tonight is a lot harder than most of the nights I remember from last week, which may be a direct cause of sleeping at night this last weekend. Hard to judge how quickly my body adapts to a new regimen and what switching that regimen can do to my work/focus/enjoyment. I am doing it though, which I think is good enough for me. I'm going to try to stay awake another hour before reliquenshing my body to the bed sheets.

Weekend Challenges

This last weekend was just too much and I failed to keep a polyphasic sleep schedule. We had family come visit from Utah and did lots of walking, talking, and eating. These long (and fun) days did not easily facilitate napping, and even with an occasional nap I was exhausted at night and only put forth a cursory effort to get any work done. That's two weekends in a row where I was unsuccessful at keeping this sleep schedule, but I'm determined to go at it again this week. Even if this turns into a strictly weekday system, that's still a net gain on productive hours and I'd be happy--not as happy with a complete polyphasic sleep schedule, but still happy.

Qualified Failure

I guess I wasn't fully adapted yet after all. I should be careful about making statements like that, because this experiment is completely unpredictable. I slept through both alarms and Barbie ended up waking me up this morning at 7:30 when our child started crying. I really can't think of anything about yesterday that was so different from the rest of the week, which makes me think that last night was about the cumulative effects of reduced sleep over the week. I had more exercise this week than typical, so maybe that played a factor as well.

So I had three great nights before I crashed hard. Even if this was the most my body could handle, which I don't think is true, I'd be happy to continue this pattern for the indefinite future. I felt great during the first 3 days and nights, and only during the 4th night did my body really complain. That was three nights of additional productive work I otherwise wouldn't have had, which arguably came at a very low cost. I'm going to try inserting core sleep every night though, and see if I can get more than just 3 great consecutive nights.

Tired

I'm tired. Much more tired than I think I should be given I took my scheduled naps today (10, 2, 7). I felt fine during the day, but then did fall asleep in bed while my wife was reading to me just before midnight. Managed to kick myself out of bed and do a bit of reading, but my eyelids feel quite heavy and I'm going to take a short nap. From past experience, I know I need to set a backup alarm and keep the alarm itself across the room so I have to get up. I don't want to be miserable, but I really want to restrict myself to never sleep longer than 3 hours max again for a while.

I wonder if this extra fatigue would be different if I'd gotten 2-3 hours of core sleep at some point last night rather than only 30 minute naps. Is 2 hours of sleep the critical difference? I think for the next while I'll make sure I always have some core sleep at night and see if I have extreme fatigue moments like this one again and with what frequency.

Amazing Spouse

I couldn't have survived today without a great, understanding wife. I did sleep from 4-7am and was able to get up (although definitely wanted to stay in bed). I managed a morning nap at 11, but then was kept busy at school and hadn't taken a second nap by the time I got home at 6. I was feeling "it", and it wasn't pleasant. Barbie got home from school about then, and was gracious enough to take over feeding JJ (even though she was tired too from a long day at school) and let me take a precious 30 minute nap. I'm still amazed at what 30 minutes does on this schedule, but I made it after that until 11!

I feel quite adapted to this schedule, and it's great. I woke at 11:45 pm as my wife returned from her book club group and spent an hour or so with her until she went to bed. I then worked on my current research paper (and cleaned the floors for company coming in town) until 3am, took a 30 minute nap, and was up fairly easy and working some more. I have to reiterate that none of this would be possible without an amazing, flexible, and supportive wife!

Update

It's almost 4am and I was able to compute several tables for my professor. It's been a productive morning, and while I might be able to survive off a 30 minute nap I think I'll jump in bed and get a solid 3 hours of sleep before my son wakes up. Crazy, but this is actually quite fun!

Controlling My Day

Yesterday went pretty well. These last two nights I've taken a nap when my wife is going to bed, which really seems to help end her day. I set my alarm for 30 minutes, and because it takes her a while to fall asleep, she's falling asleep as I wake up. This seems to work for her, and she actually enjoys the extra sprawl room in bed when I leave! She just barely wished me good luck tonight on my work as I slipped out of the bedroom.

I haven't had much problem waking up and getting going after these naps, and find these early hours in the morning quite productive (so far). Yesterday I worked from 1-3 am and then took a nap on the couch. I set my alarm for just 20 minutes but realistically expected I'd sleep until 7. However, when I awoke I felt good enough I decided to plow through and ended up only sleeping from 6-8! I was worried I'd be tired throughout the day, but naps at 11am, 4:30pm and 8pm kept me going just fine. I think that adds up to just under 5 hours of sleep heading into today (Thursday). I expect to be much more tired, and from past experience know the second day is much more challenging. I will force myself to sleep from 4-7 even if I'm not completely exhausted in hopes of keeping my life sane today.

Finding My Rhythm: Adjusting Sleep Patterns

Summary: I'm a committed polyphasic sleeper. I take several naps during the day and limited core blocks of sleep at night, striving to keep total hours of sleep under 5. Failing to completely execute the Uberman was discouraging/depressing. However, other schedules such as the Everyman are currently more feasible for me. Relying on naps to shorten total sleep hours as a general strategy seems to be working.

I'm still following a polyphasic sleep pattern, albeit modified from my original intention. I wanted to jump straight to the intense Uberman schedule, sleeping only 30 minutes every 4 hours (3 hours total sleep). I found that I could successfully pull this off for about 2 days, and the third day would physically crash at night. I was disappointed, mostly because I felt the majority of my naps were already generating REM sleep and that I should be able to make it through the night. Yet however I structured my day, diet, and exercise, it seemed that I was unable to reach a coherent state between 2-6 am on the third day.

More than anything I felt disappointed in myself. I would walk around our outdoor parking lot in the chilly night air to try and wake up, take showers, walk the hallway, and still could not focus on a single thing. I would fall asleep playing internet games. I either lacked the internal motivation I thought I had, or faced a somber truth that self sleep deprivation is difficult to enforce!

I really thought I could do it, and failing to consistently stick to the Uberman became semi-depressing. I never returned to a monophasic sleep schedule, but would end up sleeping in longer chunks of time at night than planned (between 2 and 5 hours). My wife can attest that the days after I hit this "wall" I was none too pleasant. I essentially thought I could force my body to do anything my mind set its will to do, and am still grappling with the realization that this might not be true. I don't ever anticipate forcing myself to not eat or drink water, which would just be stupid, but given a scientific explanation for why this sleep schedule should be feasible, I'm still a little discouraged that I didn't reach it.

Polyphasic sleep encompasses more than just the Uberman schedule, and when I consciously decided to allow myself several core hours of sleep at night (conceding the Uberman just not currently feasible for me) things have gone much better. Variations of this type are called the Everyman. My wife was concerned that adding large chunks of sleep would undo all the positive ground I made in the Uberman, and I admit I was also concerned about losing progress at reducing overall hours of sleep. Yet I find that I can still benefit from 20 minute naps and awake both refreshed and surprised by how little time has passed. I'm currently averaging 3-4 hours of sleep at night and 3 daytime naps, so my total sleep is about 5 hours, well under my previous 8-9 hours! And most important is several hours of uninterrupted work at night, which decidedly increases my daily productivity.

For two nights coinciding with a boy scout camping trip I did briefly return to the world of monophasic sleep. Sharing a tent with a fellow leader and having limited sources of heat and light make staying up most of the night rather ridiculous. And the adventures of the trip itself were so exhausting (physical activity and sun exposure) that I didn't even try to stay awake the next night. There was a little difficulty getting back to polyphasic sleep, and I wouldn't recommend switching back and forth between the two often, but I seem to have survived.

I'll do my best to more consistently record my successes and failures. I've been reluctant to share the failures, because I'm the type to guy that feels he never fails. That of course is not true, it's just the image I have of myself and like to portray to others. I think a policy of honesty however will make this blog much more useful to me and realistic to others.

Day 6

I feel like this is going to be a long night.

Monday I kept to my schedule, sleeping every 4 hours for 30 minutes. This resulted in two naps at school immediately before and after an MBA class. I've found a quiet bench in a study room where I can lie down and stretch out. I've found that I really don't need a "comfortable" spot, because 30 minutes isn't long enough to be uncomfortable! I slept on the floor last Saturday, and that seemed to work out just fine. I have a travel pillow that I use at school, but my winter coat also seems to work just fine. As you can see, I'm not a picky sleeper at all, I just don't get a lot of it!

Night sleep: 2 hours

Last night was one of my more successful (and productive) nights yet on this sleep schedule. I slept approx. 2 hours in four 30-minute intervals (10:30, 1, 5, 6:30) and just finished my first morning nap (9am). How do I feel? I wouldn't trust myself with any equipment (or knives) and I'm a bit reluctant to ride my bike to school, but I feel I have decent focus and only a slightly delayed response. I've got a decent amount of brain fog if I stop and think about it. I've got a 3 hour class this afternoon, but it's fairly interesting and so I hope that staying awake isn't too difficult. Then the bigger challenge will be to make it through a consecutive night without oversleeping.

Day 5

I had to adapt my sleep schedule a little tonight to accommodate a social activity from 7:30-11. Past experience has taught me that prolonging the period between naps can be quite painful later, so I received permission from my wife to take an early nap immediately prior to our activity and then again immediately after. So I ended up taking two naps close together (5 and 7), with only a regular interval between naps over the activity.

Seems to have done the trick, as I'm feeling pretty darn good right now! I also want to stick to my 1, 5, 9 schedule, so I took the 1am nap as scheduled, even though I felt I could have stayed awake a bit longer. Would rather not throw too many changes at my body!

I'm honestly a bit worried though about waking up from the 5am nap. This block of time has been the bane of my experiment thus far, and everything will go so much better when I can overcome this obstacle. My wife says I'm just prolonging the pain when I take a second nap or slightly oversleep (like I did this morning). I like to think that I have a lot of self-control, but forcefully sleep depriving yourself hasn't been a walk in the park. I'm determined to succeed though.

Sleep Log Day 3

I survived today. I had a few hours of uninterrupted work with a decent level of concentration in the morning, and then spent the afternoon spending money with my wife. She has been very supportive lately (would like me to finish school early I think), and even played with JJ in the backseat of our parked car while I took my 5 pm nap. For all of my naps today, I've fallen asleep rather quickly, but haven't felt totally refreshed after waking up. This was especially true at 1:30 am, and I washed the dishes and cleaned up until I felt I could manage some minor concentration (side note, washing knives when you're sleep deprived is not a good idea!).

We have a goal as a couple to cut all sweets out of our diet, and I imagine this will benefit my sleep adaptation. In some ways I feel like I'm not making much forward progress (and even slipping back) because the first night was so pleasant and productive. These last two nights have been much harder by comparison. I'm not planning on quitting any time soon though, and sincerely hope that my body adjusts sooner rather than later.

Sleep Log Day 2

I'll admit I started to get a little droopy and worried tonight, but thank goodness for mindless internet games! I feel like I've managed to push through the hardest part of the night, and hopefully I may even get some work done now (I feel rather alert, so I'll try to read a few academic articles). I've held true so far though, and kept to my 1, 5, 9 schedule. That means I got around 3 hours of sleep on Thursday, and am on target to do the same today.

Reset Button: Day 1

Starting something new and sticking with it takes a lot of effort. Especially when it involves sleep. The power of the pillow seems to grow stronger each year of my life (having a kid didn't help), but I'm determined to show my pillow who's master. This was a big part of my decision to drastically change to a polyphasic sleep schedule. I just don't want to sleep so much each day, and feel that especially now (young family, healthy, student) is a great time to be super productive. It's probably not far from the truth that what I accomplish in the next two years will determine the trajectory of my entire career (and possibly entire life).

Putting that in perspective provides a lot of motivation. But last night I wasn't thinking of any of that, just how dang tired I was walking up and down the hallway with eyes half shut. So I gave up around 1:30 am and crawled into bed with my wife for the night (she thought she was dreaming). I wish I knew why I never quite woke up from that 1 am nap (it was not refreshing at all). My mom would probably say it's because I'm doing something crazy and unnatural, but I tend to blame it on something more concrete, like possibly my diet or lack of exercise. Anyway, I woke up feeling a bit dejected and guilty, and took some time to think about why I want to do this and how badly I want it. Conclusion: I want it real bad.

So I hit the reset button and am trying to remove all the mental roadblocks that may prevent me from reaching this goal. I all in. I'm trying to brace myself for the sleepless nights so I can handle it better when I hit that wall. Tonight has started out a lot better that I anticipated (my only nap today was at 9 pm) and I got several hours of work done on my current research project. I'm guessing I'll have some nights (and even days) this week that are completely unproductive, but hope I have the fortitude to pay the cost to reach the gold at the end of this rainbow.

Polyphasic Sleep

What would you do with an extra 30+ hours each week? Have you ever wondered why we need so much sleep and wished you could do so much more with less sleep? In the past I've tried getting by on less than 7-8 hours of sleep at night, but never found it sustainable. Sure there were crazy all-nighters during finals week, but these were indefinitely followed by crashes and 10+ hours of sleep. I think I finally found a plausible alternative, and am in the midst of a freakin' crazy experiment.

I'm not doing anything illegal. In fact, no outside substance is involved at all. The experiment involves training my body to immediately go into REM sleep (considered the most important of the 5 sleep phases) and bypass the other phases. This results in drastically shorter but more frequent sleep periods. How drastic? I'm currently sleeping for 30 minutes every 4 hours, or about 3 hours of total sleep in a 24 hour period.

I didn't come up with this on my own, but learned of it from a friend here in Chicago. Scientifically it's called polyphasic sleep and this particular version is know as the Uberman Sleep Schedule (USS). Check out this blog for a detailed log of one man's experiment. In a similar spirit, and at my wife's request, I'm going to track my own experience here.

Why am I doing this? Partly because it sounds like a fun experiment. Can I really survive on only 3 hours of daily sleep? How functional will I be? The main reason though is school. My school/personal/family balance has shortchanged the school part lately, and I'd really like to finish my degree on time and get a job sooner rather than later. I anticipate doing a lot of studying, academic reading and research, and data analysis with this extra time.