As I am heading into 3 months of my on-and-off experiment with polyphasic sleep a short retrospective (and prospective or forward-spective :) seems in order.
First off, my situation is a bit unusual as the type of polyphasic sleep that I am doing, essentially biphasic (Winston Churchill’s schedule!), has the tremendous advantage of allowing one to switch back and forth between normal (monophasic) sleep and polyphasic. So if I need to stay up late one night I will just skip the next early morning polyphasic shift and start again the following night. There is a lot of discussion on the boards about the challenges of the Uberman schedule to one’s social life, and the impossibility of skipping naps while on Uberman. I don’t need to worry about this – nor do I want to have to worry about it. I fundamentally believe that good quality sleep and rest is one of the greatest pleasures that is available to us, and I am not prepared to risk sacrificing that for the sake of 2-3 extra hours of work per day (while on biphasic I sleep around 6 hours daily and feel fabulous).
The flip-side of this, however, is that my current biphasic schedule does not enforce discipline. So, I have been going on-and-off, and I am still dealing with my caffeine addiction.
Despite this I can say that my initial 3-month experiment with polyphasic sleep has been a smashing success in terms of consciousness development, and as yet uncertain in terms of business development.
What do I mean by “consciousness development”?
Well, my initial stated goal (which I wrote about in Fundamental motivation and preparation and My Manifesto) was to resolve my [somewhat tortured] relationship to time and money. Resolving my relationship to time (ie, coming to peace with the way I spend my time and how I live my life) is more of a consciousness-development goal, while resolving my relationship to money (ie, generating a comfortable income in a way that fits my mission and values) is more of a business development goal. However, these are really different sides of the same issue.
Given all that has been going on in my personal life and the tremendous insights and changes of the last 3 months, that are well-documented on Polyphasic sleep blog, I can say that the experiment is a great success. Polyphasic sleep was my gateway into these experiences and into this new life, in a way that is still a bit mysterious. In some ways, I think that creating the intention to live a richer, fuller and more spirit-connected life was the fuel of this awakening, and polyphasic sleep was one of many vehicles that brought me there. These vehicles include, among others, my personal coach Nancy Froio, my spiritual teachers Saniel and Linda Bonder, and my amazing wife Rebekah.
What was missing in all this however was the money part. There has been huge progress in that area in the last 2 days.
Polyphasic sleep gives me about 5 hours a day of very focused time in the early morning shift (2-7am). What to do with this time has been the issue, where to focus that energy, how can I be in the world in my passion and getting paid for it. It occurred to me very recently that I could use this time to develop information products (training videos and ebooks) on creating websites and developing internet businesses. And I still have the second morning shift (8-12am) for client work and direct billable hours. Developing information products is something that I love to do – I have two programs already in the works, Create your own website for free (or cheap) using Wordpress and The one-hour guide to online video marketing. Has this been done before? No doubt. However, in a worst-case scenario, these products will build my credibility and bring me clients to my online training business. In a best-case scenario, I can sell them via affiliate marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) or even organic search-engine traffic.
Is this a no-brainer? Duh.
Can anybody do it? I think you must be able to support yourself working half-time for the duration that it takes to develop your information products. I am fortunate right now that I have this possibility, due to circumstances that I did not create but which, ironically, are acting in my favor now. Alternatively, you can gain a few hours a day with polyphasic sleep and use your time for that purpose. So yes, one way or the other, anybody can do this. I intend to develop training products that show you exactly how. Anybody with specialized knowledge can do it – lawyers, accountants, coaches, whatever. The fundamental idea is that at worst you develop your consultancy (gain clients and increase your rates), and at best hit that elusive and sought-after passive income.
Very simple idea, very powerful concept.
