Resources

If you are going to try polyphasic sleep be very, very clear about the following:

  • Polyphasic adaptation is not a game. It requires an extraordinary degree of intrinsic motivation (whether it be desperation or inspiration – in my case a bit of both) and there will be times (most likely around day 3-4 in the case of Uberman) when you feel that you really cannot continue any more.
  • If you are not able or willing to meet the pre-conditions – not sick, not addicted to any stimulants or drugs, totally flexible schedule, understanding and co-operative spouses, children and bosses, willingness to let the schedule rule your life and don’t even think of deviating – forget it.  You would be wasting your time and might even cause damage.
  • This being said, don’t let critics and nay-sayers have their way.  Anything truly worth doing will have its skeptics.  Some will even quote all kinds of pseudo scientific evidence in support of their position (but also see PureDoxyk’ response).  Pay no attention, there are tons of well-documented success stories – usually people who follow the guidelines exactly and understand the success factors.
  • Buy PureDoxyk’s book ($8, a bargain). If you can’t invest $8 in this experiment, you should not be doing it
  • Consider starting with the modified Everyman schedule that I am doing now, which has the potential to eliminate adaptation misery.  See also my one-on-one polyphasic sleep coaching page.
  • If you are considering Uberman, consider the idea that initial success with one of the more moderate schedules (ie Everyman or biphasic) will greatly increase your chances of success.

Resources list (unedited)

First read Polyphasic sleep introduction.

The most famous polyphasic sleeper is Steve Pavlina who conducted a successful 5 1/2 months Uberman experiment in 2006. His writing of his experience is fascinating and is what turned me on to this in the first place.

However the “grandmother” of Uberman is PureDoxyk who gained fame through her original posts on everything2.com. She coined the word “Uberman” (reference to Nietzsche, she was a philosophy major) and has writen an ebook that is an essential resource for anybody serious about this (not to mention very reasonably priced at $8, and well-written as well).  Turns out she’s a mom in Michigan, did Uberman for about 6 months in college, but has switched to Everyman polyphasic now due to the requirements of work and parenting, and has been on it for 2 1/2 years as of this writing (Dec. 2008).

In addition see the following:

There are some very cool people out there, hope to get some good networking in :-).

Also I am posting Kirk Kahn’s resource list (moderator of New York group) as a place-holder for now:

If you have not already done so, check out these video documentaries, which talk about extreme napping aka polyphasic sleep. The first is a documentary done on my experience with polyphasic sleep:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpSxXjLjL3M
The second is a documentary on sleep researcher Claudio Stampi’s clinical investigations:
http://vvi.onstreammedia.com/cgi-bin/visearch?squery=+ClipID:5++VideoAsset:pbssaf105&query=sleep&user=pbs-saf
If you are serious about extreme napping, there are some blogs that you should read. The first is Steve Pavlina:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/
You should also read the blog of PureDoxyk, the person who coined the term Uberman’s Sleep Schedule when she first tried it in 1999:
http://www.puredoxyk.com/index.php/about-polyphasic-sleep/

Review of “Uberman sleep” by PureDoxyk

“PureDoxyk” is probably the greatest authority on polyphasic sleep in the world.  See above for a brief bio.

Reading her seminal ebook Ubersleep doesn’t give any real surprises from what I write above.  She does note the following:

  • Make no mistake, adaptation is tough. If you are not going to follow the schedule exactly, forget about it, you’ll be wasting your time.  Perhaps after you’ve adapted and are doing it for a couple months, you can play around, but not before.
  • After a successful adaptation (about 1 week to “get it”), however, you will feel more alert, energetic and alive than ever before, and Uberman in particular creates profound changes in consciousness regarding awareness of time, sharpened senses, a general euphoria, etc.
  • There is a chapter in the book about the types of changes to the schedule that you can try, but it’s pretty minimal.  Shift nap times +/- 15 min. and see what happens, etc.
  • She recommends 20 min naps (certainly no more than 30 min).  Steve Pavlina did 25-30 min naps, figuring it would take him 5 min to get to sleep, but found himself waking up after about 20 minutes eventually anyway.  I think I’ll go for 25 min, and let the alarm buzz until I am actually vertical (ie, not turn the alarm off and think that I will “rest” for a few more minutes).
  • Motivation as the key aspect.  That is the most interesting aspect for me, and, I postulate, the reason for most failures.  You need to be very, very determined and/or have a very compelling goal.  Just curiosity in general won’t work. Steve Pavlina did it mostly out of curiosity, but he’s a bit extreme (he took 40 credits in one college semester and graduated in 18 months – this was way before polyphasic sleep.  No way I could do that).
  • Steve Pavlina took extra naps as needed (up to 2 additional naps per night) in-between regular naps and adapted fine after a week.  I am not certain about this – I really don’t want to take a chance on messing this up – I will ask PureDoxyk what she thinks and get back to y’all.
  • She doesn’t say much about diet (beyond simple common sense) – I believe that eating raw or super-healthy will help.  I have much more energy and feel better when I eat mostly raw.
  • I am assuming that being in a healthy emotional / physical / psychological state is necessary – but this may not be true.  PureDoxyk had severe insomnia and a history of depression when she tried it – in some ways she was at the end of her rope.  However, she also had a very close buddy relationship with a friend that she was inseparable from, and they supported each other through the adaptation period (and both succeeded, while 15 people who tried after them all failed).  See my comments above about inspiration versus desperation – each of which is effective in their own right, but both together are even better.
  • Avoiding boredom, especially during the adaptation period, is important.  Long lists of things to do helps.
  • The book has much more – if you are going try this do yourself a favor and buy the book.

Polyphasic Sleep mp3’s

Placebo has made great mp3’s of various duration.  I edited his 26 min one to reduce the volume of white noise which I didn’t find relaxing (and so I can listen at full volume so the chicken squawking  wakes me up).  I also made some silence tracks which you an queue up to a nap of any length.  The “wakup.mp3″ is simply the wakup portion of Greg’s track.  To nap for any amount of time, and be sure you wake up, queue up as many silence tracks as you need, add the “wakup” track, and plug your player into a speaker at full volume that you can’t reach from your bed.

Get them all here (and thanks Greg!).

Also Greg’s Nap Tracking software is very cool (and works like a charm)