Alternate Sleep Cycles Most people only think that there is one way to sleep: Go to sleep at night for 6-8 hours, wake up in the morning, stay awake for 16-18 hours and then repeat. Actually, that is called a monophasic sleep cycle, which is only 1 of 5 major sleep cycles that have been used successfully throughout history. The other 4 are considered polyphasic sleep cycles due to the multiple number of naps they require each day. Well the most important of every sleep cycle is the Stage 4 REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, which has been shown to provide the benefits of sleep to the brain above all other stages of sleep. This way, you still get the benefits of 8 hours of sleep without wasting all of the time it takes to get to REM cycles, resulting in a much more efficient sleep cycle. Uberman Cycle: 20 to 30 minute naps every 4 hours, resulting in 6 naps each day. Everyman Cycle: One longer “core” nap that is supplemented with several 20-30 minute naps. Dymaxion Cycle: Biphasic/Siesta Cycle: – Hang in there.
» 10 Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” – Ben Franklin, famously “Put no trust in the benefits to accrue from early rising, as set forth by the infatuated Franklin …” – Mark Twain By Leo Babauta Recently, reader Rob asked me about my habit of waking at 4:30 a.m. each day, and asked me to write about the health benefits of rising early, which I thought was an excellent question. Unfortunately, there are none, that I know of. However, there are a ton of other great benefits. Now, let me first say that if you are a night owl, and that works for you, I think that’s great. Greet the day. How to Become an Early Riser Don’t make drastic changes.
Polyphasic Sleep Log – A Wife’s Perspective My wife, Erin, has a unique perspective on my polyphasic sleep experiment that she wanted to share, so the rest of this post is from her. You might be wondering what it’s been like to live with Steve while he’s trying his polyphasic sleep experiment. Let me tell you… When he first came to me with this idea I was ready to brush it off as a passing thought or idea. I didn’t think he was serious. But when he started musing out loud about how we would adjust our schedules to compensate for his need to nap, my “uh oh, he’s on the jazz again!” He decided his naptimes would be 1pm, 5pm, 9pm, and 1am, 5am, and 9am. I was still somewhat resistant to the idea. As you’ve read in his polyblog logs (or whatever they are) he’s doing really well. There have been benefits (our refrigerator is stocked to capacity!) Steve RecommendsHere are my recommendations for products and services I've reviewed that can improve your results.
Train Yourself to Become a Morning Person and Test If You're a Real Lark or Night Owl About 15 years ago I suffered from a serious case of Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, where I was most awake between 1-3 AM, and couldn't get out of bed before 9 or 10 AM. It didn't help that I had a high tech/dotcom job where I could roll in at 10:30, no problem. I fixed my sleep rhythm by doing a few things: 1 - I bought an enormous light box, and I put 2 150 watt bulbs in the lamps next to my bed, and put those lamps on a timer to go off at 6AM. At night, I came home and didn't turn on any lights in the house. Watched a little TV, and went to bed. At 6AM those lamps came on, making my bedroom look as lit up as a jet runway. Once the lamps came on, I sat in front of the light box on my computer for 30 minutes. I had a hard time the first week or so, then my rhythm shifted.
Infographic of the Day: So What If You Don't Sleep Enough? | Co. Design How many times have you told yourself (especially when you're up at 2 a.m. on a Sunday night): "Eh, it's just sleep." Is it just sleep, though? What happens to your health when you're not sleeping enough? This infographic designed by FFunction for Zeo, a company that makes an electronic "sleep coach," is less of a real data visualization than a set of illustrated facts. Scientists are inching closer to an explanation of how all this might be the case. That said, what the infographic doesn't tell is that sleeping too much can be almost as a dangerous as not sleeping enough. [Via Zeo]
How to be a morning person, and have more time for yourself! Do you hate getting up in the morning? Does the sound of your alarm clock set you in panic, dry sweats, and almost bring you to tears each morning? Do you hate people that are happy and chipper early in the morning? Do you need to have at least two cups of coffee before you can even acknowledge the day each morning? Do you wish there was a way to make getting up easier? Do you wish you had more time to get things done during the day? If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, this ‘ible is for you. Please note, I’m not a doctor, I never played one on TV, I didn’t even stay in a Holiday Inn last night, so please use this only as a guide and seek professional help for any problems or issues you may have. With that said, I have been in the US Army for over 20 years and been deployed all over. Over time, I’ve learned plenty of tricks for dealing with early mornings. So here goes…
6 Tips and Tricks for Polyphasic Sleep Jordan has written some excellent articles on polyphasic sleep. So good in fact that I couldn’t resist trying it out for myself. I always tried to understand my own psyche, whether through meditation, putting myself in situations that are challenging or confronting my own strong held beliefs. Next stop was, going poly! There’s only one thing I was more excited about than going to be a polyphaser and that is doing a Ayahusca ceremony, which has a strong connection with meditation, sleep and lucid dreaming, with three Peruvian shamans in April, extensive blog report will follow! It took me three tries before I succesfully went polyphasic. I’m two weeks in my third try and I’m feeling great. 1) Start SLOWLY! Don’t go from monophasic to polyphasic in one go. 2) Don’t cut down on caffeine IMMEDIATELY! Morning coffee is one of those modern sacred rituals of the human race. 3) Don’t wake up at the WRONG moment! 4) Its all about ENDURANCE! 5) Going LUCID! Talk about motivation!
Start Your Day in 33 Different Ways Mornings are underrated. I consider them fundamental for the whole diurnal experience. What you do in the very first moments of your morning will fundamentally and inexorably shape your entire day. Consciously inserting your intentions in these very first moments will have a huge effect. Here are at least 33 ways in which you can transform your days by only spending 5 minutes every morning. 1. I love the morning stillness and the unspoken promise of something ready to start. 2. And do nothing. 3. Point your mind to something you’re really grateful for and stay there. 4. Regardless of the current season. 5. You’re going to spot it pretty easily if you put your mind to it. 6. Write an answer to an old question, do part of a small chore, move an object out of somebody’s way. 7. Empty your mind and isolate from your environment. 8. This is different from number 6 in terms of the actual time of the helping act. 9. Like in getting physical. 10. 11. Let go. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19.
"I Sleep Two Hours Per Day"- Intro The INTRO It seems as if I have once again decided to inflict more harm (self-discipline really) onto myself in the name of I-dunno-what (something provocative). I’ve decided that on top of being Ubervegan I’m going to be sleeping two hours a day. Yup, TWO HOURS A DAY, for at least three months (aiming for a full year). Now, you may be wondering just how the f**k I’m going to live on two hours sleep per day for three months. The answer is simple really: through polyphasic sleeping. Polyphasic sleepers usually go through five phases (the humor comes from realizing that they resemble the five stages of grief): Pre-polyphasic phase (denial)- The soon to be polyphasic sleeper is extremely excited about final getting to master time and space, they “knew something like this HAD to exist”. …Wait, what? Well… the truth is that there is a 6th phase few reach. Everyman is probably my safest bet for polyphasic sleeping. Uberman (rhymes with Ubervegan :)) is the next safest for me. The SCHEDULE
How to Become an Early Riser It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom. – Aristotle Are morning people born or made? In my case it was definitely made. In my early 20s, I rarely went to bed before midnight, and I’d almost always sleep in late. I usually didn’t start hitting my stride each day until late afternoon. But after a while I couldn’t ignore the high correlation between success and rising early, even in my own life. … and the next morning, I got up just before noon. Hmmm… I tried again many more times, each time not getting very far with it. It’s hard to become an early riser using the wrong strategy. The most common wrong strategy is this: You assume that if you’re going to get up earlier, you’d better go to bed earlier. It seems there are two main schools of thought about sleep patterns. The second school says you should listen to your body’s needs and go to bed when you’re tired and get up when you naturally wake up.
Sleep Suit Inspired by Dymaxion Sleeping Forrest Jessee has recently unveiled his Sleep Suit inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s practice of Dymaxion Sleeping – 30-minute naps over 24 hours – while simultaneously exploring the materiality requirements to accommodate such a function. Interaction between the human body and the suit is the form generator as well as the threshold medium between the internalized occupant and their immediate surroundings. The suit is comprised of structural pleats that serve multiple purposes. The interrelation between the occupant and the surroundings are challenged through the reinterpretation of personal space, and offer opportunity for varying sensations of associated temporality. The EVA foam pleats ensure the internal environment is breathable, while offering comfortable support for the body in numerous positions. This could be the answer to all those all-nighters that students of architecture endure prior to final studio presentations. References: www.spectacular.com Photographs: Forrest Jessee
Productivity Boost: How to start your day at 5:00 AM I have been an early-riser for over a year now. Monday through Friday I wake up at 5:00 AM without hitting the snooze button even once. I never take naps and rarely feel tired throughout the day. The following is my advice on how to start your day (everyday) at 5:00 AM.The idea of waking up early and starting the day at or before the sunrise is the desire of many people. Many highly successful people attribute their success, at least in part, to rising early. Many people simply “can’t” get up early because they are stuck in a routine. Relocate your alarm clock.Having an alarm clock too close to your bed is the number one reason people simply cannot get up in the morning. Scrap the snooze.The snooze feature on all modern alarm clocks serves absolutely no constructive purpose. Change up your buzzerIf you use the same buzzer day in and day out, you begin to develop a tolerance to the sound. Have a reasonMake sure you have a specific reason to get up in the morning.
Adapting A Polyphasic Sleep Schedule Without Suffering If you’re reading this then I’m going to assume you know what Polyphasic Sleeping is, and just need to figure out how to implement it into your life while minimizing the zombie-like feeling that you have to suffer through. This sleeping method (along with it’s many permutations) has been around for many years but was recently made popular by Tim Ferris’ new book The 4 Hour Body. And honestly, who can blame the massive horde of people trying to implement this schedule into their daily lives? It claims to give you an extra 4-6 hours to play with without sacrificing sleep quality. But as always, there is a catch; the dreaded transitioning period. The Sleep Schedules There are two main sleeping schedules that I’m concerned with: The Everyman 3 and the Uberman. Core Sleep: 4am – 7am Nap 1: 1pm Nap 2: 4pm Nap 3: 12am However, for those that feel like being a bit more daring and brave, there is the Uberman method. Why Most People Fail So how did I do it? Week 1 Week 2 Resources And What To Expect 1.