I am furious with myself. I have learned to not leave the alarm near me when I am sleeping. I turn it off each time. I overslept my 1.P.M nap by about an hour. I am not sure how much damage each of these slip-ups do, so I must assume that at this point I have allowed a good bit of progress to be lost. The not knowing how I am doing with this is discouraging, this is one of the most discouraged feelings I've had. I must be 3 feet from gold. Mhm, and that's what I must remind myself. Success generally comes one step after being overtook by failure.
I'll post more later.

This is day 4. (2 and a half mistakes)

I feel like I have a decent bit to say and to describe for the sleep cycle. I am a little unorganized in my thinking right now, so bear me and I'll try to give an accurate account. Before I get into that. Thursday night for my 11 P.M to 2 A.m core sleep I changed my alarm tone before bed. The new tone only went off like once and gave up. Almost needless to say, this was not sufficient and I overslept by two hours. The worst part was the guilt and discouragement. When you start getting sleep deprived small things can seem more dramatic, so waking up feeling like I screwed up after 2 or 3 days out of two weeks was disheartening. It was tempting to go back to sleep and say, "forget it for tonight". I am very pleased to say this is not the approach I took. I decided to stay up the two and a half hours until my next nap, alone and feeling worn and shamed. Even if i had to go to three weeks instead of two, I said I would do it.

I must comment that the morning hours are by far the worst during adaption. Up until about 8 or A.M (which is after my first nap of the day) I feel tired and question if it is worth it. The interesting part that I have experienced is it is not the overwhelmed feeling of sleep deprivation that makes me question the worth, it is the quality of the activities I get to do while awake. This sleep adaption is rough because if you are attempting it, it is most likely in some part because you want more productive time. Adaption kills productive activity. I wanted to work out and read. I am not strong enough like this to get in a good work out, and reading is hard to focus on without getting more drowsy. Time slows down in ridiculous proportions at these times, making it harder to just push for long. This leads to what seems like whole days spent watching T.V, playing a video game, or doing a puzzle. Yes my biggest competitors in this are

• Boredom
•   Drowsy feeling in the morning

Thank God I got out of my room last night. My stepdad had been on the couch the last few nights and my room is not very spacious. This makes my bed the prime location to sit other than my desk chair. It also gets chilly. I am very thankful I got away from that last night and got to hang out in the living room.


My half mistake I think was minor and balanced by my first mistake. I skipped my nap purposely to go help my friend Greg pull weeds on a farm. It was good fun, so I can not really call it a mistake. I just continued on like I had missed no nap and hit my 6 P.M nap on schedule as recommended on http://www.puredoxyk.com/index.php/2007/01/24/six-months-on-everyman/. 

My second actual mistake was this morning, I overslept my 6:30 A.M nap by about 15 minutes. I had my alarm next to me today, which I normally do not do, so I think I turned it off while half asleep. This does matter, If I woke out of deep sleep I would feel groggy and the day's difficulty would be amplified. 
I realized around then some great signs.

1. I didn't oversleep by much (2 hours) for that first mistake, my body may be on it's way to "use" to this
2. I only overslept my nap by 15 minutes without alarm. 
3. Based off a interesting and  accurate video of a guy who attempted the "Uberman", one sign polyphasic adaption is going good is increased dreaming during naps. I have had a few dreams in my  naps.

This is probably a bit earlier than expected, but I am okay with that. To wrap up I think I found an answer to one of my concerns.  I was concerned that I was not getting enough deep sleep in my core nap or naps. I wanted my body to be healthy not just me mentally feeling healthy. What I mean to say is that once I can, I wanna work out. Deep sleep is what takes care of repairing muscles mainly. I read that the body prefers deep sleep over REM. This is significant because the body is a okay converter of things. It seems that the body can take from REM sleep to get repairs and such for deep sleep. I am hoping this means once my body gets ore suited I can get more REM and it will heal and give me my energy and strength in addition to enough REM for my mind. 

Everyman sleep cycle Day 2 going on day 3.

Doing this experiment is great because at the very least it gives me something to talk about each day. I am sure what I am about to say is a silly statement to make, but It may persist to be something of value yet. If you want to be a writer, it helps (greatly) to have something to write about. If you wish to be interesting, do interesting things.

I am starting to go through dips. There are times when I feel energized and well. There are times when I feel rather tired (generally just after I wake up). It has been twice pointed out to me that the second week will most likely be the breaking point and hardest to persist through. Once my dad who has some experience with sleep deprivation, and again at http://johanus-haidner.suite101.com/adapting-to-polyphasic-sleep-a141392,  "If one is purposefully trying to adapt to a polyphasic sleep cycle it can be difficult, physically. Most of those who have written about doing it admit that the first couple of days aren’t too bad, but the week after that is extremely difficult. Many people fail to adapt at this point and simply quite trying." I am okay with hearing this briefly, I should know if it is coming. As I was talking with my dad I basically gave the only answer I plan to need to persist. The comment was simply that if you go through all that and are that tired, you might as well win. It reminds me of a comment in Napoleon Hill's Think and grow rich, saying that "temporary defeat/failure cannot cope with persistence. If you don't do it right now. When should you? When will you? Things won't line up in ideals this time nor the next, that may be largely why sufficient planning can be so stressed before taking on a new project.

I also wish to mention to invaluable aid of good nutrition. Just a few small changes such as 3 vegetable servings for enough time and I can feel it still helping my body to stay strong through this new challenge.

Day (morning?) 2

What a interesting day. Today is my second day and I am getting a bit sleepy. This is a strange place because my body and mind are at different places. Physically I have had energy today, mentally I can think with clarity still. I also feel as though in time I may be tired enough to start zoning out in a daydreaming/unconscious state for a few seconds at a time. Only time will tell, just have to work to help my body adjust. I worked out Tuesday before beginning The Everyman. Since muscle repair and growth mainly happen during deep sleep, which happens mostly in the first 4 hours of elapsed sleep, I was not sure what to expect. I also decided to fast for my first day and ate very little (pressure from my mom wouldn't let me finish). I did not feel quite repaired and I was a bit concerned. I wasn't sure whether the lack of the hour of deep sleep was playing into this since I sleep 3 hours for my core nap. I got enough nutrients the day before that I thought that would be handled. It is possible that at the lack of nutrients the following day amplified this issue as well. I ate this morning (a few hours ago) and I do feel some difference and some energy so as my body adjusts If I keep working out I will have to pay attention to this.

On the other hand, I am starting to see think this may actually work. Under enough stress or pressure it is amazing the adaptions and changes the body can make in such a short amount of time. Just think, once I get tired enough for long enough-while sticking on schedule-I will be able to feel well rested! It is a sort of "To find yourself, you have to get lost" sort of experience. I already am pondering how or If I will change this schedule when I hit my 2 week mark. I think more observation of sleeps effect on my muscles is in order. Also no rush, I just have to keep up my resolve to finish and focus on that. I must finish what I started.

Day 1 (Introduction)

It has been too long since I have written.

I am not going to try to continue where I was exactly the last time I posted. I will just let my reader(s) know that I have been doing more than watching the television. I have continued my research on sleep cycles and have found alternative sleep cycles, also known as polyphasic. Polyphasic sleep cycles seem to be a little controversial in the sleep world. Tonight is my first night of the polyphasic sleep cycle cleverly nicknamed the "everyman". The everyman has a 3 or 4 hour "core" nap or sleeping period than a nap for 20 minutes of 20 at intervals of about 5 hours. Clearly, this is much less than the widely believed 7-8 hour sleeping period. There are a few possible explanations why this could work despite of this. It is true that the later someone sleeps straight the less deep sleep they are receiving in the later hours. One such explanation is that you get your deep sleep from the core nap, and in time, learn to go into REM almost right away while napping. Another possible explanation is that in time, whole sleep cycles can be condensed into one nap period. I really cannot say which is more likely. There is a more extreme called the "Uberman" which is made up of only naps and suggests the latter, but it's still in theory.

With all of this so experimental, some may say "Why bother with it?"
Well, that is simple. The only reason it is experimental, is because few people have tried it (as well as studied it). Those who have reported pretty positive results. There is nothing to suggest this is "against nature". In fact, it appears to me that most of us, if not all, came to this world as polyphasic sleepers. We may have slept for more than a few naps, but had not our parents forced us into a new way of sleeping who knows what our sleeping patterns would be today. Life is short anyhow, I can honestly say that there is nothing wrong with sleeping the typical sleep pattern of 7-8 hours. I can also say, most people don't get this amount of sleep either. If most people are living long term deprived sleep lives in America, does it not make sense to try something else? Even if going in completely unaware of sleep patterns or anything related, is a two week test period unreasonable? At the very least this sleep pattern reports to make users feel charged and well. With that I can at least say one way has one feeling well and enjoying life. What if this way does work with no actual drawbacks other than initial sleep deprivation I wonder. The person with a dot of courage to experiment clearly is the one who will unlock more plentifulness and prosperity in this age of life and all that have passed. Not to say this is the right place upon which to test, but perhaps we should all add to one field of study or experimentation. In my opinion, some of the experimentals (an idea such as America was just an idea, a cause, or new sleeping style) of our life may be dangerous or kill us. On the other hand, there is a good possibility they will kill us a lot slower than the widely accepted practices we know kill us.    

If this does work, feeling well rested every night is my main prize, the few extra hours is only a valuable bonus.

Today is day 1, I think I will attempt the record my feelings throughout these 2 weeks semi-regularly. I am writing this currently at 2:48 AM. It seems strange to me to be awake. It's chilly outside and the world is ever so much quieter. I am not really all that tired. I am in a sort of neutral mode where if asked if I was tired, I might reply "huh?". I do not really feel tired nor well rested. Two good lessons have appeared out of this already.  The first is that it is interesting is that if the question of  "If you could have more time in the day for productivity, would you take it?" I believe most would sincerely answer "yes". The interesting part is that I am not all that sure most of us (including me) would know exactly what to do with it. True there are things we do not and sometimes can not complete in a normal day. If you are like me and stand to gain another 4 hours or so of new productive time those tasks generally are completed with ease. Then, "now what?" It is very interesting that in a world like this with abundant things to study and do we run out of things to do rather fast. Maybe we just procrastinated often during the day and it's harder to mask it by watching t.v reruns all night to cover it. The first lesson is that many of us want more time, but in truth would have to ponder what we would do with it.

The next lesson is a short story. I was trying to get rid of all my sleep debt prior to starting the "everyman". I did a fairly good job of catching up over the weekend. Due to me being over my dad's house for the weekend and coming back that morning I had to wake at around 5 A.M. I knew this ahead of time and planned to wait to start, to take that hit and get one more night of solid rest the next night. Sunday night was different than expected because I didn't fall asleep until about 11 and woke at 1, and re-woke about every hour until 5. I nearly hit my sleeping schedule. The next night I slept about the same even at home. The lesson I arrived at was that there are no perfect times to start. It was just not likely that I would start at a point with no debt without a few attempts and added frustration. I now think that sometimes while waiting for that perfect opportunity, we miss that perfect opportunity due to us not knowing what it looks like. To be fair this perfect is not as in every ideal circumstance is there. This ideal is that the least negative factors in our way for a foreseeable time are present. The best way I know of is that we sometimes force ourselves to stay and wait, even when it's easier to just begin.

I am back from a short study on sleep cycles. I have found them to be immensely interesting. While writing this post, I must admit I am already a bit sleepy. To explain  some of my findings there are 2 types of sleep: REM and non-REM. In the non-REM first is obviously stage 1. Stage 1 tends to last about five minutes or so and is the relaxing drifting into sleep stage. Next is stage 2, this is where some sleep actually begins, the body winds down eye movement stops, heart rate slows, and body temperature decreases. Stage 3 is deep sleep.This one restores your physical energy, if you wake up from this one you'll feel groggy for maybe 7 or 8 minutes. Then about 70 minutes into the cycle comes REM. The REM can be said to restore your mental energy, effecting what you retain from the day before and reaction time. REM also makes and balances out all the chemicals properly to make sure you can maintain a pleasant mood.

Further explanation can be found at http://www.helpguide.org/life/sleeping.htm. As a quick wrap up:

• When you have sleep debt, often your REM will be sacrificed for your bodies proper care for the deep sleep.
• Sleeping weekends are not enough, if you want lasting effects. You may sleep away the weekend and feel fine Monday morning, but likely this won't last the week; maybe not even the afternoon.

This last bullet reinforces the consistency point. Your body can only adjust to perhaps a hour or two time difference per night, skip all the constant readjustments and find one that generally works for you any day (work week or weekend). Now for favorite discovery worth repeating  before bed tonight is that all this tends to take around 90 minutes then is repeated. This is good to know because more sleep doesn't necessarily mean better remember? This is to say that waking up at the end of a sleep cycle at 5:30 A.M might produce more lasting energy than waking up at 6:20 A.M that same morning. How can we use this knowledge? Count in multiples of 90 from your bedtime, wake at the end of a sleep cycle (make sure you have enough sleep cycles in your sleep session) and you'll likely meet more favorable results.

Keeping it rolling. Okay, continuing.

Anyways, yes your body has an idea of what it should be doing. This is parallel to you being tired, if you're tired, something is wrong and adjustments should be made. Remember as well, for best results keep it consistent for a few nights. It was recommended to me to aim for around two weeks by a friend, but it is possible you could cover it in a bit less time.

My biggest takeaway is the importance of paying attention to what your doing and what the results are. This seems like a obvious principal. Can you really say you know when exactly you went to sleep and woke up 4 days ago? Pay attention to the signs and you'll have somewhere to start and narrow down the time range on how much sleep you think you need. Do things on purpose and pay attention is a great rule for this experiment and others.

I kept reading, and the factors that come into play for how much sleep you need is a bit extensive. Everything down to your body weight can impact this. With this new knowledge, It was only a matter of time before I stumbled upon a much better idea and question. The idea was once again that people still can sleep well without much factoring. As well as they have to be able to control more than just knowing the general time needed to sleep. This lead me to the question. What else can a person do to make sleep work for them? Quality control seemed to be the answer.

Thankfully, there are some things that generally just make sleep work better for the average person (factors aside). How you ever slept for 9 hours and felt awful? Have you ever slept 5 or 6 and felt just fine? This is what I am talking about. I am still investigating, but here are some tips that I have used the last few nights and noticed some positive difference.

• The feet get cold first, wear socks to bed
• Ironically the rest of the body likes cool temperature in the room, so crack a window
• Get a good stretch before bed (good to wake up in the morning as well)
• Do not expose your eyes to a computer or television screen up to a hour before bed (read a book)
• If you eat a snack before bed, make if protein, not sugar or grain
• Drink plenty of fluids a little over a hour before bed, than drink next to nothing to avoid waking in the middle of night or waking with a dry mouth.
• Keep your room as dark as possible

These have worked well for me. I also suggest looking into sleep cycles, I will be looking into it soon.

(Continuation of the post of yesterday.) Okay so what have I said so far? Great, I have not said much of anything yet and know where I left off. Mostly...


I started with a simple question. How much sleep does a person really need? At first it was 6.5 to 7.5 hours, anything over 8 is oversleeping and will feel bad, as well as cause a person to die younger. Then I looked at  some charts laid out for different age group sleeping requirements, most seemed to show that as time went on you just needed less and less sleep. "Cool", I thought,  " but how much do I need?". For someone about my age some said I needed just a little over eight hours of sleep. Upon further reading, my research got past the quick fact or tip someone is likely to find in their spare time versus wanting to really understand. It seems that many factors play into how much sleep you need. Many, many factors. There is no "magic number". Based off of this information, there are at least two options you may choose from.

• Get a sleep test
• Listen to your body a bit

The average cost of a sleep test is about $1000 to $5000. There has to be a better (as defined as less expensive) way! Before big machines that beeped and flashed, people got a good night's rest. They must have took a clue, and listened to their body. For instance one thing I read that gave me a pronounced "A-Ha!" was that your body knows about when the right amount of sleep is reached. Sometimes we push this and go back to sleep, sometimes we limit this and force ourselves up with an alarm clock or otherwise, but it knows. It tells us about it, too. Either way, have you ever had all the right elements line up so that you just woke up and just about jumped out of bed? I have, that looks like a good place to be.

How do we "take a hint?" One tip I read suggested a pretty easy approach: go to bed about 15 minutes earlier each night until you find yourselves waking up before your alarm feeling okay. This will probably work better once you've caught up on most of your sleep to eliminate that variable, but good idea. It seems to reason that our bodies will wake up up at 3am if we planned our sleeping schedule accordingly. This is great because once you find that general area, stick with it for a week or so and let everything balance out while you feel better and well rested. This is also great because you get to beat that annoying alarm clock.


(That's it for today, keep it periodical, the extra effort is generally worth the reward.)

Sleep-who needs it?

My first official blog post-one which I'm excited about, will be about sleep. As of lately I (with a gentle nudge here and there from others) have found the resolve to set myself after the popular goal of taking better of myself. I have already took a step and a half towards eating better, as well as gaining a new enjoyment for working out. My main motivation for doing these things is to plainly feel awesome. I have felt awful enough of my life, and have been sick enough to raise concern from those around me.


The third piece of this puzzle of feeling as good as I can seems to be proper sleeping. Sleeping is an interesting subject. I have been on top of this a handful of times to know what it feels like, but more often than not, I have been under it's pressure to gain more of it. It is much like an experience I had about 2 years ago with a educator at my high school. I had been dating a girl who for some ungodly reason felt the need to call me no earlier than 11 or 12+ at night. Of course, I would later learn that was being an idiot for allowing this to happen. Either way, when she would call I just did not have the moxie to say no and mean it, so I would answer the phone regretfully (to "just" say goodnight) and pay the price later. This became a regular habit for a quarter or two of high school. One day, my history schoolteacher Mr. Everett noticed me on a day where I was just awake enough to answer a question or two and show a measurable difference. He talked to me after class, he opened with the phrase "I guess I owe you an apology". "I forgive you, but what for?" I said, "I misjudged you, I thought you were much like a young man I once taught named Mike", he continued " He wasn't very smart and stayed up all night doing drugs and skateboarding." I don't really remember what I said, but maybe the lack of sleep was getting to be again, because I was not really all that surprised or offended. I may not have been on drugs, but I sure felt like it.

I was not surprised to later learn that a big enough sleep deficiency can be worse than being drunk, performance wise.

 I do not think I have been that tired and self neglecting since then. I have not been doing as good as I can with this vital part of life as I feel I could nonetheless. 

 I am here today to post about some of the interesting findings and my brief thoughts on sleep thanks to the world wide web. It is a bit humorous to me that each article seems to begin by saying why sleep is important. It is interesting and good to know, but I think we get the idea. Research papers most likely feel the need to mention that as well, but there will be less of that in this post. Sleep is important. 

Now that we have that covered let me add to that, sleep is important, if you want to feel awesome.

I'll continue tomorrow. Sleep is free, grab some.  

Writing leads to wealth-Jeffery Gitomer