lavalamp's sleep diary napping all over the place

Polysleeping: lavalamp’s official adaptation guide

This is a post about the process of adapting. You really should first prepare; this post is not about that, except for the part about workable schedules. My writing here will sound absolute, but it is obviously only my opinion.

The single most important thing when adapting is consistency. I did not realize this when I first started, but by taking your naps at specific times throughout the day, you are hijacking your body's circadian rhythm system. Your goal is to train it to make you sleepy at specific times, and let you be awake at other times. Now, most people either sleep around eight hours at night, or around six with a nap in the middle of the day. We are going to train the machinery that makes you sleepy at those times to do it at the times we want to be sleepy.

Why is this so important? Well, the first day or two you will not be able to sleep at all for your naps. But by the second or third day (definitely by the forth) you will fall asleep easily on account of being so exhausted. But once you are adapted (10 to 30 days later), you will be back to normal and not be exhausted at your nap time: if you cannot fall asleep for a nap now when you are not exhausted, how will you sleep then? The answer is that by the time that comes around, you will have trained your body to make you tired at those times. If this does not occur, you will never be adapted.

So training your body to sleep at specific times is most important. You train your body to sleep at specific times by laying down to sleep at those times and those times only. (This is the first thing a doctor will tell you to do if you complain of insomnia: always go to bed and get up at the same times)

After you are adapted, then you may skip a nap once in a while without un-training your body. Imagine a skipped/moved nap as setting you back a day in your adaptation with regards to that nap; on day 30 it's no big deal; on day 9 it's a very big deal. I think the effects of skipping a nap may be multiplicative; if you skip your noon nap one day, it might set you back a day, but skip it again the next day and it might set you back four additional days.

One note: there is a condition where one's circadian cycle doesn't sync up with the day. If you have it, you probably go to bed at 4, would like to sleep past noon, and are constantly tired because you can't. The normal rules will probably not apply to you.

A large part of consistency which deserves a word all to itself is avoiding oversleeps. Sleeping too long, or at the wrong times causes you to not sleep (well) at the right times. Not sleeping at the right times hurts you in two ways: first, you're not training your body to sleep or even reversing that training; and second, by not sleeping at the right times, you're failing to reap the benefits of whatever adaptation you've accomplished so far. That is, a benefit of consistent nap times is that after your body starts to make sleep hormones at the correct time, you will start to sleep quite well at those times, better than at other times. You don't want to miss out on that benefit; in fact, it's essential for a successful adaptation.

One last note under the heading of consistency. If you lay down for a nap and can't sleep, stay there for the full time. You are training your body.

Perhaps the next most important thing is when to schedule your naps. It seems the common wisdom is that a 20 minute nap replaces 1.5 hours of sleep. You can take 0 naps (monophasic) up to 6 naps (uberman); anything in between is some variety of "everyman" and the remaining time is referred to as your "core" sleep. Perhaps the most common arrangement is everyman 3, which is 3 naps and 3 hours of core. I have found that the closer my naps are to equidistant, the easier things are. I've also found that if I'm going to be groggy, it's normally after my core. Therefore, I recommend scheduling things in such a way that you take at least one nap before heading off to work. If you are unable to nap at work, everyman 2 might be best (2 naps, 4.5 hour core). At the moment, I do Everyman 3 with naps at 7:10, 12:00, and 17:30, and a core at 11.

The average adult sleep cycle length is 90 minutes, but it can be as long as 110 minutes. If you wake up at the wrong point in this cycle, you will feel terribly groggy. I have discovered that my body (a) switched to a 45 minute cycle (the cycle length of an infant) when I started this, and (b) executes a 20 minute cycle before going into 45 minute cycles. Therefore my core is three hours and twenty minutes. You will need to experiment to find your body's preference.

I find an iPod and placebo's sleep tracks (google it) to be essential equipment. I bought some earbuds that make a seal, blocking external noise, to aid sleeping in noisy environments. I wake up easily; when I oversleep it's from falling asleep while reading or some such. You may not wake up so easy; you may require two or three alarms, a phone call from a friend, and a bucket of cold water in the face. If that's what it takes to get you up, you'll have to arrange for it. You must get up. Try to get into the habit of arising immediately upon hearing your alarm. And don't sit down to read in the wee hours of the morning, certainly not any place comfortable.

If you, like me, have never before been able to take a productive nap, you will be learning that in the process of adapting. You will probably experience more sleep deprivation, and it will probably take you longer to start getting productive sleep during naps than those who are naturally gifted in this way. You have my permission to be jealous of those people.

Pick a quiet week to start your adaptation. Start on a Thursday (i.e., Thursday night should be your first sleepless one) so that Saturday and Sunday are days 3 and 4, the first really hard days. Up to day nine it got harder for me. Even Everyman 3 involves extreme amounts of sleep deprivation. If you need to be more functional, you may, at the cost of a longer adaptation period, add an additional nap. I had to do this (3 hour core, 4 naps) in order to adapt; I started doing it on day nine, and if I hadn't, I may have had to stop the experiment. Once you are mostly adapted, you may remove this nap, or keep it as an optional one. Make sure your additional nap is at least two hours away from other naps/core, or your body may not realize it's a separate sleep event.

In the course of your life as a polysleeper, you will be called upon to nap in many strange places and positions. You will not automatically be able to do this. I have a floor to nap on at work, so to get better at sleeping on the floor, I practiced at home at times when I was so tired I would be guaranteed to fall asleep. So use your super-power of sleep deprivation while adapting and practice sleeping in odd positions (this has the added benefit of making it easier to get up). Remember, once adapted you will not be super-tired at nap times, just normal-tired. This will prevent you from falling asleep easily when uncomfortable, so you need to learn to make yourself comfortable while adapting.

I personally found while adapting that my diet needed to change. Other polyphasers have recommended a vegetarian diet. I found that not to be the case for me, in fact I've switched to a diet that is very low carb (which means it's high in meat and fat). Carbs cause me to need a great deal of additional sleep due to the insulin they trigger. Wheat is especially bad; a few slices of bread make me practically comatose an hour later. I did not know that I had a problem with wheat until I started polysleeping; it may explain why I seemed to need nine hours of sleep previously. You can google low/zero carb and paleolithic diets on your own, so I won't preach; however, one potential problem when combined with sleep deprivation while adapting is insufficient stomach acid. I believe your stomach builds up acid while you sleep, so if you aren't sleeping well, you're going to have a problem with meats (protein takes acid to digest). Get some Betaine HCL (Hydrochloric Acid, which is what your stomach makes) and test if you find you start getting heartburn, especially if you feel hungry and full at the same time. It's cheap. You will not need to continue taking it after you are adjusted.

Please, avoid driving if at all possible. At a minimum, identify the times you feel most tired (often early morning) and do not drive then. Drive only when you know you are and will be alert. It will only take one accident due to a careless polysleeper for the powers-that-be to declare our practices dangerous. Please do not ruin it for the rest of us. Also, I don't want you or others to get hurt.

Sleep deprivation really sucks. I'm not gonna lie to you; if you try this, it could well be the most unpleasant few weeks you've ever experienced. If you get deprived of enough REM, you will turn into a zombie. In zombie mode, you are incredibly stupid and will be practically able to fall asleep standing up. Do not make any decisions in zombie mode. The only way to stay awake is movement and physical activity. Do not sit at all, or stand in one place for long. Zombie mode generally only occurs in, or is worst during, the hours you formerly would have slept through; it peaked for me around day nine, but others have suggested day 4 was the worst. Be prepared. The one good thing about being a zombie is that it is highly likely the next time you sleep you will get some REM.

After 30-40 days of following a strict regimen, you should be completely adapted. Enjoy your extra time, and be sure to start calling "normal" sleeping "hibernating"!

I hope this guide has been helpful. Please leave questions, corrections, or suggestions in the comments. I plan to keep this post up-to-date, and therefore I may edit it from time to time if something comes to my attention or I change my mind about something.