Day 14.1 Ehau: Quite difficult on holydays

During the last days it have been difficult to stick to the system and since I had to skip some naps it was harder to keep awake on the morning and I did few long nights during last days (means 6h night in this system).
Anyway I tried to continue the experiment and I getting used again to the schedule and mornings gets easier.
Also like Chris said, on holidays it's more difficult to keep busy and motivated. I have some DIY to do in the apartment, but I can't do noisy activities on evening and night to not disturb my neighbours and not on morning not to wake up my parents, which leave me only the afternoon and I have to fill up the other periods with other activities.

I'll keep in touch

Day 10.3: doing it during vacation is tough

Hi there,

The title says it all. Doing this schedule on vacation is though. Why, you may ask. Simply because, by definition, on vacation, all you're supposed to do is relax. So you already have LOTS of time to fill up. Therefore, on Everyman, you've got even more time to ... relax.

That said, my TODO list isn't empty yet and I don't put much efforts in emptying it... I'm kinda lazy...

Nevertheless, I'm not giving the everyman schedule up because I want to show people it works! =) Also, I'll have a lot of work as soon as I got back to school, so I prefer not having to have to adapt to the schedule again.

I don't remember saying that in an earlier post but I really am falling asleep very quickly (probably around a minute) so that's really awesome.

Anyways, tonight is Christmas and I'll be having it with my family so I can't really hop-out and sleep for 30 minutes. Plus, tomorrow I have to wake up at 6. So I decided to move my schedule around a bit tonight only and see if I can play with it easily.

So what I'm planning is sleeping from 1930 to 2000 and then going to bed at 0300. I'll keep you posted.

See ya, happy holidays!

Day 8.1: Tired? No. Bored? Yes.

Even though I have overslept twice this weekend, I must say that the only real problem I have is that I'm currently on vacation and am completely bored! This first of the experiment was easy because we were in school (about 28 hours a week) and had tests. Now, on vacation, everything is soooo different!

Before starting I read that you had to have a very long TO DO list in order to ind motivation. I probably have one but I haven't written anything down yet, so I keep forgetting.

Anyways, I'll write this list down today and make sure everything is done ASAP.

Day 8.3 Ehau: Already a week!

It's been one week since we started Everyman, globally it's working I don't fell any overtireness but the mornings are still quite difficult.
Yesterday I stuck correctly to the planing with just difficulties from 7am to 8am, but this morning I did an other lie in of three hours after 7am until 10am. I hope this difficult wake up phase on the morning will tend to become easier as we will get used to the system.

Day 7.2: two lie ins in two days ...

Day 6.3 my nap was really good, and as usual since a couple of days, I felt completely revived as soon as I woke up.

Day 6.4 For my 6.4 nap, I tried to sleep a little longer. I put my alarm clock 5 minutes late and actually, I woke up five minutes before my alarm clock, at 2229 to be precise! So i though that was pretty cool.
Anyways, my parents gave me tons of chores to make sure I kept busy. So basically, I put up Christmas lights outside the house between 2 and 3 a.m.. Some guy waked by my house when I was putting them up and, at the time I didn't know what was the weirdest: some guy waking by in a small road which parallel to a large one were there's lots of traffic, or some guy putting up Xmas lights in the middle of the night.
Anyways, I started feeling very tired only around 0355, knowing that right before I was in okay shape. So it's funny to see that I'm adapting pretty well.

Day 7.1 & 7.2 Yes, I'm putting both together because, as the title spoils it, I didn't hear my alarm clock at all (i.e. I don't remember standing up to shut it off or anything like that) and I woke up naturally at 1215!!! So instead of standing up, I decided to turn over on my back and try to take my nap. It work and my 1230 alarm clock woke me up afterwards. The good news is that I'll now take my huge alarm clock to wake me up. Oh, and it's really good at waking people up, here's what it looks like:


So that's about it for today. I'll try to find some occupations for tonight since I dealt with all the chores my parents gave me.

See ya!

Day 6.3 Eric: Dual fail

My day was okay yesterday and I managed to work until 4h without felling too tired.

But this morning like Chris I woke up at 7am with my alarm and I directly fell back asleep and woke up naturally only at 10h. This 6 hour night can be considered as having a lie in Everyman. I think that even if we don't feel tired after the 30 minute naps, we both were quite tired because of the transition between the two systems.

Anyway we still believe in the system and will continue the experiment as if nothing occurred. So I did my 6.2 and 6.3 naps and I am in a very good shape after this latest nap.

We now begin our Christmas holidays so it will change a bit our activities and schedule and it will be interesting to try Everyman in different conditions.

Day 6.1 Chris: wakeup fail

Yesterday (Day 5) was great: I felt awake the whole day and really didn't have any problems at all.

5.4 Eric and I stayed up and worked on our electronic course since we have a test at 1300.
Anyways, around 4 a.m. I started to get pretty tired, so I suppose my body was getting right on track.

6.1 My alarm clock went off at 7 a.m., as usual since Monday, and I simply shut it off and crawled back into bed!
Then, at 0820, a friend comes by to pick something up (we didn't have class this morning and he knows I'm on everyman and therefore supposed I was already wide awake).
Anyways, he woke me up (second wakeup). When I realize what time it is, I decided to make sure that even if I crawled back into bed, I wouldn't go asleep. So I turn all the lights on, open the shades (my room is very bright in the morning) etc. etc.
Nevertheless, I managed to sleep again until 0930! Darn ... to say the least.

The worst part of it all is that even if I slept almost twice as long as my core sleep, I'm more tired now than I was yesterday at 0700.

Conclusion: you get tired when you don't sleep enough, but the same thing happens when you sleep too much.

Second conclusion: when I was reading about everyman, everybody said the two or three couple of days were difficult because you have some sleep deprivation. I also read that your body only adapts after about a week or two.
What I think happens after the sleep deprivation period is that your body is adapted to the naps but still has to change its core sleep cycles, which used to be long, in order for them to sum up to three hours.

That would actually explain why, when I wake up, I am more awake after naps than after my core sleep. That should change pretty soon though. =)

Day 5.1 Ehau: Still holding on

4.1: I had some difficulties to wake up, but it was a bit better than yesterday.

4.2, 4.3, 4.4: It wasn't a very good day for my naps, in all of them I didn't really slept, I just rested a bit. I didn't feel too tired during that day, but I didn't feel in a very good shape either like I do after a real nap. I think the fact that I have not been really regular in my naps during the experiment is why I didn't manage to fall asleep during these naps.

5.1: It was hard to wake up from 7am to 8am, I think I paid for the bads naps I had yesterday, I hope my 12 o'clock nap will be more efficient.

Note: I talked about this experiment with my entourage:
-A friend which is doing medical studies, thinks that this system way have psycological effects at the long term if it reduce some sleep phases. But she is not sure about that and will checkup with her teachers.
-My kung fu instructor which is also practicing meditation, was quite interrested about this system but not too surprised about it because he said that yogis with high skills in meditation hare able to regulate and reduce their sleep.

Day 4.3 Chris: getting into the rythm

Hello there!

I think I have one foot in! I actually am tired at nap times without being tired out of them. Here's a brief summary.

3.4 At around 0300, I realized that since I started the schedule I didn't work out. I told that to Eric and he replied that the didn't have time excuse no longer works! Then he told me that it could be interesting to see whether, in this everyman sleep schedule, we survive or actually live. The first test was done by Eric when he went to his kung-fu class. I was assigned to the next one: on this schedule, can one sustain a normal everyday cardiac heavy exercise.
For one thing, the first time, at 0310, I had no problem at all. Actually, I even felt a little better after it than I usually do. That's probably because I was only physically tired and not also mentally tired due to my school work.


4.1 When I woke up, I was feeling okay. I was feeling as good as if my sleep time was 7 or 8 hours out of my used-to preferred 9hours. I am happy to see that the schedule seems to get into action!

4.2 WOW! My 30 minute nap was sooo refreshing! When I woke up, I though I slept like ten hours straight! I was wide awake and happy to be up. That helped me a lot during the my 1300 class because everybody was weak and I was the whole opposite! Pretty funny =).

4.3 That's where I start to see that having a tight schedule is kind of a pain sometimes. In fact, I had a three hour math class at the end of the day, from 1500 to 1800. Only problem: my nap is supposed to be at 1700. As I said in introduction, I now get tired at nap times, and these are not very flexible yet (normally only after your body has totally shifted to the new sleep schedule). Basically, ten minutes before my nap, I started to yawn. And it just went downhill from there: within about fifteen minutes my concentration levels dropped drastically. So here I was in the middle of a 15 people class, all of which follow a normal sleep schedule, and I reached their poor level of concentration in, say, twenty minutes. Pretty weird how the body adapts!
Anyways, as soon as I arrived home (around 1820) I slept and... sadly enough, overslept. My alarm clock went off at 1850 but I shut it off thinking a was going to hang around in bed for a couple of minutes. Actually, I stayed in bed another 45min and woke up, all by myself, at 1935.

Therefore, I think I'll move my X.4 nap to 2230 instead of 2200.

Day 3.4 Ehau: Start to be quite difficult

2.3 : I only had enough time for 20 min but it was quite useful anyway

2.4 : Start to be difficult, when the alarm woke me up I must confess that I would have prefer a full night and not just a nap. Then we worked an exam with Chris until 2h and then we spent some time on our computers but it was hard for both of us to hold until 4h.

3.1 : I woke up very tired and spent 30 extra min in bed. The morning was quite hard but I manage to keep my attention on the course even if it wasn't comfortable. At this point I had some doubt about the system but I wanted to hold on anyway.

3.2 : This nap saved me and impressed me, in only 30 min I passed from very tired and uncomfortable to lot more awake and focused than I'm usually after a normal night. I was convinced again about the system.

3.3 : Like Chris said we just had time for 15 min on a table, it was not perfect but very useful anyway.

3.4 : I had to do that nap at 23h20 because I went to a kung fu session at Paris and transport strikes made me loose some time. I should be more regular on the naps for the beginning but I didn't have any choice. At least I could test if how sport activity interact with Everyman and it went pretty well, the martial art I practice is not too cardiac but need concentration and I fell more focused since I started Everyman. Now I should try a cardiac activity like running or swimming to see if it's possible with Everyman.

Note 1 : Like Chris mentioned it, when I can't sleep during a nap and I turn around in my bed. I just lie on my back and focus on relaxation and not sleeping. This work pretty well, I generally finish asleep and I think it's healthier to sleep that way even if it's less natural.

Note 2 : To stay awake between two naps when I am too tired, I sometimes play 20 - 30 min of a stressful video game (Farcry to not mention it). But I don't want to take any caffeine (coffee or coke) during this experiment, because the effect of caffeine can last 5h and it could interact with the next nap. Also, if I feel awake, I couldn't tell if it's due to the everyman schedule or caffeine.

I'll keep in touch with my next impressions.

Day 3.4 Chris

Today was pretty difficult.

3.1: Basically, slept well but could have slept more, i.e. I didn't recover a lot from these 3 hours. Nevertheless, I managed to stay awake, active and concentrated in electronic class.

3.2 Sleeping at noon felt very good. Plus I slept pretty well. Eric told me he heard that napping on your back was much better than rolling over on your side. So I tried that and it worked good.

3.3 We had a math test during our 2nd nap time, so we managed to sleep fifteen minutes right before the test and that was great. I was really regenerated even though I slept on my back on a wooden table.

3.4 Just woke up and am pretty tired. Instead of sleeping on my back like I did for the two previous naps, I slept as I normally would for a long sleep. So when my alarm clock went off, I was kinda disappointed ... I'll eat a fruit or something and will most probably feel better.

See ya!

P.S.: I've been talking to the method to a couple friends and Eric and I might be writing a short article in two months time in the school newspaper, if of course we're on the schedule and totally adapted to it! =)

P.P.S.: feel a bit weird to have so much time =)

Day 2.4 Chris

Hi!

2.2 -> 2.3 My 1700 nap wasn't that great. It took me a couple of minutes to fall asleep because I did a huge mistake: I was running late on schedule so I ran from my school to my apartment to sleep. Long story short, I didn't sleep that well, it was more relaxation than sleep.

2.3 -> 2.4 Great nap, good recovery. Weird though because I felt kind of conscious that I was having some muscle spikes (sleep phase 1). At the same time, I felt like I was in R.E.M. (stage 3) because my eyes seemed to be moving quickly all by them selves.

Anyways, right now, it's 0135 and I'm getting a bit tired: I took a pause from math studies just to write this, and take a break.

Last thing, I won't only eat fruit at lunch: I'll try to have a sandwich and a fruit which is healthier.

See ya.

Day 2.2 Ehau

1.3 : Bad start! due to a transport strike, I had to do my first nap at 23H15 and not 22H and I didn't really slept because It was the first day and I never go to bed so early. Anyway it was quite regenerating and helped to work with Chris until 4h.
2.1 : I felt a little tired after these 3h of sleep, but the excitation about the experiment kept me awake and I managed to attend to the 4h of courses with a normal concentration.
2.2 : Even if I was half awake and half sleeping during this nap it was really regenerating! This nap makes me believe even more in the system we are experimenting because after the equivalent of 3H30 of sleep I'm in a better shape than I usually feel after 6h of continuous sleep!

About the food problem, I managed to eat at the school restaurant between 11H45 and 12H and I disagree with Chris on this point, I think it's bad idea not to have a real meal for noon while trying a sleeping experiment.

Day 2.2

Well last night, Eric and I managed to work math all night long, i.e. from midnight to almost 4a.m..

It actually was pretty interesting to work that late and I didn't feel really tired. It is my first day though so I did have an okay-night sleep before.

Anyways, my three hour core-sleep didn't seem that long. When I woke up I felt I could have slept more and would have preferred sleeping more! =)
That said, I managed through my four-hour mornings classes without feeling really tired, so that is reassuring.

My 12p.m. sleep wasn't that refreshing either. I slept, sure, but I still feel a bit tired now, without oversleeping.

Oh, and I realized that the "biggest" problem is decided when to eat. Since we only have a one hour lunch break, I'll be sleeping half of that. So I plan to only eat three fruits for lunch now. It's healthy and will probably wake my body up. So I'm planning one banana, one clementine and one apple (I'll eat the banana before I sleep, the two other fruits afterwards).

Last night, I also realized I was a bit hungry at 3 a.m., so I'll try to eat another banana there in order to fill me up.
In the "morning" (i.e. Day X.1), I'll simply have a good cereal+orange juice breakfast. And in the evening (i.e. Day X.3), I'm planning a normal healthy and complete dinner.

See ya around!

P.S.: we might have recruited another friend to the cause of testing this Everyman Sleep Schedule. =)

Day 1.4

So I woke up about 45 minutes ago from my first night time nap.

I feel okay but not extremely awake. I tried to "force" my eyes to blink quickly, hoping that would lead my body into going to REM fast, but I have no idea if it worked...

Honestly, I vaguely remember starting very very quick dreams: if I'd have to give duration, I'd say maybe one or two minutes. Then, twice or three times, I heard a noise that woke me up.

Therefore, I am pretty sure I didn't go into REM.

Anyways, as I read, I should be pretty tired the two first days (at least) because my body needs time to adapt.

P.S.: I forgot my computer charger and only have about two more hours on battery so I might skip some entries...

About me: ehau

Hi everyone,

I'm Eric, I'm a student in the same promotion than Chris. I have been interested in sleep-control techniques for a long time, which I discovered in a para-scientific book called Le jour des fourmis by Bernard Werber, but I never tried them for real.

When Chris asked me to try out these techniques, I though it was a good way to achieve all the projects I'm involved in and I also think it's a good thing not to be alone and able to support each other during these long days.

So I will try the experiment with Chris, starting today and I will try to report here my impressions and feelings about the experiment.

Day 1.3

So I just started earlier today and tried to sleep between 1715 and 1745. Basically, all I did was having my eyes closed and moving around in my bed...
Hope my 2200 nap will be better...

Brief Introduction

Dear reader,

As of yesterday, I started searching on ways to "sleep efficiently". What I mean by that is simply not sleeping a lot but feeling completely awake and up and running.

After reading the Polyphasic sleep article on Wikipedia, I ended up reading a couple summaries about different sleep cycles, especially about the Uberman one.

Basically, the goal is to not only reduce your sleeping time but also to make sure you sleep better, as in recuperate faster.

The Uberman schedule is, as you may have guessed already, pretty frightening but amazing at the same time. The goal is to sleep 6 times a day for maximum 20 minutes, and that's it! Yes, you do only get two hours of sleep. But no, you're not tired. You can read more about that here.

Anyways, Uberman (or Dymaxion, which is another equiphasic sleeping schedule) seems pretty hard to sustain in a monophasic sleeping society. In fact, the people who succeeded in the Uberman schedule said they quit because of social problems (especially related to work).

An alternative to Uberman/Dymaxion is the Everyman schedule, also developed by the creator of Uberman. The goal is to only sleep about 3 hours a night but to take a 30 minute nap every couple of hours during the day. That looked like it could fit (almost) perfectly in my school schedule.

Since I've read that the first week is very tough (your body has to adapt to the new rhythm), I decided to do this with a friend, also very interested, who might also be posting on this blog.
I read that the first week you really have to have tons of stuff to do. That's good because I have two tests, a pretty big homework and a couple projects I really wanted to start doing but haven't yet...

Anyways, here's my schedule:


Credits for the original .svg image goes to Steve Pomeroy. Actually, the image is really cool because it has ECMAscript in it so the hands actually move. That way, when I simply keep that image in Firefox and I know I have to go and sleep 30minutes when the hands approach the blues arcs.

To keep thinks clear, I'll try to post as often as I can, and if I post twice in one day, I'll use the following format: "Day X.Y", where X is the number of days since the beginning and Y is the period. The periods are:

• 1 from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m.
• 2 from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
• 3 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
• 4 from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.

Alrighty, see you soon!