uberman day 7

Highlights : 2 hour oversleep and 2 naps with vivid dreams
Overslept again after my 9:15 am nap. Around 10:15 am I just went to the bed to relax and woke up to realize that its 12:15 pm.
Energy level is ok. On an avg I will rate myself 7/10. Longing to be 10/10.
Still cant concentrate in my 2 to 5 lecture. Its difficult even to write what teacher dictates. Such is the drowsiness during this period.
Had my first vivid dream in 1:15 pm nap and then again in 5:15 pm nap.
Have started using placebo's sleep track for morning naps at 5:15 am and 9:15 am. Its cool.
These are the naps in which I have no assistance from my wife and I have to get up myself. Walking up to alarm is not an issue till now. In 3 oversleeps that I have had till now none has been because I slept through alarm clock.

In about last 200 odd hours I have slept only 20 odd hours. Interesting.

uberman day 5

Overslept 40 mins on my 9:15 am nap. And felt like hell. Felt like I have not slept for ages. The next 1 hour was the worst till now. Took an extra 20 min nap to see if it helps but to no avail. Many thoughts crossed my mind then. One was to give up and just hit the bed. It was a huge huge effort just to keep my eyelids open. Even focusing my vision was such a laborious job. But senses prevailed and I decided that if I ever give up it will be when I am feeling aware and awake.
Coming back to my zombie stage, I used up all my will power to stay awake and when that also didnt work I did what was second nature to me - a superset of pushups and squats with a brisk walk of 3 km in noon (temp was about 40 C). It helped and I survived till my next nap i.e 1:15 pm nap. Had a real nice sleep and felt much better. But as I was to attend lecture from 2 to 5 I drank a cup of coffee to keep me awake. This was my first cup of coffee in adaptation phase. First time I realized what a wonder drug caffiene is :). I glided through the lecture with 100% concentration.
Rest all naps went fine and apart from short bouts of tiredness now and then the day ended well.
(In fact day never ends in uberman :)).
From today's oversleeping incident I now know two things for sure-
1. Make sure not to oversleep.
2. I will pull this thing off.

uberman day 4

Energy level ok till afternoon. In afternoon class, things were not as bad as on day 3. at least i didn't have to pinch myself to keep myself awake. Still it was a big struggle. Had two or three microsleeps during lecture. You only know that you had microsleep when you see that word starts off well but ends in a gibrish.
Evening was not as energetic as on previous days. I was not feeling sleepy but mind was bit foggy and slow. ditto for night period.
Time required to go to sleep has gone up a bit. Takes about 3 min to go to sleep. One nap it took 6 min. Reason could be physical activity i had before that nap.
Only concern is that there are no dreams. and no dreams means no REM. means no adaptation....

PS: It should now be assumed that I slept through all my naps and there is no oversleep unless stated otherwise.

uberman Day 3

Overslept 2 hours today. After my 9:15 am nap I was feeling pretty much ok. But at 10:15 I went to bed just to relax for a while and slept for two hours. Apart from that was able to sleep through all my naps. My lectures on Political science and international relations have begun. Timing is from 2 to 5. And that's the worst time for me to stay awake. Concentrating in lecture was extremely difficult but somehow managed it. My ability to concentrate in lecture will be a good scale to measure my level of adaptation. Evening were as energetic as ever but in night was a bit down. May be because of the oversleep.
Its 4th day morning as I write this and I am feeling good.
And yes a note on how I spend my time. Its mainly movies, internet and chatting with my wife. Other activites include some outdoor and indoor chores , morning walk and evening drive. I will start some serious studies from today. Lets see if it has any impact on adaptation.

uberman Day 2

Day 2 is over. I was able to manage it without oversleep. The period between 10:00 am to 5:00 pm was toughest. It was really really difficult to keep myself awake. Before this experiment I usually slept at 5 am and got up at about 12:30 pm. So for my body 10:00 am to 5:00 pm is early morning to noon :). After the 5:15 pm nap I was feeling as energetic as I was on monophasic. Its 6:26 am in morning as I write this post and I am feeling good. Lets see if there is any improvement after 10:00 am on Day 3 :).
As for naps they are of 20 min and there are no oversleeps. I think I have been dreaming (At least for last couple of naps as I can even vaguely remember the dreams.) And also I feel pretty refreshed after I wake up. I wonder how adaption can kick in so early. May be its because I manage to go to sleep in 1-2 minute.
To wake myself up I am relying on the timer on my mobile . Back up is my wife who keeps the timer. She brings the timer close me and that wakes me up. The plan is that in case I don't wake up with timer she is allowed to kick me out of the bed. Till now there has been no fallback on back up :). So far so good.

uberman day 0 and day 1

Adapting to a new sleeping pattern. Its called polyphasic or uberman sleeping pattern.
Here instead of a good night's sleep you take 6 naps at interval of 4 hours. Each nap is of 20 minutes. So in all you sleep for only 2 hours per day.
Adapting to this pattern is very very difficult. Of all who try to adapt only few succeed.
To know more on uberman please visit http://www.puredoxyk.com blog of a successful polyphasic sleeper. She has also authored a book on polyphasic sleep.
Coming back to my napping schedule.
12 Jun 2008 night was the last full night sleep I had. My nap times are 1:15, 5:15, 9:15, 13:15, 17:15 & 21:15. First nap was 14 Jun 2008 1:15 am. After that I have been taking nap every 4 hours. I started out with 25 minutes nap but have reduced the time to 20 minutes as I feel more refreshed with 20 minute nap. 25 minute makes me a bit groggy.
Since college days I have been good at napping. It takes hardly 2-3 minutes for me to fall asleep. And it seems this has been helping me a lot. Coz I was able to sleep on all the naps till now. Energy level has be fluctuating but I am far from being a zombie. May be sleep deprivation has not kicked in till now.
Time for 15th June 2008 5:15 nap.
Will keep this post updated with my progress.