Uberman sleep schedule

[madscientist]

I've been really sleep deprived lately - sleeping only maybe 3-4 hours a night. Sunday night I slept only 2, and I decided to go with the "Uberman" sleep schedule after that. The idea is to nap every four hours for 20-30 minutes. Initially you're exhausted as your body is deprived of REM sleep (normally occurs toward the end of the night, and is what rejuvenates you mentally) but seeing as you die without REM, your body eventually (after a week or two) adjusts and turns your naps into pure REM sleep. The result of all this is sleeping a mere 2-3 hours a day. The rewards of such are obvious.

I'll keep you all updated on the status of this outrageous experiment.

Tuesday I took my first nap at 6AM, sleeping for a solid half hour. Crashed at work for a half hour at 10AM and 2PM; felt pretty much alright. All my coworkers think this is the stupidest and craziest idea they've ever heard, but that doesn't stop them from throwing shit at me after my half hour is up to ensure I wake up punctually.

Unfortunately I fucked up with my 6PM nap. Set the alarm for 6:30AM instead of 6:30PM. I woke up at 10:30PM feeling really groggy. I lied down for a nap at 2AM but didn't sleep. It's currently 5AM...

[DoctaD]

Sleeping for short periods of time makes me feel like shit, and when I wake up I never know what day it is... doesn't sound like a good idea for me.

Good luck with it though.

[torcher]

if i sleep for less than an hour and get woken up...im pissed. i dont really know why. but i just cant help it. and im usually doing shit all throughout the day to the point where i dont have time to just take a little nap. oh well. hope it works for ya!

[blaksun]

Woah,
if that works,
that'd be pretty fucking cool. I'd try it myself, because only having to sleep for a few hours a day would really be convenient, but I like sleeping. :)

What are the effects of trying to get out of that sleep schedule and back into a normal one? You might want to look into that as well, since hey, you could be stuck sleeping a few quick naps a day FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.

v.v

[OsirisGuy429]

The body only needs an hour or two a day to rest.

Currently I fall asleep around 5AM and sleep till about 4PM. My sleeping habits include a 12 hour sleep.

Oddly enough the less I sleep the more nergy I have when I get up, and the more I sleep the less energy I have, which is explainable since I've been sleeping so long.

Taking mid-day naps though.. makes me fell groggy and I usually get sweaty as well. It'll take me a half hour or so to get back in the mood to talk. When I had school I'd come home and take a 2 hour nap till dinner as well. It was nice to get sleep but the waking feeling was worse.

You;re better off just getting a good nights sleep. Although - I am interested into hearing how this goes.

However I do have a friend that does the same thing as you. He falls asleep everynow and then and will wake up and do something. It has turned him into eating breakfest at 6PM, going out, dinner at 3 AM sleep, shower, sleep - with various interchanges in there.

[Adrian_Faythe]

The reason you feel groggy after a two-hour nap is because that's just enough time for your body to realize "Oh shit, time to sleep!" Your functions slow, and your brain starts the beginning phases of REM sleep. If you interrupt that by waking up, it's a sudden surge of nerve signals tensing your body, using up more energy to kick-start your body awake. Hence the grogginess.

Naps of 30-45 minutes are enough to relax your optic nerves, heart, etc., without totally shutting down, and that's why those don't exhaust you nearly as much.

As for the 30-minute naps every four hours, I would definitely do that if I didn't work 8-hour shifts in a restaurant. Before that, I would basically have that schedule...I hate sleep myself, so any excuse to not do it is fine by me. :)

[Armalite]

Why have you been sleep deprived, mad? Anything to do with those legal troubles you mentioned a few years ago? You know what I'm talking about. :?

[duiker]

You need to sleep longer to rejuvenate. Your body needs deep sleep to repair and maintain vital functions. You could get sick after a while of this quick nap routine.

[Adrian_Faythe]

I'd swap feeling ill for more hours to stay awake anyway, myself. I'm rarely sober as it is, so I doubt I'd notice. :D

[madscientist]

Sleep deprivation has been for no reason other than laziness.

I'm aware that the other stages of sleep serve the purpose of allowing the body to repair itself - I'm not worried/don't care.

Since the last post, I missed the first two naps (couldn't quite fall asleep), then got intense REM sleep for the 6AM nap yesterday (very vivid and lucid dreams, I kept dreaming almost "hallucinogenic" things about the shit surrounding my bed - was left feeling stunningly awake afterwards), and began falling into a rhythm (lacking in REM sleep though). Unfortunately I just fucked up again - I slept from 10PM till 2AM. I need to leave my lights on, and just pull a bandana over my eyes when I nap. Waking up groggy in darkness probably triggered instincts built from over the years to thoughtlessly shut off the alarm and go back to bed.

I've noticed that my 6AM naps, which immediately follow a hot shower, are always by far the deepest and most rejuvenating. I'm considering buying an electric blanket to wrap myself in right before a scheduled nap.

I've been feeling about as awake as I normally do off six or so hours of sleep.

[THErAPIST]

Taking short naps tricks your body to go straight into REM sleep. It sucks ass at first, but once your body get's used to it, it doesnt take much to get into REM. REM sleep is what gives your mind the rest and order that it needs. ITS that stage when you dream. If you sleep for hours then it'll be hours before you switch from regular sleep to REM.

At the moment I usually don't sleep but a few hours a night, usually 4 or so. I wake up with more energy than most people do. I work at a fireworks store. This is our busy season. 60+ hour work schedules are common. I still only get my 3 to 4 hours of sleep a night. Since I'm used to that kind of sleep schedule I switch to REM only a few minutes after I fall asleep. Also I can usually fall asleep within 30 seconds to 2 minutes of laying down (or I can sleep standing up leaning against something if I must). Lugging 30 to 50 lb boxes around for 7 hours of a 12 to 14 hour work day gets quite tiring quite fast. I'll sleep for 30 minutes during my break leaning up against a box, or sitting there in a chair or whatever, and since I switch right over to REM it's like Ive slept for 4 hours when I wake up.

my body may take longer to heal if it gets hurt since I don't sleep as much, but patience and a real understanding of what you can and cant do while a part of your body is injured more than makes up for it.

Don't get me wrong, I love sleeping. I can sleep for 15 hours straight, but I don't need it. I just sleep when I have nothing better to do.

BTW, it's 3:15 AM right now, and I have to get up for work at 7:30 so that I can work till 9 PM. Uberman cycle and similar sleep schedules work once you get used to em. They're better for night people and insomniacs though

[Armalite]

So how do you balance a full time job with this nap system? You can't very well go to sleep at work now can you? Unless you have lazy ass jobs. Me personally, I usually have hands on jobs in construction or warehousing and the like.

[madscientist]

I "work" 40 hours - put in maybe two or three hours of actual work this week.

Yeah, I sleep on the job.

[Adrian_Faythe]

Lucky bastard.

[Armalite]

Where the fuck do you work that they allow you to sleep on the job?

[THErAPIST]

I just got home from work half an hour ago... at 12:45 am, that's after going to sleep at 4:30 am yesterday morning and then getting up at 7:50 am to go to work. I get 105 hours next week and I can say right now that im working my fuckin ass off... I DO get a 30 minute break at work, which is when I sleep if I need to. I'll take a picture of all these fuckers in the fireworks store and then you'll see how much shit we have to stock (constantly because of said fuckers takingshit as soon as we lay it down on the floor)

Just proof that very little sleep does work if you've got a regular sleep cycle and you can switch right to REM

[fuCKYou]

This is such a great idea, but how long does it take to get used to it? A week, a month, a year? I would like to be able to do this by the time school starts again.

[madscientist]

Usually 1-3 weeks.

I kept on the schedule reasonably well until my 2AM nap on Saturday. I set my alarm for 2:30AM of course, but then suddenly there I was waking up at 8:30AM - with my alarm set to 2:50AM and still activated (how is that possible?).

I cannot emphasize enough how much of a disaster oversleeping is. I had energy for the first half of Saturday (no naps), but became incredibly exhausted as the night pressed on. I bought a pack of intensely minty gum so I could leave a stick by the alarm for each nap (firstly, it breaks me out of the groggy frame of mind into a more aware one - why is this gum here? and secondly, chewing combined with such a potent flavor wakes me up). Desperation... didn't want the "wake up later and wonder why the fuck my alarm is set crazy" curse to strike again.

I found myself stumbling back and forth in my apartment for most of the night, trying not to collapse, seeing double... whenever I sat down, I kept finding myself going into microsleeps (sleeping for a few seconds) - always broken out by the falling feeling of keeling over. It's useful to find some mindless task to busy yourself with when you're getting extremely delirious. I spent a good deal of time sitting on my floor, sweeping through a bin of birdseed, sorting them.

By noon Sunday, adhering strictly to the nap schedule, I found myself much more awake. I slept soundly at 2PM, couldn't fall asleep at 6PM (due to not feeling very tired), and slept maybe ten minutes at 10PM. I've been getting the feeling I'm getting faint, broken dreams on and off now. Might be imagining it, not sure.

It's now midnight and I feel good...

[Stone]

Why not try putting your alarm the furthest possible away from your bed. Next to a sink if you have one, then when you are turning it off, splash some cold water on your face. That should wake you.