Take two

It's finals time here in my first year of university, and what goes better with staying up all night studying than a drastic change in your sleeping pattern! I started two days ago on embarking on my everyman sleep diet once again, and I've been doing fairly well, though I've made certain discoveries, ones that I will share with you as time goes on.

First of all, I'd like to say that if you're a first time reader and are not aware of what the Everyman Polyphasic Sleep Schedule is, you'll have to check out my first post on the topic here. That post was the prequel to an unfortunately failed attempt, however I'm back with gusto, and there's nothing like living on residence to keep you up and busy at 4 o'clock in the morning.

I'm going to redefine some terms here, just so that, even if you have read the old post, you can get caught up and understand exactly what's going on.

The Everyman Sleep Schedule: A sleep schedule revolving around a single core nap, and three naps spaced out accordingly throughout the day.

Core Nap: A long period of sleep which usually occurs at night time. One of the main differences between the Everyman and Uberman schedules. This is a three to four hour period, depending on discipline. It is often the way that an Everyman sleeper differentiates from one day to the next, whereas an Uberman sleeper may not have that luxury.

Sub Naps: Twenty minute periods throughout the day where the body is allowed to enter REM sleep and rejuvenate itself. This is what offsets the loss of five to six hours sleep in the middle of the night. You have variety with the Everyman's subnaps. With a four hour core, two subnaps are required, with a three hour, three naps. With a five hour core and a single nap, it's considered siesta sleep, and technically only a form of diphasic sleep.

UPDATES

Okay, so this is what's been going down. The last two nights I've had to take a full four hour core nap. I've been shooting for three hours, but it seems every time I wake myself three hours after I lay down, I haven't absorbed quite enough energy to make a conscious decision upon waking. Most times I'll wake with my alarm already turned off, or I'll wake a half hour beyond the intended wake up time. This has led to my four hour core sleep. Once my body adapts to the daily naps, triggering REM sleep at the appropriate time, I hope to cut my core down to three hours, and have three daily naps. After this, I plan to move to the more extreme version of the everyman, which is the 1.5 hour core sleep, and 4 - 5 naps throughout the day.

I've been trying to make this sleep pattern work almost all semester, so as far as adjusting goes, I'm not doing very bad. I'd slowly begun napping more regardless, however I believe it was simply out of greed rather than want or need of sleep. However, doing this enabled me to shell out times and techniques for finding a quiet spot in the house and just konking out whenever the need be.

So, it's day 2, I'm not doing so bad. I'll update after my exam this afternoon and we'll see how it affects academia!

-JC