Testing the Uberman Sleep Schedule

I've decided to try the Uberman Sleep Schedule during my summer break... I'd like to see how it affects me, and maybe I could make generalizations on how it affects young people (as I'm only 16).

I'm not going to make a blog, but, I would definitely talk about it a lot.

Basically: Polyphasic sleep is where you sleep two or more times a day. The Uberman Schedule requires you to take 20 minute naps four hours apart constantly. You would have FAR more time on your hands, and it seems the successful people gain healthier habits and food cravings without consciously trying to alter diets/habits. As I've read, it doesn't affect recovery after exercise and people claim to have more vivid dreams as well as a healthier mental status.

These are the resources I gathered for you all to look at to help explain it better:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/1 ... sic-sleep/

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/4/15/103358/720

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep (Wikipedia is not an unreliable source > I find it very useful)

Have you read Lights Out: sleep sugar and survival by TS Wiley? Give it a read as well, it gives a different perspective on sleep than the Uberman thing. Personally I feel it is much better researched and backed by scientific evidence as well. All the reference are listed in the back of the book and there is a lot.

I read about a guy who did that in a mens health magazine, basically he felt like crap the whole time and was to tired to exercise, learn new songs on guitar etc.

As in my job I have severe timetable changes (one day beginning at 5 am next day finishing 2am and so on), usually is impossible to sleep 8 hours in a row, so I have to take some naps to recover, but is just that, recover a bit just to keep going. I don´t think (in my experience and if you read air force and NASA studies they say more or less the same) that moving the sleep times around the day will improve your performance at all.

A nap will help you to recover, I think they are good if you sleep short times, but you must ad that time to the 8 hours you already slept in a row that night and not taking time from them. Believe me I have been living with less than perfect sleep for more than 10 years and the only way to feel great is sleep for 8 hours or more each night!

pd. A friend of mine for completely different reasons slept 5 hours at night and 3 at the afternoon for 2 or more years and his performances were worst (feeling really tired just after lunch and horrible wake ups at morning, the only advantage is that he was very sharp around 11pm) than they are now he sleeps all night no stop.

During the Gulf War we were flying 2+ sorties per day off the carrier 7 days a week. I was on the Midway and we were operating the 10pm to 6am block of time. As you can imagine regular sleep patterns were totally disrupted what with briefings, debriefings, maintenance, eating, etc... It looks a lot like that Uberman schedule but keep in mind we were operating under fairly stressful conditions. I'll just tell you that after a couple of weeks of that I was pretty fatigued mentally and physically. It got to the point that after a flight brief I would put on all my flight gear (about 35lbs of stuff) and then walk down to my bunkroom and lie on my bunk for a quick 30 minute nap before going up on the flight deck to man up. My bunk was right next to the catapult track and I had no problem sleeping through the launch of the prior sorties. We were usually able to grab a longer period of sleep from mid morning to afternoon.

Now, if you're on summer break and your biggest worry is what time you're going to go to the pool then perhaps this might work for you.

mr jones said:

I read about a guy who did that in a mens health magazine, basically he felt like crap the whole time and was to tired to exercise, learn new songs on guitar etc.

From what I heard that is how everyone feels at first while your body is still transitioning, but if if you keep with it it gets better

Well maybe you get used to the discomfort but I assure you that it doesn´t work on the long time. It is possible to find somebody who can work properly this way, there are different kinds of circadian rhythms on different people so maybe some one can be comfortable with that sleeping pattern, that doesn´t mean that it will work for the other 98% of the people.

Any way, been 16 IF you really want to improve your performance there are tons of things you can test much much more productive than that really! :wink: . If is just for the joy of trying something different I have nothing else to say 8)

This has been up in another post before.. the recommendations there were DONT do it.

Well, everything has it's critics.

I've read through various places: the transitional phase is preposterous, apparently, and usually takes around 10 days to adjust. One of the blogs I posted was of a guy who tested it for 120 days, he said it sucked at first, but felt better than any other time in his life after he really got into it. In fact, my step-brother's friend tried it and gave out not too long later. He told me that the guy was hallucinating a lot (it seems very common at the beginning). That blog writer, by the way, said he felt no difficulty exercising after adjusting.

Also, this could be a way of making more money... I noticed today at the place I want to work (Target), that you can apply for hourly positions. I could work longer and in stranger times than most people on an adjusted schedule like the Uberman. Obviously, I would have to stop once school started (unless I can convince them to let me sleep for 20 minutes...) I've heard some places offer double $ for night shifts, so that could bring in more too. As a 16 year old, I *could* make a godly amount of money compared to the others. I have no revenue, so I usually wait months to get a new book or new training device... This would take all of the problems away.

Thanks for the idea. I could bring lunches to school and eat during the day, then sleep at lunch (only 20 minutes out of 30). Now that I think about it, there's one guy at my school who sleeps every day in the library. I'll ask if he does a modified sleep schedule; it sure sounds like it.

(1) You can never make generalizations off one person.

(2) You can usually find someone somewhere that does well on something. In other words, there are outliers for anything you can think of.

(3) I predict that you will crash and burn. Humans evolved for monophasic sleep patterns. It probably isn't a coincidence that polyphasic sleep increases as people age, that is, when people start break down and get closer to death. Why would you want to follow such a model?

(4) Plenty of studies show that good monophasic sleep is associated with better heath markers. No studies have ever been done on humans to asses the long term effects of people who voluntarily chose to exhibit polyphasic sleep patterns such as the ones you describe.

I'd just like to try it. Even if I fail, I'd just at least want to say "I did that".

The benefits seem to outweigh the fallacies. At least short term. There's no way I would be able to keep it up for too long anyways, there are too many things to do during the daytime that polyphasic sleep will interrupt. The world won't change for me :/

Also, I understand you can't generalize from one source. I've read quite a few things. I put three sources in the OP that I read and they have links to others, if you didn't notice (don't mean to sound rude there, just saying)

The first guy admits that there are no long term studies on the health effects of polyphasic sleeping and then says even if there were he wouldn't listen to them because he's a vegan and the study participants wouldn't be. :roll:

In all the things you've read on polyphasic sleeping, how much of it came from pubmed.com?

lol in all honesty I've never heard of that website. Good or bad that I don't know it?

The fact that you've never heard of pubmed should make you say, "I'm 16, and to be honest with myself, I really don't know anything yet."

Pubmed is a search engine that is indexed with every SCIENTIFIC study ever done in medicine. Have you learned anything about peer-review research on the net or in school yet?

HAHAHA Please try it but dont drive or do something dangerous that needs fine coordination or atention as you will fall aslept as soon you are in a warm and quiet place! For night jobs you will perform well if you are not an early bird, in other words, if you are one of those who usually go to sleep late and dont wake up early. For those who wake up at 7 am no mather what , night jobs or timetable swifts are killers on the long run ( depression alcoholism insomnia ).

Now good luck and please post your opinion after the summer!

Pd Training is not afected so much (ask slizzard!) but I imagine top atheletic performance is, so if you are competing those months think twice about it.

Also, stay away from babies and small animals!

Hahaha

I'm a permanently off-season athlete (in my own terms), so my schedule is how I want it. I wouldn't think about trying something that takes an unnatural amount of skill like slacklining and etc. until I was completely adjusted (thats IF i adjust)

Thanks for telling me about pubmed, this is going to help A LOT. Really, this is amazing.

I have a friend who is doing polyphasic sleep.Here's the deal:the body adapts to a certain degree to what you throw at it.If you sleep less(6 x 20-30 minute naps =2/24 hours of sleep) the quality and intensity of the sleep process will increase to compensate for the loss of quality.Ofcourse there are limits,my friend says it took him 2 agonising weeks to adapt,but now he feels better then ever,however if he misses a nap,its a catastrophy for him.Also someone said humans are monophasic by nature and that's wrong.Humans are born polyphasic(babies sleep on small portions trough the day and night) and as they grow up they adjust themselves to daytime working,however many people preserve the habit and take afternoon naps.It's perfectly natural to sleep on small portions like the uberman sleep schedule as long as you dont rush it and dont miss naps.Another important thing is that when you are awake 22 hours a day you will need a lot more energy,so it's advisable to prepare a good diet before starting.And here's a tip from my friend:put your alarm clock away from your bed,so when you wake up you are forced to go and shut it off

One thing is to say that we are not purely monofasic and another completly different is saying that dividing the necesary sleep time by ten(or more) is the way to go. Although there must be people who can live on that, most people can't. That doesn't mean that a nap is not good(the oposit is true IMHO) but in my experience there is almost a 40% of people who will fall ill if subjected for some time to a divided ( or only switched) sleep patern( early birds). From the other 60% you will get a variety of capabilities but I don't think than more than a 5 % could adapt to that schedule no matter what babies do ( babies are not a good example for full grown specimen capabilities don't you thing so?). If you are young ( less than 30) is easy to go ahead with that timetable for some time if you are motivated, but sooner or later you will return to a natural sleep patern for sure.

I'm still to get the adventage to break your sleep time in small naps in continuously.

Hivoyer said:

Also someone said humans are monophasic by nature and that's wrong.Humans are born polyphasic(babies sleep on small portions trough the day and night) and as they grow up they adjust themselves to daytime working,however many people preserve the habit and take afternoon naps.It's perfectly natural to sleep on small portions like the uberman sleep schedule as long as you dont rush it and dont miss naps.

Babies do it, therefore it's ok for adults to do it.

Can you prove this statement?

trianglechoke7 said:

Hivoyer said:

Also someone said humans are monophasic by nature and that's wrong.Humans are born polyphasic(babies sleep on small portions trough the day and night) and as they grow up they adjust themselves to daytime working,however many people preserve the habit and take afternoon naps.It's perfectly natural to sleep on small portions like the uberman sleep schedule as long as you dont rush it and dont miss naps.

Babies do it, therefore it's ok for adults to do it.

Can you prove this statement?

I'm not saying people should sleep like that,but it's ok for them to do it if their daily life requires it.Even if they accumulate some sleep debt over time,look at people who sleep for 9-10 hours a day.That's unhealthy too,yet they dont die on the next day.Sleep is important,but sleep deprivation won't instantly cause cancer,heart problems and mental damage to a healthy person.People who suffer from fatal familliar insomnia get dementia after months of not sleeping,so my point is a little sleep deprivation won't do you as much harm as is commonly believed.Sure,you'll get slower muscle hypertrophy,increased calorie requirements and you'll probably get more nervous,but those side effects can be somewhat countered by trying to improve other areas of your life,like getting better diet,decreasing mental stress and the benefits of being awake 22/24 hours are more than worth the sacrifices for some people.Again:don't consider starting the uberman sleep schedule unless you really need those extra hours.

care to list the drawbacks of sleeping 9-10 hours?

To paraphrase Robb Wolf, "unlike food or even oxygen, there seems to be no positive adaptations to less sleep"

A recent sleep study found that sleeping too much was also unhealthy, not not at the same level as sleeping too little.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20621406

Ok sorry for late responce,but I had a lot of work.Anyway,as I said i have a friend ho sleeps for 20 minutes 6 times a day and since I'm an extreme insomniac,he's been telling me to try out polyphasic sleeping,so I started three days ago.I got into it really quickly,since i started out during the day when I'm more sleepy and the initial sleep deprivation made it easier for me to fall into the naps.However on the third day the feeling is different.Many polyphasic sleepers don't notice it,but the nap feels the same as when you're falling asleep against your will at school or at work after a rough night - you start dreaming immediatly,as soon as you close your eyes.It seems enough for the body and I'm feeling sort of energetic,but I'm also feeling less myself(depersonalsation).Depersonalisation and instant dreaming are signs of extreme sleep deprivation,so I guess I should take back my words-this sleep schedule isn't really safe.It basicly gives you what you need to stay alive and sane,but don't expect to get away with all the extras.Ofcorse in time you adapt to the uberman sleep schedule,but it's the same as food deprivation.If you eat 5 times less than usual for a couple of weeks you will eventualy get used to it,you'll probably still be able to function normally,but your strength and endurance will never be as high as they can be when you are well fed.I'm thinking of stopping this as i don't really need it.I can get really good sleep from 5:00 to 13:30,and I feel great.For those who still want to experiment with this here's a tip:stare at the sky after a nap and drink water.It helps a lot.

Hivoyer said:

I have a friend who is doing polyphasic sleep.Here's the deal:the body adapts to a certain degree to what you throw at it.If you sleep less(6 x 20-30 minute naps =2/24 hours of sleep) the quality and intensity of the sleep process will increase to compensate for the loss of quality.Ofcourse there are limits,my friend says it took him 2 agonising weeks to adapt,but now he feels better then ever,however if he misses a nap,its a catastrophy for him.Also someone said humans are monophasic by nature and that's wrong.Humans are born polyphasic(babies sleep on small portions trough the day and night) and as they grow up they adjust themselves to daytime working,however many people preserve the habit and take afternoon naps.It's perfectly natural to sleep on small portions like the uberman sleep schedule as long as you dont rush it and dont miss naps.Another important thing is that when you are awake 22 hours a day you will need a lot more energy,so it's advisable to prepare a good diet before starting.And here's a tip from my friend:put your alarm clock away from your bed,so when you wake up you are forced to go and shut it off

Have you ever had a baby? They don't sleep on small portions through the day and night. They sleep about 20 hours out of 24 for a while.