Today was the best so far. I slept 2AM and got up 230AM. I was feeling fresh considering I had only 4h 49 mins sleep previous day. Towards 4AM I was getting bit sleepy. I went to nearby shop to buy things. I was feeling OK after a walk. I learned a little trick that helped me getting up. I left my room light on and placed my iPhone alarm behind me and out of my arms reach. So when alarm rings I have to get up and switch off. When room light is on, it is easier to shake out the sleep and wake up. The urge to sleep is strongest the moment you wake up and wanes out gradually. If you can hold until you pass the initial urge to sleep, then it is easier for you to maintain the wake.

I slept by 2AM instead of my usual 12AM schedule. I wanted to shift my schedule a bit as it was getting difficult to sleep by 12AM. The morning is Sunday. I slept from 2AM to 9:50AM, total of 7h 52m. Woke up sleepy again. Caffeine helped and I was feeling good after one hour.

I did 2PM to 230PM. I woke fresh, in fact this is the best experience for the past seven days. I felt clear head and well rested. My sinus seems to subside and my eyes are getting lighter.

I will be following this schedule as it is easier for my schedule to sleep later at 2AM instead of 12 AM

2AM – 30 mins nap

6AM – 30 mins nap

2PM – 30 mins nap

8PM – 30 mins nap

Cheers

-Jag

After total sleep of 10h and eight mins yesterday, I felt wide awake at my 12AM nap. I just kept my eyes closed and was in a semi-sleep state for 20 mins. I am still feeling fresh at 2AM.

At 3AM I was feeling sleepy and drowsiness set in. I am taking a nap at 3AM to combat the drowsiness. I woke up 3:46AM and was feeling disoriented. I think I was in the deep sleep (Stage three or four) when I woke up and my body didn’t like it. I was OK after a cup of coffee.

Cheers

-Jag

What a rollercoaster ride?. I slept by 1207AM planned to get by 1230AM. I got up just a bit late at 9:50AM. I slept for 9h and 42mins. My repeated attempts to get up at 415AM 7AM and 830AM failed and my body and brain was in total shutdown. After sleeping for 9h and 42m I was groggy, but my brain began to wake up over next hour. Of course I don’t have heavy eyes today, but I don’t feel energetic.

I believe if I try to do true Uberman (6×20 mins evenly spaced every 4 hrs)  it may be hard initially but it also you will adapt faster. You will fully adapt to Uberman after a period of struggle. When you are eventually Uberman, you may not want it because of its highly unstable nature. Uberman sleep requires rigid schedule.

So what is the conclusion?. To be polyphasic or not?.

There is no doubt polyphasic offer immense time benefit, so it is hard to ignore. Anyone wanting to change the status quo must endure a difficult phase. I am prepared to do that and see what is in the other side of the world, even if I know I cannot reverse my journey.

I skipped my 2PM nap. I took my 8PM nap and felt good. Instead of 25 mins timer I am setting 20mins timer. Nowadays I immediately go to sleep within few seconds once I close my eyes with eye mask.

Today I slept for total of  10 h and 8 mins. Great

Cheers

-Jag

I started my nap at 1205AM and I was wide awake exactly after 20 mins, even before my alarm. I believe my body is getting adapted to 20 mins cycle. Previously if I sleep at 12AM I will gain conscious only after my daughter starts screaming exactly at 8AM.

When I woke up after 20 mins I was fresh like after a full night sleep. I will monitor for the next few hours and see how my energy level fluctuates.

After two hours I was sleepy. To combat I watched interesting action movie part for 45 mins. I was sleepy, but not too sleepy as yesterday, so able to hold on until 4AM

I slept 4AM and with little bit of effort able to wake up 25 mins later when alarm went off. I was feeling groggy. But I was good conscious unlike yesterday when I could not resist myself a sofa crash. To prevent previous day episode happening again I brewed coffee. Now it is 430AM. A few days ago I will consider 430AM as midnight, but now it is like a normal hour to be awake. I had coffee and did some internet research for an online project. My eyes are still heavy, but able to manage and stay awake.

My first nap for today was at 1210AM. I slept by 1210AM after watching funny movie for one hour. Today I kept the iPhone alarm bit far from my sleeping place. I also changed the alarm tone to give me not so familiar wake up sound, so my brain may need bit more processing power to figure out the sound and which may help in accelerating the wake up.

I was able to wake up after 35 mins. I was feeling fairly fresh like waking up in the early hours. I had lots of work lined up. So I kept myself busy after waking up. I have around three hours for my next nap stop at 4AM. At this middle of hour it is raining heavily. Tempted to drink hot coffee :)

After yesterday I was feeling overall tired. For the past week I was catching some cold and generally felt bit sick.

I took 12am nap at my hammock in my room (designated office room in my home). I planned to wake up at 1230AM, but woke up 230AM. I slept for 2h 30mins and felt super sleepy and joined my sleeping family in the adjoining bedroom within next five mins. I was a happy sleeper for next 5hrs 48 minsand woke up only at 8:23am. Great :)

I was able to nap for 20 mins from 8PM to 820PM. Now my naps are becoming automatic. I normally put countdown timer for 25 mins. I allow five minsbuffer to settle down. Now I am able to get up when the timer is still 20 mins, five mins before alarm goes off. I believe my body is setting itself for 20mins sleep.

Today my 12am nap extended to a full sleep. I don’t sweat it. I let my body decide on the sleep pattern and I gently guide to polyphasic pattern. Perhaps it will take few days to set in to rhythm.

I slept for 8hrs 57m. That is like a normal monophasic timing, except that I followed my polyphasic day nap

Cheers

-Jag

EverUberman #Type: All Naps

Nap#1 – 12Am –  30 Mins

Nap#2 - 4Am –  30 Mins

Nap#3  -  8Am  - 20 mins

Nap#4 - 2pm  - 20 mins

Nap#5  - 8pm – 20 mins

Total – 2 hours Sleep in 24 hours period

During my previous polyphasic experiment  I found some techniques for a better sleep. I bought an eye mask to cut of light and have a philips ear closing headphones connected to my iPhone. I downloaded some natural sounds like water flowing, rain and play them to cut out external noises. This way I was able to sleep virtually anywhere.

Sometimes even if I cannot fall asleep, I will keep my eyes closed and just let my mind wander in space. I know that worrying about no sleep will cause no sleep. I will keep reminding  it is ok not to sleep and being idle is good enough rest. Sometimes I will be awake for 15 mins and will get some sleep for five mins, but still feel refreshed after this 20 mins session.

I will use my iPhone timer and set 25 mins count down timer. I allow this five mins buffer to settle down for sleeping. I put my phone in silent mode and some times in flight mode to skip incoming calls. I will turn on the natural sounds and off I go to sleep. After 25 mins when the timer sounds, I have to get up and remove my eye mask to shut down. This will ensure I will not shutdown the alarm and go back to sleep unconcisouly.

After my 12AM nap I was bit sleepy. After about 1AM  my alertness level was increasing, still bit sleepy. I slept at 8PM before this session for 20 mins. I believe that helped a little. I know my next nap is not too far at 4AM. I am doing my mundane work of filing to keep myself occupied and resisting myself not to join with my cute little daughter Disha in her sleep. I know I am doing all this so I can get more time to spend with family.

After my 4AM nap I was too sleepy. I believed I will be ok after one hour. I made an avoidable mistake by going to check my daughter. I usually  admire my three year old  daughter Disha at her sleep. As I was admiring today I went to sleep land and when I woke up my daughter was admiring me at 8:55AM. I slept for solid 4h 15mins. I felt groggy and my eyes are heavy.

I felt better after a hour. I had lunch and took an early nap 130PM and got up 215PM. I still feel sleepy. I slept for around six hours starting from last 12AM mark. I got to start work now, today I spent some time with family in the morning, helping in cleaning and playing with Disha.

My 8PM nap was better. After this nap though I was feeling sleepy I felt good. My mind was bit clear and fresh compared to previous sessions.

This closes day 1. I slept for 6 h 27 mins. I cannot declare today as successful polyphasic sleep in terms of time benefit. I pretty much adhered to the schedule except for the 4AM nap converted to sleep. :)

Cheers

-Jag

I recently tracked how much time I spent on various tasks throughout 24 hours. I downloaded an iPhone app which made this tracking job easier. I tracked my everyday for two weeks. I found out the top time goes to two main things. First is sleep and second is personal care plus Transport. Personal care means getting ready to work and relaxing after days work.

Time Tracking

This is not a revelation, but I noticed that much of the time goes to sleep. I normally sleep between six to eight hours per day. In a seven day week, I am sleeping for 56 hours. That is 2.3 days solid. My seven day week has about 4.7 days of wake time and 2.3 days of sleep time. For personal care and transport I am spending around 36 hours per week that is 1.5 days. That leaves me with 3.2 days. I am spending 24 hours per week for family, eating, Internet, reading and thinking. That leaves me with 2.2 days. After discounting idle time, I have about two days to work. In a typical seven days period I am working only for two days. Most of the time is spent on sleeping and getting ready to work.

My Monophasic Sleep

Monophasic sleep is sleeping once per 24 hours. We sleep in a single block of six to nine hours. For me even after six to nine hours of sleep I still feel lousy and tired when I wake up. My energy level increases after few hours and then falls back again. By the time I reach the evening I get tired and ready to sleep. I usually sleep within five mins of lying down and almost never wake up in the middle. Technically I have a sound sleep, but I don’t understand why I feel tired. If I have a nap in the afternoon I feel refreshed for another three to four hours.

Also I like to wake up early as I believe I will get more done in the early morning without distractions. In monophasic sleep to wake up early I need to sleep early, which is difficult with my current business and family conditions. I need a sleep habit that allows me to sleep late and wake up early.

Polyphasic Dream

I decided to try Polyphasic sleep to fulfill one or more of the following

[1] Increase my energy level, which I am not getting in Monophasic Sleep. I understand my energy level may be due to other issues like breathing, food, etc. But I want to see if Polyphasic sleep helps improve some aspect of my energy level.

[2] Gain more time. Due to business commitments I am spending less and less time with family. Gaining more time will allow me to spend time with business and family without compromising other. Anyway I will not feel overwhelmed to hurry on something as I know I have all the time in the world.

[3] Ability to sleep late and wake up early. So I get best of both worlds, I can enjoy my late night movies and also feel the breeze as I exercise viewing the glorious sunrise over the beach.

[4] Just Curious. I want to experiment to satisfy my curiosity. What it would be like to sleep two hours and live a long day and night?

Polyphasic Sleep Variations

I explored further and found out there are different variations of polyphasic sleep.

Uberman Sleep: Sleeping for 20 mins every four hours.

For e.g. Sleep for 20 mins at these times 8am, 12pm, 4pm, 8pm, 12am, 4am. That 6x20mins = 2 hours per 24 hour period. This is exciting. You get 22 wake hours per day that is like squeezing two days from one day. If you normally sleep eight hours per day, with Uberman you save six hours per day. It is 2190 hours per year. Equivalent to 90 days or three months solid wake time per year. It is like having extra three months to spend for every year of your life. Excited?. Wait! the grass is not that green.

First it is not easy to follow the strict regime of 20 mins sleep every four hours. And according to people who tried Uberman, complained it is very difficult to follow Uberman after a period of time. Missing a nap will be a disaster. It will be much more difficult if your work schedule is unpredictable. Unless you live in a jungle alone, it is close to impossible to implement Uberman’s unforgiving schedule. And when you live in a jungle alone you don’t need 22 hours anyway

EveryMan Sleep: This is an interesting variation where you sleep for three hours (core sleep) in the night and 3×20 mins throughout the day.

For E.g. Sleep for three hours from 1am to 4am, then sleep 20mins at these times 8am, 1pm, 8pm. That is four hours of sleep per 24 hours. This is more practical as you sleep only three times when others are awake, as opposed to four times in Uberman. Also, I believe Everyman is more forgiving when you miss a nap. Everyman has different variations too, like adjusting the core sleep from 1.5 hours to 4.5 hours and increasing or decreasing the number of naps based on the length of core sleep. If the core sleep is 4.5 hours then you will only need 2 x 20 mins naps.

My first reaction to all this was, it all sounds crazy and interesting. Sleeping two or four hours per day consistently and still feeling alive?

I am kind of a guy who would like to experiment before declaring it is good or no good. Due to my need for more time to complete my long task list and also see if Polyphasic helps increase my energy level, I decided to try sleeping polyphasic. I am also running my own business so time is flexible for me.

As an experiment I decided to try Everyman Sleep.

My sleep schedule

Core Sleep – 1am to 4am - 3 hours

Naps (20 Mins) – 8am, 1pm, 8pm – (3 x 20mins) 1 hour

Total - 4 hours of sleep in 24 hours

Everyman Disaster

Everyman sleep was a disaster for me. I am able to do the three naps, but I am unable to follow the strict core sleep. The 20 mins naps were easy to do, as I was able to get up easily after the 20 mins period because I did not go to deep sleep. But the core sleep of three hours drags me to deep sleep and I am unable to wake up after the three hours period. Sometime I wake up, but will go to sleep after 30 mins or so. I began to sleep more hours than Monophasic and feeling tired all day.

I realized I am trying to change my lifelong sleeping habit. I have been sleeping like this for couple of decades and it is not going to be easy to change a habit that has a strong neural highway in my brain. This is like trying to change the way I walk or smile permanently. My sleeping habit is so natural to me that my body will resist with all its power to keep it the way it has been doing for so many years.

I know if I do Uberman sleep I will be able to change my sleeping habit because Uberman only allows you to sleep for 20 mins it may be little bit easier to wake up from 20 mins nap than waking up from a three hour sleep. But Uberman sleep has a very rigid schedule and I don’t like anything that is too rigid. I like flexible systems because we never know what demands you will face daily and being too rigid will break you.

As I read through most of the people who did polyphasic, they give up after sometime. Buckminster Fuller claimed that he did Dymaxion Sleep for two years. Dymaxion is sleeping 30 mins for every six hours. That is sleeping two hours per 24 hours. Buckminster Fuller gave up after two years. The main reason being social conditions. When you are doing polyphasic, it will become increasingly difficult for you to interact and work with monophasic people due to clash in sleep timings.

EverUberman Sleep

I wanted something that will give me the time benefit of Uberman and flexibility of Everyman Sleep. After much trial and error, I concluded on EverUberman. EverUberman is same as Uberman Sleep, but it has the flexibility like Everyman Sleep. You still sleep for two hours per day, but you can miss a nap and adjust your time with future naps.

EverUberman : All Core Naps

All core naps is just that, you sleep 5 x 20 mins per 24 hours at the exact set timings. So you will be sleeping a total of 1h 40 m per 24 hours.

Nap#1 – 12Am –  20 Mins

Nap#2 - 4Am –  20 Mins

Nap#3 – 6Am –  20 Mins

Nap#4  -  8Am  - 20 mins

Nap#5 - 2pm  - 20 mins

Nap#6  - 8pm – 20 mins

Total – 2 hours Sleep in 24 hours period

You have two naps from morning to evening and four naps from evening to next day morning. For my schedule it is easier for me to follow all naps except Nap#5 which falls at 2PM. So I try to minimize naps in the daylight. But still you need to closely follow this schedule. This model itself is not true Uberman. In pure Uberman you take 6×20 mins nap every 4 hours, total 2 hours of sleep of 24 hours. But EverUberman the naps are not evenly spaced. What is the idea or theory behind this?

Based on the circadian rhythm you body temperature raises after you see the daylight and then keeps on increasing until around 2PM. At 2Pm there is a slump and you will normally feel sleepy. We take advantage of this circadian rhythm and staying awake between 8AM to 2pm will not be too much problem.

Life will not happen as  planned always, you need to have a flexible sleep schedule, otherwise it is sure to fail. But unfortunately Uberman does not like flexibility. You cannot simply miss a nap and feel alive.

So the most interesting thing I want to try is what happens if I skip some naps. I know from previous Uberman sleep experiments, skipping a nap is close to impossible.

Let us add eight Nap Balancers and see if it helps to shake the rigidity of Uberman. Nap Balancer are naps taken at different time to compensate for the missed core naps.

EverUberman : With Nap Balancers – One Skipped Nap

Due to important client call I have to skip Nap#4. I see if I can  balance the skipped nap#4 by utilizing a nap balancer. I will choose to sleep in one of seven available nap balancer slots to compensate for missed Nap#4. In this example I choose Nap#nb6 – 6pm nap balancer to compensate for my skipped Nap#4

DAY 1

Nap#1 – 12Am –  20 Mins

Nap#nb1 – 2am – 20 Mins – OPTIONAL

Nap#2 - 4Am –  20 Mins

Nap#3 – 6am – 20 Mins

Nap#4  -  8Am  - 20 mins

Nap#nb2 – 10am – 20 Mins – OPTIONAL

Nap#nb3 – 12am – 20 Mins – OPTIONAL

Nap#5 – 2pm – Skipped

Nap#nb4 – 4pm – 20 Mins – OPTIONAL

Nap#nb5 – 6pm – 20 Mins  - COMPENSATION FOR SKIPPED NAP#5

Nap#6 – 8pm – 20 Mins

Nap#nb6  - 10pm – 20 Mins – OPTIONAL

Total – 2 hours Sleep in 24 hours period

EverUberman : With Nap Balancers – Two Skipped Naps

Due to family outing today I have to skip  Nap#4 and Nap#5.  I can choose to sleep in two of seven available nap balancer to compensate for missed Nap#4 and $5.

In this example I choose Nap#nb3  - 10am and Nap#nb7 – 10 pm  to compensate for my skipped Nap#4 and #5

Nap#1 – 12Am –  20 Mins

Nap#nb1 – 2am – 20 Mins

Nap#2 - 4Am –  20 Mins

Nap#3 – 6am – 20 Mins

Nap#4  -  8Am  - 20 mins

Nap#nb2 – 10am – 20 Mins –  COMPENSATION FOR SKIPPED NAP#5

Nap#nb3 – 12am – 20 Mins

Nap#5 – 2pm – 20 Mins – Skipped

Nap#nb4 – 4pm – 20 Mins

Nap#nb5 – 6pm – 20 Mins

Nap#6  - 8pm – 20 Mins – Skipped

Nap#nb6  - 10pm – 20 Mins - COMPENSATION FOR SKIPPED NAP#6

Total – 2 Hours Sleep in 24 hours period

I will be still able to enjoy long continuous wake hours with the help of Nap Balancers. This is an experiment I am open to the results. I will practice this for next few weeks and update progress here.

Case Against Polyphasic Sleep

There is a strong criticism against polyphasic sleep. It is pointed out that humans are designed for monophasic sleep. Anybody doing polyphasic will have to cope up with constant sleep deprivation and need to have an iron-will to continue through polyphasic. Well that sounds convincing and true. I will confirm this once I complete the experiment.

Please note that I am not against monophasic sleep and I do not claim polyphasic sleep is best. I am just curious and want to experiment on this. I still love monophasic sleep and its benefits, especially sleepy mornings. I would like to try polyphasic as an experiment similar to my other diet experiments. I like Uberman because it sounds extreme and ambitious way of sleeping, but what I don’t like is the strict military style schedule of Uberman. I like to try this variation, EverUberMan and see if it breaks the strict regime and at the same time provides the time benefit as the uberman schedule does.

I will post my findings soon

Cheers

-Jag

One of the most difficult decisions for an employee is to quit a comforting job. Especially if there is no reference self employed person in their own family or friends. I must admit that self employment is not for everyone. Some are good as employees and excel working for others. The purpose of this article is not preach everyone to come out of their job and be their own boss.

If you are one of those employee feeling trapped inside the office and wanted to break out of office window. Do you feel you are wasting your talent, energy and your life in doing insignificant jobs ?. You want to do more than the simple tasks assigned by your manager, but unable to do so because of job limitations. Is surviving you and your family is primary reason to stick to your job?

I am here to show you there are much better ways to survive and at the same time enjoy your work in this new world.

Self Employment – Employing yourself

I am using here a much less threatening title self employment. By self employment I also mean entrepreneur or business person. But for most people entrepreneur or business sounds more ambitious and at that same time out of reach.

Let’s see three basic myths about self employment (read entrepreneur or business)

1. Self employment is risky and you need lots of money to startup

This myth is the most popular as most employees when they think of being their own boss they think of risk. They associate the risk with high startup cost and possible loss of money. The starting was risky 20 years ago. Two decades ago starting on your own needed lot of cash and resources. People with deep pocket were able to afford starting or losing a business. A new comer have to risk his entire life savings and risk his reputation with lenders to start a business. It is not true now. Business in internet age can be started by anyone with almost no money. The now billion dollar internet businesses were started with few hundred to thousand dollars capital. There is virtually no risk involved in starting and running a business in this internet age.

2. You need to be pioneer and have a breakthrough idea to succeed

Though it is true that first comers and breakthrough ideas will be beneficial and have high rewards. It is also too risky to be first comer. You can start any business that you have interest on. Ideally for first time start something that is well established in market, but not saturated. Look for a niche. Example, instead of starting a generic child care centre, start a child care that focuses on creative learning for ages 6 to 9. Most business succeed not because they are new, but due to their niche, service and value they offer to their customers. Starbucks offer coffee that is not much different from machine made coffee, but their place, service and consistency draws customers.

3. Self employment is stressful and have to work 24/7

Yes it is true that working on your own can be stressful and you will overwork, but only if you try to do everything yourself. The art of business is delegation. In order to grow and become big you must start delegating from young age of the business. Try delegating simple tasks like paying bills, sending invoices to online virtual admins or freelancers for the start. The main purpose is two fold, one to free up your time, two to setup process and make the task flow smoother so business will not become standstill when you are not available.

Take a little step towards your life passion and try things you have been putting off for so long. If things did not work out as expected you can always go back to old ways of life. There is no harm trying, in fact you will gain experience and strength be it a good or bad experience. I will outline a steps to start you on your passion

1. Find out your interest. Take a pen and paper. Imagine and really believe that have won a lottery for 10 million dollars and you have all the money you want in this life. You are free to do anything with your life. Write down list of things you will do. Repeat this for two to three days. Identify which task excites you the most when you think and write it.

2. Search online and find out business related to the tasks that excites you. Pickup at least two viable business that don’t need lots of capital to start.

3. Estimate your monthly expenditure and increase 20% as buffer. Save for six months of expenditure and deposit cash to your savings account.

4. Quit your job. really quit your job. If you believe you are capable of finding job when you need it, then it is not a big deal. Quit your job.

5. Spend one to two months full time to develop the product or service you found
out in Step 2.

6. Bring it to the market and try selling it

7. You will not become overnight success. Do not lose your mind. This will be toughest time for you. This is where your excitement for the service or product will keep you steady and going.

8. Learn from your mistakes. Get feedback from people about why they are buying or not buying from you

9. Incorporate those feedbacks in to your product, service, advertising and selling.

10. When possible seek the help of anyone you believe can provide guidance.

It is more risky to be employed than doing being on your own. As an employee you depend on one source of income. As a business person you will receive income from multiple people. It is very unlikely that once you are established all you customers will stop paying, but is very likely that your boss can sac you from employment any moment.

In the previous industrial age employment was great, in this information age self-employment is much more secure and satisfying than a day job.

Time is short. If you don’t act now, someday you have to look back painfully to see your past working life that you worked without any purpose or passion. When you are at that moment it will strike you hard and fast that you should have acted early.