Getting Polyphasic by Easter

[Pietro]

I have been planning and waiting for the right moment to get polyphasic. It had to be during some holidays, as it is quite clear that for the first few days it is hard to make sense of the world. Finally I decided that Easter was the right time. It is a week in which I am pretty much alone in the office. In the last days I have already started to pick up speed by sleeping every 4 hours, 24 minutes (my intuition loves to set up the alarm like this, although it rarely wakes me up). I was actually planning to start from this coming night to seriously decrease the sleeping time at night, but it seems that the power that be had different plans. First I planned poorly my trip, and to reach Jena I arrived in Nurenberg, then took another (useless) plane to Leipzig, just to discover that I have arrived too late for the latest train, while if I had just took a train from Nurenberg I would have been home by 11 pm. But this was not all. In Leipzig there actually was a later train to Jena. I took my 10pm nap before it, and then started reading: the train was I remember at 11.50 so there was plenty of time. And here is where the whole thing went so clumsy to make me suspect it all had a purpose. The train was not at 11.50 but at 11.20. And at 11.23 I was asked by a policemen to please move to the night waiting room. So there I was with a mac, plenty of books, projects to plan, clothes, and anything I could have needed for a couple of days; just at the beginning of my polyphasic period. Just as I was refusing the 'get rid of night-sleep, and adapt later' philosopy for being too firely. And what do you do when you are in deep water: you swim or you sink. Getting angy with the captain who threw you overboard lowers your survival possibilities by a lot. Beside I wasn't angry at all, just very amused for the turning of the events. So I just went polyphasic for the whole night. Following Steve Pavlina advise I took great care not to oversleep, while I permitted myself to sleep more than one nap every 4 hours. I napped at 10pm, 2pm, 4pm, 6.15pm (on the train back), 8pm (at home). I also had a natural light nap of maybe 10 minutes again on the train back. Considering that all the naps where on a hard surface, interrupted by the unpleasent snoring of the other passanger who was just not bright enough to understand that sleeping with your head thrown back in a chair with no head reast was a failure strategy, it went fairly well..

 

The 8 pm one was particularly interesting. But before describing it I need to go back and tell something else. After we have been speaking about polyphasic sleep I made some experiments, and for one week I was polyphasic. For 3 days completely polyphasic with no core sleep at all. In those 3 days I learned to sleep the polyphasic way. I had to. This consists in falling asleep immediatly in a very deep sleep that lasts for only few minutes. And then wake up with the feeling that hours have passed while only few minutes had. You know how in deep meditation there is no time (taoist call this state fourth time), and sometimes you can meditate for hours (some people for days/weeks) while feeling only few hours have passed. Well, it works the other way too, and you can sqeeze many hourse in few minutes, if you need to.

 

I particularly like the first time it hapened to me. It was about 6 am in the morning and after having stayed in front of the internet I decided it was time to get my 6 am nap. I went to bed and woke up two hours later. 'Damn!', I thought, 'I overslept the alarm'. Then I look at the alarm clock, and there were still 5 minutes to go. 'Oh, Fuck! Now the alarm clock is broken'. I turned on the computer. The clock of the computer was on the same time of the alarm clock. It started to reach me. But I needed a last check. I went to firefox archive, checking at what time was the last page I loaded. 5.45, about.

 

After that day it happened again, and again.

And it happened also this morning at the 8 am nap.

Steve also speaks about this phenomena in his blog. It seems a common phenomena, and one that is conditio sine qua non for the success of the experiment.

 

I would like to keep you guys informed on my progress, and if anybody feels like joining in, he is welcome. I probably shall copy the post on my blog. Right now I feel very weak, and unprotected, as if my wei-chi has all been used up. But I just arrived home and I need to go out at least to buy some food.

 

Oh, yes, btw, I went to Bruce course, and of course I asked him about polyphasic sleep. He told me he knows some people that did 45 minutes every 6 hours, for some months. But none for serious time (i.e. years). Also I gather you need some special trasmission for that as it falls under the umbrella of sleep yoga, which requires you to be able to keep yourself alert while your body goes to sleep. Something that I experience but am unable to consciously cause.

 

Ok, it is 10 am and I decided for this first day I shall recover by napping nearly every 2 hours.

 

good nap,

Pietro

[Smile]

That's so cool.

But i don't think I'm ready for it, mentally that is.

[thelerner]

Fascinating, keep us informed. When doing extreme stunts its good to have a buddy on watch.

 

I think at Stanford sleep lab they call there sleep experimenters or is it experimentees, Oneirauts.

 

 

Safe Journey

 

Michael

[Pietro]

Yesterday was tough. Was really tough. Sometimes starting through some hardness makes you hard enough to go through everything else. My professor in Analysis at the Uni 15 years ago would make us suffer through some difficult theorems, (instead of going the easy way) and then we would get all the others as corollaries. Respect to yesterday the night was a piece of cake. I even got some work done and only felt the need to sleep every 4 hours.

 

One of the first things that seem to reach me is that although the body can easily handle not to sleep at all, it is still necessary to use the time awake in a diverse range of activities. Staying in front of the computer in the night makes it very easy not to even desire to fall asleep, so much are my eyes and brain stimulated. But of course I can't do this all the time. This morning my eyes were so tired that if I moved my head the light bulb seemed to be farther from the ceiling. I suspect as layers inside my brain/eyes would not update fast enough.

 

The irony is that I passed the night implementing a system to organise my todo lists from the computer, just to discover in the morning that I really would prefer to have it all on paper not to be forced to look at a screen more than I really have to.

 

Note: My inner chat is less than usual.

 

I should mention that in the night I was also going through some erotic cartoon sites. This might also have kept me awake, we will see how things evolve. For now polyphasic sleep helped me in this too as after I napped I felt no immediate desire to go back to them. If you are aware of the kind of pull that pornography seem to generate I attribute this freedom to the lack of inner chat. As it is the inner chat which mainly feeds the constant en-chant-ment.

 

Funny enough no one have yet made any reference between polyphasic sleep and sexual chastity. I understand the need for privacy on some topics (especially since many polyphasers are married, and their wife might not appreciate the disclosure) but it is an important topic, and one that should not be overlooked if we want to provide guidelines for other people to follow this path. If I notice anything unusual on the subject I should try to keep you informed.

[Smile]

Jeffrey Yuen will teach Alchemical QI Gong in Rome on April 28.

More information is here:

Jeffrey Yuen classes

[Pietro]

Jeffrey Yuen will teach Alchemical QI Gong in Rome on April 28.

More information is here:

Jeffrey Yuen classes

AT the moment I am in Germany doing my PhD. Who is Jeffrey Yuen? I never heard of him. Should I bother contacting my friends in Italy telling them about him, in case anyone is interested?

[Smile]

AT the moment I am in Germany doing my PhD. Who is Jeffrey Yuen? I never heard of him. Should I bother contacting my friends in Italy telling them about him, in case anyone is interested?

He is the daoist that is trained in the Jade Purity and Complete Reality Schools.

http://www.asny.org/mts012.asp

http://www.aucm.org/stories.asp?Id=42&Cat=1

 

My friend studies with him. Highly recommended.

[Pietro]

Taoism basically says that when you choose healing as your vocation, you become a true healer when everyone around you is well. That doesn't mean you look for a place where everyone is healthy and you stay there.

 

Well, at least he has sense of humor. I'll look in that direction.

 

Rapid update of the polyphasic experiment.

 

At 10 am I jerked off. It felt great, as if it was due. Mainly the feeling was that my nervous system had given up unnecessary tension. I also tried to apply a technique from BK to come without damaging the kidneys. Being the second time that I tried it I am not sure still of the results, still the kidneys were not contracted after, as it normally is the case. I also used the orgasm to clean open my channels. Still I was worried that it might have affected my polyphasic experiment.

For the rest of the day I felt great, doing all my naps in time, and feeling I was living polyphasic. The night also went fairly well. I avoided using the computer at all, not wanting to use all the extra time in over exposing my retina. At 4.30 I was hit heavily by a very strong tiredness. All at once. And it did not leave me until 5.30. By that time I had made myself a celery/apple juice. And had cleaned the kitchen. In fact I practically passed the night reordering and cleaning things: books, plans, old pictures, clothes, all sort of things. Eventually I want to use the night time to work so that during the day I can stay more under the sun. But for now my concentration is too low to be able to do anything whoe result is important for my life.

 

At 8.30 I woke up. The alarm told me that I went to sleep at 6 (which I remember) for the 6am nap. And I overslept by 2 hours. Is this because of my sexual activity in the last 24 hours? I don't know, but it is a fairly educated guess. Now I feel well, but the feeling of being polyphasic has dissipated. I will have to rebuild it.

 

I see why people suggest that you do this transition during vacations time.

Edited April 13, 2006 by Pietro

[Yoda]

Pietro,

 

Maybe phase it in more slowly. Get the habit going of one nap per day for several months and really get in the groove of that and then do a second nap, etc.

 

The times that I've been a napper, I've enjoyed it. It doubles the number of days that you get, but I've never been able to sustain it.

 

-Yoda

[Pietro]

Maybe phase it in more slowly. Get the habit going of one nap per day for several months and really get in the groove of that and then do a second nap, etc.

You are overblowing it out of proportion. People who were succesful said it is easier if you just do it, than if you procrastinate it.

 

Last day went well.

 

Everybody seem to be strugling around the third or fourth day but to me went just fine. I was tired only two times: at 3.00 pm and and at 2 am. At 3 pm I was tired because I over slept: in fact I used all the time the alarm would give me, instead of getting up when my body naturally awakened. This is not overlseeping respect to the schedule but it is oversleeping respect to the body phase. I am ready to bet that my body was already moving to the next phases. From that moment I took a mental note to get up as soon as I wake up after a nap. Without being violent with myself, but not just going back down.

 

At 2 am instead it was very different. My heart/body/mind/soul wanted silence. Anything was too noisy. Even thinking. I sat in silent. And then did some veeery light qi gung. A couple of hours later I was ok.

 

If you consider that from monday I slept maybe 14 yours and had had sex two times it is quite mind blowing. And yes, it does feel like it is a single day. So later today (In the next days, one week for the reader) I intend to stabilise the situation:

Get strong again.

Start again some qi gung, walking around.

I might add meditation, maybe.

Breathing, already is in. I might still wait for introducing back Tai Ji.

I also want to try to do different thing during the night. At the moment most of the time I am in my room sitting on my bed while reading, or reordering things. (I made a photo folder with 60 pictures of all my good good friend really really nice. It took me 3 hours to chose them, when would I ever have had time for something so supefluouse... and yet so nice!).

 

I also want to bring some work to do at home. Since I sleep in the office it is only fair that I work at home.

[Ian]

My boss just told me that there are people in New Guinea, south west coast of, possibly, who do this as a standard cultural practice. They never sleep for more than 2 hours. Perhaps just to avoid being eaten? Or am I stereotyping?

[Pietro]

My boss just told me that there are people in New Guinea, south west coast of, possibly, who do this as a standard cultural practice. They never sleep for more than 2 hours. Perhaps just to avoid being eaten? Or am I stereotyping?

 

You know after having seen your office where you have forced everybody to balance on balls , I suspect your boss might be pulling your leg... just to get even.

 

I do have a vague memory of a workshop- or a tribe. It was so long ago that I was still in Rome - before ''98. The culture was from the Amazonian forest and would 'divide space-time in a different way'. The news made me really excited, although at the time it was an impossible-to-follow thread.

 

But for hunter gatherers it would surely make more sense, than for people in agricultural or industrial culture. Now that we are moving to the post industrial age (that is if we do not fuck up the world), where everybody is more free to set up their own timeplan it starts to make sense again. So we might be rediscovering it.

 

And yes, of course it makes a lot of sense for hunted gathered.

 

Amazonian forest- New Guinea, another Kon Tiki connection?

 

P.S. I am sitting on my ball right now. It's full.

[Pietro]

Homm, last day I tried to get back with some activity and the result was that I nearly slept the whole night.

 

Let's follow the whole thing.

morning went well. It was holiday here in Germany, so I was not going to the office at all. I planned to take a walk between the 10 am nap and the 2 pm nap. But it was raining, so I had to potpone it to midday. There is a nice hill just on the back of where I live, so I aimed to that. At 1.50 I was in the middle of it and it was clear that if I wanted to sleep back home I had to run down the hill or similar. Instead I went the other way and headed for the office, to nap there. My 2 pm nap was in the office, and quite ok. Although I might have moved it by some half an hour. But on the next cycle I felt tired. At 6 am again I did not took the nap on the correct time but some half an hour later, and this time I simply overslept of about 1 hour. Not good news. If the body starts to oversleep it might start taking the deeper sleep in this way, instead of adapting itself to fall deeper early. I should have paid more attention. At 10 pm I was still in the office, having been reading there. So much that I decided t take the 10 pm nap in the office and go home after. As I went home I felt very good. it was around 11, I just woke up, the city was nice and peaceful. I went to the pub where my firends where and I had a game of Go. Apart playing very bad, this meant some SERIOUS concentration. I avoided to drink anything, not to fuck up my schedule. I took the next nap just after writing that long message. Again I was not precise on my schedule. It was maybe 2.30. I could not catch sleep. At some point I wondered if I had slept at all, and I was waking up or not. It happens on this kind of schedule. You remember how I said that oversleeping to the last moment of the alarm clock was a cause of some serious drawsiness. So I decided I had had my 2 am nap, although a short one, and I got up, and started working on the computer. I felt quite awake. At 3 am I was hit by a strong drawsiness, and I decided totake an extra nap. I woke up from it at 6.30 having overslept mt 2 alarm clocks. More than that at that point I was physically unable to get up at all, and I slept another hour.

 

Hmmm.

 

At this point I seriously considered pulling the plug to the whole experiment. Feeling that yes it is possible to live in that schedule but there is some deep type of sleep that does not get done. And in the long run that is what hits you. Before doing it I went back to read Steve Pavlina first week as Polyphasic sleeper. Some things came out:

1) he has been way more precise than me about taking his naps on time, up to the point of planning to read something for the last hour before a nap just to get in the mood of going to sleep. I kept an active schedule where I just wuld interrupt it to take a nap. Obviously in this way it was harder for me to fall asleep, and the 20 minutes I sat aside for sleeping were usually thus futher reduced. This might have implied that the deeper sleep was happening more with him than with me.

 

2) Yesterday I said how I felt I was over the hump and was now trying to stabilize the whole thing. Well going for a long walk up hill and playing a game of Go was more part of putting things back in. And probably my schedule was not sable enough. So for the next days I shall try to be more precise with naps and slow down on activity. Although Tuesday is appraching, and with that the office is opening up again in full force. AT that point my experiment will necessarily have a lower priority.

 

And, Yoda, you might want to read very carefully the posts from Steve first week. Believe me: when you have a core sleep the type of nap that you got is qualitatively different. Not just deeper or less deep. A different type of animal altogether. Doing some naps during the day to sleep less and have less of a jump is ok. But eventually if you want to get fully Poly you have to jump. At some point you need to train your body to take the type of sleep it is used to take only after having been in bed for more than 30 minutes in the first 30 minutes. And this switch will just not happen unless there are reasons for your body to do it.

[Pietro]

The esperiment is probably near its end: failure.

The last day was really god in terms of how I felt (remember that I slept yesterday night!), but my body just refused to stay awake during the night. It went perfectly until the 2 am nap (which is a an ok time to go to bed). With all the naps at the right time, and me also getting 10 minutes before in bed to cool down and read myself a bed time story. Then I dutifully woke up at 2.30, tured off the alarm, and woke up again when my flat mates came back at 4am.

"oh sorry, we woke you up"

"no, no" I lied.

 

The really strange thing is that in the first days it really felt like it was working. Some days it felt I was drifting. The difference was similar to let's say jumping (monophasic) to flying (poly). Moving the wings more often, and always for less energy than pushing with the two legs in jumping. But altogether being carried around by the cumulative effort of the little wings movement.

 

Right now I feel there is no possibility in the world it can work. At least for me, now. It feels like, after flying, falling. And it is better to fall, accept that I fall, and recover, then if I want try again. Instead than keep on flapping my wings while on the floor.

[minimoke]

Right now I feel there is no possibility in the world it can work. At least for me, now. It feels like, after flying, falling. And it is better to fall, accept that I fall, and recover, then if I want try again. Instead than keep on flapping my wings while on the floor.

 

I have not studied Polyphasism, but I suspect your body needs more time to adjust itself to a totally new schedule. I have worked nights for approximately 10 years and at this point in time I think I am, or can be, Polyphasic. I regularly "nap" 3 to 4 times a day, anywhere from 1 hr or less to 2-3 hours each time. I regularly use a cellphone alarm clock, but honestly, I usually wake up before the alarm goes off.

 

My first year working nites I would many times actually have to ask when I woke up if it was a.m. or p.m. and what day of the week it was. I suspect to truly adjust your sleep pattern takes 6 months to a year. As I type this it is 2:10 in the morning and I'm at work, and I have to reminded myself that, "HEY, all the world is sleeping, or at least 4 time zones on either side of me, and I'm wide awake. What the hell is wrong with me.

[Pietro]

I have not studied Polyphasism, but I suspect your body needs more time to adjust itself to a totally new schedule. I have worked nights for approximately 10 years and at this point in time I think I am, or can be, Polyphasic. I regularly "nap" 3 to 4 times a day, anywhere from 1 hr or less to 2-3 hours each time. I regularly use a cellphone alarm clock, but honestly, I usually wake up before the alarm goes off.

 

My first year working nites I would many times actually have to ask when I woke up if it was a.m. or p.m. and what day of the week it was. I suspect to truly adjust your sleep pattern takes 6 months to a year. As I type this it is 2:10 in the morning and I'm at work, and I have to reminded myself that, "HEY, all the world is sleeping, or at least 4 time zones on either side of me, and I'm wide awake. What the hell is wrong with me.

 

How interesting!

I was actually aiming for a state in which I would sleep around the clock in a fairly symmetric fashion. The reason why I considered it possible it is because I read reports of people succeeding with it. Also in a way in which the total sum of slept hours is much fewer. Say 3 hours a day. If you have naps of 2-3 hours each day it might work, ... but I am not excited about it anymore. I would still sleep 7 hours a day

 

So, is this napping every day a common practice between people who are working at strange times? Because I know plane pilots that have long east west route have a shorter lifespan on average. If there is a culture of polyphasic sleep in this kind of jobs than Polyphasic sleep would net be such a good tool. (according to the stats). Do many of your collegue nap regularly? How did you learned it?

 

Many thanks,

Pietro

[TwoTrees]

Sooo.....how about those people that only sleep (not nap) 2-4 hours a day ? lol

[Trip]

Pietro, It's quite interesting to hear about your experiment. I'm glad you're well. What were you trying to achieve through this lifestyle? I actually miss the ability to sleep longer (as time goes by)...

[Pietro]

Pietro, It's quite interesting to hear about your experiment. I'm glad you're well. What were you trying to achieve through this lifestyle? I actually miss the ability to sleep longer (as time goes by)...

Trip! so nice to hear from you.

 

You should read those entries from Steve Pavlina. I started drooling when I read the description of how time ended feeling divided into days; and the extra time you had (imagine being able to have a job and practice and have a social life all in the same lifetime); and the mind going naturally quiet.

 

BTW, should we make the MM at TB?

 

Sooo.....how about those people that only sleep (not nap) 2-4 hours a day ? lol

I think the chinese medicine of it is that the less original energy you have the less you sleep. So kids sleep a lot and old people hardly any. Mbanu is the person to ask to.

 

P.S. nice pic, better than just the eye.

 

Pietro

[Smile]

You should read those entries from Steve Pavlina. I started drooling when I read the description of how time ended feeling divided into days; and the extra time you had (imagine being able to have a job and practice and have a social life all in the same lifetime); and the mind going naturally quiet.

Yes, I also thought it would be nice to have a one looooong day that never ends.

I think the chinese medicine of it is that the less original energy you have the less you sleep. So kids sleep a lot and old people hardly any. Mbanu is the person to ask to.

I noticed the more I meditate my sleeping time drops to about 5 hours a day, but I can't pass that number.

[minimoke]

So, is this napping every day a common practice between people who are working at strange times? Because I know plane pilots that have long east west route have a shorter lifespan on average. If there is a culture of polyphasic sleep in this kind of jobs than Polyphasic sleep would net be such a good tool. (according to the stats). Do many of your collegue nap regularly? How did you learned it?

 

Many thanks,

Pietro

 

I don't know if it's a common practice, however among the people I know that work nites noone does what I do. They seem to sleep long periods of time in the morning after just getting off work, which that seems strange to me. Normal people that work days and get off at 5 p.m. don't rush home to go to sleep. I kinda learned it out of neccessity. I also am a house dad, so napping was the best course for me. Various time demands by my daughter precluded a long sleep.

 

Sleepless in Illinois

Bruce

[minimoke]

I noticed the more I meditate my sleeping time drops to about 5 hours a day, but I can't pass that number.

 

 

Greetings,

 

I almost forgot to mention. Lately I've been having extremely short naps in the middle of the night. Luckily I work alone and have alot of downtime from about 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. My biggest time demand is when a pc or server crashes but nowadays that rare.

 

I've been "napping" with the lights fully on sitting upright balanced in an armed chair so that I don't fall on the floor. I get into the habit of noting the time when I awake and lately my naps are more numerous but only 10-20 minutes at a crack. I seem to still be refreshed in the morning, kinda similar to when I used to meditate. I however have lately given up daily meditating. But the cause and effect seem to be similar.

 

Enough on this, I bet everyone is getting bored.

 

Bruce

[The_Search_for_Tao]

Hello again Tao bums!

 

I too somehow reached Steve's polyphasic blog..after eagerly reading the whole thing, I suspected at least one of the TOBs have tried it!

apparently I was right(:

 

I'm still researching the whole thing, so far it looks facinating!

Hard but doable if you put your mind to it..I'm more worried about the health risks involved, and whether you need those deeper sleep stages or not..

 

To me it seems like we go against nature - ie: if your mind goes to those stages then you probably should. .

Also I've read that these deeper stages of sleep are important for healing and building muscle mass (although Steve seemed to do fine without them..)

 

I'm also Vegan and mostly raw (like Steve) and he says it should be easier for vegans since your body needs to spend much less time and energy on digestion ...

 

so what do you guys think? any of you tried it since then?

 

Cheers!

 

Yair

[Rosalia Juarez]

This Pietro guy is a bloke!

 

[Herodes]