November 29, 2015

Everyman Phase Three: Day 15


Today was pretty good.  Once I woke up from my core nap, I got up quickly, but I noticed that I was waking up to my backup alarm (which sounds like a loud klaxon).  Presumably I slept right through the first alarm, which has a slightly less obnoxious tone of chimes.  To me, this simply underscored the necessity of having backups wherever possible throughout your regimen, not just your alarm clocks (although clearly they are very important).

One change I did make this morning was to prepare myself some scrambled eggs - except this time I'm trying to learn the technique of professional chefs.  For my first time, I think it went pretty well, but more importantly, I didn't experience any carb crash or overwhelming sleepiness I usually get after having cereal for breakfast (and to a lesser extent, Soylent).  Some individuals may not have a problem with this, but as I'm closer to the hypoglycemic end of things, reducing the carb counts for breakfast really helped avoid the early-morning sleepiness I usually am plagued with.

Otherwise, the rest of the day went very well.  I did some great organizing around the house, prepared another batch of eggs (slightly differently to compare various approaches), and did another lesson of Tai Chi.  I only really started to get tired when it was around nap time, or in one case halfway through  watching a long movie, although a cup of coffee cleared that up nicely.

I should hope to have more days like this - if I could, this last stretch of adaptation would seem to go by much easier.  Updated vitals here.


  1. Hi there! Just wanted to say you are doing an excellent job here. Having more people proving than a progressive approach to adaptation is possible might help to get more people interested in Polyphasic sleep.
    BTW, I thought that it was generally accepted that 3,5 hours works best for Everyman core than 3 hours.

  2. Thanks! I am a big fan of phasic/progressive adaptation, as it seems to fit into modern day working schedules better than a cold-turkey cutover. I venture that this would also increase the accessibility of trying polyphasic sleeping to a greater number of people.

    As for Everyman, I've seen references to 3.5, but am going off of the 3 hours being the standard core nap, as indicated by others:

    I also prefer the 3 hour core nap because it more closely follows the 90 minute sleep cycle your body naturally has. In 3 hours, you'd complete two full cycles, whereas with 3.5 hours, you'd be in the beginning of a third sleep cycle when you woke up. Waking up mid-cycle is usually best avoided if possible, so I stuck with a 3 hour core.

    Thanks for the comment, it's nice to know this work may be useful to others.