SLEEP LESS = SUCCESS?

How should I begin my first-ever blog post? Publicly beginning a journey of self-experimentation will do.

I recently returned from Quito to Buenos Aires, where I am studying abroad until August. I have a fairly flexible schedule and am looking to try something new that can help me develop discipline.

"If the road doesn't keep getting steeper every minute, watch out, because you've already started going downhill."

So, I've just begun a polyphasic sleeping schedule called Everyman 3. Here, one sleeps for three core hours and takes two or three 20-minute naps throughout the day.

This is how my sleeping schedule is planned out:

Core Sleep: 2-5am
Nap 1: 9:30am
Nap 2: 4:00pm
Nap 3: 9:30pm

After doing some research, I have a few guidelines that I hope to stick by to help me adjust to this new sleep schedule:

1) Eating breakfast three hours after the core sleep.
-(8:00am for me) has been shown to help quickly regulate both animals and humans to a time to be awake.

2) I put the alarm on my phone at the highest setting and place it near the light switch.
-Here in my homestay, my alram will probably wake up the host parents that I live with. For this reason, I have to literally jump out of bed and run to the phone to avoid waking up the people who cook my food. Since the light switch is right there, it is easy to turn on. I don't know about you, but I lovesss my sleep! My head does some tricky things to make me want to stay in bed or go lay back down. However, the potential benefits of having an extra four hours each day and the timing I have to try out new things like this is too tempting to pass up.

3) Avoid excess caffeine.
-This should help the brain to not play tricks and want to crash before nap times. Regardless, I'm drinking a little coffee after naps so that I will wake up and make the general transition smoother. I'm not an overly addictive person, but this may end up making me dependent on coffee, which I never have been before. Vamos a ver.

4) TRACKING
- This is the most important. I have on my desk a schedule of every day for the next week and the times I plan to sleep. In each box I mark whether I completed the sleep and I write in what times I actually slept (this morning I slept 9-9:20 to avoid construction noise interference).


All in all, research suggests that sleeping in smaller dosages is likely the rule rather than the exception in the animal kingdom. Perhaps there is some parallel to eating here where humans could improve (eating more frequently, with smaller portions), although this is just my speculation. Let me know if you'd like references to any of the information I suggested, although you will probably benefit more by just googling Everyman 3 sleep schedule yourself.


Time for a quick nap!


Take care and take charge,
Jesse