William Bunce

Sleep is something that seems extremely precious to most of us. I know that I end up hitting the snooze whenever I wake up at least twice. Our bodies are naturally conditioned to treat the night as "sleep time" and day as "awake time". I don't know about you, but for me 8 hours of sleep a night is too much. Oh, it sure doesn't feel like enough, but do you ever feel like you're just wasting the day if you sleep any longer? I know I do. That's where the Everyman sleep schedule comes in.

Polyphasic Sleep

If you've never heard of polyphasic sleep, it's not surprising. It's not something many people attempt or even find interest in. "Less sleep? Phh... hell no", is a thought that many might think. Consider this, with certain types of polyphasic sleep, you can sleep for only two total hours a day, and you'll be just as healthy and refreshed as a person who gets eight. Many times, even more so. By nature, you're body is more productive (not to mention the obvious increase in time during which you're awake) when you sleep in shorter naps. This allows you to, not only be well rested, but also increase your productivity, by having time to do things you normally wouldn't have time to do due to lack of time.

Uberman vs. Everyman

I'm not going to go into the origins of these two different types of polyphasic sleep, but I'm going to mention the basics, just to provide a general understanding.

In the Uberman system, you reduce your sleep to two hours a day. Those two hours are taken in 20 minute naps every 4 hours, on the dot. The more you adjust the times of the naps, the more tired you will be and the longer it will take to adapt to the schedule.

With the Everyman schedule, you take one core-nap and a corresponding amount of small naps throughout the day. An example would be:

• Core Nap: 1am - 4am
• Nap 1: 12pm - 12:20pm
• Nap 2: 5:30pm - 5:50pm
• Nap 3: 10pm - 10:20pm

This is obviously more beneficial for several reasons, the first being flexibility. With the rigid Uberman schedule, if you miss one nap, you're basically starting over. With the Everyman, if you miss a nap, you just continue along as if you didn't, and you'll be back to normal within a day or two. It's also important to be flexible for more social reasons, family, work, and life in general. The Everyman also allows you to be the night owl, and the early bird.

So... what now?

The reason I posted this, as you can guess, is that I'm going to give the Everyman schedule a try. While I usually get a decent amount of sleep, I'm usually always still tired. Also, if I can increase my hours awake during the day, then I'm all for it. From what I've read, it usually takes a day or two to adjust, so we'll see how it goes. I'll try and keep my update tracked here.

If you have questions, comments, or if I need to be corrected, please let me know in the comments!