'Learning' to nap

Ben@Zeo's picture
published by Ben@Zeo on Fri, 11/12/2010 - 13:28
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I just finished puredoxyk's book Ubersleep.  Awesome read - I highly recc it for anyone even vaguely thinking about polyphasic sleep (or just for general interest!).

 

Anyways - I am toying with the idea of trying an adaptation myself.  It will be a few weeks of mulling/thinking about it at least - and I was wondering if I should 'learn to nap' in the meantime.  I have never been a napper - and it strikes me that if I were able to nap during the daytime before trying polyphasic sleep it may make adaptation easier.  Thoughts?

puredoxyk

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 19:07

Aw, thanks for the compliment!  For my part, I say yes, learning to nap could be very helpful.  You probably don't NEED to, as you'll learn to nap as a secondary effect of the adaptation; but already being comfortable with short sleeps could eliminate a lot of small tricky problems that you might encounter, like learning what positions, lighting and sound levels, etc. are comfortable for you and facilitate sleeping.  I don't think knowing how to nap already has done much to directly decrease the sleep-deprivation I'm experiencing this time, but it has made things like setting up a nap area, knowing how to settle in and wake up, etc. a lot easier.

 

My $0.02.  If/when you adapt, best of luck to you!

 

(I'm on day 5 and doing great, by the way!)

Anonymous (not verified)

Sat, 05/14/2011 - 16:28

Hi Ben, and Hi Doxy,

 

I have been had several adaptations, and because my first adaptation to everyman took me so long I was determined to cut the adaptation by a significant amount. After loosing the ability to get a quality nap, I thought what better way to learn to nap but to nap often? Frequency of a stimulus has often been shown to induce the quickest adaptation in biology, so I went with this.

I stayed up for a day and two nights, before commencing Uberman, and then used a weekend (2 days), to nap every 2 hours, on the dot.

At first I didn't nap, then later I started napping. By the night time of the first weekend day I was dreaming like when I was on Everyman, and by the second night I realised every time I had a nap I would simply REM like normal orI was simply not tired (so I began light sleeping through naps). At this point I started to cut out naps out, aiming toward napping every 4 hours, and by the monday day, I had naturally commenced Uberman.

 

Tuesday I was a little tired, and Wednesday I was sleepy, and by Thursday I was adapted. I never went through a zombie mode. I never had a drawn out adaptation, and it seems that the 'Naptation' I organised over the weekend got me into the rhythem.

 

I am hoping other people will try my naptation before commencing Uberman, or (or even any of their cycles that include 20 minute naps), and can give me feedback on their experience with it! Laugh