Claire's Random Thoughts

I will treat my Everyman sleep posts as a series, only kind of in reverse order. Instead of having an index before the posts, I will make this final post on the topic the index.

Previous Posts:
1. My Polyphasic Sleep Experiment
2. Day 1
3. Days 2-3
4. Off, Then Back on Everyman
5. REM Naps Yet?
6. To Stick to Everyman or Not to?
7. My Life Now Vs. Last Year

I just realized that I never reported about what happened to my Everyman sleep experiment.

To make a long story short, I quit after about a little over a month after I began. To sum it up:

I can report that Everyman does not cause the increased alertness and energy the way people who have tried the Uberman schedule have reported. Unfortunately, since it’s a hybrid  between regular cycles and REM cycles, it does not appear to be extreme enough for the brain to produce this extra alertness. I wouldn’t try Uberman either, for reasons I have previously described. It does, however, allow one to have a few extra hours per day without feeling significantly more tired than he/she would feel after the traditional full night monophasic sleep schedule.

Reasons I quit:
I just want to enjoy being 21 years old. For this schedule to be effective, alcohol is forbidden.
Even towards the end, I had a little trouble controlling my diet. In the long run, this kind of schedule will probably cause someone like me to gain weight.
Some people I knew seriously thought I was insane, clinically insane (or on drugs).
I either have to sacrifice the schedule or a normal daily life (it was annoying when any event conflicted with nap time)

Switching back to monophasic sleep was definitely easier than the adaptation period from monophasic to Everyman. For the first few days, I often woke up after a few hours in the middle of the night. I then had to force myself not to take a nap during the day so I could sleep longer the next night. However, the switch back to monophasic sleep only took about four days to get on schedule and a week not to feel tired anymore.

If the Everyman schedule fits your lifestyle, then I would say, go for it! As for me? This was quite an experience. If my schedule permits, maybe I can go back to this in the future! Or more likely, I might experiment with biphasic sleep sometime. Keep posted for updates!