I haven’t checked my Ask Me Anything responses in a while now and there have been a couple more questions since the last post. So I’ll post these and do my best to answer them – they’re from some older topics but it’s always fun to revisit!
hi, my name is laurie, i read your post on everyman sleep cycle and was wondering how it went for you since i haven’t seen anything else on it.. are you still on it? or was it beneficial for you in any way?.. thank you
This question is referencing my attempted foray into the world of sleep hacks and polyphasic sleep cycles. Back in my sophomore year of college, I’d loaded up on some tough classes and was very involved in campus organizations. Many times I wished I had more hours in a day to do the things I needed and/or wanted to do. Since my senior year of high school, I’d consistently slept 5 hours a night (FYI I stopped doing that senior year of college), and I was very good with 20-minute power naps in the afternoons or evenings when I needed an extra energy boost.
I’d heard of the Uberman sleep schedule, which basically eliminated the need to sleep with a person taking six 20-minute naps at equal intervals throughout the day. But from my research this sleep cycle seemed incredibly hard to achieve (huge adjustment period) and extremely inflexible (missing a single nap would destroy the cycle).
Enter the Everyman sleep schedule, which seemed like a much more reasonable compromise, with a three-hour core nap and three 20-minute naps interspersed throughout the day. Easier adjustment period, plus it was possible to miss a nap time by up to an hour without any consequences to the cycle. This worked much better with a student schedule, so I decided to give it a shot. I figured that I’d already slept so little that it wouldn’t be too difficult to adjust.
So did it happen? The short answer is no. The longer answer should provide a bit more detail.
First, I failed to switch over because adjusting was much harder than I’d thought. Just cutting another hour from my sleep was crazy difficult – it basically required me to pull all-nighters, and I felt the full effects of sleep deprivation those first few days. Second, I’d picked a terrible time to get sick, so that, coupled with my need to still function in school, led me to ultimately abandon the notion, perhaps for some other day in the future.
Now that I’ve had a few years’ worth of hindsight, not to mention a much better sleep schedule these days, here are some of my thoughts. I don’t regret trying out the schedule. If I’d pulled it off, it would’ve definitely allowed me to work more efficiently – despite the net gain of one hour, I would’ve been awake during normal sleeping hours, meaning little to no distraction to get work done. On the other hand, I realized that my desire to switch to this schedule was the byproduct of my circumstances, and shows the plight of many college students.
These days, I get a good 7 or so hours of sleep every night, and I don’t see myself switching to another sleep cycle anytime soon, mainly because I don’t need to and because it would be impossible with my current work schedule. I’ve recognized that sleep is an all-important long-term investment to my health, so I’m making a better effort to get more of it. Still, another part of me doesn’t want to put this to rest completely. So maybe, just maybe, I’ll re-explore this one day in the future, if circumstance should allow…
Hi Glen ~
You sound (and write) like a very nice and interesting young man — kinda remind me of my son (now a University of Denver freshman) and my daughter (a recent CalPoly SLO grad working in banking). What caught my eye was your Middle Rock Creek adventure near Chico….You say that your group of friends traveled 3 hrs to get here. Wow, that’s committed! Were you just aiming for that hike and swim in the creek, in particular? And I wonder where y’all traveled from.
Also, where did you graduate college, and what industry are you working in while living in SF?
I wish you well, and look forward to reading more of your random thoughts!
Cheers ~
Sharon
Thanks for the kind words! I miss those swimming hole trips (Middle Rock, Clarks Pool, God’s Bath) that I took with friends from InterVarsity two summers back (shout out to Clay for planning those). We started each of the trips from Berkeley, and traveled 2.5-3 hours one-way for each of these trips. And you’re right, we basically spent those days relaxing by the water, swimming, jumping off rocks (and cliffs!), and just hanging out. That summer was the summer I learned how to do a gainer flip and also conquered a 50-foot cliff jump into the water. It was also a summer of meeting new friends and chilling with existing friends.
With the start of work post-graduation, I’m definitely looking back to these trips with fondness and hope to take some more in the summers to come. Most recently I was able to hike Chandry Flat in the LA area and did some mini-cliff jumps there. Always fun to be out in nature and enjoying the great outdoors!
Here’s a video edited by my friend Austin of the trip to Middle Rock. Good times!
In terms of school I graduated from UC Berkeley, class of 2013, and I’m a proud Golden Bear! I majored in business and communications in college and I’m now working in product management at Macys.com. Speaking of which, there’ll be some future posts about this industry, currently in the works!
Rock jumps at www.RandomTidbitsofThought.com.
