Uberman's Sleep Schedule
 

So. My glands hate me and I can't keep a consistent sleep schedule to save my life. I'm fishing around on the internet for solace, and all of a sudden I stumble upon this:

The Uberman's Sleep Schedule.

Yes. Six naps a day. 30 minutes each. Three hours of sleep a day, normal functionality. So good. Too good. Probably too good to be true. Two weeks' painful conversion from a standard schedule to the Uberman. Dozens of Uberman blogs have been started by hopeful insomniacs, and all crap out around Day 6.

Bullshit? Worth trying? Any sleep researchers out there with advice? Any Renaissance historians (did da Vinci really do it)?

So hot.

I recall reading that Albert Einstein kept this type of cat nap schedule.

I tried, I can't do it. I need long blocks of time to get the mind going and keep it going to solve those hard problems that get posed to me.

well a friend of mine did that for a whole summer once... a 30 minute nap every 4 hours...

but as he went on he seemed to get more twitchy and spastic... and more emotional... so we finally convinced him to stop a few weeks before school started... he did it for like 2months and a week.... somewhere aroudn there

Absolutely do not do this if you don't want to start seeing pink elephants and leprechauns.

A friend of mine did 100+ hours awake for a college experiment once. Let's just say that napping will not help you once you've gotten this far. Without restorative REM sleep, your brain, and the rest of your valuable nervous system will not get a chance to rest and recharge. After being awake for a certain period of time, you'll get the twitch. After the twitch... it depends. You need to find the reasons your sleep schedule is off.

A while ago i researched qiute a lot a while ago because i was thinking about doing it (havent got round to it yet, dont think ill have the will power anyway :D ) Although you do need a certain amount of REM sleep per day to be able to function properly, once you body gets the idea that you will only be sleping for short periods of time, as SOON as you hit the sack, you will go straight into REM sleep, and this way (once your body adjusts) you get the needed amount of this sleep per day.

Although it takes a good coupla weeks to get used to once you do its is mean to be really good, just dont miss a nap!!!!

Heres a good link..http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?...astnode_id=124

I was unemployed for a few months a while ago and my sleep schedule developed into something like this. I would just nap for 30 min to an hour several times during the day and then only get a few full hours of sleep at night. I watched a lot of television and read a lot of books.

yes - Da Vinci did survive this way - but needless to say, most artists are crazy. i actually tried this once.. as i was sleeping between an hour - three hours a night for a couple of years, getting little to no sleep at all most nights was hard. it became more difficult to take time out of the day and fall asleep at certain times for just that interval... its especially difficult if it takes you a while to fall asleep.

I tried to do this as well. Not easy to do. Needless to say, you've got to not have a job/be self employed/have an understanding boss. I was constantly exhausted when I tried it, so I gave up after 3 or 4 weeks. Once I gave it up, that next night's sleep was REALLY satisfying.

Ever hear of Circadian Rhythm? Doing something like that can seriously mess you up. I work in a lab with zebra fish and we have to make sure that the lights are only on for 12 or 13 hours a day (andthe same 12 or 13 hours each day) or else the fish really go bonkers. I mean, they can handle it once in a while, but too much of differing light schedules really messes with them. When the janitor comes in at night on the weekend and leaves the light on, they go crazy within a day or two... Movement is erratic, reactions are unpredicatble, they stop having sex altogether after a while. Humans are similar except being sentient we have a much greater control of our psyche. While I wouldn't say that a human would guaranteedly not be able to handle this sleep cycle, my immediate advice would be not to try this unless you are very strong-willed and in excellent mental health.

Don't bother, it doesn't work for more than 6 days due to disruption of circadian rythym and neurotransmitter depletion.

I managed to function on this schedule for approximately 2 weeks, after which I burned out and spent over a year recovering. I'm getting to the point that I can manage a couple of 3-hour nights in a row, but I have to get 8 hours for a day or two after that.

There is a reason sleep deprivation is used as a softening treatment for interogation. It works well. You can go on 5-6 hours of sleep a night (sometimes less) for at least four years pretty easy. Been there.

It is so funny to see this as it just came up in a conversation I had today.
I tried this once and didn't get anywhere close to the goal.
The first 20 min nap was 9 hours... You really do need a big project to do this.

I have also heard of a method where you have a 10min nap every hour.

I could never understand the concept of power napping. Mainly because it takes me a good 30 minutes to fall asleep in the first place.

30-minute naps? You call that a power nap? Try taking a 10-minute nap and feeling like a million bucks afterwards. I *have* to do that sometimes. I always pay for it on weekends though.

Yah, didn't work for me. When I tried it, it made me physically tired and weak. After a few days, I went back to my regular cycle, which took awhile to feel normal again.
Yah, don't mess with your biological clock...not cool.
Especially when you deprieve yourself of sleep and get to that twitchy stage...nope, never fun. I will never do it again thats for sure.