Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Attempting: Everyman Sleep Cycle

Good morning to you all joining me at 5:39am.

To shine a light on why I am up at 5:39 in the morning, I am trying one of the 4 alternative sleeping patterns--The Everyman Cycle.

I stumbled upon this article last night while avoiding studying for my Finance class and found the information very interesting. I have always thought that I waste way too much time sleeping and felt that I could be way more productive if I had a better sleeping schedule.

Basically, there are two categories of sleep cycles. The Monophasic Sleep Cycle which houses one type of cycle: Sleep for 6-8 hours, be awake for 14-16 hours. Repeat. This is the cycle I am accustomed to... except I would sleep anywhere from 6 to 12 hours a night and be exhausted all day. The other category of cycles is the Polyphasic Sleep Cycles which houses 4 different types of sleeping patterns (in level of intensity): Biphasic/Siesta Cycle, Everyman Cycle, Uberman Cycle, and Dymaxion Cycle. Believe it or not (seeing as i'm not quite sure if I believe it myself), each cycle is completely healthy and completely sustainable once your body gets used to it. I'll let you know as I continue...

In a quick glance, here are the differences between the 4 Polyphasic Cycles:


To read more about each phase, read this article.

Now that you have a little insight on what i'm doing... let me tell you why.

I already mentioned how I feel like I really don't need as much sleep as I get. I also feel that I could be getting so much more done in the day if I had an actual schedule to live by. This starts with a regular sleeping schedule.

I chose the Everyman Cycle in hopes of easier transition from my terrible schedule to a better one as well as less amount of naps throughout the day. I based the time of my "core" sleeping session around the small sessions throughout the day so I could, hopefully, have times of napping that might be a little easier to follow and not so awkward. This is the schedule I came up with:


Today is Day 1. I woke up this morning at 5am and laid there for about 20 minutes deciding whether I wanted to really start this new schedule. At the time, when I was lying on my sister's way-too-comfy couch, the cons outweighed the pros and I decided I might try another day. But, by the time I came to the decision, I was already awake. So, I got up. And, I'm so glad I did! Look at me! Blogging and everything ;D

Wish me luck on Day 3 - 10. Apparently that's when zombified me will hit. Eek!


5 comments:

  1. Hey Felicia, I too am doing the Everyman. Today is day 6 for me. Feel free to email me at dcoeyman at gmail dot com if you want to talk.

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  2. So how is it going? I'm very keen on starting it soon and would love to get all the feedback I can.

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  3. How did it go? Did you find it effective? I'm gonna try it from today.

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  4. I came onto your blog while focusing just slightly submits. Nice strategy for next, I will be bookmarking at once seize your complete rises
    sleep time

    ReplyDelete