The new sleeping cycle I will be adhering to is probably the most common of all Polyphasic cycles; The Everyman cycle. This entails 4 separate sleep “chunks”. A three hour core chunk and three 20 minute naps spaced equally throughout the day. Added up that’s 20 hours of total awake time and only 4 hours of sleeping! Far more efficient than the traditional Monophasic which requires 1.5 to 2 times the amount of sleep!
The schedule for my sleep cycle is as follows:
2:50AM – 5:50AM – Initial 3-hour “core” nap
5:50AM – 10:50AM – First 5-hour Awake Segment
10:50AM – 11:10AM – First 20-minute Nap
11:10AM – 4:10PM – Second 5-hour Awake Segment
4:10PM – 4:30PM – Second 20-minute Nap
4:30PM – 9:30PM – Third 5-hour Awake Segment
9:30PM – 9:50PM – Third 20-minute Nap
9:50PM – 2:50PM – Final 5-hour Awake Segment
Here's a visual representation of what the sleep cycle looks like:
*Fortunately I am given a 30 minute study hall right when my first 20-minute nap is; perfect for allowing me to finishing up the school day.
There are other Polyphasic sleep cycles that people adhere, but this one works best for the schedule I have. It is also the least radical of the three, involving less time to adapt to the new cycle. The Uberman is a very successful cycle as well. Requiring you to take 6 20-30minutes evenly spaced throughout the day. The most extreme of all the Polyphasic cycles is the Dymaxion cycle, which utilizes four 30-minute naps. That’s 2 hours of sleeping each day! By far the most efficient of all cycles, but I have to wonder what kind of toll it takes on the body…
Unfortunately I will not be able to start the cycle until around Christmas when there is a break from school. I would rather not have the first week or so of this new cycle become very detrimental to my grades. Not that I’m overly concerned with what I get in school, because really, they’re irrelevant to your overall intelligence. It’s just a shame colleges don’t see it that way. But hey, who said it’s hard to get into UC?
*Thanks to Wiki for awesome picture.
