My Experiences with Polyphasic Sleep

Date: 2021-04-03

Author: Jianzhou Qu

Email: jq2263@columbia.edu

Share-ability: Public

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Introduction

The first plan for polyphasic sleep is to sleep 22 minutes every 4 hours (22min/4h). The first trial failed. The reason for failure could be that I need to strictly stick to the sleep mode no matter how tired I am. But I didn’t, because I have work to finish during that time and must have enough sleep to make them done. With the sleep mode 22min/4h, I can’t focus and think when feeling tired.

Now I am trying a new sleep mode, still polyphasic. At night, sleep 4.5 hours (from 2am to 6:30am, for example), then sleep another four 22-minute when tired. Currently, it could be 11am, 2pm, 6pm, 10pm. I need to try this out and finally conclude with a relatively fixed time schedule.

The advantage of a fixed time schedule is that I can arrange my life much better and easier, as I know when I can work efficiently, and when I can’t. Besides, my body can follow a routine of circadian clock. I assume that this will make me feel better. Last but not the least, to maintain a fixed time schedule is a good exercise for better self-management and self-control.

Prerequisites

• Pomodoro Technique: for months and maybe more than a year, I have been working under this time management. Every "25 minutes", I will stop for a short rest. The working intervals are not strict to be “25 minutes”. Just follow the principle that take rest before feeling tired or boring.
• GTD task management: I started to learn this on 2019. It took me several months and maybe one year to finally get used to it. The main point of GTD is to let the GTD tools collect all your ideas, plans, worries, etc. By clearing your mind and only focus on one task at each time interval, the work efficiency reaches the highest. Currently, I use the software “OmniFocus 3” software on Mac and iPhone. From last month, I moved the housekeeping and cooking tasks to paper notes (sticky notes), instead of writing them into OmniFocus anymore. There are several other cheaper replacements for OmniFocus 3 on Mac/Windows, but I didn’t use the others much.
• Software for time tracking: I use an iPhone software called “TimeGolden” to track every minute spent per day. I listed an example of time tracking. For each category, it’s purely consumed time. Aleksandr Lyubishchev (Apr. 5, 1890 — Aug. 31, 1972), a Russian entomologist, had tried the similar time tracking in his almost whole life. At that time, he could only count the time based on his watch. Thanks for the modern smart phone and excellent softwares.
  • Work includes not only my Ph.D. research, but also learning new stuffs, writing notes and dairies, googling stuffs, ect. But they all should be serious work.
  • Exercise includes all physical exercises, like running, walking, yoga, massage, muscle training, shopping in grocery store, exercise between the Pomodoro intervals, etc. They are all related to relax and strength my body.
  • Chores includes cooking, having meals, shower, laundry, brushing teeth, washing face, etc. They are all related to maintain a clean and heathy life.
  • Reading includes reading classic literatures, not scientific ones nor textbooks for learning purposes. This is a new hobby. I used to read classic literatures when I was a kid. Then abandon it due to limited time. According to Day3.md, now that I need some hobbies to maintain my interests on work. Reading is the best one after serious comparison. I also thought to learn playing pianos, but I have no experience at all. Definitely I will get frustrated by the difficulty to learn it alone, so postponed it to the future plan.
  • Fun includes playing games, watching videos, playing card games with roommates, group social activities, etc. They are related to have fun.

Here is only one example

Date	Work	Sleep	Exercise	Chores	Reading	Fun
03-18	9h38min	6h8min	14min	6h42min	34min	40min

Time schedule (keep updating)

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
1am
2am-6:30am	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep
7am
8am	Walk	Walk	Walk	Walk	Walk	Walk	Walk
9:30 am-10:30am			Meeting
11am	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep
12pm					Meeting
1pm					Meeting
2pm	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	sleep	Sleep	Sleep
3pm		Meeting
4pm		Meeting	Meeting
5pm
6pm	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep
7pm
8pm
9pm
10pm	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep	Sleep
11pm
12pm

• Sleep plan: For each sleep, set a timer of 22 minutes. This include the time of lying down on bed and get up to switch off the alarm. Put the iPhone near the light switch. Then every time when I turn off the alarms, turn the light on first. Light helps to wake me up.
  • This plan can be brought forward or backward by at maximum 1 hour. This is to accommodate the meetings and seminars.
  • The blogger Steven said it can be 2 hours at maximum, but I have not tested it.
• Meal plan: Meal should be freshly prepared, instead of reheated ones from the refrigerator. I decide not to make a strict meal plan, which makes life of less surprises. Generally, take meals at 7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm, 11pm, 3 am. But it depends. If the hunger could affect the sleep property, I will take the meal before sleep, and postpone the sleep slot by one hour. But the recipe is similar.
  • Recipe for each meal: ~300 g different kinds of vegetables, 100 g protein (chicken breast and soft tofu), 50100 g cooked white rice. Boil them. Make them a salad with salt, soy sauce and olive oil.
  • Vinegar and potatoes can be added back when I like. I don’t think they are the reasons.
  • Snacks are allowed when I like to have some, but need to control the amount, as I found that eating snacks makes me feel happy and if I control the amount to be not excessive, I will not feel uncomfortable with stomach.
• The secret to fall asleep quickly:
  • Any worries and thoughts can ruin a good sleep. So write them down before sleep, or even make a short plan to deal with it. Try to remove every thought or anxiety from the mind.
  • Turn off all lights or wear eye cover if it’s not dark enough. Wear earplugs. Wear less clothes and walk around the bed until the first yawn comes.
    • Walk with less clothes is to lower the temperature of body surface. It’s found that the large temperature difference between the body surface and inner side can make you fall asleep more easily. Walk also makes the muscles tired and to fall into relaxation status more quickly. During walk, try to relax the body without getting the body temperature high. Darkness, quietness, tiredness, and right temperature make it easier to fall asleep.
  • Lie down on bed. Focus on the breath, and try to slow it down and make the breath shallow. Not breathe deeply, which makes the body less tired. This is to mimic the status of deep sleep, when the breath is very light. Try to relax the whole body into the soft bed. Meditate in the heart, “Relax”. Repeat it again and again until the end of sleep.
    • “Work hard” on this relaxation and breath control. Gradually feel arms and legs numb, track this feeling, focus on it and enlarge the numb feeling to the whole body. At last the brain will lose the sense to the outside and fall asleep.
• Avoid any yoga, physical training or massage 1 hour before sleep. I found that they make me harder to fall asleep. They can remove the tiredness and get me excited again. But I need the tiredness to help me fall asleep quickly.
• Massage on neck, back, waist, and eyes, when they hurt or are uncomfortable.
• Happiness is more important than success. Enjoy every day, and every hour. Success will come when it should.

Update log

• 03/19: Remove vinegar and potatoes from the meal of salad. Consider to remove potatoes forever. Due to Day 4.
• 03/21: Change the meal plan to be freshly prepared instead of reheated refrigerated food.
• 04/03: Change to a new sleep mode 4.5h at nigh with another four 22-min sleeps.