Why Cold Turkey?
Pavlina's success seems to have generated a lot of interest in doing polynapping, Uberman in particular. His strict Uberman schedule and vegan diet have inspired many to follow in his footsteps in the hope of squeezing hours out of day.
And so a large number of us try just the way he did: cold turkey. We just stop doing monophasic sleep altogether, and start napping. No transition or anything. Just jump right in.
And, inevitably, many of us fail. Cold turkey methods are generally very hard things to maintain.
But why do we only insist on attempting the transition cold turkey? According to a post to the Yahoo! Uberman support group (group registration required, sorry), Claudio Stampi (author of "the" Uberman book, Why We Nap
) tried at least two different ways to get someone onto the cycle.
A first attempt was cold turkey. Bam! He's polyphasic. It failed.
A second attempt, a year later, was a gradual division and lessening of sleep over 10 days or so. The main sleep time was decreased while adding 80 minute naps, and then the naps were decreased down to 30 minutes. This one succeeded.
Now, there's a variety of possible reasons it worked the second time. It could be easier to succeed with 2nd and later attempts (likely), though it is unclear how long it would take for your body to "forget" the previous attempts' training. It could have been more enthusiasm for success or a more fulfilling work schedule that worked for the artist. It could also have been that it was a better (read "easier") method for transitioning. It's not clear why it worked, but regardless, it's the second method, not the first, that provided the documented success.
So why do we all try it the straight-up, cold turkey way? Is it just that we're not doing our homework? Is it that we want to emulate Pavlina?
Personally, when I decided to begin the trial, I went that way because it was the only method of which I was aware. I will admit that I began the test without a lot of research, as I was under the impression that there wasn't much to be found. But still... seems like it would be a heck of a lot easier.
If I quit and decide to try again, I'll probably map out specifics of a gradual approach and try it.
Until then... more speculation. :)
-sean
And so a large number of us try just the way he did: cold turkey. We just stop doing monophasic sleep altogether, and start napping. No transition or anything. Just jump right in.
And, inevitably, many of us fail. Cold turkey methods are generally very hard things to maintain.
But why do we only insist on attempting the transition cold turkey? According to a post to the Yahoo! Uberman support group (group registration required, sorry), Claudio Stampi (author of "the" Uberman book, Why We Nap
) tried at least two different ways to get someone onto the cycle.A first attempt was cold turkey. Bam! He's polyphasic. It failed.
A second attempt, a year later, was a gradual division and lessening of sleep over 10 days or so. The main sleep time was decreased while adding 80 minute naps, and then the naps were decreased down to 30 minutes. This one succeeded.
Now, there's a variety of possible reasons it worked the second time. It could be easier to succeed with 2nd and later attempts (likely), though it is unclear how long it would take for your body to "forget" the previous attempts' training. It could have been more enthusiasm for success or a more fulfilling work schedule that worked for the artist. It could also have been that it was a better (read "easier") method for transitioning. It's not clear why it worked, but regardless, it's the second method, not the first, that provided the documented success.
So why do we all try it the straight-up, cold turkey way? Is it just that we're not doing our homework? Is it that we want to emulate Pavlina?
Personally, when I decided to begin the trial, I went that way because it was the only method of which I was aware. I will admit that I began the test without a lot of research, as I was under the impression that there wasn't much to be found. But still... seems like it would be a heck of a lot easier.
If I quit and decide to try again, I'll probably map out specifics of a gradual approach and try it.
Until then... more speculation. :)
-sean
posted by Sean @ 12/14/2005 12:06:00 AM
4 Comments:
I'm not under the impression that the majority of us go cold turkey.
Myself, for example, on my first attempt I tried cold turkey. Failed on the second day.
So I stood back and realised it would be sensible to take a different tack. As many naps as I like, but nothing longer than 30 minutes.
That gave me success, at least until family pressures caused it to crash 10 days later.
Anyway I guess what I'm getting at is that I agree with you. And my personal suggestion is to go with lots of naps rather than core sleep, which will likely drag the transition longer than it has to.
My 2 cents :)
PS: My third attempt was pure uberman, with an extra nap thrown in on occasion. I'm on day 7 and over the hump.
PPS: Good work with the blog and progress ;)
Gradual phase-in is more likely to work, esp. if you carefully listen to your ciradian cycles. Although true polyphasic sleep will never work, a double 3 hour nap with 9 hours of wakefulness is achievable (although unstable). This makes me think that 4 x 60 might also be survivable for weeks if it was mapped as two blocks of 2 x 60 over this unstable double-nap pattern (i.e. 60 + break + 60 + 7-8 hours of waking; twice in 24 hours).
PLEASE! I am not recommending this unhealthy pattern! Just speculating how one could mimick polyphasic sleep and "pretend" to live normal life.
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Sara said: "alarm goes off. Sean opened his eyes turned off alarm, I asked him when he wanted me to wake him (he seemed very much like he wanted to snooze, this was also at the begining, before we had figured sheduling), He said ".1, .2, .3" I said "what?" he repeated "you know .1cm, .2cm, .3cm, I told him firmly "That is not what I asked you, I asked what time you wanted me to get you up" He later explained that his dream had something to do with a nuclear reactor"
LOL!!!
No doubt he was remodelling his neural networks with some important "nuclear" stuff, while he was interrupted :)
Needless to say, that REM job was not complete and he will be this one little step set back with his intellectual growth.
Obviously, he may appear "normal" minutes later when his aminergic systems kick in. It's like smoking, you do not feel you get cancer. But the damage is done. Or perhaps interrupted HD defragmentation is a better comparison. After all losing those synaptic weights is not deadly.
mc
I tried the cold turkey thing for the first time a week ago. I'd crash every 48 hours. Really crashed yesterday. Pretty much I'm considering tonight the beginning of a 2nd attempt.
I suppose I went cold-turkey but I started napping on a full night's sleep. I began with 30-minute naps every four hours, just relaxing and letting sleep come if it wanted to (generally for two or three minutes at the end).
I think there are important mental adjustments to be made if this experiment is to be successful -- reliance on the simple structure, no fancy touches or waffling around. At least that simplicity made it easier for me to adapt than if I'd been second guessing myself every step of the way (core or triphasic or biphasic or sleep when I'm tired ("free running") or... ) which would have made me crazy.
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