Polyphasing Experiment: Conclusions

Things I achieved in the week:

• Cleared out the loft.
• Cleared out my bedroom – wardrobes, desk etc.
• Threw out a load of clothes, books and general crap.
• Sorted out my computer filing system.
• Gave my website a complete overhaul.
• Started a new money making venture.

Lessons learned:

• I can sleep for 2 hours a day and still operate (more or less).
• There are no serious side effects (I think!).
• The limits of my endurance are much further than expected. I feel like I would be able to operate on 14 hours of sleep a week in extreme circumstances.
• Sleep is something that can be trained and it can be modified to my own requirements: it’s not just a case of going to bed and waking up.
• Naps are more important than I gave them credit for. The ability to nap every few hours to get through a night of work was a great feeling.
• Without the habit of going to sleep for 8 hours straight I lost the sense of days passing. Time flowed constantly, not in fits and starts. It made me realise that every minute is sacred. 
• With 22 hours in a day there’s far too much time to spend it on frivolity – that gets boring pretty quickly. I found that the more time I had, the more I wanted to spend it on something worthwhile.
• It’s nice splitting the day up into more segments: it focusses the mind on achievement during the waking periods. Under this system of 20 minutes every four hours, however, I become something of a slave to the segments.
• Beds are not necessary – and in fact I found it much nicer not to have a bed in my room. The bed, that huge piece of furniture, forced my room to be a BEDroom. This is counter productive both for working in that room and then for trying to sleep in that room after having worked there. It was really liberating to use a blow-up bed that I brought out only when required. It meant that I had a huge lump of space for other daytime activities. It meant I could put my rocking chair beside the window – I had never before realised how pleasant the sun was coming through there. The absence of a bed in my workspace lead to a healthy demarcation of day and night activities.
• I like doing things that make me unique. I like to push myself into unusual situations that change my perception of the world – and then to encourage others to do the same. I like living with imagination and courage, not conformity and fear.

Positive aspects of polyphasia

• Time for EVERYTHING – including complete and utter boredom!

I will have to let that time go on a monophasic schedule.

Negative aspects of a polyphasic pattern:

• Socially it is difficult at best, antisocial at worst.
• I found it difficult to perform creative work, in the adjustment phase at least. I got a lot of dross work done, but not much creative work – my novel suffered by about 2800 words over the 6 days of the experiment.

Negative side effects of polyphasia

These, I concede, could have disappeared if I had persisted through the adjustment period of about 30 days.

• Hot flushes in the early phases.
• Numbness in the extremities.
• Cold sensitivity.
• Digestive problems.
• Brain freeze/fog.
• Creativity blockages.

Action points to be taken away:

• I don’t need a bed. Perhaps I should investigate buying a Japanese bed roll.
• When I feel tired, I’ll sleep! I won’t feel guilty about sleeping or just ride through the rough period. I’ll take a nap. I know now that I don’t have to get undressed or brush my teeth or anything – I can just lie down and take 20 minutes out.
• Evangelise the benefits of messing with your sleep to learn about yourself.

Finally, I exhort you: Experiment and Learn.

Thank you for reading.