How to Implement the Uberman Sleep Schedule

Take a nap every few hours and add time to your day.

Add more waking hours to your day without feeling sleep-deprived. Polyphasic sleep, also known as the Uberman sleep schedule, replaces your eight hours of sleep a night with three hours’ worth of short naps taken at set intervals. Before you begin, decide if you want to go with a standard polyphasic sleep cycle of a 30-minute nap every four hours, or if you want to establish a variation. For example, you may choose to get three or four hours of sleep at night, then take two or three 20- to 30-minute naps during the day.

Difficulty:

Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Alarm clocks
• Egg timer or digital timer

1. Schedule a two-week implementation period when other obligations will be minimal. Messing with your sleep schedule can leave you feeling pretty groggy. You don't want your work, studies or family to suffer unduly.

2. Set up a backup waking system. Set two or three alarm clocks, one for each time of the day that you want to wake up. Carry an egg timer or similar digital timer with you at all times. Use the portable timer as your main alarm and the alarm clocks as backup.

3. Create a support group for yourself. Tell a couple of close friends or family members about your undertaking and ask them to keep you accountable. There's nothing like a little peer pressure to help you stick with something even when you don't feel like it.

4. Write down at least 10 projects that you really want to get done, or 10 activities that would excite you even if you were dead on your feet. Keep the list handy at all times. Having more time means that you will need more to do. Many a fledgling polyphasic sleeper has been sabotaged by boredom.

5. Avoid consuming caffeine or alcohol during the initial 14-day adaptation phase of your new sleep plan.

6. Stick with it and discipline yourself to follow the program for at least 14 days. At that point, you should find that your tiredness fades.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't be disheartened by the inevitable slip-ups, like oversleeping during a nap. As long as you don't make it a habit, it isn't going to significantly affect your adaptation.

• Arrange for someone to drive you during the first few days of your new schedule. Sleep impairment can slow your reflexes. Don’t risk a car accident.

• Consider starting on the Thursday or Friday of a long weekend so you have a few days to get through the roughest patches.

• Stay on guard for signs of monophasic, eight-hour sleeping habits starting to creep back into your routine. You can splurge on sleep once in a while, but don't make it a habit.

References

• Men’s Health; Is Sleep Really Necessary?; Grant Stoddard