3 am… iPhone alarm goes off. I turn it off quickly so as to not wake my roommate. I take out my ear plugs, and here goes my day….
Why am I up at three in the morning. I decided to try polyphasic sleep. I am doing the Everyman 3 Nap system that was outlined in Timothy Ferriss‘ “The Four Hour Body“. On this system I will have a 3 hour core sleep every night, followed by 3, twenty minute naps spaced throughout the day. The result is a total of 4 hours of sleep for Chad.
The first few weeks are supposed to be difficult when it comes to training your body for polyphasic sleep. I know from experience that I usually last 4-5 days before my body literally passes out a few moments after waking. This time I will have to use more creative measures to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Now, to answer the main question of “Why?”…
Let’s assume that the average person is going to get around 7 hours. That is how much sleep I usually need to be productive and active throughout the entire day. Now if that total amount of time can be reduced to 4 hours, while still remaining productive and active (which has been said can happen using polyphasic sleep) then in the course of one week, someone doing the Everyman 3 Nap will gain an extra 21 hours of useful time. This is more than equivalent to adding an effective day to your week.
So the task is difficult but the reward is huge. I am willing to at least make a grab at that reward. Wish me luck!
