Having continued success on my modified Everyman Sleep for the last few weeks now (9pm-2am + scattered naps) but not attempting anything rigorous.  As I explain in the intro to this site my goal is not to squeeze every waking minute out of the day but to feel great and be as productive as possible.  For that purpose, it seems to be working well as I have had an amazing week.  I have two major projects going right now in addition to my regular teaching schedule, as told on my personal blog, any of which could be a full-time job, plus a fourth project, that is managing me, which could also be a full-time ;).  So, I can’t complain about productivity.  I am a bit concerned about the condition of my soul as told in previous article, but just trying to be more conscious right now and seeing what happens.  Also going to 12-step meetings, I am becoming really fond of an international Workaholics Anonymous meeting that happens via voice-chat. 

I found this article this morning on raw foods and green juicing and the benefits of Systematic undereating that also inspired me.  I am very drawn to this kind of extreme experiment, I suspect most polyphasic sleepers are.  To note that Steve Pavlina is a raw foodist, and possibly the reason for his success with Uberman.  I think I have enough going right now to not try and add Uberman to the mix, but I am fascinated by it, and at some point I know I am going to want to try it.  Next year, as soon as I finish my big project, I want to try some diet experiments.  Maybe even sooner, we’ll see.

I am back on my modified Everyman schedule for the last few days, and I am particularly euphoric today because it’s 8am and I more-or-less finished my work for the day.  I am feeling fabulous and getting a lot done.  What a life ;).

It’s difficult to believe that I have been following the same polyphasic plan or idea now since March, almost 6 months – that is very unlike me!  Although I have not been polyphasic every day – in fact it’s been the exception rather than the rule – it’s been a consistent and stubborn notion of mine for that entire time.  How sweet  that it is finally coming to fruition.

And what is just as important is the lessons learned.  It has confirmed my original hypothesis, which is that to be successful with polyphasic sleep you need to be willing to examine (and question) the totality of your life. This includes the overall quality of your life, your current level of success, your diet and health and self-care regimen, your current performance management system and whether it’s working or not, etc., etc.

And I return also to my original assertion: that polyphasic sleep remains one of the greatest consciousness experiment (developmental experiences) that anyone can do alone.  It doesn’t require you travel to India, attend any expensive seminar or purchase any programs, or even leave your house.  All you need is a bed and an office (and maybe a garage and a kitchen, that you can tidy-up when you are too hung-over from lack of sleep to do anything else ;).  Life doesn’t get much simpler than that.

However if your life is in crisis, it’s unlikely to work.  It’s a very rare individual who can successfully adapt to polyphasic in the midst of a major depression – Puredoxyk is one, but this is very rare.  Back in February, when my marriage was in shambles, my business struggling, ,my health challenged, and my coffee addiction out-of-control, there was no way I could have succeeded.  But the idea was planted – and it’s been a very persistent idea, us polyphasers are a strange blend of stubbornness and obsession, which is probably not a bad thing ;).

And also as I had mentioned in an earlier post, polyphasic sleep is likely to activate any latent addictions or addictive tendencies that you might have.  I am not talking about heavy-duty chemical addictions, or even of the ordinary (garden-variety) addictions that most of us deal with around things like sex, relationships or co-dependency, workaholism, money etc – I am talking about the fundamental “addiction” of the human condition, which is the attempt to control or manipulate our environment to meet our needs and avoid pain.  This of course is natural and healthy to a degree – many great works were accomplished out of that motive – but there is a cost to it as well.  See this powerful article by Waking Down in Mutuality teacher Ted Strauss.  A life well-lived is not just about performance, overcoming obstacles and being productive members of society.  It’s also about our soul, our spiritual condition, our relationship to our creator.

The culmination of this epic inquiry has been the creation of my main site and passion business Lifestyle Design School, which is a performance management system for internet marketers and other work-at-home professionals.  Check it out.

I know people are reading this (from my stats), so if you like what you are hearing, please comment, retweet, subscribe (top right), or write to me at marc.

Blessings on your journey,

Marc

Fabulous news – I have been back on my modified Everyman program since August 8.  I haven’t been able to keep it up since March, due to fairly severe work- and relational-stress.  Polyphasic simply does not work well, as a rule, in difficult personal situations.  I think PureDoxyk’s adaptation to Uberman is extremely unusual in that regard (she adapted well despite a major depression and sleep difficulties going on at the time).  This confirms my belief that a good night’s sleep requires peace of mind. 

Things are starting to look up, for several reasons.  My marriage has straightened out.  My internet business, WordPress Academy, is successful, and I have several other very interesting business opportunities.  I am gradually relaxing into the realization / certainty that it’s not possible for a smart and determined person to NOT make money in my sector, which is internet marketing, social media and product development.  I am actually creating a whole team to support these businesses, of people who are working for equity for the most part, and this is super-fun.  I am also engaging deeply with a transformational organization and a business network called Flawless Living, which is meeting my needs for personal transformation and affiliation, my core mission. 

So it’s not surprising that with all these exciting events, the quality of my sleep is improving.

I am not doing Everyman in any kind of rigorous way, and this seems to be working for me.  I am generally “intending” to get up around 3am and work for 3 hours, and I work a second shift of 3-4 hours from 10am to 1 or 2, followed by my main nap – but if I am too tired or not feeling well, I sleep in.  I do try and get to the gym every day, but that also I don’t force myself.  I have discovered that if I work the evening before (for instance I teach some evenings), I won’t get up for the first shift.  This occurred as something of an “Aha” experience – I don’t WANT TO work at night and be polyphasic, as I don’t really want to work more than 6-7 hours in a day – and the fact that this hadn’t been obvious to me from the beginning confirmed my workaholism, my lack of judgment and perspectives on issues of time-management. 

6 or 7 hours of work per day may not seem like a lot of work, but it is for me (especially highly focused creative work, which it is), and it leaves me all afternoon and evening free, which was my goal from the beginning.  To say I am delighted is an understatement.  I did have to give up coffee entirely, but I can tolerate (need?) one cup of tea in the early morning when I start my first shift.  I make a delicious Chai: black tea boiled in water, crushed green cardamon (buy it at any Indian grocery), milk and honey.  It gets me very high, and generally works.

I am going to update the rest of the content for this blog shortly as well.  This is actually my most popular blog, getting close to 700 unique monthly visits from organic search alone, and I am still pondering whether I can put this traffic to any use.  I am envisioning myself developing a series of web businesses, in partnership with others in many different areas, so this is a very interesting exploration for me. 

This, and today’s other post, is my first real writing on this blog in nearly 8 months.  I have been through quite a journey, which I will share a very small part of today (by necessity – it would take a book to write it all).

I keep on going back to (anyone’s) fundamental motivation for polyphasic sleep, insisting that it has to be one or both of:

1. Consciousness development,
2. Business development,

and also that motivation for this experiment would come from several possible sources:

1. Feeling generally out-of-control of one’s time and looking for a solution
2. Wanting to undertake a consciousness experiment, just for the heck of it (and once again, polyphasic sleep is just about the cheapest and most powerful consciousness experiment one could undertake on one’s own)
3. Already running a (reasonably) stable and productive life, but still wanting to increase one’s production or effectiveness.

I fit in all these categories, and as such (to be brutally honest with myself) I am not a good candidate for polyphasic sleep, because I need to get underlying addictive patterns around time and money handled first (or at least get more self-awareness around them).

Which leads me to the main reason I haven’t posted much in the last 8 months: I AM AN ADDICT.  A workaholic, first of all – this means that I have lost some connection to my fundamental value, source of meaning, and connection to myself, to my body and fundamental human needs; and that I use work (and it’s close cousins, time and money obsessions) as a distraction.  This is a potentially serious condition, with great costs to one’s health, relationships and even business – work addicts can be either workaholic or work-anorexic or both.  Work-anorexic means that we may carry on binge and purge cycles with work – work 48 hours in a row and then stay in bed for 3 days for example.  So clients may be happy during the 48 hours but may fire you in the next 3 days – it’s not a good work-cycle to get into, or helpful in business.  Work-anorexic can also mean that we procrastinate or compulsively avoid work.

That’s me on both counts – workaholic and work-anorexic.

And oh – another reason I haven’t posted much lately: as my life was falling apart around me (for reasons related to the above), and I was unemployed, I questioned the wisdom of posting my narcissistic ramblings all over the web for anyone to see and my friends to read.  As of right now, however, (1) I seem to have stabilized my new business, which means I will probably never work a regular (employee job) again, so I don’t care what potential employers find out about me;  and (2) My friends don’t read this blog for the most part, so I can say whatever I want.  The game that I am playing with this site, is just to write about myself and things that I care about, and see what kind of traffic I can gather (my secret ambition is to be a professional writer – we’ll see about that). 

But back to polyphasic sleep —

I have now come to the additional, startling realization, that my relationship to work, time, and money, is the fundamental developmental issue of my life, is at the core of who I am and how I relate to the world, and that there is a great deal of healing that needs to happen if I hope to “awaken” in this lifetime (which is my earnest hope) – or even, to set the standard lower but still adequate, if I hope to have a stable, productive, generous, engaged and related life. 

However — I am still beginning my polyphasic sleep experiment again today, March 8, 2010.  The fact that I am not a good candidate doesn’t exonerate me from making the attempt. 

And if you are new to polyphasic sleep or coming to this blog for the first time, understand that polyphasic sleep is not about sleep-deprivation (that would be unhealthy).  It’s a way of increasing the efficiency of your sleep by breaking it down into shorter segments.  It’s about gaining greater effectiveness, happiness, clarity and focus in your life – it’s about generating additional time that can be used for any purpose including personal and spiritual development. 

If you are reading this far please comment, it will keep me motivated. 

Related resources

• Workaholics anonymous (check out wonderful phone meetings)
• Procrastinators anonymous (also wonderful phone check-in meetings)