Polyphasic Sleep (Uberman cycle)

[Abraxxes]

Hi, I'm going to be doing a Polyphasic sleep cycle around Christmas time of this year but before I do I was hoping I could get a few questions answered from the people on this website. Originally I had wanted to communicate with Steve directly but I realized that he doesn't like to talk on this subject and its insanely expensive, in my opinion at least.

The first issue I would like to address is previous issues prior to going into the Uberman Cycle. In my case after a life of poor posture, and remaining in that position for sometimes days on end without sleep, and a high intake of acidic foods that leech calcium while having a diet with nearly no calcium in it, my back hurts on a semi-regular basis. It's usually just something I notice throughout the day and can easily ignore but it does act up once and awhile, and sleeping usually helps to fix it. I sort of imagine this will end up like it would for a smoker, in the uberman cycle if you do smoke you'll probably end up smoking more and worsening your health; in my case, I'll probably end up straining my back for longer amounts of time with less resting period for it to recoup in before returning to what I was doing.

My second issue is that I work at a job where I can and cannot take breaks for a nap depending on the day. Say on a weekend I can take a quick 15min break but on weekdays I'm keeping the place moving so I'm unable to. This period of time would be from 2pm - 8:30pm on most occasions, every once and awhile (three times this year) it would be 12pm - 8:30pm, so a grand total of 6-7 hours on most days. The issue should be fairly evident here, is there a way to get this much awake time between naps without crashing? Do I have to group my naps up in a 1:30am / 5:30am / 9:30am / 11:30am / 1:30am / 8:30pm schedule, where I group three within a 2 naps within the previous four hours rather than 1, to refrain from napping? I've heard caffeine would allow me to do this, however cutting caffeine from my diet seems to have helped my back pains (probably due to it not leeching calcium anymore) and I've heard it has some poor affects overall on this sleep pattern.

In accordance to the previous section I would like a more thorough answer as to caffeine's effect on this sleep pattern. Considering I've only found a brief section on it in this blog when Steve started and something from people saying the overall idea of polyphasic is impossible so I'm not sure as to what degree I'm willing to believe them.

Thanks ahead of time for whatever help you can offer me on these issues.

[Came]

Maybe try a different cycle? The uberman is very effective however for most people it's unpractical. For your situation I'd recommend the everyman sleep cycle, in total you sleep for 4 hours but it's not a bad compromise considering it's practicability. You take one 3 hour sleep and then 3 20 minute naps.

14:00-22:30 awake (8.5 hours awake)
22:30-22:50 asleep (20 mins)
22:50-02:50 awake (4 hours awake)
02:50-03:10 asleep (20 mins)
03:10-07:10 awake (4 hours awake)
07:10-07:30 asleep (20 mins)
07:30-11:00 awake (3.5 hours awake)
11:00-14:00 asleep (3 hours)

It's a lot easier to manage however you still sleep for 4 hours.

[Brutha]

Came is right. Doing Everyman is a better idea as Uberman conflicts with your shedule.