The Uberman

My friend and I made it safely to Washington and are settling in to the new apartment. A bunch of unexpected fees, but that's okay I guess... We both got Bank of America accounts the first day. And don't tell anyone, mais j'écris un chèque pour le première mois plus les frais administratif sans l'argent dans la banque, mais je déposerai tout ce lundi matin avant qu'ils l'encaissent.

It feels good to use French again... Anyway, I also cracked a local WEP-key for wifi which I'm temporarily using until we get our own internet service. I'm also starting a new sleep pattern called the Uberman, because I'm sick of being tired every day. It used to be that I'd get (usually less than) six hours of sleep every school night, and used the weekends to recharge with 12 hour sleeps. But last year especially and the year before the recharges just weren't working well anymore. I was tired, lazy, and my grades slipped. I almost fell asleep at work a number of times.

My father wants me to take up a schedule like his, sleep at 9pm and wake up at 5am. Not for me! To him there's no such thing as night life, and to him the morning is the best part of the day. I'll ask my roommate about that when he's driving to work, as 6am might be rush hour time here.

Anyway, because I'm sick of being tired on my old schedule, and because I don't want to do a "normal" schedule which only happened because of farmers who needed to sleep when it got dark and rise when it got light (humans were naturally polyphasic before), I have decided to do the Uberman. This is my third attempt, but living out of the confines of my old house gives me more freedom to do things to stay awake.

The Uberman lets me stay up roughly 22 hours for every 24 hour period. It's a polyphasic sleep system; I will sleep at every fourth hour for 20 minutes. 4, 8, 12, am and pm, 20 minute naps occur. I can't speak for the credibility of the rumors, but apparently DaVinci and Jefferson were practitioners of this schedule for many years. I just had my second nap almost two hours ago, so far I haven't slept for either of my naps. The first week is always hellish, but depending on how you do with it decides the fate of the second and third weeks. If you're not there by the fourth week, then give up.

I hope to succeed this time. With 22 hours being awake each day, I'll have plenty of time to do my school work, do funner things, procrastinate my school work, and hang out with people. My class schedule allows for a smooth napping transition between classes, except for Friday on which I'll just have to change my schedule.

In order to provide the internet (and myself) with some possibly valuable information about the Uberman, I'll be posting summarizations on this blog every day for the first two weeks, then transition to weekly postings. I'll try and log my food and activity habits as well as whether I'm following the schedule or feeling tired. I mentioned before, this is my third attempt; I'm pretty used to the tricks my brain can pull to try and lure me into sleep. Also apologies in advance if my posts seem nonsensical or just very poorly written, I will be very tired when I write them for the first week, and possibly the second.

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Posted on 2009-08-03 by Jach

Tags: daily life, uberman

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