Slow Polyphasic Adaptation

It’s become tradition that when the due date of a child approaches, I start going Polyphasic again. It’s been about a week since I started acclimating, and I’m trying a very non-committal method. It’s been reasonably effective, so far, and I figured I’d share the ups and downs.

I’ve always been a cold-turkey acclimator in the past. Give up sleep as much as possible as fast as possible and pray for the strength and willpower to get through the first 2-3 weeks. I’ve done it before with good success, but it’s never been a pleasant ride, especially now that I’m married with children.

My wife suggested that I just start taking naps for a week before starting acclimation to make sure that the schedule would work for me. I figured it probably wouldn’t hurt, it would help my body remember how to nap since it’s been almost 2 years since my last foray into polyphasic, and that maybe it would be a more pleasant want to acclimate.

So far, so good. The first week was a little odd. I didn’t nap well, mostly because I wan’t tired, but I’ve remembered a lot of the techniques for falling asleep quickly, and 7 days in, I feel like my naps are starting to become productive. I’ve always had success with the 2, 6, 10 schedule, so I’ve been doing that again this time. I plan to stay up till my 2 AM nap, then sleep till 6 am as the last step of acclimation before going full uberman. I expect to be tired but functional tomorrow, a big change from the usual completely useless for 3 days process I’ve done in the past.

Wish me luck, if this works, I’m going to be recommending it to people as a decent means of testing out the schedule in their lives.