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I read about the Uberman sleep schedule stuff myself when I was younger and trying to recover time I "wasted" sleeping. I ended up trying Uberman myself (15 min

I read about the Uberman sleep schedule stuff myself when I was younger and trying to recover time I "wasted" sleeping. I ended up trying Uberman myself (15 minute naps, 6x per day). I did a decent amount of prep work. I talked to my doctor (who basically said as long as I'm not falling asleep while driving, go for it). I set up ways to track my cognitive abilities around work (remote software engineer at the time). I started tracking kill-to-death ratio in favorite first person shooter (I thought it was a good measure of my innovation, as you can't use the same tricks for very long against human opponents). I also started tracking my weight, strength, endurance, and food intake. It was hard to get into the schedule, and it never really clicked and held. Eventually I found the schedule to be frustrating and difficult from a social perspective. So I ended up dropping it a little over a year after I started. So yeah, a little over a year. When I analyzed my numbers I didn't see any particular hits in any of the areas. Work stayed stable (I actually got promoted about 9 months in, so I'm fairly confident about that). My kill-to-death ratio in the FPS climbed steadily along a similar trajectory as it had before I started. I found I was eating more (from ~2300 calories per day to almost 3000 calories to day), but my weight stayed level. Strength and endurance went up slightly, but that's probably more because I was checking them regularly versus not doing any exercise leading up to it. Would I suggest it to others? No. There were other issues I had with the plan, more societal. And it was frustrating to not be able to focus on something for more than 3.5 hours at a time. But it certainly was an interesting time.

jkhdigital 6y ago
Was adaptation to Uberman staggeringly difficult? I tried it multiple times, each time thinking I had come up with the perfect system to push through, and each time failing. On my final attempt I would go for bike rides to stay awake and would actually doze off for a few seconds at a time ("microsleeps") even while riding. I concluded that physiology determined whether or not something like Uberman is even possible for a given human being, and I don't have the right physiology. I have a close friend who tells me that he "doesn't get jet lag" and seems to have other resistance to circadian disruptions, so I've always thought that he would be perfect for Uberman but he's not interested so I can't really test my theory.
- shaftway 6y ago
  > Was adaptation to Uberman staggeringly difficult? Not sure which adaptation. For dropping into the mechanics of actually sleeping it was hard, but manageable. I spent a solid 48 hours awake. That ended at ~9:40 AM and I gave my spouse strict instructions to get me up at 10:00. I fell asleep instantly, and she had trouble getting me up in 20 minutes, but we got there. The second nap I had a couple shots of espresso right before I went down, and that helped me get back up. The worst part was that first night. I was sorely tempted. After a weekend I had kind of fallen in a rut, but it helped to be out and about for a bit, just so that I was stimulated enough to not feel sleepy. After about two weeks I had fallen into something that felt normal. Sleeping was kind of a chore then. Adapting other parts of my life were harder. Close friends knew what was up, so when we went to a party or something I'd take my naps in a car, or another room. During the year I'd say I skipped half a dozen naps, and it was always a battle of willpower to not be completely derailed. I didn't drink, because I didn't want that to be a reason I skipped a nap. These were the reasons I ultimately decided to stop, but it was never really a stable situation. Missing a single nap would throw me off so hard that it was a battle to go back into it.
comboy 6y ago
I did it too for a few months. Felt great just doesn't work with society at all. 3h+ blocks are useful, especially when you need to get somewhere in a bigger city. And missing a nap is like missing a night of sleep, except it's not that easy to catch up without screwing your schedule. I did not have problem not being able to focus on something for 3h (btw AFAIR it was 2.5h for me? with 24 mins sleep). Nap felt like a pause, I could continue coding as if I went to the bathroom. Very much unlike me needing 1h in the morning to establish where exactly up and down are. For startups - forget it unless you are going alone with no funding. Meetings just don't work. Nap have to be at exact times. It just doesn't work with social norms we have. Also, switching is hell. It's a torture.
- shaftway 6y ago
  > I did not have problem not being able to focus on something for 3h (btw AFAIR it was 2.5h for me? with 24 mins sleep). I didn't have problems focusing for 3 hours. But when I was amped about what I was working on, it was frustrating to have to pause for a nap. I think I originally scheduled 30 minutes for each nap, but I found myself waking up right before my alarm would go off, and it got easier to fall asleep, so I ended up with 20 minutes scheduled, 15 minutes of sleep.
tetha 6y ago
> Would I suggest it to others? No. There were other issues I had with the plan, more societal. And it was frustrating to not be able to focus on something for more than 3.5 hours at a time. But it certainly was an interesting time. This mirrors what I found in airforce studies about the uberman schedule. The overall gist was: The uberman schedule, if executed well, gives a person more time in a day awake without severe drawbacks. Whatever "severe" means. However, they also found that dudes following the uber schedule suffered more from interrupts in sleep schedules. On a singular 6-8 hour sleep situation, you can go 13-16 hours with little pause or sleep without much trouble. More with some trouble. Candidates on the uberman schedule crashed a lot harder on sleep deprivation.
- shaftway 6y ago
  This jives with my experience. When I missed a nap, I'd crash hard about 2 hours later. I'd end up taking a 2 hour nap, and then fight to get back on the schedule.
gxon 6y ago
The idea of using gaming stats like FPS kill-to-death ratio as a passive measure of cognitive function is fascinating to me. Along the lines of other passive stats like smart scales and fitness trackers. Obviously, there are specific tests you can do, but it's difficult to integrate those into your daily routines to generate consistent stats.
- asdff 6y ago
  It's not a perfect long term measure. Generally over time, an online games community becomes better on average by two factors: good people getting better, and bad people quitting the game. Unless you are actively getting better in step with the community, stagnation means becoming a relatively worse player.
  - hnick 6y ago
    Time of day is a large factor in many games too. The day and night communities have a very different spread of players. You'd need to control for that.

jkhdigital 6y ago

Was adaptation to Uberman staggeringly difficult? I tried it multiple times, each time thinking I had come up with the perfect system to push through, and each time failing. On my final attempt I would go for bike rides to stay awake and would actually doze off for a few seconds at a time ("microsleeps") even while riding. I concluded that physiology determined whether or not something like Uberman is even possible for a given human being, and I don't have the right physiology. I have a close friend who tells me that he "doesn't get jet lag" and seems to have other resistance to circadian disruptions, so I've always thought that he would be perfect for Uberman but he's not interested so I can't really test my theory.

shaftway 6y ago
> Was adaptation to Uberman staggeringly difficult? Not sure which adaptation. For dropping into the mechanics of actually sleeping it was hard, but manageable. I spent a solid 48 hours awake. That ended at ~9:40 AM and I gave my spouse strict instructions to get me up at 10:00. I fell asleep instantly, and she had trouble getting me up in 20 minutes, but we got there. The second nap I had a couple shots of espresso right before I went down, and that helped me get back up. The worst part was that first night. I was sorely tempted. After a weekend I had kind of fallen in a rut, but it helped to be out and about for a bit, just so that I was stimulated enough to not feel sleepy. After about two weeks I had fallen into something that felt normal. Sleeping was kind of a chore then. Adapting other parts of my life were harder. Close friends knew what was up, so when we went to a party or something I'd take my naps in a car, or another room. During the year I'd say I skipped half a dozen naps, and it was always a battle of willpower to not be completely derailed. I didn't drink, because I didn't want that to be a reason I skipped a nap. These were the reasons I ultimately decided to stop, but it was never really a stable situation. Missing a single nap would throw me off so hard that it was a battle to go back into it.

comboy 6y ago

I did it too for a few months. Felt great just doesn't work with society at all. 3h+ blocks are useful, especially when you need to get somewhere in a bigger city. And missing a nap is like missing a night of sleep, except it's not that easy to catch up without screwing your schedule. I did not have problem not being able to focus on something for 3h (btw AFAIR it was 2.5h for me? with 24 mins sleep). Nap felt like a pause, I could continue coding as if I went to the bathroom. Very much unlike me needing 1h in the morning to establish where exactly up and down are. For startups - forget it unless you are going alone with no funding. Meetings just don't work. Nap have to be at exact times. It just doesn't work with social norms we have. Also, switching is hell. It's a torture.

shaftway 6y ago
> I did not have problem not being able to focus on something for 3h (btw AFAIR it was 2.5h for me? with 24 mins sleep). I didn't have problems focusing for 3 hours. But when I was amped about what I was working on, it was frustrating to have to pause for a nap. I think I originally scheduled 30 minutes for each nap, but I found myself waking up right before my alarm would go off, and it got easier to fall asleep, so I ended up with 20 minutes scheduled, 15 minutes of sleep.

tetha 6y ago

> Would I suggest it to others? No. There were other issues I had with the plan, more societal. And it was frustrating to not be able to focus on something for more than 3.5 hours at a time. But it certainly was an interesting time. This mirrors what I found in airforce studies about the uberman schedule. The overall gist was: The uberman schedule, if executed well, gives a person more time in a day awake without severe drawbacks. Whatever "severe" means. However, they also found that dudes following the uber schedule suffered more from interrupts in sleep schedules. On a singular 6-8 hour sleep situation, you can go 13-16 hours with little pause or sleep without much trouble. More with some trouble. Candidates on the uberman schedule crashed a lot harder on sleep deprivation.

shaftway 6y ago
This jives with my experience. When I missed a nap, I'd crash hard about 2 hours later. I'd end up taking a 2 hour nap, and then fight to get back on the schedule.

gxon 6y ago

The idea of using gaming stats like FPS kill-to-death ratio as a passive measure of cognitive function is fascinating to me. Along the lines of other passive stats like smart scales and fitness trackers. Obviously, there are specific tests you can do, but it's difficult to integrate those into your daily routines to generate consistent stats.

asdff 6y ago
It's not a perfect long term measure. Generally over time, an online games community becomes better on average by two factors: good people getting better, and bad people quitting the game. Unless you are actively getting better in step with the community, stagnation means becoming a relatively worse player.
- hnick 6y ago
  Time of day is a large factor in many games too. The day and night communities have a very different spread of players. You'd need to control for that.