Its a new year, and although I am giving myself a weeks leeway until I make resolutions (the advantage of having a birthday on January 7, coupled with an intense december, means I need a week off for vacation) I am considering implementing a huge new lifestyle change: polyphasic sleep.
Buckminster Fuller successfully employed this sleep schedule for years. Â He slept four times per day, for thirty minutes at a time, every six hours.
With a flexibly scheduled job, a nice car with heated seats, and a disciplined mind, I could put this lifestyle to great effect. Â The opportunities it gives, a full six hours more of life every day, is extraordinary. Â I would be able to devote three of those extra hours to personal projects that I currently have trouble finding time for, and the other three hours to transitions, an I would have quite an extraordinary life.
The only downside is that this schedule must be rigidly maintained. Â Without regimentation, it falls apart; a skipped nap means your body is not dropping into the deep REM that it desperately needs on a daily basis, and falling off the horse means you lose fifteen hours to catching up on sleep. Â Plus, I have heard the first week is very difficult to master, before you are in the groove.
But once in the groove, this lifestyle presents so many advantages, I feel I have got to try it. Â You can have six naps a day for 20 minutes, but I like the four 30 minute naps better. Â I would nap at 5 and 11 pm, am and pm. Â The divisions of my day would follow the buddhist monk’s cycle of work, rest, play, and meditation.
The first quarter day, from 11 pm to 5 am, would be my personal time. Â I could exercise, write, read, meditate, do anything and everything I care to, for the house would be mine alone. Â The world would be all mine.
The second quarter, from 5 am to 11 am, would transition between home and work. Â I would take these first two naps in the family bed, and probably leave for work early. Â My mastermind meetings end just in time to get to my office, settle in, and then dash out to my car for a nap on the top floor of my parking garage. Â I could work in the morning on my projects, my writing, and my true career path.
After this nap, I would work for my day job, and sell car insurance for five hours straight. Â An intense five hours, I have found, is more productive than a lazy twelve. Â Smarter, not hard, is the name of this game.
After my final nap, I would come home and be with my family 100% until they go to sleep. Â Because I have completed all other tasks for my day, I would be able to devote my full attention to them, instead of the half focus I find myself giving when I am not complete in the other areas of my life.
To be a good father, and a good husband, I must be a complete man, first. Â Polyphasic sleep could be a great help to those goals.
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