Adaptation Methods

Introduction

There are a lot of adaptation methods to assist with changes in sleep patterns. This is because every change in sleep schedule requires some time for adjustment. During this period, your sleep is going to be less efficient. This may result in the feeling of sleep deprivation, similar to jet lag in a different time zone. While this is unavoidable, the detailed methods in this article can significantly reduce the sleep deprivation and overall adaptation duration.

The following sections go through the process of adapting to a new sleep schedule. More specifically, there are outlines of the specific paths people have successfully used during their adaptation.

Content

  1. Cold Turkey
  2. Gradual Adaptation
  3. Fast Gradual Adaptation
  4. Reverse Gradual Adaptation
  5. Rhythmic Preservation

Adaptation Methods

Cold Turkey

You dive straight from monophasic sleep into your desired schedule. This adaptation method is potentially harder than gradual adaptation; however, it takes less time to reach the desired schedule if you manage to adapt.

Jumping into Siesta, E1, E2, Segmented and DC1 is very doable with this method. This assumes you sleep a maximum of about 8h on monophasic sleep. Past that, it becomes quite a bit more difficult. Regardless, it might be possible depending on how hard you go about this, how much prior experience you have, and how prepared you are!

Gradual Adaptation

This adaptation method has a slower approach than the cold turkey method. First, start with easy schedules, then move to harder ones by cutting down total sleep after each adaptation.

  • This adaptation method usually takes very long because each schedule will take at least one month.
  • However, it may be easier to pull off than the cold-turkey method.
  1. By cutting out the overall sleep time in small chunks, it becomes easier for the body to adapt. This is because there is not as much sleep to repartition.
  2. REM naps also carry over, so it will be faster to achieve REM in every nap.

It is best to follow the schedule lines while doing this. Additionally, align as many naps and cores with each other in the schedule switches. For example:

  • Everyman line: Monophasic -> E1 -> E2 -> E3
  • Dual Core line: Monophasic -> Segmented -> DC1
  • Dual Core 2: Monophasic -> DC1-extended -> DC2
  • Triphasic: Monophasic -> Segmented -> Triphasic
  • Dual Core 3: Monophasic -> TC1 -> DC3
  • A flexible schedule: Monophasic -> (E2-extended ->) E3-extended -> E3-extended-flex -> SEVAMAYL

It is important to note that some people consider this method harder. While the sleep deprivation is milder than for other methods, the total duration in sleep deprivation is longer. As a result, this can make the exact schedules harder to maintain.

Fast Gradual Adaptation

As the name implies, this adaptation method has parts of gradual adaptation. However, instead of waiting for the sleep deprivation to recover, one switches schedules right after acquiring the necessary skills. For example:

One wants to adapt to Triphasic from Segmented.

  • They switch schedules at stage 2-3 when the body has learned to separate the cores.
  • The goal is to avoid learning that skill at the same time as learning to separate the SWS cycles.
  • This method is very hard to pull off successfully; thus, beginners should avoid it.

To clarify, switching schedules mid-adaptation will reset the adaptation time, but keep the existing sleep deprivation. Hence, it results in a longer and harsher stage 3 as a tradeoff from stage 1 and 2.

Reverse Gradual Adaptation

This method is about switching from an already adapted schedule to a schedule with more sleep. For example, adapting to E2 from E3. Thus, this will not take as long as the original adaptation time. This is useful for people whose schedules change after adaptation. The schedule switch would then become mandatory instead of flexing sleep.

Sticking with the same schedule line is fair; switching to another schedule line will still require adaptation to occur. For example, switching from Everyman to Dual Core schedules. 

Some people use this method to salvage their adaptation, after realizing they can’t handle the initial sleep deprivation or after a big oversleep. This often results in failure to adapt for several reasons;

  • Naps stop working. While this is temporary, it will still wear them out.
  • Initial amount of sleep deprivation turns out to be too much to handle.
  • Tiredness strikes at former sleeping hours.
  • The body treats the new schedule as continuously oversleeping, which leads to major tiredness bombs, headaches, etc.
  • Lack of will and discipline, etc.

Ultimately, most of these lead to oversleeping or simply quitting.

Uberman as a Precursor of E3

Uberman as a starting schedule
E3 as a final schedule

Similar to naptation to learn how to nap, one can use Uberman as one of the napping methods before switching into E3. The naps that will resume on E3 are now at their corresponding sleep times.

Before a fast SWS onset (usually day 7-11), one switches to E3 as a blanket for the “intentional oversleep”. However, this is going to be very taxing on the body due to the sleep deprivation from Uberman. As an alternative, another strategy is as follows:

Monophasic -> Naptation -> Mono-recovery -> E3

The premise is going to be the same, if the goal is just about learning how to effectively nap. 

Rhythmic Preservation

This is a hypothetical adaptation method based on the gradual reduction in sleep time. According to the idea, it might be easier to switch to reduced sleep times by maintaining overall schedule rhythm. Examples include:

  • 30 minute naps: Bimaxion -> Trimaxion -> Dymaxion
  • 6 sleep blocks: DC4 -> E5 -> U6
  • 5 sleep blocks: TC2 -> DC3
  • 4 sleep blocks: DC2-> E3

All these sleep categories keep the same number of sleep blocks and preserve sleep times. Some prefer to start sleeping at the same times, whereas others prefer to wake up at the same times throughout.

Unlike general gradual adaptation, here a nap replaces one core cycle at a time and the rest of the sleep times are constant. The key here is that when one sleep block is replaced, the body should remember what time to be tired. However, repartitioning still has to occur after the switch in schedules; yet, light sleep is going to have to reduce in the cores regardless.  

In other words, rhythmic preservation only increases the ease with which you fall asleep or wake without oversleeping. The mechanics largely revolve around a consistent circadian rhythm of all relevant schedules.  You still experience the same sleep deprivation from reducing total sleep time.

Extended schedules usually have a smaller amount of REM in the naps.

  • This is usually because the longer core sleep(s) already take care of the bulk portion of daily REM requirement.
  • One whole nap could have almost completely NREM2; otherwise, every nap might have less REM than the regular versions.

With rhythmic reservation, REM in the naps will also go through repartitioning. In other words, the total amount of REM in the naps will eventually increase.

Conclusion

To sum up, each of the methods have their own pros and cons. There can be a lot of methods to adapt to certain polyphasic schedules. However, it is necessary to know picking which of these methods would achieve the task in a reasonable amount of time. 

Main author: Crimson

Page last updated: 1 April 2021