For the past few days, I’ve been finding myself oversleeping while trying to adapt to the Uberman sleep schedule. I would go to sleep at 2am and wake up at 6am. Or I’d go to sleep at 6am and wake up at noon!
I realized the problem was that I shut my alarm off and go back to bed before I’m fully awake. I don’t even have a chance to fight it!
I read of people adding an additional nap between those times. I tried adding a 4am nap and I overslept during that one once.
What I decided to do was use a backup alarm so that if the first one didn’t work, the second one in another room would definitely wake me up. I allowed 5 minutes in between the first and second alarm. I figured if i was awake enough, I could go turn the second alarm off before it made that annoying buzzing noise.
A friend stayed over for most of a night after I set up the backup alarm. She witnessed the insanity that my body forced me to go through in order to get sleep.
She said I shut off the first alarm when it went off. Then I went into the other room to turn off the second alarm before it even went off!!! I didn’t recall any of this. I figured I was fighting a losing battle.
Well today, I decided to combine multiple alarms with leaving lights on near the room where I slept. I believe the light is the key. I have no problem waking up feeling just fine during the day. But 2am and 6am are my major trouble times and I hear around those hours are trouble for most people.
Having light visible when the alarm wakes me up makes a big difference. It helps me to realize that I only planned to sleep for a few minutes and it’s time to get up! Otherwise, if it’s pitch black in my entire apartment, I’m almost certain to roll back over after ending the bothersome beeping.
Tags: jermil, oversleeping, polyphasic sleep, sadler, uberman
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