I slept for two hours a day, and what came of it

Nikola Tesla and Leonardo da Vinci slept for two hours a day, Margaret Thatcher - four. These stories resemble a recipe for success. It's nice to think that the achievements are explained not by genes, education or good fortune, and the fact that someone has worked hard and slept little. After all, we can do that. So we, too, will achieve great success. This is a favorite myth of our time.

I'm indifferent to it, too. I like to imagine how Juicebox play before a crowd of fans at the stadium. And this despite the fact that I do not know how to play musical instruments and is unlikely to learn. I get up late, work prefer beer. In 19 years, I opened a company for the production of T-shirts, which are not released any shirts. The 24 made a documentary, which has not yet been mounted. I have already took up the script for the film, and even started writing a book. Every year I am going to plant vegetables in their backyard, but further plans to deal never comes.

I realized that life and will pass me, if I do not take drastic measures. And I decided to start with a dream.

The most popular form polyphasic sleep - 20 minutes every four hours. As a result, out 2:00 of sleep per night. This method is warmly praised by best-selling author Tim Ferriss productivity and WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg. Of course, I did not expect that after the experiment to open your own business or become a different person. But I hoped to shake off apathy.

The first day

I was sleep schedule and prepared to bed office. At first it was all good. Just after midnight, I really understood what got involved. In front of me waiting for four hours before the next single break for sleep. The house was terribly quiet, and I decided to return to the office.

I turned on the loud trance and began to make a list of cases for the week. Finally, you can do everything what I have not got around. At the bottom of the list were small things like "fill in a tax return" or "buy socks." Further larger desire - to "smash the garden." And top of the list - "write a book."

The first night was not too difficult, but depressing. I decided to ask for advice.

Second day

I talked to Ellet Charlotte (Charlotte Ellett). She has been designing games and nine years practice polyphasic sleep. I complained to the emotional exhaustion. It turned out, it is perfectly normal. "The first two weeks will feel like a zombie - shared Charlotte. - You can not explain to myself why do you do it. Do you hear the alarm clock, but did not remember how to turn it on. "

But then you get a feeling of incredible freedom. forget about fatigue. "We have to steel himself the first few weeks. Then you feel the clarity and running quickly. Suddenly, time enough for everything - said Charlotte. - You'll understand that this milestone has overcome when will improve the quality of sleep. After 20 minutes, you will wake up with the feeling that slept for several hours. "

day three

The days merged into one endless stream of gray, but I did a lot of things. By the third day I take care of the taxes, remove the house to call my family, bought socks and again took up his book. To be honest, the book is so-so, and I'm not going to show it to anyone. But important for me to finish it. Finish anything. I decided if I will add the first draft version of the experiment can be considered successful. So I wrote every night, usually go for 3000 words.

Then I thought, why should we even try. Strange is a habit peculiar to man. That's my neighbor's cat never does anything. Maybe it's because she does not think about death? desire for success and the fear of death, in my opinion, are inextricably linked.

Success - the only way to create for themselves that something significant in our vast universe. Therefore, we continue to try. Therefore, I had at least something to bring to the end.

Day four

At night I was full time to read. I learned that polyphasic sleep method was first proposed in 1998. Student at the Faculty of Philosophy Steyver Marie (Marie Staver) suffered from insomnia and decided to sleep fitfully. According to her,Our brain holds in the phase of REM sleep a total of one and a half hours. And the rest of the time is spent on growth and cell renewal. She said that the second is not so important. "After 3-5 days, the brain begins to rebuild - explains Marie. - He goes into REM sleep as soon as you close your eyes. And you wake up rested. "

Reading this, I wanted to rewind time forward and feel rested. On the fourth day I really lost my appetite, I could not get warm. The simplest social situations oppress me. I ignored the phone calls. If the barista in the cafe was very sociable, I apologized and went to wait for her coffee on the street.

But the most difficult was between midnight and dawn. They were quiet hours. Plenty of time to convince myself that the people who write books and achieve goals, just smarter and better. Hard work is not enough.

Day of the fifth and sixth

I have already developed daily. During the day I went to work, ate dinner at home and writing a book. After two hours of the night engaged in physical labor, and at the same time listening to podcasts. Went to the gym, running, I began to break up the garden in the backyard. Sitting at this time is dangerous - you can go to sleep, so I was moving a lot. In the morning before work, I dozed for 20 minutes, and then the whole cycle is repeated.

The main difficulty is that you have nothing to wait for. Life becomes monotonous in one cycle. The sun rises, people appear. The sun goes down, people disappear. And so the circle.

seventh day

In the morning I started to cough, and in the evening there was dizziness. I realized that ill. I certainly would not have coped with the disease in the current mode, so that I fell into bed and slept for 48 hours.

A few days later, when I got better, I got back in touch with Charlotte. She said she never got sick during polyphasic sleep, but admitted that the stress of her tired. No one on the forums, too, did not face such a problem. I wanted to go back to polyphasic sleep, but decided against it. No, I've had enough.

Still, I do not regret that I spent this experiment. He violated my usual routine, I really did a lot of things. He struck out nearly half of its list. Of course, the night was simply nothing else to do. I finished the first draft of the book. Now I re-read it, and even though it turned out quite ordinary, I still wrote it. At least now I have something to refine.