TC1 and Dymaxion: Difference between pages

From Polyphasic Sleep Wiki
(Difference between pages)
No edit summary
 
No edit summary
 
Line 1: Line 1:
{{TNT|TC1}}
{{TNT|tooshort}}
{{Dymaxion}}


== Mechanism ==
== History ==
Tri Core 1, or TC1, is one of the newer version of Triphasic sleep and was created in 2017 with the goal to neutralize the inconvenient daytime core on Triphasic sleep. On TC1, all core sleeps are moved to the night hours since sleep pressure at night is often higher than in the day, and the short daytime nap resembles a short siesta, filling up alertness level with a long daytime wake gap from the third to the first core. There have been few successes on TC1 than on Triphasic because of TC1's somewhat inconvenient structure of night sleep.  
Dymaxion (often referred to as Dymax), is the first and original polyphasic schedule in the "-maxion" family. It was created by Buckminster Fuller,  in the 1930s, who reportedly slept on this schedule for most of the time between '''1932 and 1933'''. Dymaxion stands for ‘dynamic maximum tension’ and Fuller applied this word to many other inventions of his, including a house, a car, and a map. Fuller reported that "2 hours of sleep per day is plenty", which may insinuate at his sky-high motivation to live a life of an inventor who is willing to spend as little time on sleep as possible.  


The main difference between Triphasic and TC1 is the addition of a daytime nap and a core that is placed in the middle of the other 2 cores located at SWS and REM peak respectively. As a result, the adaptation to TC1 will be different than to Triphasic. Initially, it will be difficult to fall asleep in the core sleeps because they are placed close to each other. SWS will start to get into the core sleeps, resulting in a slowly building REM debt. However, because there are 3 core sleeps around night hours, staying awake until the next core sleep is deemed easier than on Triphasic when adapting. Each of these core sleeps also gives a different distribution of vital sleep stages - the first core will be very dense with SWS, the second core will be mixed between SWS and some amount of REM sleep and the third core will heavily favor REM sleep. The wake gap between each core should be '''at least 2h''' to facilitate falling asleep in each core to avoid interrupted sleep.  
With Dymaxion being one of the most advanced polyphasic schedules that shape the definition, usage and legend of polyphasic sleep practice, together with Uberman, it also attracts several attempts over the course of decades. Recently, its formation also spurred the inspiration for 2 "-maxion" schedules ('''Bimaxion and Trimaxion''') that take on the mantle of the original 30m naps in Dymaxion and posing as easier equivalents. The 30m naps are also sometimes referred to as "'''Dymaxion naps'''" due to how intense they are for a polyphasic adaptation.


The daytime nap alleviates homeostatic pressure by providing a chance to get more REM sleep, and sustains alertness until the SWS core. However, the repartitioning process on TC1 is no less than, if not more difficult, than on Triphasic, due to the ease for oversleeping in any of the core sleeps when adapting. Because a lot of sleep types go into the core, SWS deprivation may not be the worst to experience on the schedule.
== Dymaxion vs Uberman ==
Most things that apply to Uberman also apply to Dymaxion. Because it is a nap-only schedule with a total of '''2h of sleep time''', it has a lot of similarities to Uberman, including the extremely high difficulty, miniscule success rate, insane adaptation, and basically no flexibility. Like with Uberman all of the SWS and REM must come from naps on this schedule, so the amount of SWS and REM in proportion to light sleep is very high. Dymaxion still tends to be less popular than Uberman.


After adapting to TC1, one can then slowly transition to DC3 by turning the third core into a nap and adding a third nap in the afternoon (~4 PM).  
'''Difficulty-wise Dymaxion is harder than Uberman'''. Because of the larger gap between naps (5h30m compared to 3h40m) the wakefulness-sustaining capacity of naps is going to falter. The length of the naps is during adaptation, however, the hardest part of the schedule.
 
SWS will usually begin at around the 25 minute mark even when the SWS pressure is low. After the first day or two every nap is going to end in SWS because the nap is long enough to cross this SWS boundary. In contrast to this, with a 20 minute nap-only schedule like Uberman the naps will contain SWS only after the SWS pressure hits a peak or when the sleep cycle is compressed enough that the naps are able to have the SWS start earlier. This means that nap-only schedules with 20m naps don’t get SWS wakes until some time has passed on the schedule.
 
Even in the beginning of adaptation the naps on Dymaxion are harder to wake from than the naps on Uberman, because they all have SWS wakes. '''SWS wakes are associated with grogginess after wake up (sleep inertia)''', so waking up from every nap is going to be difficult until the body gets used to the nap length and performs wake time programming. They are also associated with a difficulty of hearing alarms, which means that even those with a high willpower are going to have a really hard time actually waking up from the naps. Finally, in SWS wakes you are very prone to immediately falling back asleep unless you stand up. Naps that end in SWS also have the disadvantage of forgetting or not having dreams when you wake up.
 
== Adaptation ==
Currently there are 2 methods to adapt to Dymaxion. Each of them has pros and cons, but successful adaptations remain very rare.
 
=== Gradual adaptation ===
[[File:Bimaxion.png|center|thumb|Bimaxion]]
[[File:Trimaxion.png|center|thumb|Trimaxion]]The idea behind this gradual transition is to start an adaptation to either Trimaxion or Bimaxion first, and then remove a core sleep one step at a time to finally reach Dymaxion. The distribution of sleeps from these 2 schedules resemble Dymaxion's sleep placement. Starting from Bimaxion, one core is shortened to 30m after adapting to the previous schedule until every sleep block is 30m long. This approach suffers from the same issues as the gradual adaptation to Uberman. However, both of these schedules are already known to be very difficult to adapt to, and it can take a very long period of time to reach Dymaxion, and the Dymaxion adaptation can still fail.
 
=== Cold turkey ===
So far all successful Dymaxion attempts stem from this method. For mutant sleepers or insomniacs, they can dive into Dymaxion directly. The level of sleep compression on Dymaxion will start to manifest after a couple of days, and as usual, intense sleep deprivation will ensue and need to be overcome.
 
Regardless of the methods, it is necessary, if not required, to have a '''human supervision''' to ensure there is no oversleep during this adaptation. Any oversleeps will greatly set back the adaptation process, effectively resetting the whole nap architecture built up to that point.
 
== Alternate Variants ==
 
=== Dymaxion-6 (D6) ===
[[File:Dymaxion-6.png|center|thumb|Dymaxion with Uberman distribution]]
Dymaxion 6 is often mislabeled as Uberman, because it resembles the structure of Uberman a lot, the only difference being 30m naps instead of 20m ones. So what practically makes a difference is that the naps on Dymaxion-6 have '''much worse wakes''' than the naps on Uberman during adaptation, due to their length. At most a handful of people have been able to adapt to this variation, and it suffers from the same problems as Uberman, namely the inconvenient scheduling. It also has the same problems as other nap-only schedules, like extreme rigidity and questionable health impacts. Therefore, this schedule also can’t really be recommended for people to do long term.


== Lifestyle Considerations ==
== Lifestyle Considerations ==
The defining distinction between Triphasic and TC1 is that the night gap is a lot more packed on TC1 with the core sleeps. This can create an impression that TC1 divides the day into several small parts with each core giving more and more compressed vital sleep stages. However, because the wake gap at night is shorter on TC1 than on Triphasic, physically lighter and more peaceful activities are preferred on TC1 (e.g, studying, cooking, planning, chores) to assist in falling asleep in the cores. However, to many individuals, it may be very inconvenient to schedule 3 core sleeps at night, when all of them are placed close to one another. Strenuous exercising may also be overbearing for the total sleep of less than 5 hours. It is also very unlikely TC1 will become very flexible after the adaptation, also because of its total sleep. Slightly flexing a core sleep or two, and/or the nap is acceptable, but so far no one has demonstrated how flexible TC1 can be, assuming a normal sleep requirement.  
Compared to Uberman, Dymaxion can have an edge in scheduling longer activities thanks to the longer wake gap between each nap. The 2 daytime naps can fit into '''regular jobs''', if there is a permissible nap window (e.g, noon break, or lunch break). The other nap can be scheduled after work hours. Unlike its easier "-maxion" counterparts, Dymaxion's nap around midnight does not suffer as much from the hindrance of social activity because the nap is much shorter and can start at midnight. For a nap-only schedule, Dymaxion has a '''solid standing''' as long as the necessary sleep requirements are present to adapt to it. For this reason, it is preferred to Uberman sometimes, even though the adaptation is no less insane than any other sleep-restrictive schedules.  
 
It is so far impossible to flex any naps on Dymaxion even after the adaptation is complete. Regular alarms still have to be used to wake up, because of the very low total sleep. However, one successful case has shown the possibility of some form of moderate exercises (e.g, light lifting or calisthenics) on Dymaxion. While this is an impressive feat, said Dymaxion sleeper also admitted to more '''frequent muscle soreness''' and a noticeably '''slowed recovery rate''' after each exercise session. Same as other nap-only schedules, there can be long-term health risk of Dymaxion (e.g, glymphatic system), increased cortisol, or certain memory loss/imbalance. Average sleepers are strongly discouraged from attempting Dymaxion.


It is also possible to extend one TC1's core by an extra 90m cycle, but so far no one has adapted to this extended variant either, and it is largely outclassed by Triphasic-extended in scheduling convenience and viability. However, TC1 still offers a large amount of sleep reduction (with a difficult adaptation) and can be a fitting choice for those who love Triphasic, or the idea of having 3 core sleeps, but cannot afford any core sleeps during the day.
{{Polyphasic Sleep Schedules}}
[[Category:Schedules]]

Revision as of 12:34, 23 November 2020

This is an unadvisable schedule, as its total sleep time is considered to be below the bare minimum required for most people.
<translate>
Dymaxion
Dymaxion 4
chart link

Total sleep2 hours
Proposed byBuckminster Fuller
DifficultyExtremely difficult
Specification4 30-minute naps equidistantly placed throughout the day

</translate>

History

Dymaxion (often referred to as Dymax), is the first and original polyphasic schedule in the "-maxion" family. It was created by Buckminster Fuller, in the 1930s, who reportedly slept on this schedule for most of the time between 1932 and 1933. Dymaxion stands for ‘dynamic maximum tension’ and Fuller applied this word to many other inventions of his, including a house, a car, and a map. Fuller reported that "2 hours of sleep per day is plenty", which may insinuate at his sky-high motivation to live a life of an inventor who is willing to spend as little time on sleep as possible.

With Dymaxion being one of the most advanced polyphasic schedules that shape the definition, usage and legend of polyphasic sleep practice, together with Uberman, it also attracts several attempts over the course of decades. Recently, its formation also spurred the inspiration for 2 "-maxion" schedules (Bimaxion and Trimaxion) that take on the mantle of the original 30m naps in Dymaxion and posing as easier equivalents. The 30m naps are also sometimes referred to as "Dymaxion naps" due to how intense they are for a polyphasic adaptation.

Dymaxion vs Uberman

Most things that apply to Uberman also apply to Dymaxion. Because it is a nap-only schedule with a total of 2h of sleep time, it has a lot of similarities to Uberman, including the extremely high difficulty, miniscule success rate, insane adaptation, and basically no flexibility. Like with Uberman all of the SWS and REM must come from naps on this schedule, so the amount of SWS and REM in proportion to light sleep is very high. Dymaxion still tends to be less popular than Uberman.

Difficulty-wise Dymaxion is harder than Uberman. Because of the larger gap between naps (5h30m compared to 3h40m) the wakefulness-sustaining capacity of naps is going to falter. The length of the naps is during adaptation, however, the hardest part of the schedule.

SWS will usually begin at around the 25 minute mark even when the SWS pressure is low. After the first day or two every nap is going to end in SWS because the nap is long enough to cross this SWS boundary. In contrast to this, with a 20 minute nap-only schedule like Uberman the naps will contain SWS only after the SWS pressure hits a peak or when the sleep cycle is compressed enough that the naps are able to have the SWS start earlier. This means that nap-only schedules with 20m naps don’t get SWS wakes until some time has passed on the schedule.

Even in the beginning of adaptation the naps on Dymaxion are harder to wake from than the naps on Uberman, because they all have SWS wakes. SWS wakes are associated with grogginess after wake up (sleep inertia), so waking up from every nap is going to be difficult until the body gets used to the nap length and performs wake time programming. They are also associated with a difficulty of hearing alarms, which means that even those with a high willpower are going to have a really hard time actually waking up from the naps. Finally, in SWS wakes you are very prone to immediately falling back asleep unless you stand up. Naps that end in SWS also have the disadvantage of forgetting or not having dreams when you wake up.

Adaptation

Currently there are 2 methods to adapt to Dymaxion. Each of them has pros and cons, but successful adaptations remain very rare.

Gradual adaptation

File:Bimaxion.png
Bimaxion
File:Trimaxion.png
Trimaxion

The idea behind this gradual transition is to start an adaptation to either Trimaxion or Bimaxion first, and then remove a core sleep one step at a time to finally reach Dymaxion. The distribution of sleeps from these 2 schedules resemble Dymaxion's sleep placement. Starting from Bimaxion, one core is shortened to 30m after adapting to the previous schedule until every sleep block is 30m long. This approach suffers from the same issues as the gradual adaptation to Uberman. However, both of these schedules are already known to be very difficult to adapt to, and it can take a very long period of time to reach Dymaxion, and the Dymaxion adaptation can still fail.

Cold turkey

So far all successful Dymaxion attempts stem from this method. For mutant sleepers or insomniacs, they can dive into Dymaxion directly. The level of sleep compression on Dymaxion will start to manifest after a couple of days, and as usual, intense sleep deprivation will ensue and need to be overcome.

Regardless of the methods, it is necessary, if not required, to have a human supervision to ensure there is no oversleep during this adaptation. Any oversleeps will greatly set back the adaptation process, effectively resetting the whole nap architecture built up to that point.

Alternate Variants

Dymaxion-6 (D6)

File:Dymaxion-6.png
Dymaxion with Uberman distribution

Dymaxion 6 is often mislabeled as Uberman, because it resembles the structure of Uberman a lot, the only difference being 30m naps instead of 20m ones. So what practically makes a difference is that the naps on Dymaxion-6 have much worse wakes than the naps on Uberman during adaptation, due to their length. At most a handful of people have been able to adapt to this variation, and it suffers from the same problems as Uberman, namely the inconvenient scheduling. It also has the same problems as other nap-only schedules, like extreme rigidity and questionable health impacts. Therefore, this schedule also can’t really be recommended for people to do long term.

Lifestyle Considerations

Compared to Uberman, Dymaxion can have an edge in scheduling longer activities thanks to the longer wake gap between each nap. The 2 daytime naps can fit into regular jobs, if there is a permissible nap window (e.g, noon break, or lunch break). The other nap can be scheduled after work hours. Unlike its easier "-maxion" counterparts, Dymaxion's nap around midnight does not suffer as much from the hindrance of social activity because the nap is much shorter and can start at midnight. For a nap-only schedule, Dymaxion has a solid standing as long as the necessary sleep requirements are present to adapt to it. For this reason, it is preferred to Uberman sometimes, even though the adaptation is no less insane than any other sleep-restrictive schedules.

It is so far impossible to flex any naps on Dymaxion even after the adaptation is complete. Regular alarms still have to be used to wake up, because of the very low total sleep. However, one successful case has shown the possibility of some form of moderate exercises (e.g, light lifting or calisthenics) on Dymaxion. While this is an impressive feat, said Dymaxion sleeper also admitted to more frequent muscle soreness and a noticeably slowed recovery rate after each exercise session. Same as other nap-only schedules, there can be long-term health risk of Dymaxion (e.g, glymphatic system), increased cortisol, or certain memory loss/imbalance. Average sleepers are strongly discouraged from attempting Dymaxion.