Ducamayl

This schedule is considered experimental as it is only recently invented, and there have not been a large number of documented successes. Beginners are advised to choose a more established schedule.

This schedule is a higly flexible schedule derived from the Dual core schedules. Similar to SEVAMAYL, it evolves from adaptation to Dual core schedule such as DC2 and DC3-extended. Unlike with flexed versions of those regular schedules, DUCAMAYL allows taking naps when tired throughout the day, with a varying number of naps and changes in core timings as well as lengths.

Ducamayl

Dual Core As Much As You Like
chart link Legend   Sleep   Dark period   Flexible sleep window
Total sleep	Undefined, but may average around 5.5-6.5 hours
Proposed by	Polyphasic Sleep Discord Community
Difficulty	Hard
Specification	2 cores, multiple short naps

Origin

The name DUCAMAYL stands for “Dual Core As Much As You Like”. It is one of the 4 “-AMAYL'' flexible polyphasic schedules, the other ones being SPAMAYL, SEVAMAYL, and CAMAYL.

Until recently, there has only been one anecdotal success from sleeper Aethermind's father, who has been unintentionally maintaining the schedule for more than 20 years without signs of ill health. His schedule consists of 2 somewhat flexible core sleeps and between 1 and 2 naps in the day.

First created and roughly drafted in 2017 in the Discord, it was proposed as a flexible Dual Core counterpart to SEVAMAYL, a flexible Everyman schedule. In 2020, there have been two more recorded successful adaptations to DUCAMAYL, which are by GeneralNguyen and UncertainBeing.

Mechanism

The mechanism of DUCAMAYL is believed to resemble that of SEVAMAYL, with two shorter cores in place of the long Everyman core.

As with all other Dual core schedules, the first core sleep provides mostly SWS while the second core favors REM sleep, with the nap(s) providing some REM and alertness boosts. Naps can be taken when alertness drops.

After adapting to a rigid base Dual core schedule, the body gets used to the new sleep pattern, which involves 2 core sleeps and a number of naps, as well as the reduced total sleep. Then, the sleeper gradually adapts to flexing, allowing naps to be moved, added, or removed. Because of 2 core sleeps covering much of the night and morning in which the alertness is the lowest, DUCAMAYL tends to have fewer naps than SEVAMAYL.

Scheduling

For average sleepers, the schedule would include at least ~4-5 hours of sleep from the two cores, with about 1-4 naps of 10-20 minutes in length. Nap spacing should take into account natural periods of tiredness, such as the early afternoon circadian dip. A pronap may be viable, but is less useful than on SEVAMAYL if you already have a core near the dawn hours.

The wake gap between 2 cores can vary on a day-to-day basis. Each core might be flexed or changed in length to some extent. As with SEVAMAYL, it is not recommended to add or remove sleep cycles more than once a week, as either sleep debt or lengthening can destabilize the adaptation to the reduced total sleep.

Adaptation

Because of the nigh-impossibility to adapt to this schedule cold turkey, many adaptations have failed. In the past, there have been a few attempts at flexing sleep from the start, but all of them eventually failed. Adaptations to a strict Dual Core base schedule first, however, have proven to be a successful way to adapt to DUCAMAYL. The process of adapting to DUCAMAYL is very similar to SEVAMAYL - one or two naps at time can be flexed with small range (e.g, 15m earlier/later than original time), and one of the 2 cores also starts with the same small flex range. Once energy level and alertness stabilize, flexing can increase in larger jumps, one step at a time. Taking flexing of both cores and all naps to the extreme right away can cause more detriment to the schedule, eventually destabilizing it, however. One or both cores of DUCAMAYL may remain stationary throughout the entire flexing adaptation, and the focus is on highly flexible and alternate number of naps from day to day instead.

During and after the adaptation, some naps may naturally reduce in length. The best strategy is to get up because “-AMAYL” schedules typically are not confined to any specific sleep duration forever, with occasional changes available. However if there is a long wake gap ahead in schedule, it would be a wise approach to go back to sleep for the full duration of the nap to gain more wakefulness sustaining. Similarly, after adaptation is complete, a nap can be extended to 30-40m during early/late morning hours (REM peak-~11 AM) without having to worry about SWS wakes. This would strategically enhance wakefulness for the next hours, resulting in the need for fewer or no naps later in the day. Similar to the cores, under normal conditions, there should be at least 90-120m awake between each nap.

It is also possible to utilize a Pronap if the whole DUCAMAYL schedule is rotated backward, with the first core being early in the evening (e.g, 8 PM). The Pronap would then provide more REM sleep and can become flexible later on. In the event of an emergency, it is also possible to schedule ultrashort naps (e.g, 5-10m) when a regular 20m nap is too long to schedule. This would serve to sustain alertness with light sleep (NREM1/NREM2) until the next nap during any daytime hours. The freedom to pick nap durations whenever necessary after adaptation is very satisfying and greatly boosts the overall flexibility and durability of the whole schedule. Nonetheless, these changes in nap durations should not be abused - occasionally using them to one’s advantage would prevent the destabilized nap structure from the adapted base Dual Core schedules.

Regarding core sleeps, under emergency or social events that have to delay the first core sleep, it is then possible to move both cores further into the night, resulting in a much later wakeup time for the following morning. Another option is to skip the first core and extend the second core by 90m and resume napping as usual. The following night can continue with 1 extended core sleep and extra naps until alertness is back to the refreshing state. The dark period can start 15-30m before either core sleep after the party if time is too crunched, and maintained between 2 cores if possible. Under normal conditions, dark period should be introduced some time before the first core and maintained in the wake gap between 2 cores like other Dual Core schedules. Because of the potential flexibility of cores, an experienced or well-adapted to flexing sleeper can start the first core 30m or 2-3h after dark period has begun whenever desired. However, excessively delaying the first core should be entirely avoided when adapting and should not be allowed to happen more than once a week or so, to avoid destabilization. This is because the first core’s SWS quality can greatly falter if delayed too often into late night hours.

External factors such as food, exercise and mental health status should be considered carefully and planned accordingly to ensure the quality of each nap. It is generally better to nap before a heavy or long workout, and meals. Otherwise, napping some hours after these activities is also very viable. It is also crucial to manage personal stress levels, as emotional distress is shown to increase REM needs and can put more pressure on the schedule. As an added bonus, the wake gap flexibility between 2 cores allows the schedule to effectively dodge Daylight Saving Time.

Overall, DUCAMAYL is a much more advanced version of a regular Dual Core schedule, with promising flexibility of all sleep blocks and the tenacious ability to sustain performance across the clock. With a usually somewhat high total sleep, it can tolerate certain occasions where the regular sleep hygiene practices have to be temporarily forfeited. The malleability of nap amount and duration from day to day is also highly resilient and convenient to maintain the schedule long term. Another added stronghold is the support and bond between 2 core sleeps - the second core sleep can to some extent fix the inconsistencies and small hiccups from the first core. However, the schedule does offer on average less sleep reduction than SEVAMAYL that proceeds from the very common E3-extended base. While the second core is a great REM stock and mostly safe from real life events, the first core is still vulnerable to evening social hours if done frequently; this is the primary reason that prompts many sleepers to try out Everyman instead.

Difficulty

The adaptation to a base Dual Core schedule is also deemed harder to achieve than to a base Everyman schedule, thus the flexing adaptation may be equally, if not harder, than SEVAMAYL. A lot of effort in assessing the proper times to place naps and cores will be required to adapt to DUCAMAYL, the flexing adaptation that is mostly Stage 4, feeling somewhat low in productivity and not truly refreshing/adapted sleep. Lastly, excessive sleep due to physical recovery, sickness, extended wake periods that promote long sleep, injury, uncontrolled drinking, substance use, etc. can destabilize the whole schedule, which already takes several months to adapt to. With all that said, with thorough planning and execution on all these elements, DUCAMAYL is a powerful schedule to arrive at.

Lifestyle considerations

Like other “-AMAYL” polyphasic schedules, erratic lifestyles greatly benefit them. It would be, however, a better idea to slightly flex the Dual Core base schedule rather than adopting DUCAMAYL if flexibility is limited with consistent work or social commitments. Unlike, SEVAMAYL, however, DUCAMAYL has the second core sleep around dawn that can boost alertness for several hours ahead. This can pave the way for certain jobs with long wake gap(s) from morning to early afternoon hours without having to rest. The second core of DUCAMAYL (on variants with at least ~5h total sleep of both cores) limits the amount of needed daytime naps, and needing only 1 daytime nap on certain days can allow for a lot of uninterrupted waking hours.

Flexibility

Like other “-AMAYL” schedules (except SPAMAYL), once adapted it is possible to occasionally extend either core sleep by 90m in the event of slight sickness, somewhat more tiredness, stress or heavy gym workouts. This extension should not be done more than once per 7 or 10 days. Nap durations can also become a lot more versatile on some occasions, being able to be extended to 30m-40m (for early/late morning naps) in experienced sleepers or reduced to 5-10m in the case of emergency that does not allow for the usual 20m, or when it gets late in the day (after ~5:30 PM) to avoid more grogginess upon waking.

Both core sleeps and the naps will sustain alertness, retain memory, cognitive and ideally physical performance everyday. The ability to gain natural wakes from certain naps or cores is also very satisfying.

Variants

To ensure flexibility of both core sleeps and the naps, the total sleep of both cores combined should be at least 4.5h (e.g, 3h first core and 1.5h second core) and approximately ~5.5h total sleep (all sleeps on schedule). This ideally would cover all SWS and a strong amount of REM sleep and the total sleep of both cores, 4.5h, is comparable with the E3-extended base from SEVAMAYL. However, up to date it is unknown how flexible either core sleep will be with this total sleep, and if one core sleep always has to be stationary. For polyphasic beginners, sleepers with higher sleep needs  or those often naturally waking up at night who want a transition to DUCAMAYL, extended base Dual Core versions provide much better opportunities to comfortably flex both core sleeps to some extent. This makes DC1-extended, DC2-extended and DC3-extended good candidates for transitioning to DUCAMAYL.

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  DC1-extended

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  DC2

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  DC3-extended

Aside from these extended variants, modified variants with 2 2.5h core lengths (2.5-2.5), 1 core of 3h followed by a 2.5h core length (3-2.5), or 3.5-1.5 can be scheduled by experienced sleepers or those who know their sleep architecture well enough through the use of a sleep tracking device. Interestingly enough, one DUCAMAYL’s successful adaptation came from Bimaxion base (4h TST) and then the sleeper alternated between 1,2 and 3 naps from day to day. The naps are primarily 30m long as a result of utilizing 30m nap duration (Dymaxion naps). Since this successful adapter was a mutant sleeper (5-6h monophasic requirement), it makes sense that only people with lower sleep requirements would be able to fully adapt to DUCAMAYL with a very low total sleep.

The difference between a 4.5h-1.5h and a 3h-3h combination of both cores can be used for different purposes. For example, a person with higher REM need but lower SWS need can opt for a longer second core and shorter first core, and vice versa. Individuals with heavy training can also pick a longer first core (at least 2 full cycles) for better physical recovery. People with higher sleep requirements can also increase the napping frequency (e.g, DC2-extended) to further support REM sleep. Although for the most part, transitioning from DC1 and DC2 bases would prove to be easier to schedule than DC3 bases.

Depending on the base Dual Core schedule of choice, the corresponding DUCAMAYL variant would reflect the amount of naps needed each day in each of those base schedules. For instance, a DC1 sleeper can alternate between 1-2 naps from day to day, a DC2 sleeper would be an average of 2 naps per day (alternating between 1, 2 and 3 naps), and a DC3 sleeper may require an average of 3 naps per day (2-4 naps) or 2-3 naps depending on the core durations of the base schedule.

Unlike a regular Dual Core schedule whose first core usually starts early (e.g, 9-10 PM), on DUCAMAYL the first core can become quite flexible and start at later evening hours on some days (e.g, 11 PM-midnight) as part of the flexible regime. This allows more social evening time if any need arises. Extended variants can also start the first core at late evening hours (~11 PM-midnight) from the very first adaptation step to strict sleep times. The second core, a big perk of DUCAMAYL, can be flexed accordingly and is generally safe from real life interruptions as it is very late into the night. As a result of flexible core sleeps, the wake gap between each core can increase (moving both cores further or delay the second core) or decrease (moving both cores closer or one core closer to the other) freely. This allows for flexible planning or activities during the wake gap depending on days. For example, a busy night with binge-watching entertainments or work can prompt the sleeper to enjoy more of these night hours, while a night with not many useful activities to do is a cue for a shorter night gap.

References

Polyphasic Sleep Schedules Scheduling overview Biphasic E1 Extended Siesta Segmented BiphasicX Everyman E2 Extended E3 Extended E4 Extended E5 Sevamayl Trimaxion Dual core DC1 Extended DC2 Extended DC3 DC4 Bimaxion Tri core Triphasic TC1 TC2 Nap only Uberman Dymaxion Tesla Spamayl Experimental QC0 Ducamayl Camayl Hypothetical Non-polyphasic Monophasic Random