Camayl
Camayl is an experimental flexible schedule containing a number of short cores, derived from core-only schedules, usually QC0.[1] After adaptation, it becomes possible to take a short core throughout the day whenever is tired enough. The concept resembles Spamayl, but short cores are used in place of naps.
| Core As Much As You Like | |
|---|---|
| chart link
Legend
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| Total sleep | Undefined, but average to be 6h |
| Proposed by | GeneralNguyen |
| Difficulty | Hard |
| Specification | Several single-cycle core sleeps |
Mechanism
After adapting to a schedule with only short core sleeps (~90 minutes), the brain gradually becomes accustomed to the new sleep pattern and adjusts to the new reduced sleep total. It is then possible to start flexing the cores, which contain repartitioned SWS and REM sleep with minor reductions in sleep quality.
The number of core sleeps can vary on a day-to-day basis. Each core sleep helps provide the needed amount of SWS and REM sleep as well as maintain alertness.
Scheduling
The average number of cores on the schedule should stay close to that of the original base schedule. For example, those transitioning from QC0 should aim to take four cores per day. Sleep spacing should take into account natural periods of drowsiness and sleep peaks. It is easier to stay awake for longer periods in the day compared to the night, and as such the gaps in different times of day should be different in size.
A core sleep can be extended by one cycle once adapted to make up for a lost sleep; a short nap can be occasionally added to the schedule to replace a missing missing core after adapting, though recovery may be required afterwards. It is still important to ensure that sleeps are properly separated by at least 1.5-2 hours, to prevent interrupted cycles.
A consistent dark period should be employed to ensure the stability of the circadian rhythm and maintain sleep quality.
Adaptation
Similar to other flexible schedules, it is unlikely that one could adapt to this schedule cold turkey, and all attempts have failed so far. Thus, only currently known method that had led to success is by first adapting to a strict base schedule (usually QC0), and then gradually flex each sleep block incrementally.
Some time after adapting to the base schedule, one can start flexing. This can begin with moving 1-2 core sleeps at a time, 15-30 minutes away from the original sleep time. Then, the flexing range can be increased gradually, eventually having flexing windows several hours long. Each increase in flexibility will take time to adjust to, during which one may experience somewhat increased tiredness. It is recommended to avoid flexing multiple cores with big jumps all at once, as doing so can destabilise the schedule.
As the flexing range increases and alertness is restored to normal, it becomes possible to add and remove core sleeps, depending on one's level of tiredness, completing one's adaptation.
Difficulty
Adapting to this schedule requires a stable adaptation to a core only base schedule first and a flexing adaptation to said schedule later, both of which can take a long time and include many chances of failure. As such, despite the relatively high total sleep, Camayl is considered to be a Hard schedule..
Lifestyle considerations
Because of the long duration of the core sleeps, it is more difficult to fit them into daytime hours compared to schedules with short naps in the day. The schedule would work best for self-employed, work-at-home occupations and those who want to try out something other than Biphasic, Everyman and Uberman. Consistently long extended wake gaps would hinder the adaptation to the overall flexibility, at which point a slightly flexible QC0 with small changes in sleep times and no varying number of cores from day to day or other schedules would make for better choices.
With all the downsides, the schedule can still greatly benefit mutant sleepers who exercise a lot or have a much higher amount of SWS than REM sleep, as these sleepers will need fewer cores each day while achieving a high level of flexibility in scheduling. Most importantly, core sleeps are known to support the glymphatic system (clearing brain toxins) much better than nap-only schedules.
Another perk of Camayl is the ability to plan a core ahead of an evening event and a core afterwards on some occasions if necessary. During long travelling to different time zones, Camayl is also rather durable since all core durations are the same all throughout. With the option to schedule core sleeps and occasional extension, Camayl becomes one of the few polyphasic schedules to handle travelling events with good results. In terms of countermeasures against Daylight Saving Time, Camayl is also a solid counter - one can simply place a core after the DST change, making it also one of the few polyphasic schedules that can neutralize DST effectively. Regarding diet and exercise, it is also necessary to schedule core sleeps properly to protect their quality (before a meal, before a workout or some time after a workout). Another advantage of Camayl is that its core sleeps provide a lot of room for physical recovery and can take on more SWS requirement increase on some days.
In emergency situations where some daytime events prevent a core from being taken, after adapted to the schedule it is possible to utilize short naps (10-15m) to temporarily patch up the long wake gap and provide some alertness to stall for the next core. The reason only short naps (< 20m) are picked is that longer naps may lead to REM/SWS wakes as part of adapted/repartitioned cores. The goal of the nap is just to provide some light sleep for wakefulness while also giving a refreshing wake. Skipping the nap and staying awake is also an option, but be mindful of the long wake gap that can lead to excessive drowsiness during waking hours. In the following day, an extra core is added, which averages out to be 4 cores per day still. Alternatively, extending a core to 3h is viable if it’s challenging to schedule 5 cores.
Despite the promising flexibility and freedom to sleep whenever tired, Camayl is still considered a less ideal flexible schedule than Sevamayl and Ducamayl because of the flexing adaptation and overall more difficult adaptation to adapt to a base schedule with multiple core sleeps. As part of the long-term sustainability aspect, the midday cores make it more difficult to schedule except in some cultures (e.g, Spain with siesta) or very specific occupations. The sleep reduction amount offered is also more limited than an Everyman and Dual Core schedule. It takes many weeks of consistency and persistence to adapt (up to 4 months including the transition from a strict base schedule). While more resilient than a regular QC0 and Triphasic schedule, it also suffers from the same breakdowns - sleeping in excess due to sickness, stress, injuries and participating in many social events with extended wake periods can trigger sleep deprivation symptoms from Stage 3 which takes many days to bounce back, or a complete destabilization of the schedule. Flexing cores willy-nilly and not applying the dark period properly may also result in suboptimal sleep and inability to reach a full adaptation.
Like Sevamayl, once adapted it is possible to occasionally extend a core sleep by 90 m. It is then wiser to return to the normal 90 m core duration for at least a week before attempting to extend it again for required circumstances. Similar to adapted schedules, the cores are designed to give alertness boost around the clock with the correct timing. The freedom to take a core whenever tired is satisfying once succeeded. It is also comfortable to delay a core sleep for a couple hours in the afternoon, or skip a whole core together if needed sometimes.
Variants
The core duration of Camayl is designed to be a single cycle in length for each core to simulate a personal sleep cycle, which averages from 80m to 120m. With this in mind, it is possible to schedule a Camayl variant with only 80m cores, or 120m cores in shorter or longer sleep cycle individuals respectively. There may be natural wakes as a result of frequent sleep and some level of sleep compression, but should not be expected until after many weeks on the schedule.
While there are no upper limits in the number of core sleeps taken each day, realistically up to 5 core sleeps can be scheduled per day. The lower bound seems to be 3 core sleeps each day, and 2 for mutant sleepers. The number of cores, however, will reflect the number of cores taken during the adaptation to a strict base schedule (e.g, Triphasic, QC0). This means that a QC0 sleeper will then end up with approximately 4 core sleeps on average each day on Camayl (alternating between 3, 4 and 5 core sleeps depending on days), while a Triphasic sleeper may end up with 3 cores on average, or alternating between 3 and 4 cores.
It is also worth noting that only sleepers with monophasic baseline on the lower side (5-6h) are suitable for flexing Triphasic base to become Camayl with 3 cores on average each day, or alternating between 3-4 cores (to support heavy exercise/gym/party days). Average sleepers (~8h monophasic baseline) would require adapting to QC0 base first to sustain a highly flexible Camayl variant with an average of 4 cores per day. It is also unknown how flexible 80m core sleeps will be (if one happens to have this sleep cycle length). Longer single cycle length (e.g, 100-120m) means that 3-4 core sleeps per day may be sustainable for these sleepers. However, unlike power naps on other “-AMAYL” schedules, Camayl cores require precise timing to be able to have short sleep onset and sleep through the whole duration of a core and optimize the waking hours. Since each core already lasts for 90m, taking a couple of them racks up total sleep time quickly.
References
- ↑ GeneralNguyen (2020). "OFFICIAL! New, Flexible Polyphasic Schedule Released: The 90-minute Sleep Schedule - Tips, Lifestyle Considerations & Viability". Reddit. Retrieved 2020-11-19.
