Camayl
Overview
- Proposed by: GeneralNguyen
- Total sleep: Undefined, but average to be 6h
- Classification: Flexible schedule, SPAMAYL variant, Multi-core variant
- Specification: Multiple core sleeps of 1 cycle each
- Mechanism: Variant of SPAMAYL that includes only core sleeps. Evolves well from adaptation to QC0 and then QC0-flex as a helpful intermediate. Each core sleep provides a distinct amount of sleep stages depending on when they are placed and the level of current homeostatic pressure. A strong reliance on sensing when the most ideal time to place a core is is required. The freedom to place a core soon in the day at natural tired/sleepy spots is required to make the schedule work. This is to avoid excessively long wake gaps that result in tiredness and potential crash later on.
- Adaptation difficulty: Hard
- Ideal scheduling: 4 core sleeps on average each day, each core sleep lasting for 90m. Core spacing should take into account natural periods of drowsiness and SWS/REM peaks. It is more common to stay awake for longer periods in the day (6+ hours) while shorter around graveyard/morning hours (2-3h) between each core. A core sleep can be extended by 90m once adapted to make up for a missing core from the previous day, or a short nap (10-15m) can be occasionally added to the schedule after adapted in case of a long wake gap that does not allow a full core to be scheduled. The number of cores taken each day may vary everyday or on an occasional basis.
CAMAYL is an abbreviation of “Core As Much As You Like”, as part of the “-AMAYL” polyphasic series, a highly flexible prototype. Similar to SEVAMAYL, it is unlikely that one could adapt to this schedule using the cold turkey method, as all attempts have failed so far. A strict adaptation to a base schedule of only 90m core sleeps (e.g, QC0) has been proven to make a successful CAMAYL adaptation using the gradual flexing sleep mechanics. Sleepers need to develop a strong sense of their personal drowsiness to place their cores at ideal times for optimal SWS and REM to sustain wakefulness and well-being. The ability to adapt to flexible core sleeps paves the way for a more hectic lifestyle. The main purpose of this schedule is to deliver an experience with sleeping in core sleeps rather than short naps, and to add more exposure to longer sleeps, which is different from regular Everyman and Uberman schedules. People who have a strong tendency for longer sleeps and cannot have a consistent daytime schedule may also find CAMAYL a fitting choice.
For what lifestyles is this schedule best?
Because of the core sleeps’ long duration, 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.
Why does this schedule work?
After an adaptation to a schedule with exclusively 90m core sleeps has been completed, the brain has replaced its standard sleeping schedule and adjusted to the new reduced sleep total. It is then possible to slowly shift the core sleeps, which contain highly repartitioned SWS and REM without reducing sleep quality, rather than flexing when adapting to strict sleep times. However, moved cores also contain less SWS/REM than a strictly timed core, thus resulting in a varying number of core sleeps from day to day. Each core sleep supposedly only gives a slightly different amount of vital sleep percentage from day to day as adapted from a strict base schedule. Each core sleep serves to maintain the required amount of SWS and REM each day to boost well-being and alertness around the clock.
What does it feel like once adapted?
Like SEVAMAYL, once adapted it is possible to occasionally extend a core sleep by 90m. It is then wiser to return to the normal 90m 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.
What variations of CAMAYL actually work?
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.
What is the best adaptation strategy?
As previously mentioned, there have been no successful cold turkey attempts to CAMAYL. It is believed to be the case because the sleep pressure generated from each core sleep is not great enough to force repartitioning of SWS and REM to the fullest (barring SPAMAYL). Thus, the best strategy is to start an adaptation to a strict multi-core schedule first, then gradually flex each sleep block incrementally.
Once the strict schedule has been adapted to (which takes at least 1-2 months), a flexing adaptation can begin with 1-2 core sleeps being flexed at a time, with 15m earlier/later than the original sleep time. Flexing cores however is deemed more difficult than naps, however this small flex should be comfortably adjusted within some days or a week. It is better to avoid flexing multiple cores with big jumps in one go, as doing so can lead to destabilization. During flexing, it is normal to observe drowsy periods around the original core time.
Flexing then can be enhanced with larger jumps, 30m earlier/later than the original sleep time, 60m later/earlier then up to hours as the body continually adjusts to various sleep times across the clock. Each jump will take longer to adapt to, up to a couple weeks. It is also recommended to stay at a certain flex range for some days to check if alertness and productivity level and sleep inertia have gone back to desired level before expanding on a bigger flex range.
The adaptation to CAMAYL is not going to be similar to the adaptation to the strict bases (Triphasic and QC0). It is going to require a constant monitoring of energy dips and alertness-drowsiness patterns in the day to place core sleeps accordingly. It is necessary to adapt to either Triphasic or QC0 first (which may take several weeks). Then stay on the adapted schedule for some more weeks before attempting to adapt to CAMAYL. As flex range gets wide enough for some sleep blocks, the whole schedule can become malleable and long periods of wakefulness will occur. This means that it becomes possible to then start alternating the number of core sleeps from day to day.
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.
Delaying a core will increase the desire for sleep, and when adapted this will not pose any problems to overall well-being until it is delayed excessively (2-3h for a morning core and 4-5h for a daytime core). It is also common to expect to stay awake for shorter periods during graveyard hours and longer during the day, to place cores accordingly. 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.
For more stability of the schedule’s structure, a dark period should start and end at the same hours everyday, regardless of how many cores are taken. This helps separate day-night clearly to ensure the stability of the circadian rhythm. A core can start at least 30m or up to many hours after dark period has started if the previous core is taken close to the start of dark period. Because of the many cores on the schedule, at least one core should be scheduled around the 2-6 AM zone, where most people are sleeping. There should be at least 90m-120m of wake gap between each core.
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.
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.
