E3
Everyman 3, or E3, is the original Everyman sleep schedule that was invented by Puredoxyk. It used to be known as the only Everyman schedule, before E2 and E4 came along. Following the naming prototypes of polyphasic schedules, E3 has 3 naps, and 1 core sleep of 3 hours.
History
Everyman is so named as a less extreme alternative to Uberman. Puredoxyk, who named and popularized Uberman, also proposed Everyman (what is now the Everyman 3 variant) as a way to adapt to less sleep more easily, while being more in sync with normal daily life without the need for extreme rigidity in naps. She reported this as sustainable once her child was a few years old, when someone else could watch the child during her naps. By 2008, it had become popular as the “fallback” for failed Uberman attempts. It was inspired by the first wave of Uberman attempts after Puredoxyk in the early 2000s, and then again starting in 2007 by personal growth blogger Steve Pavlina’s grueling adaptation log for Uberman. The repeated experience of Uberman attempters was to crash uncontrollably for several hours, every couple days or so. It made sense, then, to convert those crashes into a new schedule with a 3-hour core.
Currently, E3 is the most sought after schedule thanks to Puredoxyk's inspiration with her book, the seemingly convenient scheduling structure, and an astounding amount of sleep reduction. In the recent years, E3 remains one of the top-tier polyphasic schedules that is embraced by many. Even though there has been a whopping amount of adaptation failures over the years, the heat around E3 has never subsided. As of late, there have been more options to schedule E3, which in return further cements E3 at the top spot for usage with admirable versatility in scheduling.
Mechanism
Following from E2, E3 further removes a full cycle from the core sleep and adds another 20m nap. Its core sleep, lasting for only ~3-3.5h (depending on scheduling), accounts for only 2 full sleep cycles. Totaling approximately 4-4.5h of sleep each day, E3 is now considered one of the most difficult schedules that the average adult should be able to accomplish with strong adaptation skills. Four hours total daily sleep is considered the minimum to contain a sustainable 90m SWS, 90m REM, and transitional light sleep. Similar to other schedules, 20m naps are preferred over 30m naps or longer naps because it prevents SWS wakes from the start of adaptation, and generally easier to handle.
The most important scheduling requirement is having the core cover the circadian SWS peak between 9PM and midnight. 9PM is the ideal start time, but 10PM is also permissible. Rotating the schedule further is very difficult, and requires stringent management of light, food, and possibly temperature cues to maintain a circadian rhythm later than natural daylight. With this artificial lighting setup to mark the onset of melatonin release, an ideal E3 adaptation would have the entire SWS needs covered in the core, and SWS is going to be extremely packed in the first cycle of the core. The second core will then allow some amount of REM sleep, the remaining of which is supplemented by the naps.
Because of the reduced total sleep, each nap on E3 will not sustain wakefulness for a period as long as the naps on E2 or any other extended variants with higher total sleep. The ideal wake gap from the core to the first nap is anywhere around 3-4h, 4-5h between the first 2 naps, and then up to 7h (not recommended to be longer than 8h) between the third nap and the core. The first 2 naps will be full of REM sleep, and the third nap varies in successful adaptations. It may contain exclusively light sleep if placed later than a certain benchmark for the REM circadian (this varies among individuals). If the third nap is after ~3-4 PM, the chance for REM sleep to enter is a lot lower than around early afternoon hours (1-2 PM). Individuals with low REM requirements may only have light sleep in the last nap. Ideally, all 3 naps of E3 are designed with the intent of giving REM sleep.
There has been a few changes in E3's scheduling over years. Puredoxyk's original E3 has the core placed near midnight, which is considered late for an E3 core as the quality of SWS can quickly deteriorate (will be discussed in the Alternate Variants section). Currently, the default variant has the core occupy most, if not all of the SWS peak hours. Even though social time in the evening becomes null on regular E3, 2 naps are taken before one heads out to work or start the day. The remaining nap is taken during some breaks in the afternoon. This allows for more chance to dodge daytime commitments that can usurp nap times if there is more than one daytime nap.
Adaptation
As mentioned above, adaptation to E3 is very taxing (except E3-extended). Its total sleep is at the minimum sleep threshold for long-term maintenance. For one, SWS is a massive roadblock during adaptation. Repartitioning all SWS into only two cycles makes this schedule extremely difficult by the second and third week of adaptation. At first, SWS is spread out up to the third sleep cycle, or even in later cycles in the morning on monophasic sleep in the case of poor sleep hygiene or pre-existing sleep deprivation. When the core is suddenly cut short, SWS wakes become frequent in the core. This leads to many reported oversleeps. Even worse, the naps can also give SWS wakes as SWS deprivation symptoms become clearer as adaptation progresses.
It is also common to experience or feel cold after waking up from the first nap, or near sunrise hours, because the core body temperature is still adapting to the new sleep regime, and core body temperature is often at its lowest (circadian trough) around these late night/early morning hours. Many weeks of little to no oversleeps and utmost consistency in sleep times are required to eventually reach an equilibrium of SWS and REM on schedule. Eventually, naps should no longer have SWS episodes. The early REM-favored placement of the three naps (none in the evening) helps to reinforce this. 4AM, 8AM, and 2:30PM naps are ideal with a 9PM core.
Gradual adaptation
It is possible to transition to E3 from E2 or even E1 by cutting out some portion of the core sleeps and add naps accordingly. However, there are very few sleepers who have been able to transition and adapt to E3 from E2. The gradual adaptation route is often too long in the grand scheme of things, when challenging adaptations to E1 or E2 can be overbearing for any new polyphasic sleepers. It is therefore necessary to stay adapted on E1, or mostly E2 for some months before considering adapting to E3. This can gauge for the personal ability to sustain a reduced sleep total n E2 comfortably, to make sure there is any good shot at E3. An unstable E2 or E1 adaptation will quickly tell the story that E3 may be an unrealistic goal, and an extended version would become necessary.
Cold turkey
A large majority of successful E3 adaptations comes from this method, however. The time it takes to adapt to E3 is potentially shorter than to 2 schedules in the gradual adaptation method. Because of the lower total sleep, it is also expected that vital sleep will be repartitioned into each sleep block faster than those on E2 or E1. Thanks to the high sleep pressure overall, adaptation duration on E3 is often shorter than those on E1, based on the successful accounts. However, a failing adaptation due to skipping naps, flexing naps, moving the core sleep, wrong assessments of personal monophasic sleep needs, or a poor diet/exercise/substance planning can drag out Stage 3 for an extended period of time.
Naptation
This adaptation protocol to E3 used to be popular, but it is heavily advised against recently, especially if one dives into E3 right after doing naptation. The primary reason is that starting an adaptation with sleep debt only inflates the difficulty of the adaptation and leads to unwanted oversleeps right in the first couple days. Fully recovering on monophasic from the sleep debt generated on naptation as a process of learning to nap before attempting E3 would be a more sensible route. As adaptation goes on, the sleep pressure generated from a shortened core sleep will facilitate falling asleep in the naps sooner than on schedules with higher total sleep, so naptation may be an unnecessary method.
Reverse gradual adaptation
This adaptation method also used to be very popular to adapt to E3. The strategy is to attempt to schedule Uberman sleep with 6 naps as usual, but not to adapt to it. After some days, the next step is to jump into E3, taking advantage of the insurmountable sleep pressure from the Uberman. By anticipating the incoming "oversleep", one can then choose one of the Uberman naps (typically the one around evening hours) to become an E3 core with a desired length of choice (e.g, 3 or 3.5h core). While this method has been largely discontinued recently, it did have some success over the long history of E3 attempts.
Same as Naptation method, starting an E3 run with pre-existing sleep debt from Uberman is not recommended and potentially only makes adaptation harder than it already is. A recovery on monophasic sleep after Uberman (as a process of learning to nap in 20 minutes) would be preferred to a direct transition. The body also needs a period of time to get used to a new sleeping pattern as a result of the breakdown of the core sleep into purely 20m naps before there is a resurgence of the core sleep again.
Alternate Variants
E3 is a polyphasic schedule that truly lives up to the expectation. Successes documented and reported over the years have nourished the standard scheduling and even created more alternatives to attempt, with a decent possibility to succeed.
Midnight core
This version was originally mapped out by Puredoxyk. The core is located at late hours in the SWS peak, which also forces a rotation of the nap timing. In this setup, social life can be more manageable in the evening with the opportunity to wake up and start the day very early. The first nap is taken before the day actually starts (for other regular monophasic sleepers), and 2 naps are taken during work breaks, potentially. In a way this scheduling resembles DC2 whose naps are placed at similar hours. There is also a choice of scheduling a 3.5h core for the matter of personal preference, Puredoxyk explained.
However, there has been limited success with this scheduling over the years. This is largely attributed to the lackluster amount of SWS that cannot be reliably sustained from the core alone, and SWS can creep into the last nap. Only individuals with low SWS requirements would enjoy this variant, as it is similar to E2's scheduling, except more extra wake time.
Dawn core
Puredoxyk was successfully adapted to this E3 variant at some point. However, she was also known to be a very heavy insomniac, whose sleep requirements are very low overall, because of the chronic sleep interruptions that troubled her when she had to sleep monophasically. This is a very extreme way to schedule E3, as the core around sunrise hours will create a confusion in circadian rhythm, which favors REM sleep in these hours. It is doubtful if an average sleeper with normal SWS requirements would be able to adapt to this E3, as there has been basically no successful adaptations ever reported. The rotation of the naps also moves the last nap into SWS peak hours, which can be absolutely overwhelming to wake from when SWS pressure rises. Inexperienced or beginners should avoid this variant entirely.
3.5h core
Nowadays, this core length has been more commonly used for an E3 adaptation rather than the 3h core. The total sleep is similar to Triphasic, hovering around a more comfortable sleep total for experienced or highly motivated attempters. The same principles that apply to the 3h core also apply to a 3.5h core. The core sleep should not start any later than 10-10:30 PM, to retain sufficient amount of SWS. If all SWS has been accounted for, the +30m from 3-3.5h mark can give more light sleep or REM sleep, to match personal REM baseline more comfortably. This is also a core duration that is popularly used in Segmented sleep and scheduled in the SWS peak for the same purpose. The naps are scheduled in a similar manner. It may be possible to gradually transition from Segmented sleep (with a 3.5h first core), a scheme proposed by Polyphasic Society to get to E3, but it is unknown if anyone has been able to pull this off.
The benefits of this variant is the flexibility of the core sleep after adaptation (~15-30m earlier or later than the original time should be realistic), and the flexibility of the last nap, or the second nap as well. Contrary to other polyphasic schedules with 4-4.5h total sleep, this 3.5h core version seems to be the most flexible. However, adaptation remains very punishing for any oversleeps as long as ~1h at least. The exhausting process of repartitioning will also ramp up around the second or third week. Those who want to start a first polyphasic adaptation should aim for this variant to stay at a safer amount of total sleep, and a somewhat milder adaptation than the original version.
Extended/Pronap
Even though the regular version was mostly practiced after the release of Ubersleep, a lot of questions were raised about the viability of an E3 scheduling with a 4.5h core instead. Puredoxyk later clarified on the matter and said it is a decent option, mostly designed as a "happy E3" variant. Currently, the Polyphasic Discord Community has named it "E3-extended" because of the addition of 1 full sleep cycle to the 3h core. There are in fact reasons why E3-extended is along the lines of a "happy" polyphasic schedules.
- The adaptation process is much tamer than with a 3h core. The addition of the core sleep, which also makes it a core length of a regular E2 schedule, allows ideally all SWS to remain intact during adaptation. As SWS deprivation symptoms almost do not exist on the schedules (except in the case of pre-existing sleep deprivation or bad sleep hygiene from not doing a proper dark period), the adaptation centers on repartitioning REM sleep so that it appears at earlier periods in the core cycles. The last nap likely contains only NREM2 to sustain alertness, while the other 2 naps are still replete with REM sleep. The overall sleep pressure on this schedule is much more tolerable than E3. In terms of difficulty, it has reported a good wave of successful adaptations even from beginners and is a very reliable way to adapt to an Everyman schedule with 3 naps.
- It is possible to transition from an adapted E1 schedule to E3-extended, which is of moderate difficulty for this gradual adaptation. There has been some successful examples in the community who followed this pathway.
- E3-extended has a higher nap frequency than E2 aside from the same core duration. This means it is less stressful to stay awake until the next nap as they are placed closer to each other. During adaptation, if one nap is skipped, it will provide more opportunities to fall asleep in the next nap even in the early stage of adaptation. The process will also be less painful with one skipped nap, as long as this does not occur too often when adapting.
- A 4.5h core also validates the later start time. Unlike E3's core, on E3-extended the core can start at midnight, or even some time after midnight (the naps will have to be rotated along). More awake time in the evening is what many people are after, and this is an advantage compared to most multi-core schedules.
- E3-extended can become very flexible after adapting, with the possibility to transition to SEVAMAYL as the most ideal base schedule. The core duration, which can cover a decent amount of REM sleep, puts less pressure on the naps to achieve the same task, and naps can then be flexed to great extents while still fulfilling the remnant REM requirements. The ability for the core to receive natural wakes after adaptation has also been noted, with the reduction to ~4h core duration as a result of many weeks staying adapted.
- The ideal scheduling of E3-extended would have a nap around early morning hours, noon/early afternoon and late afternoon to fit into regular occupations (e.g, 9-to-5). The wake gap between the first nap and the core can be as low as 3h, and up to ~4.5h. The last nap can be as late as ~6 PM as long as all SWS is guaranteed in the core. Because of having 3 naps, E3-extended does not have much variation in scheduling as the naps are mostly locked into these convenient spots of the day.
As SWS is most likely covered by the core, this creates a possibility for a Pronap on E3-extended, even though it may appear redundant. There is very little successful record with this variant as well. It is also important to note that using a Pronap on regular E3 versions is very discouraged, because the 3 or 3.5h cores cannot cover all SWS needs when adaptation first begins. Extending the first nap will only increase the chance for an SWS wake, because through many in-progress adaptations to Everyman schedules, many EEG readings of adapters do record SWS or even SWS wake even in the first nap around REM peak. A Pronap is often used for individuals with normal SWS but high REM requirements, ~120-150m to be able to use this E3-extended variant. Only sleep mutants or individuals with low SWS requirements should use a Pronap on the regular E3 version.
Since the 5h core duration has been used in a lot of adaptations, it is also possible to apply the concepts to E3-extended. With the total sleep of 6h and a high frequency of sleep, this variant should suit people with very high monophasic requirements (e.g, ~9-9.5h monophasic) or people with huge SWS requirements. There have been very rare attempts, though.
Alternatively, a 5h core and a Pronap (~30-40m) can be scheduled on E3-extended, however there is no success up to date. Other than that, this variant likely will not see much use because of its seemingly redundant amount of sleep and can cause a lot of hassles during adaptation. An E2 schedule with a 5h core, E2-extended or E1 with a 6.5h core can be more convenient to schedule.
Lifestyle Considerations
Because E3's core sleep is short enough to leave many wake hours during night time hours, and the core is often placed around the hours that can be secured from daytime interruptions, the naps come in handy with scheduling. Each nap only lasts for 20m, so it is very easy to fit them into daily scheduling. This is further enhanced by occupations with flexible work hours or work-from-home jobs. The short duration of a nap does not often get into the way of many other daily commitments, and a lot of casual people will not even notice that someone has taken a 20m nap nearby.
The core of E3 amplifies the characteristics of a sleep pattern that bears striking resemblance to a massively reduced monophasic schedule. This is a trait among Everyman scheduling prototypes, where the long core sleep is cut from monophasic sleep, and accounts for the majority of total sleep. The only difference is the addition of the naps to alleviate homeostatic pressure and to ideally maintain a healthy balance of SWS and REM sleep. Because of this, it is reported by at least a couple adapted E3 sleepers that E3 barely gives any sleep, or only 3h of sleep per day since the naps are so short despite their frequency. Similar to other schedules with low total sleep, days on E3 can last very long, and each nap provides REM sleep for refreshment. The short naps also do not give an impression of a burden of having to cool down and sleep for a long period of time like a core would.
Even though the original E3 with a 3h core does not have any flexibility after adaptation, or withstand heavy workouts at all, the 3.5h core variant has recorded the possibility to have 1 or 2 flexible naps (except the first nap) and even the core sleep, to a small margin. This is all at the cost of the addition of mere 30m of sleep. Like other schedules, the naps should be designed to fit into personal timetable from day to day if possible. The noon break, early afternoon circadian nadir and possibly after work (E3-extended) should be capitalized on to place naps. The vast extra wake hours can be dedicated to hobbies, self-care and many other activities.
The extended version (4.5h core) has been a treasure for E3. It has reported a surprising amount of success that helps with the extra time and the nap frequency helps prevent the strain of having to stay awake for too long. On this variant, having a sweaty workout is tolerable, and even small amounts of alcohol once in a while. The flexibility after adaptation can be up to ~90m range (earlier/later than the original core time). The 4.5h core has since been considered a golden core duration that hits many birds with one stone and is a hallmark duration that makes E3 even greater today. Despite its greatness and popularity, it is essential to carefully look over daily commitments, sleep habits, meal plans and other habits that can negatively affect polyphasic adaptations, especially those of E3 tier (e.g, smoking, being consistently sleep deprived on monophasic).
As an added bonus, E3 is one of the prime polyphasic schedules for lucid dreaming. A lot of intense dreaming experiences, including false awakening dreams have been recalled from E3's naps. A highly challenging test of the adaptation phase on this schedule will open the gate to the extra time and rewarding productivity once the naps have become part of a daily lifestyle.
