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Although I haven’t mentioned it in this blog, anyone who knows me can tell you that I’ve been talking about going on the Uberman sleep schedule for a while. For those of you who don’t know, the uberman sleep schedule is a form of polyphasic sleep in which you take a 15-20 minute nap every 4 hours. In total you end up sleeping about 2 hours a day. If you sleep 8 hours a day, that’s 6 more hours per day and 42 more hours per week. Just imagine how much more you can get done with those extra hours. Hell, you could get another full time job with all that extra time.

95 percent of the people I talk to are skeptical that it can be done and 99 percent of people I talk to believe that it’ll have devastatingly negative health consequences. I hope to prove both of these concerns wrong once I go on it in September. From what I’ve heard of people who have done it successfully, you’re actually less tired throughout the day. That 15 minute nap every 4 hours keeps you at your optimum level more often. Usually, after a bad nights sleep most people become useless for the next day. On the Uberman Sleep Schedule you’re only 3 hours and 45 minutes away from your next nap, so at most a bad nap can only hurt you for the 3 hours and 45 minutes.

The first time I hear about the sleep schedule was probably 6 years ago back in high school. It didn’t really appeal to me at the time because there weren’t enough things to fill those days as it was, and going to school from 8 to 3 would make the sleep cycle impossible to do. These days however things are different. I have so many things that I want to accomplish and so little time. Also, the college schedule is extremely flexible and there might not be another time in my life where I’ll be able to do this.

What really propelled this far fetched idea to become an obsession was reading Steve Pavlina’s blog. Steve Pavlina is a very famous self-help guru and blogger. Although I had no idea who he was before I found his uberman posts on a random google search, apparently he’s one of the most popular bloggers on the net and makes almost 6 figures doing so. Anyways, he was able to go on the uberman sleep schedule for almost 6 months and realistically could have gone on much longer. He documented this time period in his life, giving vivid details of what it was like from day 1 to 180. The toughest part of the whole routine are the first 10 days. Going from monophasic to polyphasic is a huge adjustment, and it takes a while for your body to get attuned to it. Once you past those first days though, it becomes much easier, and you’re even able to get up from your 15 minute naps without an alarm.

Anyways, I’m going to try the sleep schedule when I get back from Japan on September 18. Starting it right away will probably help ward off the jetlag as well as give me some breathing room before school starts. I’ll write a few more posts about it before I go on it and then document how it goes day by day. Stay tuned.

Considering this blog is supposed to be about web design and programming, I’ve done very little mentioning about my progress learning the subject. So, I’m going to spend this post talking about what I’ve been doing and my plans for the future.

Over the course of the past month or so, I’ve been going through the book PHP 5 for the Absolute Beginner by Andy Harris. It’s an excellent beginner book that walks you step by step through very simple programs using all the features of PHP, XML, MySQL, etc. I’ve really only gone through the book once so I haven’t totally absorbed all the concepts yet. I feel like I need to read the book at least 3 times before the material really soaks in, so it’ll be a longer process than I initially imagined.

From now until the time I leave for Asia(August 25) I’m going to finish going through the book and perhaps go through it quickly one more time. I’ll have approximately 3 and a half weeks in Asia and I think I’m going to bring one or two books about CSS and HTML. I’ve realized that by trying to learn PHP and MySQL first I was trying to go to steps 2 and 3 directly without knowing step 1. PHP uses HTML code, and you really can’t do much in PHP if you aren’t an expert an HTML. So for those 3 and a half weeks in Asia I’m going to be reading and studying HTML and CSS.

HTML and CSS are the foundations of making static web pages. By static web pages, I mean web pages where the user cannot interact directly and permanently with the web page. This means no forms, logins, retrieving data, etc. What you can do with HTML and CSS is make stuff like content-based web pages where your only purpose to provide some sort of information with the user. So once I come back from Asia, I’m going to translate my HTML and CSS knowledge into making a content-based web page. I really have no idea what kind of content I’m going to put on the web page, but that is really of secondary importance. My main goal out of all of this is to become an expert in HTML and CSS.

After I finish with HTML and CSS by mid October, I’m going to go back and become and expert in PHP and MySQL. I imagine that it’ll take a little bit longer to learn that than HTML and CSS, but since I’ve already had some limited exposure to the material, it shouldn’t be too difficult. Hopefully I can have a fully functional PHP and MySQL website up by the end of December. After that I really don’t know where I’ll go with my programming. There’s all sorts of other languages like AJAX and Java that I’ll need to eventually learn, but I don’t really know at this time how important those other languages are to what I’m trying to achieve.

So my schedule for the next few months will go something like this:

8/17 – 8/25: Finish Reading PHP 5 and MySQL for the Absolute Beginner

8/26 - 9/18: Read 2 HTML + CSS books in Asia

9/18 – 10/15: Create a Static Webpage

10/16 – 11/31: Read 2 PHP 5 + MySQL books

12/1 – 12/31: Create a Dynamic Webpage

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I’ve been off the master cleanse now for 5 days now and I have to say, I don’t feel that much different. I don’t feel like I’ve gained any more energy than before the diet. I don’t feel like I’ve gained anything in the form of mental clarity. And I don’t feel like I’m breathing any better or have less mucus running through my nose and throat. So overall I was unable to acquire all the things that I wanted to gain out of doing the master cleanse.

One of the tangible things that I did gain from doing the master cleanse was cleaner bowel movements. I know that sounds disgusting, but since I’m giving an overall review I have to be frankly honest. Before starting the master cleanse I was having very bad gas and very sloppy bathroom visits. (Gross right?) I think that was one of the reasons why I felt like I needed to detox. The way you excrete matter is representative of the way it goes in, and since it was coming out pretty, I could only assume that meant that the things I were putting in weren’t very pretty for me. So how are my bathroom visits like now? Well let’s just say I feel normal again in that respect, so mission accomplished.

The real meat of the benefits of the master cleanse were psychological. Really testing my self-discipline, and doing the program for 7 days just for my satisfaction was tough. For most people, they do the cleanse to lose weight or beat a drug test. I was just doing it to see if I could do it. Going through those 7 days unable to eat, drink, or smoke while going to places like concerts, barbecues, and parties really made the process harder than it had to be. I learned to put my mind over matter and to stymie temptations as they arose. I feel like I proved a lot to myself during this whole process, and I have much more faith in myself in my future endeavors.

So to recap, although 7 days plus the ease in period were tough, and even though I didn’t gain much tangible benefits, I’d still have to say that overall going on the program was well worth it. Success in life bring more success, and I felt like accomplishing this minor internal victory was essential for my self confidence later on in life.

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Today is the 6th day of my doing the master cleanse program. Overall it hasn’t been too tough so far. The maple syrup and lemon juice give me enough calories so that I don’t feel very hungry throughout the day. I’m able to do just about everything normally as long as it doesn’t involve me running or jumping. Anyways I’ll do a little Q and A session with what people have been asking me throughout the cleanse.

Why are you doing this?

I’m doing this half because I was curious of what it would be like and half because I wanted to cleanse my system of all the toxins that have been building up from my horrible diet.

Aren’t you hungry all the time?

Not really. The drink gives me enough calories that I feel satisfied throughout the day. The only real hard part is being around food that smells delicious. My roommates ordered a large pizza the first day and I really wanted to eat a slice. But I can’t say that that is really any different from being in a place where you were hungry and the person next to you was eating something that smelled really good. So in essence the hard part about the diet is about controlling your cravings rather than your hunger.

How is your energy level?

In terms of my normal day to day routine my energy level doesn’t seem much less than normal. I feel like I need to get a little more sleep, but I had been getting less than 5 hours a night as it was. I don’t really get too tired throughout the day, but my day mostly consists of walking around my work office or sitting at home on the computer.

Can you exercise on the diet?

I tried playing basketball today and it was horrible. I was winded after running for about 20 seconds. I ended up playing for about an hour and a half but spent most of my time walking up and down the court. I think part of that can be explained from the fact that I’ve done virtually no exercise this summer, but being on the master cleanse program for 5 days definitely contributed.

Aren’t you losing a lot of weight?

I’ve been losing a few pounds and my abs definitely stick out now, but I’m getting a good 1500-2000 calories a day from the drink. I haven’t stood on an accurate scale yet, so I’m curious to see what it’ll say come Wednesday.

Have you experienced any health benefits yet?

The mucus in my throat is definitely thinner than it used to be. I can’t really say that I’m thinking clearer though, which is something a lot of people say happens as a result of the detox. It’s still kind of early to tell though. You’re supposed to do the diet for 10 days before you see any real benefits, but I’m only doing it for 7 because that’s all my schedule is allowing for.

What are you going to eat once you’re done with the detox?

Well getting off the diet is vitally important, so the first day I’m going to drink a lot of orange juice and eat a bunch of fruit. I’m going to buy grapes, bananas, apples, avocados, peaches, and just about any other fruits I can get my hands on. The second day I’ll add in vegetables and soup. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up a high fruit and vegetable diet once the detox is over. I’m definitely going to start eating foods like pizzas, burgers, and all that good stuff, but I’ll try to keep them a delicacy rather than my base foods.

Would you do this again?

Although the detox hasn’t been too hard, it’s been very frustrating. Having to endure everyone around me eating delicious food is really a test of willpower. I’ve had to watch people eat numerous late night pizzas, a bbq, chipotle, thai food, and all sorts of chips and snacks. Although I won’t rule out doing this again once I’m out of college and there’s less temptations, I can’t see myself doing this again anytime soon.

I’ll have another update in a few days after I’m totally done with this cleanse.

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