Polyphasic Sleep

[brasschuckles]

Hey HL,

I'm planning on trying out a polyphasic sleep schedule again soon and as I couldn't find an existing megathread on the subject I thought I would create this one. For those of you who haven't heard of the term before, polyphasic sleep (polynapping) is the practice of acquiring needed sleep via multiple shorter periods as opposed to lumping it all together in one night (monophasic sleep) which most of society does. There are many simple versions of the concept - from a short powernap the day after a late night to daily two period biphasic sleep entailing a midday siesta in hot climates - however it is extreme polynapping where things get interesting.

By conditioning your body to become more efficient at sleeping, you can shorten the total amount of time required to sleep during a day. The commonly cited Uberman schedule consists of only a 20min nap taken every four hours. Over a 24h period this equals only two hours of sleep which leaves you with four to six extra hours of time a day compared to normal monophasic sleep. The Uberman schedule has been succesfully practiced before, however the inflexible nap times can be difficult to fit into a regular lifestyle. The Everyman schedule is a variation which also includes a "core" longer period of sleep during the night which is then supplemented by naps throughout the day depending on the length of the core. This method generally has less drastic time saving but is more forgiving on work/social commitments.

Switching to any type of polyphasic sleep has an initial sleep-deprived adjustment period so I will be beginning mine starting after my exams on the winter solstice. The polyphasic sleep I engaged in before (6months or so in length) was an Everyman type schedule. I slept 3h from 3am-6am every night and then napped for 20min (considered the most efficient amount of time) at 12pm [lunch break], 5pm [after work], and 10pm [when a lot of people get ready for bed] which totalled 4h a day. This system was quite enjoyable, time spent between 10pm-3am was quite productive with self-betterment projects, and the only reason I went off of it was to go on a multiple month cycling tour.

The only complaint I had of the Everyman was that occasionally I would feel groggy after the core period or it would be difficult to fall asleep for my lunchtime nap. It was without a doubt still better than the feeling of waking up after over-sleeping on a Sunday morning or not getting into bed until the wee small hours with work in the morning on monophasic sleep. I think that the small problems were due to my body not fully adapting to make the best use of nap times as it still had that core period of sleep.

One of the fundemental driving forces behind me wanting to experiment with polyphasic sleep is the perception of time. People naturally split time up into days however with polynapping (minus the core) time is unbroken and constantly flowing along. This time around (pun intended) I am going to run with that concept and try a system I have dubbed the rolling 20s. Basically I will plan my napping on the fly ensuring I have the opportunity to take 20min at least every 6h and can play catch up when I have the chance and feel the need to. I doubt I will get down to a 2h total like the very strict Uberman, but by always ensuring awake time inbetween naps (even if taken every hour from 2am to 6am like a broken up core) I hope I reap the same benefits with much more flexibility.

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I'll make updates here once I get going but feel free to also discuss/inquire about polyphasic sleep in general (i.e. heated debate on scientific validation) or ask about my previous experience. Here is the wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep and a dude who did the Uberman for half a year's blog http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/

 

[addictivepersona]

No solid evidence, but I read back while working the night shift that people who get broken up sleep don't live as long as those that get 7-9 hours in one stretch. :-/

 

[euphoria]

Interesting, someone at work was just talking about this the other day. I have personally never tried it, the guy who brought it up swears by it and says it really improves his concentration and efficiency during the day. If you end up trying it out, let us know how it goes. I love my 8 hours of sleep at night so I don't know that I'd be able to switch to this

He mentioned how sailors often adopt this kind of sleep schedule due to taking shifts on the deck, taking turns sleeping, and because they are out for such long periods of time.

 

[max_]

It sounds really odd. I'll look into it and I might try it. Although I do not think 4 hours sleep is enough, I would have more or longer naps.

 

[brasschuckles]

No solid evidence, but I read back while working the night shift that people who get broken up sleep don't live as long as those that get 7-9 hours in one stretch. :-/

Based on commonsense I agree. However if your broken up sleep allows you much more concious time during your life it might be worth it no? That is also ignoring the fact that most people who get broken up sleep are probably not sleeping efficiently and are therefore chronically sleep deprived. Hopefully I will be able to take unbiased tests on if I am "sleep deprived" or not and continue or bail out as needed.

Interesting, someone at work was just talking about this the other day. I have personally never tried it, the guy who brought it up swears by it and says it really improves his concentration and efficiency during the day. If you end up trying it out, let us know how it goes. I love my 8 hours of sleep at night so I don't know that I'd be able to switch to this

He mentioned how sailors often adopt this kind of sleep schedule due to taking shifts on the deck, taking turns sleeping, and because they are out for such long periods of time.

I will definitely let you know how it goes here once I start. I've read militaristic studies on it before and the problem with them is that they are always talking about short term environmentally required situations which I am looking to avoid. Still they are interesting and bluelight (pun haha) therapy to encourage 24h of awakefullness are quite interesting.

It sounds really odd. I'll look into it and I might try it. Although I do not think 4 hours sleep is enough, I would have more or longer naps.

Why do you think 4h is not enough? The theory behind the mechanism is training your body to be more efficient in sleep - in effect instantly entering REM and not requiring the less needed stage 1-3 aspects. I'm unfortunatly also a pretty active person so muscle recovery may be effected as well. I'm hoping that down time (concious but relaxed and supplined) may effectively account for it.

We'll have to see how it goes and I love being on the cutting edge. The fact that people have had such positive response before gives me hope though, and I feel with global connectiveness ever increasing eventually we'll all have to start ignoring the sun and human sleep analysis will be a forefront of modern science. For now though I have to go study. I'll report back once I start the system.

 

[addictivepersona]

Based on commonsense I agree. However if your broken up sleep allows you much more concious time during your life it might be worth it no? That is also ignoring the fact that most people who get broken up sleep are probably not sleeping efficiently and are therefore chronically sleep deprived. Hopefully I will be able to take unbiased tests on if I am "sleep deprived" or not and continue or bail out as needed.

Yeah, the information I read did talk about being sleep deprived. I guess if you're not depriving your body of sleep and just breaking it up and you know what you're doing, there shouldn't be any huge issue. Kinda like how ketosis in general is bad, but if you know what you're doing it can be beneficial for weight loss (or so they say ).

Keep us all updated on this for sure. :) When do you plan on starting again?

OH, and how do you plan on evaluating your level of sleep deprivation? What's your unbiased test? Just wondering.

 

[brasschuckles]

Yeah, the information I read did talk about being sleep deprived. I guess if you're not depriving your body of sleep and just breaking it up and you know what you're doing, there shouldn't be any huge issue. Kinda like how ketosis in general is bad, but if you know what you're doing it can be beneficial for weight loss (or so they say ).

Keep us all updated on this for sure. When do you plan on starting again?

The winter solstice or January 22, midnightish EST, is when I plan on starting. I like the analogy to ketosis for weight loss though I am looking for something more sustainable and feel that weightloss is a temporary gain.

OH, and how do you plan on evaluating your level of sleep deprivation? What's your unbiased test? Just wondering.

A very good question and something I haven't fully thought through yet. My preliminary research shows that people who are chronically sleep deprived don't conciously acknowledge it as well as people who are acutely deprived so I'll need to look into this more. I assume there are reaction and memory tests available online that I could look into to supplement my subjective opinion. Direction from anyone in the field would be most beneficial as I am strapped for time right now and can see how the initial stages and more importantly a baseline could be vital to future analysis.