So, while perusing the always informative articles on Cracked.com, I found out about polyphasic sleep; that is, dividing your sleeping schedule into several increments throughout the day, thereby awarding yourself more time in the day. The idea behind it is that as your body gets used to the schedule, you'll fall into REM sleep faster and skip the supposedly less important stages of sleep. The most famous schedule is the Uberman sleep schedule, wherein the person sleeps in six 20 minute increments throughout the day at specific times.
Obviously, this isn't especially healthy and there is plenty of room for error, as noted in
this rather bitchy article, which also explains many misconceptions about polyphasic sleep which decrease the credibility of some of it's practitioners. However, those who have tried it, most famously the bloggers
PureDoxyk (who coined "Uberman") and
Steve Pavlina, appear to enjoy it, and seem to mostly quit because it either interferes with their schedules or the find it difficult to fully adapt in a world of monophasic sleep.
On one hand, science doesn't promote this lifestyle. On the other hand, those who have tried it generally loved it. Based on this, I'm planning on trying out polyphasic sleep once this semester ends, though if I'm working on a shoot that might not be possible. Eventually, however, I will try it and blog my findings, even if that does contribute to some feelings on it simply being a meme.
Thoughts? Experiences?