MSD

I've been looking into polyphasic sleep recently, and was wondering if any TFP'ers have tried it and either succeeded or failed at it.

Basically, you divide up your sleep into short (~20 minute) naps every 4 hours, with one 4-hour period of sleep one during the day. This seems to be a way that I could manage to get more usable time out of my day, as some have reported that they only need 4-5 hours of sleep per day on this schedule rather than 8-9. As it is, I sleep between 10 and 14 hours per day, and I'd like to cut that in half.

I feel that I could manage the discipline and self-control required for this, but what I really want to know is whether or not it works.

amonkie

Well, Leonardo da Vinci is said to have added 20 years worth of time to his life that he could have spent sleeping. I have some small doubts since your body goes through sleep cycles that are roughly 45 minutes a piece, and only getting 20 minutes of sleep at a time would not get you into your deepest sleep modes. I personally need that deep sleep in order to feel rested. If you're trying to cut back on the number of hours you sleep, this might be an interesting approach for you, since 10-14 hours is by pop standards considered "sleeping too long". If you need some more sources to read up on it, PM me - I had a whole class worth of this stuff

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bing bing

While 10 - 14 hours a day is excessive, polyphasic sleep isn't a healthy option because it will completely fuck your circadian cycle.

Anyway, it is possible to cut back the number of hours of sleep you require but it does take time and make you moody. There's a correlation between amount of sleep you need/get and night and mortality rate with 8 hours being optimal.

Polyphobic

Only when my child was first born.
7 hrs of normal sleep work great for me. Don't fix something that's not broken. Besides, doesn't that fuck up your REM sleep?

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Peetster

You can function on an insanely small amount of sleep, but not for an extended time, and you will be only "functioning". During peak deployment periods, I'd average 3 hours a night and a 45 minute nap at some point.

I don't recommend polyphasic sleep. Try an old fashioned alarm clock first, and dicipline yourself to get up after 8 hours.

TM875

Doctors, pilots, Bill Clinton, etc. train themselves to function on an abnormally small amount of sleep. As with any real physical thing, you can't just go out and start doing it - you have to slowly work up to it.

Doctor friend of mine says that he learned to sleep for about 4 hours a night by a very simple method - at first, sleep for 8 hours, but set your alarm clock to wake you up after four. Then, gradually cut back, always waking up after four hours. Eventually, you'll get to the point when you can simply wake up at that four hour point and stay up.

Myself, I usually function on 5-6 hours of sleep with a 90minute nap when I get home from work (I work nights). Sleeping longer than 8 hours a day makes me exceptionally tired - I don't feel rested at all.

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Kazic

Nuts. I couldn't even think straight. I need my 7-8 hours. Anything less than or more than is not good for me. I have heard of this before. had no idea there was a name for it though.

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Sledge

I was really, REALLY interested in polyphasic sleep for a while, but I don't think there's enough research to support this. Stampi's experiments have never been reproduced and the scientific community appears to have no interest in them. Also, I'm pretty sure that Leo's use of this was hearsay, as was Napoleon's and Buckminster Fuller's -- at least, I have yet to see any credible sources.

The big trend toward polyphasic sleep began with a post about the so-called "Uberman's Sleep Schedule" on Everything2; a later article on kuro5hin helped popularize it more.
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?...astnode_id=124
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/4/15/103358/720

I don't think it holds much water -- it sounds way too good to be true, and hoaxers abound on the Internet. But if anyone here is interested in giving it a try, I would LOVE to be proven wrong.

animosity

I do just fine on 8 hours... any more than that and I dont want to get up for the rest of the day.

I would suggest just cutting back from 10-14 hours to 7-8 hours... unless you really need the extra 2-3 hours of day time there is no sense in making your body go through all that.

bermuDa

5-7.5 hours is fine by me. i nap if i really need it. I think polyphasic sleep fits better into the siesta oriented sleep pattern.

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Jam

my ass is asleep.. what a wierd feeling..

anyways... circwhatiwhat cycle?

how un healthy is it to have a completely random sleep pattern.. sometimes i stay up all night, other times i sleep during the day sometims i sleep in the morning,.. sometimes at night