Author Topic: Polyphasic sleep (Read 12741 times)

BP · « **on:** February 20, 2013, 12:11:26 PM »

Lately I've been really sick of just how much I sleep and when. I'd stay up till 4AM, sleep till 2, feel like crap and like my day was wasted every day. And I'm not even convinced that the standard sleep schedule of 16 waking hours, 8 sleep hours, repeat even works for me when I'm actually doing it right; every time I would "reset" my sleep schedule so I'd wake up at a more normal time, I'd still stay up a long time. I feel like if I wanted to just sleep once a day and spend a third of my life unconscious, I'd stay up 20 or 25 hours and sleep 10, but the rotation of the Earth has other plans.

So I'm trying an Everyman sleep schedule. A core period of three and a half hours asleep (3:30 to 7 AM) and three 20-minute naps throughout the day (around 11AM, 3PM and 7PM). The appeal of this over the much more fascinating überman (in which you sleep for 20 minutes every three hours and forty minutes FOREVER and technically only sleep two hours a day) is the flexibility it allows. You can move naps up and down if you need or want, and it's less punishing if you mess up.

I hope this works out for me. I am excited at the prospect of only sleeping four and a half hours a day and not suffering from sleep deprivation. I'll have so much more time to do stuff. Yesterday was my first complete day of doing this and I think it's gonna be successful. Today, I struggled to make myself get out of bed at 7 but didn't oversleep. Then I had a nasty weird knot in my esophagus as my body interrogated me about what I was doing to it. But that stopped when I gave it some coffee, now I feel much like I normally do when I wake up at an AM hour.

BriGuy92 · « **Reply #1 on:** February 20, 2013, 01:04:25 PM »

I was actually thinking about this recently. Doesn't it have some kind of nasty health detriments to it, though? I'd actually like to try it for myself, but I'm a little afraid of whatever potential circumstances there might be.

jdaster64 · « **Reply #2 on:** February 20, 2013, 03:20:06 PM »

Read topic as "polyphasic sheep", and was mildly disappointed. I've thought about alternate sleep schedules like this from time to time, but I don't think I could adjust to taking naps on command, even if on a regular basis.

WarpRattler · « **Reply #3 on:** February 20, 2013, 03:34:38 PM »

I've been wanting to do the Überman schedule for several years, but as we've already discussed in IRC, it'd just be ridiculous trying to run that schedule and have a real life. Maybe if you were a hermit...

The Everyman schedule still has the problem of needing those naps during the day, though, which isn't exactly doable if you have a job. In the best-case scenario, it'd work, but you'd be giving up your lunch break to sleep.

BP · « **Reply #4 on:** February 20, 2013, 04:08:01 PM »

Or slide them around as needed. Or opt for a longer core and only two naps.

Weegee · « **Reply #5 on:** February 20, 2013, 05:14:12 PM »

I have the exact same problem, BP. On days off, I'll easily sleep from 3 to 3. If I force myself to fall asleep at 10 PM, I'll wake up at 3 AM.

As for the Everyman Schedule, how would someone with a job manage to sneak in those 20-minute naps?

Ym9iYnlzcTEzMzc equalsign · « **Reply #6 on:** February 20, 2013, 05:43:35 PM »

Lunch? It would be easier with an office job because that would be "Time when I don't have meetings."

PaperLuigi · « **Reply #7 on:** February 20, 2013, 05:52:29 PM »

This thread has reminded me that I literally haven't slept in 3 days.

BriGuy92 · « **Reply #8 on:** February 20, 2013, 07:39:04 PM »

Go to sleep, PaperLuigi.

Ninjap00 · « **Reply #9 on:** February 20, 2013, 07:52:43 PM »

Uhm. Jeez, how can you go that long without sleeping? I hope you're kidding.

go sleep now pls

PaperLuigi · « **Reply #10 on:** February 20, 2013, 08:02:03 PM »

I'm not kidding. And even if I wanted to sleep, I probably couldn't.

BP · « **Reply #11 on:** February 20, 2013, 08:45:13 PM »

That's not so good at all.

Sapphira · « **Reply #12 on:** February 20, 2013, 08:46:08 PM »

Insomnia, PL? Or life circumstances preventing sleep?

I know how you feel, BP. :/

I have sort of a semi-biphasic/siesta sleep schedule going on, and it kind of works for me.
It varies from day to day whether I follow that or the traditional "monophasic" schedule, but on biphasic days I have a core sleep period at night with a shorter nap--between 1-3 hours--around noon.

Thing is, I usually don't bother with a nap that's less than an hour long unless I'm incredibly exhausted. Mostly since it takes me a while to fall asleep. When it takes me at least 20 minutes to fall asleep, a 20 minute nap is pointless.

My daily schedule is different every day, with classes in the mornings 3 days a week, and work in the afternoon-evening 5 days a week. I have a few hours between school and work on two of those days, which is ideal for naps. On those days, I get maybe 4-6 hours of sleep the night before, so the nap really helps. On the other days I try to get about 7-8 hours, and if less, I just do without and try to catch up on other days or weekends.

I think this schedule works for me since I'm pretty sure I have some sort of circadian rhythm disorder. I can force myself to be on a consistent sleep schedule for maybe a week or two, but after that it shifts to something totally bizarre, and it takes at least a few days before I can get it back on track. So being able to take naps is really helpful for me.

Man, I wish we lived in a society where siestas were commonplace. Also, I hate having to waste a third of my life just sleeping. But, unfortunately for the most part, anything other than a monophasic or possibly biphasic cycle is just impractical for holding a job. So yeah. :/

Weegee · « **Reply #13 on:** February 20, 2013, 08:53:47 PM »

Maybe you ARE sleeping right now, PL.

PaperLuigi · « **Reply #14 on:** February 20, 2013, 08:55:27 PM »

Quote from: Sapphira on February 20, 2013, 08:46:08 PM

Insomnia, PL? Or life circumstances preventing sleep?

The latter. On top of having to do copious amounts of college work, I'm horribly depressed over breaking up with my girlfriend.