Most people over the age of ten or so sleep monophasically; that is, they have one sleep phase per day (younger children often nap and of course babies sleep at all the wrong times). Other animals do not necessarily get 8 solid hours, and in fact the idea that people need 8 hours of sleep is only a couple hundred years old - prior to cheap artificial light, all you could really do when the sun was down is sleep so people mostly slept according to the length of the nighttime.
Polyphasic sleep refers to any pattern where your sleep is taken in more than one chunk. Spanish siestas are an example of this, and Spain has the only culture I know of that is not generally monophasic. Other, more unusual polyphasic patterns are those involving multiple naps per day, and sometimes no large chunk of sleep at all.
I became interested in polyphasic sleep some years back but only recently did I realize that here at Instructables, I had an organization that might allow me to experiment with different sleep patterns. Instructables is ALL ABOUT weird shit like this. So I and my boyfriend are making the attempt.
The pattern we are using is to nap for 20 to 30 minutes every four hours, throughout the day. (This is sometimes referred to as the Uberman pattern, although personally I dislike this term.) This comes out to about 2 - 3 hours of sleep per day, broken up into bits. The theory behind it is that after a week or so of sleep deprivation and general bleariness, your body adjusts to the short but regular naps and goes directly into REM sleep. Thus after a while you are getting enough sleep and feel fully rested - but you have an extra 5 or 6 hours every day to do Stuff in.
In this Instructable I'll document my experiences with polyphasic sleep. I'll write one step a day for a while, and once I settle into the pattern - if I settle into the pattern - I will add a step occasionally as something interesting occurs to me.
Google Search in case you want more Internet-style information.
Polyphasic sleep refers to any pattern where your sleep is taken in more than one chunk. Spanish siestas are an example of this, and Spain has the only culture I know of that is not generally monophasic. Other, more unusual polyphasic patterns are those involving multiple naps per day, and sometimes no large chunk of sleep at all.
I became interested in polyphasic sleep some years back but only recently did I realize that here at Instructables, I had an organization that might allow me to experiment with different sleep patterns. Instructables is ALL ABOUT weird shit like this. So I and my boyfriend are making the attempt.
The pattern we are using is to nap for 20 to 30 minutes every four hours, throughout the day. (This is sometimes referred to as the Uberman pattern, although personally I dislike this term.) This comes out to about 2 - 3 hours of sleep per day, broken up into bits. The theory behind it is that after a week or so of sleep deprivation and general bleariness, your body adjusts to the short but regular naps and goes directly into REM sleep. Thus after a while you are getting enough sleep and feel fully rested - but you have an extra 5 or 6 hours every day to do Stuff in.
In this Instructable I'll document my experiences with polyphasic sleep. I'll write one step a day for a while, and once I settle into the pattern - if I settle into the pattern - I will add a step occasionally as something interesting occurs to me.
Google Search in case you want more Internet-style information.
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My schedule will be to sleep for 20 minutes (or thereabouts, I will work out the exact timing as I go along) at 1, 5, and 9 (AM and PM). This means two or three naps at work, and I have brought in a bean-bag chair to sleep in. Doesn't it look comfy?
For the first week or two, I expect to be rather unhappy. According to The Internet, world's greatest authority on everything, the reason most people who try this fail is that they do not keep a strict schedule, and their body gets confused and doesn't adapt. They mostly fall asleep during non-nap times. To mitigate this risk for myself, I have made a list:
Things to do instead of sleeping
For the first week or two, I expect to be rather unhappy. According to The Internet, world's greatest authority on everything, the reason most people who try this fail is that they do not keep a strict schedule, and their body gets confused and doesn't adapt. They mostly fall asleep during non-nap times. To mitigate this risk for myself, I have made a list:
Things to do instead of sleeping
- Study Chinese
- Write javascript iPhone drawing site
- Projects (see aroundto.it)
- Organize under stage
- Practice cello or er-hu or guitar
- Paint or draw
- Exercise/stretch
- Play Q*bert
- Mess around on the Internet (OK to call it research)
- Write javascript games
- Email / call people I don't talk to enough
- Sew things
- Cook
- Shop for groceries
- Read all those books I haven't had time for yet
- Organize money
- Play chess or go (or other games)
- Dye bondo
- Weld surface from washers
- Weld grating for upstairs
- Write Instructables
- Especially write the casting instructable I promised to do so long ago in Soap Carving for Casting
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I'm going for 30 days and logging the whole experiment on my website. After that point, I'll decide whether I want to do polyphasic sleep long term or not. I hope my post is helpful for those wanting to try polyphasic sleep themselves and a good read for those simply curious about polyphasic sleep.
Aloha!
Ender Ayanethos
Lifestyle Design Entrepreneur
www.EndersAdventures.com
l normally go to bed at 2am, but when I'm busy or tired 1, so roughly 4 to 5 hours of sleep, but when I set my alarm, I'm waking up every hour to look at my alarm. It's suppose to wake me up, but I can't even sleep because I'm making sure the alarm is working. I then end up waking up 30 mins before the alarm goes off and literary laying in bed counting down for the alarm to go off.
So alarms, I might have to reconsider using them, for quality of sleep, though I don't wake up tried when I'm up all night checking on it, it's just I enjoy sleeping.
Large amount of sleep (10+ hours): I have an extremely hard time getting out of bed, even if I can't fall back asleep. By bed time, I crash like a kamikaze plane.
Normal amount of sleep: (8-9 hours): Still sleepy, yawning all day, by bed time I'm wide awake.
Slightly below normal (6-7 hours): I feel great. Slightly sluggish for 20 minutes, but throughout the day, I'm perky.
Very below normal (3-4 hours): I can easily wake up, though my balance and depth perception are still slumbering. Some issues keeping my mind on tasks, but I'm bright-eyed and bushy-tailed all day. Hard to fall back asleep at bed time.
Abnormal (-3 hours): Crap crap crap crap. Extremely difficult getting out of bed, can't stop yawning all day. Anything that requires thinking becomes impossible. I want to sleep all day, then when I get ready for bed, I'm buzzing around like I'm on coffee.
All-nighter (no sleep): Extreme waves of wide awake and damn near dead, depending on what I'm doing. I pull all-nighters a lot when my sleep schedule gets screwed up, so I'm more used to this than anything.
Also, I can't take naps. If I'm well-rested, trying to sleep is impossible unless I'm *completely* relaxed (read: never). If I manage to lie down and catch some z's, I refuse to wake up for another 5+ hours, and then I'm wide awake. Hence why my sleep schedule gets screwed up and I'm used to all-nighers, haha.
:P