What Do Scientists Really Know About Polyphasic Sleep?

It is important to get enough sleep, but what happens when you get those eight hours in little naps instead of in one big chunk at night?

Hosted by: Michael Aranda

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[siriusblack]

one very important factor to note that is often forgotten is that polyphasic sleep requires sleep episodes to be separated by more than two hours to ensure that your body does not interpret it as interrupted sleep, but rather as fully separated sleep cycles

[channingscott]

I have two modes:
Sleep is for the weak
Sleeping for a week

[cup_check_official]

sleep is for the weak. *yawns and rubs eyes*

[nocelebrity]

I tried reprogramming my brain, but after flashing the BIOS, I bricked it, and that voided the manufacturer warranty.

[ThinkkTwiice]

Can you oversleep? Sometimes I'm able to get 9+ hours of sleep but when I do I often wake up with a headache and feeling really groggy as if I got 3 hours of sleep. Anyone else?

[Skjoldmc]

I was sporting an "everyman" polyphasic sleep cycle for a while. Days no longer felt like separate events. It just felt like one continuous everlasting day. (But funny enough I also got this feeling from playing too much Stardew valley.)
It took a long time to adjust back to my normal view of days as separate events.

[justinkiel]

I was a double major in college studying biology and chemistry while maintaining an Army ROTC contract. I did polyphasic sleep for 2 years sleeping about 3-4 hrs on weekdays and would sleep 6-7 on weekends. on average I would sleep about 27-30 hours a week. I have an overall positive experience of polyphonic sleeping. I found myself very productive at all times, and really only found myself nodding off in really boring classes. I found it really important to keep my mind stimulated in order to stay awake and drank 2-3 cups of coffee a day/night at certain times. My sleep schedule was pretty concrete and did not vary too much throughout each semester. Because I was in class in the morning I could not sleep until late afternoon. Everyday I would get up at 5:30am (as the army made me). I would be in class by 8 and would usually not get out until about 2 or 3pm. My first nap would be after dinner typically and would last for about 2 hours and then I would take a 20min nap at 11:00pm stay up all night and take my final nap (30mins) at 5:00am. I often found it hard to wake from my 2 hour nap and would often sleep through alarms.

I really like polyphasic sleeping but I had trouble gaining weight, I tried to work out, but never was consistent. On average, I would gain 15-20lbs during the school year and would lose it in the summer. Overall I was very successful, I graduated with a 3.85 GPA in 4 years and took a 172 credit hours and found myself very happy. I feel like someone could be more successful if they worked out more often than just a couple times a week and spread out their sleep through the whole day rather than just the evening. I hope this helps someone!

P.S. The hardest part of polyphasic sleep is the transition. It took me about 6 months for my body to adapt. If you want to try polyphasic sleep I recommend that you start making gradual changes rather than a dramatic ones. I think that will make for a much easier transition.

[krystalia_dorawanderer]

I work on 3 shifts for almost 2 years now. I used to force myself to sleep for at least 6 hours straight a day but it made my health went bad. I got sickly. Now, I sleep/ nap when I need to (sleepy of course) and noticed recently that I became productive, more energetic and healthier. I think I sleep 3-4 times a day and I've never been happier than I am now in my adult life.

[Master_Therion]

I spent a summer as a sheep herder. It was my job to count the sheep in the morning, as they went to pasture, and again in the evening as they returned. By counting sheep twice a day, I developed a Polyphasic *Sheep* pattern.

[GeneWaddle]

So it's better to get all the sleep at once? Yeah, tell that to my bladder.😛

[glnda]

Quick Reminder: Whether you sleep monophasic or biphasic or whateverphasic, sleep now. Its 1am.

[pink_lemonade]

I've noticed that when I sleep early like at 9pm or 10pm, I'll wake up every 2 to 3 hours until the morning when I get up around 7:30am(on weekdays). When I sleep later like around 11pm to 1am I sleep the whole night and have pretty vivid memories of my dreams.

[GSSCHOPAWE]

I’d be delighted to see a video on the history of biphasic sleep before electric light

[IceMetalPunk]

I currently work an inconsistent night schedule, with anywhere from 4 to 11 hours of work, usually ending around midnight. As a result, my sleep schedule is erratic, falling asleep anywhere from midnight to 6AM and waking up anywhere from 10AM to 5PM depending on when I work the next day. Luckily, I only have 4 more days of this job, and my new job starting mid-July will have normal, full-time hours; hopefully my sleeping habits will improve and I'll feel better physically as a result! :D

[Tamugetsu]

Definitely can back up the memory claim - I have sleep apnea, a condition that in my case means I wake up 37 times an hour without realizing it when I sleep. I lose things, forget appointments, have trouble remembering plans, and forget names and things all the time.

Oddly, I have great memory for exact quotes and music, and my inability to memorize in math class forced me to learn concepts rather than steps and formulas, which served me really well and ended up with me getting my bachelor’s degree in Mathematics.

That said, I’ve had a few intelligence tests done as a kid and I scored in the 99th percentile for basically everything except long-term memory.

[whatevermechanics]

Nikola Tesla basically added 27 years of productive time to his life through using the uberman sleep cycle

[tosht]

For me, the key is simply uninterrupted sleep. I get only 5-6 hours a night but I sleep like a rock and feel great in the morning. When I'm thinking about an early morning flight or I have something pressing on my mind, I usually wake up a couple of times and feel a bit foggy during the day. Just me. This was a very interesting episode. 👍

[dregoth]

Your brain is like a computer running Windows 95. Defrag and reboot regularly (sleep) or it will crash.

[Stormaes]

I successfully stuck with the uberman schedule for somewhere around 9 months (with one break at the 6 month mark for injuries).
I did not notice any significant cognitive impairment, and any sleepiness that I encountered was offset by the extra 6 hours. I did notice that my long term memory encoding was not great for that period (not total amnesia, but not as good).
Its not for everyone, or just anyone. It requires discipline, fantastic sleep habits and engaging hobbies.
The time around 4am to 6am is the hardest, because all your friends are definitely asleep so it helps to have friends in other countries to talk to.
You need to have some good hobbies, that you can do as much as you like (I did a lot of art, cooking, was able to read so many more books).
Something that I noticed about it was that your life needs to be very flexible because the schedule is very inflexible; you need to be ready and able to nap at the exact interval. When you only have 21 minutes to nap, every second is important. I was at college and my teachers were super supportive (especially when they saw my high throughput), but my girlfriend at the time wasn't particularly impressed.

[generalralph]

Here’s a theory on sleep. The state of sleep is actually what we live for. Our waking time spent working and playing is merely to collect the accoutrements and experiences we need to enjoy sleep properly. A comfortable bed in a secure house costs money. An interesting conversation provides material for a unique dream. Furthermore, the notion that dreams are nonsense while reality is logical is a false economy. So what, the natural world makes sense? What if the unintelligible properties of dreams make them better than waking consciousness? Finally, the waking consciousness—the person you are—is subservient to the unconscious mind. Your individual identity is not the primary beneficiary of dreams; you are merely a spectator. The unconscious mind that produces dreams is actually a different, and more important, person.