Polyphasic Sleep

[zyzzyvette 0]

Polyphasic sleep is a sleep 'routine' where people sleep around 2-3 hours a day, instead of the regular 6-9ish hours. This is done by sleeping in short increments (basically, a bunch of 15-20minute naps per day). According to people who follow this program, their sleep patterns adjust so that they can get the maximum amount of REM sleep (the sleep you need) within the smallest time period. Basically, the name of the game is efficiency; the less time you spend sleeping, the more time you spend doing other things. There are also some interesting side effects reported by polyphasic sleepers, like lucid dreaming (being able to control your dreams). A couple negatives are that you can't put off one of your naps too long, or you'll "crash" and it also takes a lot of effort and willpower to get used to the routine.

I've read a couple blogs of polyphasic sleepers, and to me, the lucid dreams and extra time sound great, but I don't think its for me- way too much effort and I love my sleep. I think its an interesting idea anyway, so I thought I'd share.

[shadowx 0]

Well ive heard of it before but not in much detail. The thing that interests me is how they claim to have REM sleep, unless they radically alter their brain i dont see how this is possible, it generally takes abut an hour before we enter REM sleep and then the cycle repeats so that after that first REM is over we have another in about an hour which is why we have more than one dream even if we dont remember them all. So presuming they sleep a max of half an hour they should in theory be a long way off of REM unless of course their brains are "sleeping" while they are "awake" meaning their brain waves would be similar to when we are in lighter stages of sleep leading up to REM so that when they do go to sleep their brain doesnt have far to go before REM. But this would presumably make them slow etc...and maybe experience sleep paralysis during waking hours. And although Lucid dreaming could be good but in this case i think it might suggest the brain is too active during REM and so not making the most of it. the reason this is important is because its thought that during REM is when we arrange our brain and its thoughts, memories etc and carry out "maintenance" and without this its thought we can deteriorate. I know no sleep makes us die and hallucinate which is essentially REM during wakefulness so the brain obviously thinks REM is important. Still i cant dispute facts if it really does work then so be it!

[Zues 0]

Well according to some studies I once read, during sleep the neurons in our brain all fire at the same time and then go quiet about a thousands times during a sleeping episode. This supposedly weakens all connections so only more stronger memories survive and we forget the pointless ones. Sleeping in Polyphasic Sleep could possibly improve your memory also since they can't possibly go through so many neuron decays as a normal sleeping person.Also if this pattern of sleep decreases hours required for sleep wouldn't evolution lean towards such a method if it didn't have more negative side effects?I have to agree I could never do such a thing, contrary I wish I could sleep for twice as long. Every time I wake up I wish I could just go back to sleep it feels that good!

[salamangkero 0]

I, myself, do polyphasic sleep, although it's a bit more out of necessity than choice.Anyway, I'd just like to share what I think. Note that I'm only speaking for myself here and what is ay may not necessarily apply to everyone else.1. It does not improve memory in the long run. It's a lot like cramming, you'd get a temporary boost but whatever you learned while you were cramming, or before sleeping for 2 hours, tends to be lost after just two days. I'd be first to admit I have a bad memory now and couldn't remember as much as I was supposed to have learned from college.2. It is hardly good for the body. For one, an inadequate sleep often gives me an unpleasant headache upon waking up. I am aware of stuff like Circadian cycles and, honestly, I'd rather have eight straight hours of sleep (or ten, or twelve) rather than several short naps.3. I also agree that it takes roughly an hour to get to REM sleep. It is during the REM cycles that we dream. An experiment has revealed that people woken up during their REM cycles temporarily remember their dreams. In my case, I do remember having vivid dreams but waking up so shortly after (no thanks to the infernal alarm clock) my body feels more tired than refreshed.4. It disrupted my digestion. I would now get hungry at irregular hours and, oftentimes, in the most inconvenient of moments.5. It is hardly healthy. On weeks I had to adjust my sleep patterns, I was more susceptible to colds and fever where I didn't use to be so sickly.6. It creates unsightly bumps/craters on my face. Ugh. (Thank heavens for the dermatological sciences)

[Polyphase 0]

I am currently doing polyphasic sleep, and have been actively doing this for 3 weeks so far. The reason I started was that I heard about polyphasic sleep (interestingly enough from an article trying to say why the variant known as Uberman sleep wouldn't work). I started out with Biphasic for roughtly a month, getting my sleep down to a total of 6 hours a sleep, but now I have switched to polyphasic - and it is not easy to adapt, though I seem to have a better time at it than others I have seen logs of.My current schedule is 30 minute naps every 4 hours, which makes it a total of three hours of sleep a day. The main reasoning I keep hearing for why this works is because the body trips a survival mechanism that tells the mind to adapt to the amount of sleep it is getting..I have had a good deal of success with polyphasic sleep, just this last weekend I was awake for the usual 21 hours a day without being tired during the wake times. This said, I do have days where staying awake during the morning (1-5am is a popular time for this tiredness) is pretty hard and I have to fight just to keep to my schedule. I am going to have to keep better detailed logs of stuff like missed naps, or delayed nap (the delayed naps are unavoidable with my current study), and then compare said logs to tiredness.. see if I can track it down once and for all.I am wide awake most of the time, and I wouldn't be contiuning if I didn't think this could happen.. but then I do try out strange stuff like this on a whim to see if it works for me.

[hitmanblood 0]

OK I cannot say that I am doing polyphasic sleep but I can tell you that I am usually sleeping around 5 hours over night or sometimes during the day. I can tell you that I am sometimes feeling tiered but that is only in certain time intervals like 12 to 15 o'clocl and from 17 till 18 I don't know why such things happen but when I succede in passing these intervals then I have no problems at all but if instead I crash in htese time intervals then sometimes I can sleep for long hours. And if I am not awaken after osme 5 hours of sleep then I can even push it up around sometimes even for 12 hours or longer it is not nice experience. Also I would point out that when I am sleeping more I am gaining fat and when I am not sleeping mch then I usually lose wight.