Getting sleepy?
Recently I have been feeling like I am not resting well enough to be able to be productive at one hundred percent in practically all areas of my life; the feeling of exhaustion led to doubt my sleeping habits and motivated to improve them.Therefore I started exploring the secrets of sleep with all of the factors associated with this issue and I am happy to share my findings on the blog.What exactly does ‘sleep’ mean?
We have to start with some theory to acquire basic knowledge of exactly what is sleep. The Harvard University definition says: Sleep is a state, characterized by changes in brain wave activity, breathing, heart rate, body temperature, and other physiological functions. Depending on the sleep stage, different physiological functions may be more active and variable, or less active and more stable. |
Nathaniel
Kleitman and Eugene Aserinsky on the right
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The breakthrough in research of sleep and its characteristics was made in 1953 by Eugene Aserinsky, a University of Chigaco graduate under dr Nathaniel Kleitman’s supervision, when they discovered a state of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) using a device called electroencephalograph (first used to study human brain activity in 1924).REM is characterized by one’s eyes moving back and forth during sleep while his/her voluntary muscles (e.g. arms or legs) are completely relaxed. However, brain and other body systems increase their activity, and that is when dreaming occurs. Therefore, REM sleep is often referred to paradoxically as sleep.
Stages of sleep
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Electroencephalogram in action
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- Stage one: a state of ‘daydreaming’, when we begin to drift off into the dream. It lasts for 5-10 minutes. It is easy to wake up and the person often answers that he/she wasn’t asleep in the moment of waking.
- Stage two: Heart rate and body temperature start to slow down. It lasts for about 20 minutes. This is when we get these funny ‘sleep spindles’ - uncontrolled single burts of movement of our limbs.
- Stage three: slow brain waves (delta waves) start doing their work. This is a transition period between light and deep sleep.
- Stage four: delta waves go all-in. Here is the moment, where people do embarassing things during sleep: sleepwalking and bed wetting. It lasts for about 30 minutes. You can do all sorts of weird things having this much time :)
- Stage five: also called REM, described in the section above. Body temperature is at its lowest of all sleep (we tend to cover ourselves with the blanket to gain some heat), while breathing rate increases, becomes irregular. REM is usually reached after about 90 minutes of sleep and lasts for an hour at most.
All of these stages are a part of a sleep cycle and they do not neccessarily occur in a strict sequence. Sleep starts from stage 1 and progresses into stages 2, 3, and 4 (these are Non-REM stages).After stage 4, stages 2 and 3 repeat several times before evolving into REM. Once REM ends, the sleep returns usually to stage 2. The sleep cycles through above stages about 4-5 times during the night.REM stage increases in duration as cycles progress – the first REM is usually very short but keeps getting longer as cycles continue. That is why we cannot remember all our dreams during the night, have the feeling of confusion or not remembering them at all. We usually do remember the dream most efficiently, when REM lasts for a long time and the dream actually takes as long as it actually seems.
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Sleep stages with
REM durations
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Polyphasic sleep – efficient or crazy?
Have you ever given a thought about your sleeping habits and tried to change them? Every person has individual sleeping patterns, with most being mono- or biphasic sleepers. Those terms seem self-explanatory: sleep once or twice a day – a classic 'good night sleep plus a nap after work'. Some people though, develop unusual sleeping skills, which enable them to sleep more than twice a day – that is called a polyphasic sleep.Warning! Below is not advisable to full time office workers!
Polyphasic sleep actually comes from an animal habit, especially mammals. Not many humans have natural abilities to adapt such a sleeping schedule, apart from children or people having sleeping disorders which could be caused by head injuries.
This sleeping pattern has been gaining popularity in the recent years. Freelance, creative jobs fueled by a desire to maximize efficiency, require enlarged durability of the organism. It is advertised on the Internet that this sleeping style can save you up to 20 years of sleep.Previous section with stages, REMs etc. goes to a trash bin from now on, when you explore and adapt polyphasic sleeping style. This is where you maximize your daily efficiency at a cost of minimal bedtime.
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Simplified sleeping habit types
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Note that if you develop polyphasic sleeping, you could be placed between Nikola Tesla, Napoleon Bonaparte, Winston Churchill, Leonardo da Vinci or Thomas Edison as a fellow polyphasic sleeper. That's a decent company, isn't it?
Polyphasic sleep enhancer
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NeurOn
sleeping mask
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The device will consist of a sleeping mask with built -in Bluetooth transmitter, brain activity monitors and eye-tracking module. The eye tracking component is said to be able to recognize a user's sleeping stage based on his/her eye movement.
Another part of the project is a mobile app which will calculate the user's best sleeping pattern, suggesting the one that fits best his/her sleeping habits or sets the desired schedule. It will also be able to wake the user up as soon as the last REM phase finishes. And lots more!
Details below, at NeurOn Kickstarter page:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/intelclinic/neuroon-worlds-first-sleep-mask-for-polyphasic-sle
Questions:
1. What is the average time of your sleep? Are you satisfied with your bedtime?
2. Are you engaged enough to try NeurOn polyphasic sleep enhancer?
3. What possible disadvantages/dangers couldNeurOn possess?
4. Have you used other sleep enhancers?
Hello.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your presentation.
It is very interesting how people looking for the best way for themselves to stay in good shape during the day. They even pay attention to their sleeping routine!
I am personally someone who needs so much sleep - my average is 8 hrs per day. I noticed that if I hit the bed around 10 PM, I am full of energy from the morning. Going to sleep after midnight is not appropriate for me since my sleep wont be efficient and also sufficient at all!
These days I am very satisfied about my bedtime, my awake-time length and sleep cycle are organised and enough !
I am sceptical about this type of news - NeurOn polyphasic... it sounds scary. I wouldn't appreciate any devices trying to control my head, sleep, needs, movement. No, thank you. I believe that my body knows the best what is good for me. If it runs on Bluetooth, so easily it can be assumed that it could cause some side effects in long-term. Therefore, I would like to carry on with my own natural ways to experience better sleeps and dreams.
I have been never consuming any kinds of sleep enhancers or sleeping pills. It takes me more or less 8 minutes to fall sleep. Moreover, although I am partly light sleeper, I can sleep as much as I need. Hence, sleep enhancers and in general other meds or techniques are not needed for me.
Thank you, Ewa!
DeleteI'm impressed, and a little jealous, (article-related pun intended :) ). Many people have to be borderline exhausted to be able to fall asleep after 8 minutes! What is more, you get a classic healthy 8-hr sleep, which I still find very hard to achieve myself - even on free weekends when I don't have a strict wake-up time, I wake up after 5-6 hours :)
Oh, thank you! It's all thanks to the fact that I am not working any more (finally!). Thanks to that I am more stable - in terms of literally everything!
DeleteWe should live in 8 hours intervals - 8 hours for sleep; 8 hours for working; 8 hours for anything between. If we are not struggle for efficient spending time then we are wasting time dedicated for sleep. Wise idea ;) Anyway, good night to everyone!
Wow! I hadn’t slightest idea one can sleep less and still be healthy and focused... I work as a full time worker, so my sleeping pattern is "monophasic" (didn't know that word before!), but I already started to wonder how to try to implement different patterns. It would be fantastic to sleep less and still feel rested... Support for the NeurOn project on Kickstarter proves it's fascinating not only for me. If I understand your article correctly one can use any pattern form the above? Have you got any idea which could work for full time workers? Have you experimented with other patterns yourself?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input!
DeleteNeurOn can adapt to any of sleeping patterns, based on which you choose in the mobile application. It can also 'learn' your habits and suggest one of the predefined patterns (monophasic, biphasic, everyman etc.). There are not many details so far, the developers will unveil more info as the project progresses.
As for which of those patterns would fit for full-time workers - I'd not recommend polyphasic sleeping, you'd get caught easily while taking your strictly scheduled nap in your strictly schelued work schema :) Classic, monophasic sleep is the way to go. If you are itched to try, you could go for biphasic (or tri-phasic) sleep while travelling by public transit (but that depends on how long you travel) to work, and back home.
I haven't experimented any of the methods myself, but I'm able to diversify my lack of night's sleep to taking a ~1hr nap at the train to work :)
DeleteThere are also more conservative devices than NeurOn, such as armbands linked with mobile applications, when e.g. a phone sets its alarm clock according to armband readings - see http://www.axbo.com/pages/home
Another interesting topic! good job!
ReplyDeleteSleep is a problem indeed. There are soooooo many things to do , during 24h of a day, but you must sleep at least 6 of them. That's a bit pity. We sleep around 30% of our life. This time is "wasted" ! :)
I am personally, extremely interested in any kinds of innovations related to sleep. I'd like to have more time to do things I like rather then just laying in the bed with my eyes closed.
I am bit concerned by long terms effects of NeurOn and things like that, but I'd definitely would like to try it. Who knows, maybe in close future we'll be able to sleep just a few hours and still be healthy and energetic.
Thanks Daniel!
DeleteWell, to be alive (and conscious) for those 70% time of your life, you need to sleep for 30% :)
Unless the whole 'corporate working hours' philosophy is turned around, I suppose the polyphasic sleeping won't be globally popular and in everyday use. You just can't sleep at work or school, you have to come to terms that you are obliged to attend meetings, do shopping, be on stand-by at work etc.
That's a very broad topic and i try hard to limit the scope as much as I can :)
you are right - as long as you lead a 'common' life, like most of the people on the world. Some works, like mentioned freelancer or any other which make you more flexible at your working hours, are like created for different styles of sleep. Moreover, you need to tak under consideration people around you - family, friends - if it is very hard to understand different style of sleep it might be impossible to introduce any changes in this matter.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLast year I had the opportunity to change my “sleep habits”. As I reach the peak of my productivity during night, when it’s quiet and peaceful outside , I decided to move my biological clock in the following way: I used to go to bed right after classes - about 17-18 o’clock and slept until 23 or midnight. I did not need an alarm clock to get up, I was more rested, so after a morning bath I had breakfast ( around 2 a.m. ), then I had an equivalent of dinner just before going to the university and I ate dinner in the form of sandwiches around 13-14 at the university . The main advantages of this mode of life was greater productivity , I noticed that during classes I am more focused and efficient , I could jog just before lunch , when the streets are still empty , I had the opportunity to have regular and good diet - eating a hot meal at the university is like a miracle , which resulted in improving my shape and form. The disadvantages certainly was the problem with more limited social life - when I was at full speed - the others slept at best. Unfortunately, with the start of work I had to change this habit, and now, after going to bed at midnight , I have trouble with lifting up myself out of bed after 7-8 hours of sleep .
ReplyDeleteAbout NeuroOn ( you lost one "o" in the name or auto-correction did it for you ;)) I had the opportunity to read before and what really deterred me was the enormous projected price of the device. Technologically it will be a very sophisticated, but like Eva mentioned , I think organism knows best how much sleep you need.
I once tried to " Lucid Dream " , but he never mastered this art. Did someone have more luck than I?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream
I've tried lucid dreaming, and although I can't say I've mastered it, after a bit of practice I was able to find myself conscious within a dream quite often. Besides entertaining aspects of this skill, it was very enlightening - I was able to experience my consciousness on many levels of activity - beforehand I thought of it rather like of binary quality (either I'm conscious or not), but the case turned out to be much more complicated.
DeleteI was so inspired by this presentation that I decided to look for more information about sleep and dream facts. Learning about sleep and dream has so many benefits. You can help better understand yourself and others in your waking life. Below you will gain knowledge about sleeping, like an average person will spend 25 years asleep or did you know that you burn more calories sleeping than watching TV?
ReplyDelete1. Anything less than five minutes to fall asleep at night means you're sleep deprived. The ideal is between 10 and 15 minutes, meaning you're still tired enough to sleep deeply, but not so exhausted you feel sleepy by day.
2. An average person will spend 25 years asleep, which means nearly 1/3 of our lives. Human beings also spend roughly around 6 years of their lifetime dreaming.
3. A new baby typically results in 400-750 hours lost sleep for parents in the first year.
4. REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep occurs in bursts totalling about 2 hours a night, usually beginning about 90 minutes after falling asleep.
5. You can have up to seven different dreams per night depending on how many REM cycles you have. We only dream during the REM period of sleep, and the average person dreams one to two hours every night.
6. During REM sleep, the flow of blood to the brain increases, as does the brain’s temperature.
7. The "natural alarm clock" which enables some people to wake up more or less when they want to is caused by a burst of the stress hormone adrenocorticotropin. Researchers say this reflects an unconscious anticipation of the stress of waking up.
8. If you are unsure whether you are dreaming or not, try reading something. The vast majority of people are incapable of reading in their dreams.
9. There are some astounding cases where people actually dreamt about things which happened to them later, in the exact same ways they dreamed about. You could say they got a glimpse of the future, or it might have just been coincidence. The fact remains that this is some seriously interesting and bizarre phenomena. For instance, one of the most famous premonition dreams is when Abraham Lincoln dreamt of His Assassination.
10. You would associate sleeping with peace and quiet, but actually our brains are more active during sleep than during the day.
11. Many people claim that they don’t dream at all, but that’s not true: we all dream, but up to 60% of people don’t remember their dreams at all.
12. It is proven that in dreams we can only see faces that we have seen in real life before. So beware: that scary-looking old lady next to you on the bus might as well be in your next nightmare.
13. As much as 12% of people only dream in black and white.
14. You cannot snore and dream at the same time.
15. Information that we learn before we go to bed tends to stick with us longer than information any other time.
16. According to Plato, dreams originate in the organs of the belly. Plato describes the liver in particular as the biological seat of dreams.
17. In general, pregnant women remember dreams more than other populations. This is largely due to the extreme hormonal changes during pregnancy.
That is pretty interesting, isn't it?
Sleeping is as important for living as eating, drinking, and even breathing. You can not say that the body works properly, if it does not get the appropriate dose of sleep. But what if somebody can not sleep at all? What would happen with the human body?
ReplyDeleteI ask, because recently I saw a shocking document about a disease called “The Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFI)". It is a very rare genetic disorder, diagnosed only among 28 families in the world. The disease is characterized by following symptoms, lasting from 7 to 18 months (source: Wikipedia):
1) The patient suffers increasing insomnia, panic attacks resulting in., paranoia, and phobias. This stage lasts for about four months.
2) Hallucinations and panic attacks become noticeable, continuing for about five months.
3) Complete inability to sleep is followed by rapid loss of weight. This lasts for about three months.
4) Dementia, during which the patient becomes unresponsive or mute over the course of six months. This is the final progression of the disease, after which death follows.
I put below films about that horrific deadly disease:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIeTVVAEFn8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuNzubLTI_A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPdgog3afTI
I feel different after spending many hours without proper rest: I am moody, I am physically exhausted, I can not concentrate. But it was hard to imagine for me, that someone can die as a result of sleeping disorders, until I saw these documents. As you see, sleep deprivation can take a very extreme form, which is life threatening. Those families had this misfortune to suffer from it, with many tragic results.
I think this subject is very important these days. We don't have much time for sleeping and we don't care about it much what is really wrong.
ReplyDeleteLast two weeks I had a proprlem to fin time for sleeping and that is why I slept today 12 hours. Finally I feel fine but I know this is not good for me and especially for my concentration. But sleeping shortly few times per day? I don't know. I would have a feeling that I'm wasting my time during the day and that something is wrong during the night if I sleep 15-20 minutes few times per night. And I believe I would feel broken all the time.
So I'll stay with the most popular way of sleeping :)
Very good article at the right time for me.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to modify hours of sleep. So far, I went to bed and got up with very different times of the day. Sometimes it occurred to me a short nap after work. I introduce changes for a week. I started test phase. I'm curious if it will bring the expected benefits.
I have heard that it is preferable to getting up every day at the same hour. It doesn’t matter whether it is a weekday or weekend. The body needs routine. The unchanging circadian rhythm enables complete recovery. This allows more efficient use of the day. I also heard that a short 10-15 minute spontaneous nap during the day does not affect the quality of sleep at night and is very regenerative. So I try not to sleep longer during the day.
Thanks to these changes my body automatically set the appropriate time to go to sleep. Therefore, I don’t have problems with falling asleep. I also don’t need sleep enhancer. In the morning I wake up feeling refreshed and have more time for breakfast.
I’m not a supporter of type of news like NeuroOn. As for me, too big invasiveness of on the body. The rhythm of sleep everyone can fit to himself.
More interesting facts about sleep:
-Lack of sleep leads to death faster than lack of food. Without food you die after about two weeks, and the deficit of sleep can kill within ten days
-About 12% of people always dream in black and white, most in color - Ewa mentioned about it - but it is surprising that earlier this statistic looked quite the opposite. Recent studies indicate that this change may be due to the transition from black-and-white television to color.
-Blind people also dream. Their dreams are as varied as sighted people. Blind people since birth dream just the other senses: hearing, touch and smell.
I try to get 8 hours of sleep every night, but in reality I usually get about 7 hours of sleep. Recently I formed a hobbit that has a negative effect on my sleep - when I finally go to bed and turn off the light, I begin to read articles on my mobile phone. On the other hand there are plenty of devices designed to improve our sleep patterns (including NeurOn you mentioned, and many different sleep-tracking wristbands). So it looks like new technology can have negative and positive impacts on our sleep.
ReplyDeleteThe RadioLab podcasts released a brilliant episode on sleep some time ago. I highly recommend it for everyone even remotely interested in the topic. There is also an episode of "This American Life" about fear of sleep.
Hilarious autocorrect fail (or am I weird?) - I can almost see a scary hobbit made by you out of clay, not letting you fall asleep.
DeleteSorry for that... :)
That's really funny :) Of course I meant to write "habit". Thank you for spotting that.
DeleteI sleep about 8/24. Am I satisfied? No, I have problem with sleeping, sometimes I am very tired but I can`t sleep, next I have problem with waking up. I heard about NeurOn some time ago and I am very interested in this device. For sure I will buy it, I can`t wait the premiere in the market. I read about this device in context of lucid dreams this was the reason why I want to own it but your article brought me the second reason. I don’t think about disadvantage/dangers. If great persons like da Vinci slept in similar way and they did what they did it is worth trying. Since the beginning of new year I become freelancer so it will be easier to try polyphasic sleep. First I plan to do it without any enhancer but it seems to be very difficult to sleep in the middle of day, maybe after some workout it is easier because we are tired then?
ReplyDeleteI have not used other sleep enhancer if you mean electronic devices. Good workout is always good sleep enhancer or couple of beers :)
Thank you Mateusz for the great topic! It's spot-on for us, IT people, as we tend to struggle with sleep patterns a lot. I read it might be caused by blue light from screens that somehow disrupts day cycle.
ReplyDeleteAnswering your question:
1. What is the average time of your sleep? Are you satisfied with your bedtime?
I sleep around 9 hours per average, sometime more and this makes me really dissatisfied. I struggle with going to bed times and if I don't pay close attention to time when I need to go to sleep, I will just go 1-2 hours later every day, ending up with bedtime around 4-5 am. Also I sleep more than an average person which I attribute to poor quality of sleep. I need to wear ear-plugs so nothing wakes me at night. I didn't manage so far to find out what actually causes the problem.
2. Are you engaged enough to try NeurOn polyphasic sleep enhancer?
Nope. I've heard about NeurOn before and I love that this is a polish idea that got international attention and my fingers are constantly crossed for them. We really need successful polish products to make Poland a better place to live in the future. But getting back to NeurOn - I wouldn't use it. Mostly because I've read science articles about sleep deprivation (understood by sleeping less than 8 hours a day) leading to various diseases, most dangerous being the heightened risk of heart attack and stroke. I'm worried that doing a polyphasic sleep routine might increase your productivity and get you sleeping less, but eventually might lead to significant health problems. I will definitely wait until the product in thoroughly tested.
3. What possible disadvantages/dangers couldNeurOn possess?
Ah, I accidentally covered this in my earlier answer :)
4. Have you used other sleep enhancers?
Yes! I've tried Melatonine and I recommend it to everyone since. It's a sleep-inducing hormone and worked wonders for me. I bought the whole new pack (60 pills) last January and dedicated to taking them everyday at 11 pm, going to sleep at midnight. And it worked wonders! I know that some people have different reactions, but for me 30 minutes after taking the pill I just felt like someone took out my batteries and just went straight to bed and fallen asleep instantly. Taking Melatonine daily managed to regulate my sleep cycle in two weeks - after that I was getting sleepy around 11 pm even without the pill. What was interesting is that I also started sleeping a little less than average for me and woke up in better mood than usual. I guess that was attributed to me having a better quality sleep. Unfortunately having a lot of work (but parties too) pushed me to going to bed later and breaking the whole thing up. I plan to carry out this plan once again soon. To sum up - I really recommend Melatonine :)
I suppose that 'uberman' is a so-called 'power napping':
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_nap
the idea is to 'train' (or trick?) your mind in order to instantly phase into REM just after placing your head on the pillow. Disavdantages? You only require a couple of 'sleeping time' a day which last around 1 hour (mentioned REM). What of course leads us to mentioed situation that i barely adaptable for most of the people. Great advantage - that your day has almost 20 hours instead of typical 16-17. I heard about one guy who had mastered that and... left after 3 years. Why? He made his own business, a lot of money, had a lot of time to pratice, was very healthly et cetera.. but after 3 years he felt like he had had too much time sometimes :)
1. What is the average time of your sleep? Are you satisfied with your bedtime?
Not so long ago I used to sleep about 4-5 hours and it was quite effective - I have just spent a lot of time to 'get use to it'. My body was refreshed and so do mind. I still do not know why it has ended - I can no longer sleep for a short amount of time, I suppose the reason is too much emotions recetly (you know, butterflies in stomach).
2. Are you engaged enough to try NeurOn polyphasic sleep enhancer?
No, as Ewa said I would never put any device which can influence on myself... or may be I've watched too many sf movies and I am afraid of losing control of my own body :)
3. What possible disadvantages/dangers couldNeurOn possess?
As a device, it has its lifetime.. how would a normal person live without it, if it brokes for example? would it be possible to shift again to normal sleep?
4. Have you used other sleep enhancers?
No, if being in Amsterdam (if you know what I mean) does not count ;) I do not use any and I do not feel it is essential for me to use them, people has been living for thousands of years without such a devices/enhancers, why would we need to use them?
What is the average time of your sleep? Are you satisfied with your bedtime?
ReplyDeleteOk this is tricky subject for me as I have problems with sleep. I have issue with breathing at night. I have sleep apnea and because of that I do not get to REM phase. I do not have dreams also. I need to go to doctor to fix this but I don’t have time for this. Maybe this is my excuse but I really feel that need to do it but as always this is not the highest priority task for me…
Are you engaged enough to try NeurOn polyphasic sleep enhancer?
I don’t belive in this… But I will try, why not. I do not lose anything. I feel asleep all the time.
What possible disadvantages/dangers couldNeurOn possess?
You can feel asleep all the time, but in my case this is the state I’m in now…
Have you used other sleep enhancers?
Nope.
Everyone knows that sleep is a significant and essential aspect of our lives. We have to re-energize our bodies to be conscious next day. According to stages which are mentioned above, sleep improves not only immune system ,but also nervous, skeletal and immune. What is more, when we are well-rested - we are in a good mood.
ReplyDeleteDuring a day, we are involved in many activities such employment, housework, classes, social activities and all these things are the reasons why citizens neglect sleeping. The day has 24 hours and everyone has to manage this time appropriately to be sure that they can complete all their needs during the day. But still we need some time to get sleeping hours.
I am a sleepyhead, I like sleeping. When I sleep 8 hours or more everything is good next day. Sometimes, when I don’t have time for sleeping and I sleep less than 8 hours, I fell very tired and frustrated, in such days, in afternoons I have to take a nap even if the nap is short as 15 minutes it gives my body and mind time to rest. I will recharge my batteries. I have never taken sleeping pills. Naps or coffee are my enhancers. Accroding to NeurOn it can be noteworthy.
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