Polyphasic Sleep
I would
like to introduce to you new ways to sleep well. Most of us think
that there is only one style of sleeping – in the evening we are going to bed
and sleep for about 6-8 h. Then we are awake for
about 16 h, and next evening we repeat the process. This form of sleep is called monophasic. There are more ways to sleep
well and shorter J. Take a look at them:
It makes no sense. Probably you are wondering if this kind of sleep is healthy and possible. Scientists say that the most
important phase of sleep is the REM one (rapid eye movement). This is the one in
which dreams occur. Generally in this phase our
brain rests and regenerates. As we use monophasic sleep we need about 45 – 75
minutes to achieve the REM phase each
night. During the polyphasic phase – the brain will
achieve it immediately. So the sleep is much
more effective. Take a closer look at the most
controversial kind of polyphasic sleep.
Uberman
cycle
Looks
crazy. The point is to doze for about 20-30 minutes every 4 hours. It is 6 slumbers per day what
equals 2-3 h of sleep. PER DAY. But who can go to bed every 4 h L? People who can say that this is
the best way to rest. When using this style we are full of energy. This also
helps to achieve lucid dream. The weak point of it is the need to respect slumbers’ time otherwise we will feel tired. I have
never tried this style, but I’ve heard some stories. For example I’ve read the
blog entry. The guy was writing that thanks to the Uberman
cycle he got so much time that he simply
doesn’t know what to do :D. He was very consistent. Sometimes he asked friends to make bed for him during parties. Then he
came back after 30 minutes full of energy. Imagine their faces :D.
Example sleep schedule: your sleep times might be at 2am, 6am, 10am,
2pm, 6pm, and 10pm. This is nice because the times are the same whether AM or
PM, and they’re consistent from day to day as well, so you can still maintain a
regular daily schedule, albeit a very different one. But be aware it takes
about a week to adjust to it. A normal sleep cycle is 90 minutes, and REM sleep
occurs late in this cycle.
Maybe sometime I will try….
To compare with „nomal sleep”:
Summary
However, the long term health
effects of this sleep pattern aren’t well known. I think that it is much healthier
than monophasic. It seems to be much more
natural – just take a look at animals. The truth is that monophasic sleep very often is
forced by culture reasons and for example work.
Benefits:
-higher alertness and energy
-more vivid dreams
-more lucid dreams
-lots of extra free time.
Defects:
-it can be inflexible
-It requires some discipline
-it takes some time to adjust.
Sources:
https://sites.google.com/a/acrsd.net/barry-s-ap-psychology/home/chapter-five-states-of-consciousness
Very interesting article!
ReplyDeleteI have heard about different ways of sleeping including Uberman.
I'm wondering if there is anyone who has tried this, I hope someone will share experience and maybe convince to try it.
On the other hand I'm a little bit worried... there are a lot of articles showing how huge damage can lack of sleep cause. As for me, I go to the gym, sleep is very important. It's well known that during the sleep muscles grow.
Yeah, this is unexplained. What about our entire body? The sources I have read say that our brain rests. I don't know if people who enjoy gym and try to build muscles should try that kind of sleep.
DeleteAt last really really interesting article. But too short for me personally :( At the beginning I thought you will describe all of the styles. Beside that I found this post interesting. Now I need to read about the rest of the styles and find information on my own ;)
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame, because this presentation is very, very similar to this one:
ReplyDeletehttp://konwersatorium3.blogspot.com/2013/12/week7-getting-sleepy.html
I'm aware that you probably didn't know, so I will “cheat” a little bit and copy-paste my comment, edit it and add something extra:
Couple of terms ago 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 .
To be honest I really miss that time, simply because I didn't have to work and get up every morning.
And for the dreaming part:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_ZpnmnRBEg - a little bit nasty
https://vimeo.com/42160251 – South Park episode about a dream, within a dream!
PS. My pedantic soul needs to tell you that - small issues with formatting - for example "Benefits" has different font size than "Defects", "However, the long" - 2 different types. Sorry, but I'm a graphic designer :) Hope you don't mind.
Wow, this article is very similar to the one of my previous efforts :) like Jakub, my comment on the topic would be a link to my article as I think I've covered my research and feelings in that article ;)
DeleteCheers!
I found this article very interesting, tit was a good choice!
ReplyDeleteI usually talk with my friends about our sleep habbits and needs.
For example personally I like to sleep long, but some time ago I noticed that I have some problems with waking up after sleeping for about 8 hours for every 24 hours.
So I started to pracise not going sleep when I feel a first tiredness.
It makes me less dizzed at morning, and later during normal workday.
But I also need to make up for my lack of sleep at the weekend, so on Saturday I sleep as long as I can ;)
That's only my theory, and I doesen't fit to your thesis of polyphasic sleep :)
I'm curious about my opinion about my way to be more energetic.
I also found a scheme of sleep frequency determinated by age, it could be like an extra data to your presentation.
http://www.bliskodziecka.com.pl/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Fazy-snu.jpg
Great article. Maybe a little too short but I still find this article as very interesting. Unfortunately I have some problem with sleep. I have to sleep minimum 8 h per day to feel more or less refreshed. That will be nice to try Uberman cycle but I don’t think it is possible in my case. My friends probably will accept it if I ask them to make a bed for me during parties but my boss – hmmm put it this way: he won’t be happy :)
ReplyDeleteIn spite of all I am traditionalist when it comes to the issue of sleeping. If I do not sleep at least 8 hours a day I just feel bad.
ReplyDeleteIn spite of all I am traditionalist when it comes to the issue of sleeping. If I do not sleep at least 8 hours a day I just feel bad.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this very interesting article.
ReplyDeleteI have heard about those different ways of sleeping, my friend is a big fan of them.
I also have tried most of them but after all it just made me so confused and lost in each ways of regular rhythm of sleep.
In my opinion it's just impossible to sleep like this and at the same time have a normal life with job or weekend parties included.
Thanks for the article. It's interesting that there are other types of sleeping schema. I think it will be really hard to implement Polyphasic Sleep and keep your office work :).
ReplyDeleteI try to sleep as much as I can during week. Mostly it's about 6-7h and if I'm tired after a week, I try to sleep more at weekend. Even in the middle of the day. And thats work fine for me :)
I'll say it straight: very interesting and completely useless. :-) Maybe in Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark or Norway. Generally in scandinavian countries I can imagine that they could consider this type of work - i mean let's say 1h nap in the middle of the day. But here? Not possible. But from science point of view - nice article.
ReplyDeleteIt can be useful for people who work at home or have their own buisness. You are right - for office workers this is impossible to sleep like this.
DeleteI used to experiment quite heavily with my sleep patterns.
ReplyDeleteDuring a time when I was self-employed I even gave the Uberman (or rather a variation of it) a go! Man, was it intense. During this period was one of the two times I went without sleep for more than 50 hours (it could've been more like 40 but I've read that after 50 you get to have hallucinations and I wanted to try it out so I waited ten or so more hours, no results to report unfortunately...)
I had more luck with the biphasic pattern. I kinda loved it actually. I found I reacted best if I did physical activity during the time I was awake during the night. I would go for walks and listen to audiobooks and podcasts. I found that I retained the information from them much longer than from listening sessions during the day. I had to cut the experiment short after my girlfriend complained I was waking her up. Biphasic sleep didn't work for her and it was really frustrating being woken up in the middle of the night twice - by my waking up and going back to sleep. Wasn't prepared to risk being kicked out of the bed in the name of science.
Biphasic sleep was really common pre industrial revolution. The English even coined terms for it - "first sleep" and "second sleep". In the intervening period of about an hour (after Wikipedia) people would pray, reflect, interpret dreams, visit neighbours, commit petty crime and have sex. Let me just point out that the toothbrush was invented much, much later - in the 1938.
Sleep sphere is very important part of my life because i really like to sleep a long time and it gives me a lot of pleasure. The most terrible moment is to wake up so every morning I try to do everything to stay in a bed longer. Of course i`ve heard about way to sleeping better together with right positions of body. But long time ago I created my own theory and i`m so glad with it. Sleep as long as you can… :) Thanks a lot for your presentation, it may be a little short but you`ve achieved one goal to deliver all important information… So for me it’s ok
ReplyDeleteMonophysic is my way of sleep. I sleep about 5-6 hours per day
ReplyDeleteI've read a lot about ways of sleep but to be honest I'm not sure about the results. Everybody has his own behaviour - I think way of sleep is less important than what someone like. For example I hate sleeping during the day and I never do that. As for this is just waste of time.
Second thing is that I think everybody can adapt to diffrent behaviour and when he will do that than he will rest enough
Great article, very interesting topic - very crucial for us in fact.
ReplyDeleteWe usually don't consider using this kind of sleeping cycle, because our daily work doesn't allow us to. Blessed are those who choose their own work hours....
I've heard about this sleep cycle earlier but I knew it as astronauts sleep cycle. It varies though, because NASA advises astronauts to sleep 8 hours a day, in naps lasting up to 2,5 hours - it is more then the above described 20-30 minutes, but it also divides into a few naps.
Have a good night's sleep!
Really nice one, right on time, when I'm trying to solve my sleeping schedule problem! I gonna try one of these patterns in order to achieve better consciousness and vividness on everyday basis!
ReplyDeleteThat is very interesting article. I think this method is pure genius. I am curious if it works on everybody. Probably the hardest part is to fall a sleep, because when you do something very absorbing, it may cause problems when your "brain is still working".
ReplyDeleteI know that Da Vinci used this method, so it has to really works. Maybe I will try it someday.
Nice article. Polyphasic sleep had received some hype over interned in last few years. I have tried it for about a month, when i was freelancing and could affort to sleep during the day. Biggest advantage, was more free time. But the drawbacks were too severe. You can't be elastic with this kind of sleeping, if you miss one nap you will be too tired to do anything. And the most important thing for me, you notice the drop in cognitive abilities over time. Your memory is not as good as always, you need more time to learn, and you can't figure solutions as fast as normally.
ReplyDeleteActually I know a guy that tried it, only 4 hours of sleeping per day. He was happy, had a lot of free time and so on. Apparently It's hard to keep it sometimes. You need job and family that can help in maintaining this idea. Without that, it's useless. Anyway, thank you for nice topic.
ReplyDeleteDude I need 7-8 hours of sleep and I am still tired. I will use this knowledge in my project. I am creating an mobile app for iOS and android devices, which will use the hardware available in smartphones like speakers, screens and buzzer. It can generate sounds, vibrations and lights which can affect your sleep and make your brain switch to the right phase of the sleep in which you rest. The project is pretty complex and I need even medical experts which will help me with this. If anyone is interested in this project, please contact me! :-)) it's an experimental project! Thx
ReplyDeleteI’m really impressed by this article. It is untrustworthy to be well-rested after 2-3 hours per day of sleep. It is difficult to find time during the day for dream. Can you explain me how you acommodate this practise with work or other activities? I will gladly give this method a try. This time I practise monophasic sleep.
ReplyDelete