Re: LUG: polyphasic sleep - Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:21:53 -0400

Subject : Re: LUG: polyphasic sleep

From : Jonathan Vogel <jonathan@friedpancakes.[redacted]>

Date : Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:21:53 -0400

The research that's been done is very limited and not well documented.
I doubt you will find anything legitimate. I can't really provide any
proof beyond my own experience. I can assure you though that I have
never felt better in my life and my overall sense of well-being has
greatly improved since adopting my current schedule. I used to cut my
sleep short 6-7 hours on weekdays and then I'd crash ~10 hours on
weekends; I felt terrible. I'm the kind of person who used to truly
require 9 hours to be *great*, but I could easily manage on 7.5.

Jonathan

Alex wrote:
> That's interesting, do you know what journals the polyphasic sleep
> studies were done in? I'd be interested in reading them.
>
> On the sleep cycle time: you are right about the 1.5 hour sleep cycle
> as far as I remember. I got thrown off because my natural sleep
> period is 3 hours (this was found through the "natural length" of a
> full nap and the sleep time if I decide to "go back to sleep" on a
> weekend).
>
> On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 5:56 PM, Jonathan Vogel
> <jonathan@friedpancakes.[redacted] <mailto:jonathan@friedpancakes.[redacted]>> wrote:
>
> It's interesting you have determined that as my research has shown
> me a normal person's complete sleep cycle is 1.5 hours in which
> case 3 hours would be two full cycles.
>
> I believe you are misunderstanding the point of polyphasic sleep.
> It doesn't work out of the box and actual has a difficult
> adaptation process. This is because you must train both your
> brain and body to compress that 1.5 hour sleep cycle into
> something smaller which has been (through experimentation)
> determined to be 20 minutes (on the money). Besides people with
> narcolepsy, monophasic sleepers need about 60 minutes to hit REM
> sleep. A polyphasic sleeper on the other hand, hits REM sleep
> within 1-2 minutes. A lot of people don't believe me, but there
> have been research studies that show this. I often experience
> vivid dreams during my naps. I never used to remember dreams very
> much before.
> Also to answer your question about why most people sleep
> monophasically. I'm pretty sure that's just because it is
> natural. It makes sense, doesn't it? Especially in a world like
> today. Polyphasic sleep is *not* practical long-term and there
> are no only a few documented cases of it lasting in excess of
> years (mind you the concept of polyphasic sleep is fairly new).
>
> The 1.5 still holds true for Everyman as the Everyman 'core' sleep
> is always in multiples of 1.5 hours (1.5, 3, or 4.5). Where 20
> minute naps fulfill the remaining multiples of 1.5 hours to get
> 7.5 hours of sleep. Uberman eliminates the core sleep and only
> consists of 20 min naps. *Note to everyone: *If you read anything
> about the 'Dymaxion' schedule online, listen to me and ignore it
> now--it doesn't work. Trust me.
>
> I hope that sheds some light on the subject.
>
> Jonathan
>
> Alex wrote:
>
> Honestly, my experience with sleep is that I feel most rested
> and conscious with the longest single stretch of sleep
> possible. Though I applaud some people's choice to be test
> subjects in this regard (thus pushing forward our
> understanding of sleep) I would like to just throw out a warning:
>
> Given _my_ current understanding of sleep, 20 minute sleep
> segments won't bring the same benefit as sleep periods broken
> into something which fits cleanly with your natural full sleep
> cycle (mine is almost exactly 3 hours). 20 minute sleep
> periods don't allow for the full depth of sleep that a full
> cycle will, which as far as I remember translates into
> significantly reduced rejuvenational benefits from sleep. Do
> your own research, but just keep in mind that there _are_
> reasons most everyone sleeps during one single period....
>
> Also, I'd be curious to hear the experiences of those who
> actually do try to pull of polyphasic sleep for more than 14
> months.
>
> ~Alex Kesling
>
> On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 5:19 PM, Jonathan Vogel
> <jonathan@friedpancakes.[redacted]
> <mailto:jonathan@friedpancakes.[redacted]>
> <mailto:jonathan@friedpancakes.[redacted]
> <mailto:jonathan@friedpancakes.[redacted]>>> wrote:
>
> For those who don't know, I'm an adapted polyphaser. I
> have been
> on the Everyman (3 hour core, 3x20 min naps) schedule for
> almost 3
> months now. I intend to hold this schedule through at
> least the
> fall semester.
>
> You can find me on on freenode/#ncsulug (jvogel) if you
> have any
> questions. There is also an active polyphasic sleep IRC
> channel
> #polyphasers which you can find on freenode.
>
> Although I haven't been to a lug meeting, I'd be happy to go to
> one to answer any questions about my experience/knowledge on
> polyphasic sleep.
>
> @ Brian: The everyman schedule is fairly flexible, if you'd
> like
> to talk about it more on IRC just let me know.
>
> ~ Jonathan
>
>
> Alexander Ray wrote:
>
> Interesting topic that's come up (at least for me)
> online, in
> Wired
> Magazine, at the most recent BarCamp RDU and most
> recently in IRC.
>
> Polyphasic sleep is in a nutshell, breaking up your sleep
> schedule so
> you sleep for shorter periods more often (as opposed to
> one huge
> stretch per day).
> The end goal is that you sleep LESS overall time than you
> would in one shot.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep
>
> I'm definitely interested in trying a Month-long sleep
> experiment on
> myself sometime during the spring semester (no way
> that'd work w/
> marching band in the fall semester).
>
> Is there any other interest in the group for doing
> something
> on this?
> We could definitely have a talk/session on polyphasic sleep
> and what
> resources there are currently out there as well as what
> people
> have
> already found.
>
> ~Alex
>
>
>