Polyphasic Sleep

Kris

Kris

Well-Known Member
Basically, I'm trying to put myself on a Polyphasic Sleep schedule, over the summer.

Basically Polyphasic sleep means sleeping more than once throughout the day.

I, personally, am trying a sleep schedule known as the Dymaxion. (Which is 30 minute naps every 6 hours)

All of my life, I've been able to get by with ridiculously low amounts of sleep, my record is 6 days straight without use of drugs or any other assistance. (Except for Coffee. Mm, coffee.)

I average anywhere from 2-6 hours of sleep a night, and am fully functional at around 4.

This Sleep schedule will regulate my sleep a bit more, as well as give me more time throughout the day.

Is it unhealthy? Research has been done, and there have been little to no changes in subjects over the course of about a year.

But that "little" change wasn't for the better.

Energy levels are the same, but it's technically unhealthy, as there were some minor complications that came up.

It's nothing very dangerous, or anything.

I'll (try) to maintain this schedule through the school year (lol) if possible.

Basically this thread was to ask for experience, and (if no one has ever tried this), wish me good luck. :p

I've been doing it on and off for about 3 days, slowly weening myself to being comfortable on lower amounts of sleep.

In a couple of days, I should be on the full blown schedule.
 
amaterasu said:
That's like...two hours of sleep everyday. I don't think that's efficient at all.
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It's exactly two hours of sleep.

Meaning you have 22 hours of free time.

The first two weeks, it is inefficient, simply because you're a living zombie.

But after that (assuming you, personally are compatible with it), you have comparable energy levels to someone who sleeps 8 hours, so long as you avoid overly strenuous exercise.
 
My friend tried this. He failed at it. Not to say that you will, but good luck XD My problem would just be finding 30 minute time slots to nap.
 
Anaxo said:
My friend tried this. He failed at it. Not to say that you will, but good luck XD My problem would just be finding 30 minute time slots to nap.
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I have such a ridiculous am amount of free time, it feels sinful and gluttonous to even do this... xD
 
I believe that'll only work if you have an easy and slow life. As soon as you have to do hard work you'll need more sleep. The idea of having so much free time is great, but it sounds like quite an inefficient way of sleeping. Your body won't be able to recover in just 2 hours, even if you're used to it. That's my opinion, not a scientific fact.

Anyway, what are you going to do with so much time? :D
 
Good luck with this, but really, 22 hours awake? I look to sleep sometimes as a way to get away from school and everything. I couldn't do this at all, but that's just me.
 
Why do you want to be functional for 22 hours? What do you do that requires you to be awake for 22 hours?
 
lacar1601 said:
Why do you want to be functional for 22 hours? What do you do that requires you to be awake for 22 hours?
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Nothing practical. I was hoping that Polyphasic sleep would regulate my sleep more, and I decided to take it to an extreme.

Just a sudden interest I decided to invest in.
 
Kris19642 said:
Nothing practical. I was hoping that Polyphasic sleep would regulate my sleep more, and I decided to take it to an extreme.

Just a sudden interest I decided to invest in.
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Wouldn't the best way to regulate your sleep be to sleep normally?
 
amaterasu said:
Wouldn't the best way to regulate your sleep be to sleep normally?
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15 years of experience says no.

Sleeping from, (For example), 10 to 6, I'll finally fall asleep at around 3 and wake up at 5, stay up for 10 minutes staring at the ceiling before falling back asleep, and sleeping 10 on 10 off until 6, at which point I need to get up and go to school.

My mom has been pushing me to go to the doctor, but I don't have too much of an issue with it. Over the counter vitamins and stuff, (such as magnesium and the like) haven't worked, and they just make me groggy throughout the day, so I don't worry about it.

This is basically more of an experiment than anything practical.
 
I did this almost involuntarily. The problem with it is your body builds up on that sleep its not getting and will finally decide one day, and not on your own time and will most likely go against the whole reason you're trying to polyphasic sleep and crash like a crazy train. You end up sleeping for like 20+ hours or so and you can't do shit about it.
Kris19642 said:
Is it unhealthy? Research has been done, and there have been little to no changes in subjects over the course of about a year.

Energy levels are the same, but it's technically unhealthy, as there were some minor complications that came up.
.
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Minor my ass. Your body and your state of being focused, awake, and recollecting of things you need to know later is absolutely shot.

Kris19642 said:
15 years of experience says no.

Sleeping from, (For example), 10 to 6, I'll finally fall asleep at around 3 and wake up at 5, stay up for 10 minutes staring at the ceiling before falling back asleep, and sleeping 10 on 10 off until 6, at which point I need to get up and go to school.

My mom has been pushing me to go to the doctor, but I don't have too much of an issue with it. Over the counter vitamins and stuff, (such as magnesium and the like) haven't worked, and they just make me groggy throughout the day, so I don't worry about it.

This is basically more of an experiment than anything practical.
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If you're this dedicated to fuck up your schedule to a insane point please go to the doctor. Go to the doctor, tell him everything he will give you things and after a few visits you'll have a correct dosage of a medicine you can take that can make you sleep into a perfect time period.

Purposely screwing yourself over to get the least amount of sleep and most time you can get is the worst possible thing you could do if you wanna fix it, even if it is experimental.

Most of this is from personal experience but some is just common sense man.
 
rsmv2you said:
I did this almost involuntarily. The problem with it is your body builds up on that sleep its not getting and will finally decide one day, and not on your own time and will most likely go against the whole reason you're trying to polyphasic sleep and crash like a crazy train. You end up sleeping for like 20+ hours or so and you can't do shit about it.
Minor my ass. Your body and your state of being focused, awake, and recollecting of things you need to know later is absolutely shot.


If you're this dedicated to fuck up your schedule to a insane point please go to the doctor. Go to the doctor, tell him everything he will give you things and after a few visits you'll have a correct dosage of a medicine you can take that can make you sleep into a perfect time period.

Purposely screwing yourself over to get the least amount of sleep and most time you can get is the worst possible thing you could do if you wanna fix it, even if it is experimental.

Most of this is from personal experience but some is just common sense man.
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Most of these reasons are exactly why I'm curious.

Like I said, it doesn't work for everyone and everyone is different. You stated that you did this almost involunteraily, however don't you think that the circumstances that forced you to do this could change the results? There's a forums somewhere, (I'll post it if I find it again) full of Polyphonic sleepers. They live and work. (Although, obviously most of them have office or cubical jobs where it isn't very physically strenuous), all on different sleep schedules, with a large amount of them claiming to be on the Uberman schedule.

It isn't unfeasible to me. The science behind it doesn't seem too impossible and the results and observations seem reasonable.

And if they aren't? I'll find out over the next month, it seems.

And I shouldn't have even mentioned my trouble sleeping, because this has very limited relation to why I'm doing this. I literally came up with it as I was asked for a practical reason to do this. This is, like I said multiple times, an experiment more than anything else.
 
Best of luck to you.

Even while going through this experiment, please stay vigilant about your health and keep an open mind. As you stated, this is to satisfy your curiosity, and you shouldn't feel like you have to prove anything to anyone. If you feel that your health is taking a turn for the worse, or if you feel that you're not physically performing as you normally do, please please stop the experiment and go see a doctor.
 
lacar1601 said:
Best of luck to you.

Even while going through this experiment, please stay vigilant about your health and keep an open mind. As you stated, this is to satisfy your curiosity, and you shouldn't feel like you have to prove anything to anyone. If you feel that your health is taking a turn for the worse, or if you feel that you're not physically performing as you normally do, please please stop the experiment and go see a doctor.
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Of course. I appreciate the concern. Believe me though, I have the balls of a 9 year old girl, and will be the first to chicken out of somehting that isn't going my way. :p
 
Double Post/Status Update:

I just woke up from my second 30 minute nap for the day. (Note this started after staying up for practically 48ish with naps of 1-4 hours every 8 hours or so, to prepare myself)

After my first 30 minute nap: I felt like I'd slept a full 6 hours. Refreshed, reinvigoratd, and everything. Nothing of important to note.

After my second one: I felt considerably less tired than I did before the nap, but it wasn't nearly as good as the first nap. (Probably because I wasn't as tired this time as I was before the first one, so I didn't sleep the full 30 minutes.)

Complications I'm having so far:
You may know, but Polyphasic Sleep is heavily connected to Lucid Dreaming, because the whole theory behind why it works is because you go into REM basically as soon as you hit the pillow. Thus you start dreaming before you're in a very heavy sleep. Out of my 3-4 short naps over the past couple of days, I've yet to come out not remembering a dream of some sort, and they usually jerk me awake. I'll end up dropping something in a dream, and jerking awake once that happens. This has happened every single time so far, and I get shorter naps than I'd like to because of it.

No notable changes in thought process, comprehension, reflexes or etc. I don't expect this to change until a few more days though.

Injuries so far: I slammed my left wrist into my nightstand while jerking awake, it's now red.

I now need to make it to 2:00AM for my next 30 minute nap.
 
Alright.

So, I'm one of those people who actually thrives on a system like this. I've also done a very extensive amount of research on the subject, and I can say without a doubt that unless your lifestyle borders on the sedentary, the schedule you're planning to attempt WILL be detrimental to your health, both physical and mental. However, if you increase the amount of sleep by one hour during each period, you will be fine, and can in fact do much more.

I personally sleep between 4 and 5 hours per day, in two naps. I'm also an industrial electrician, which means that a large portion of my job consists of 6-7 hours of doing sit-ups with 50 lbs of resistance during the second half of the exercise (basically I sit up, grab onto a large cable, and pull it with me as I lay back down again), and various other physical activities that would be considered relatively intense.

My advice to you is to start with 3 naps, two hours each, and see where that takes you. If you feel healthy and sound of mind (and your doctor agrees), cut out one of the naps. If after a few months you still feel good, reduce the period of time to 90 minutes. I would highly recommend that unless you are a stupid little cunt, you not go below 90 minutes per period. You could also supplement your sleep periods with that ever so elusive style of meditation that places your body and mind into a self-induced coma with an alarm you've trained yourself to respond to. However, nobody has successfully achieved that level of meditation with less than a decade of serious training (the most dedicated monks, mostly); so I highly doubt you've managed. Though with all your free time you might be able to start that journey.
 
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