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Polyphasic Sleep.

Fan.of.Devin

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The concept behind Polyphasic sleep is to break up one's normal nightly block of sleep into several short 20-40 minute naps spaced evenly throughout a 24 hour day...
In theory, this allows you not only to sleep much less than you typically would, giving you more waking hours of the day to accomplish things, but it also causes you to feel more rested and aware, as you are eventually conditioned to fall directly into REM sleep.

I searched and found an old thread on this, but I it wanted to make a new one to ask if anyone here has any personal experience with this.
I attempted last summer, but I found it too difficult to adjust and ended up giving up after about two weeks.

How about you?
If you've attempted it, please, share your story.
Or, if you're new to the concept, please also feel free to share your thoughts and discuss.
 

Moiety

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I've heard people in the navy or people working on board of ships in general, do this too.

Unfortunately "9 to 5" doesn't let one try some of these experiments. Just imagine how awesome we could be if we didn't have all these rules...
 

Fan.of.Devin

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I would like for days to be like, 35 hours long, heh...
Then you could sleep for as long as you want, and still have tons of time left over to take care of business.
Ah, if only.
 

Aquarelle

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Oh lord... I could never do this. It takes me half an hour at least to fall asleep on a normal night! But I suppose if I conditioned my body to get used to it... maybe I could do it.

I see those guys on Deadliest Catch (crab fishermen) going for 20 hour stretches without sleep and then getting like 4 hours of sleep... and I know I could never, ever do that job.
 

CzeCze

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I think in theory that works but I doubt it's as restful or good for you in the long run as regular uninterrupted bouts of sleep 6-9 hours long. I think this kind of sleeping is more out of necessity than anything else and acts in a pinch. Basically, it's a creative substitute to the real thiing but not as good as the real thing.

I have power napped my way through days before, naps can be refreshing but they are just a supplement and a tide-over when you aren't getting enough sleep.

If there are cases of peopel who successfully and solely rely on polyphastic sleep for their regular sleeping, and not juts when they have strange schedules, I would be interested.

Personally, I couldn't do it b/c I'm lazy and it's too hard to time naps. You sleep a few minutes too long and your body is in deep sleep mode and it's painful to wake up. I wouldn't - I'd go back to sleep and take a 4 hour nap. Which is neither a nap nor real sleep so not very beneficial.
 

Fan.of.Devin

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That's what doomed it for me...
I'd spend the duration of the allotted naptime just trying to fall asleep, causing me to restart the timer periodically.
I constantly blew naps and slept too long and it wasn't getting easier, so I just gave up.
 

Kingfisher

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when i was a firefighter i guess that we did something like this while we were on call. but it was not planned like you are talking about, of course. it was just sleep when you got it, so sometimes it was long and real luxurious sleep, and sometimes it was none.

I see those guys on Deadliest Catch (crab fishermen) going for 20 hour stretches without sleep and then getting like 4 hours of sleep... and I know I could never, ever do that job.

i used to work several multiple jobs and multiple shifts and things like that, just for something to do i guess. to be occupied. but i really enjoyed that a lot at the time - go go go hard work all day, and then collapse for a few hours.

sometimes the intensity of the day turns into an intensity of sleep, i think. for some people? so that a LONG SLAMMED day leads to powerful sleep.

Deadliest Catch seems very cool, i haven't seen much though. i worked long hours as a ship-breaker for a little while, that was hugely grueling, easily the hardest physical thing i've done. i always really wanted to work a small fishing ship, but i never did. i still have lots of yearning in me for that! haha.

when i was ship-breaking there was a real young guy, maybe 19, who i worked with. there were lots of young guys, but he was very very skinny, and he didn't have any of the mass that pretty much all the guys had. and he couldn't match the big guys, but he was the happiest guy by far, and he had more energy and did more than almost anyone. he had so much in him. that happens very often, i think, that strength of will overcomes all.



but i think that i learned to flirt with sleep, developed a closeness with sleep and exhaustion, like a familiarity. and familiarity breeds contempt, right? hahaha. :D
i feel like sleep and exhaustion are like an animal, and you make compromises and find middle ground, but ultimately you just have to let it do what it do.

when i stopped firefighting i DID NOT MISS the broken up sleep. ;)
now i sleep HARD all night, like a dead man. and i take my sweet sweet time getting up in the morning! :laugh:
 

kyuuei

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I've been in situations where I had very broken sleep, lots of naps for decent periods of time.. It was hard on me. I can't imagine it being the most healthy way of doing things, especially the part where you're shocking your body and conditioning it to this.

also, in theory it sounds productive, but in actuality many things require more than a couple hours of undivided attention. It sounds like you'd be more dependent on your naps than one would be on normal sleep (many people can give a few hours up, or whole nights up). Each nap your body would depend on, I think, too much to be productive or efficient.
 

Stevo

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As an aside, I keep reading the thread title as "Polyphasic Sheep" and it amuses me a little each time.
 

Fluffywolf

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I have delayed sleep phase syndrome but ever since I started working irregularly, day-shifts, night-shifts, random time-shifts and whatnot. I have had no issue with it anymore. Since I always manage to level it out soon enough. But if I have to sleep the same time every day, I'll be broken by the end of the next week and sleep 24 hours long, no kidding.

Shame I can't try out polyphasic sleeping, sounds like it would be awesome for me.
 
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