You have to have deep sleep to allow muscles to grow most effectively - in total relaxation. Also the soul - after deep sleep you can wake up and feel like it's the next day. You risk depersonalizing your reality and detaching from people if you go without deep sleep.
Sean
· 5 months ago
I did pretty serious academic-level research on sleep a while back, and even tried the uberman schedule for a while. As other posters have mentioned, your body will fit a full sleep cycle into whatever period of time you condition it for. Deep sleep, REM, all of it. The jury is still out on the long term health effects, biological or psychological. There's just not enough research.
My personal anecdotes seemed to match Puredoxyk's (who seems to have the greatest amount of information, that or Steve Pavlina, both mentioned in other comments), but I have to say the psychological effects are why I stopped. I never fully adjusted, so late at night, I'd get very tired and have to fight off sleep. This made the gained time rather useless, but was definitely getting better when I finally gave it up.
In the end, I missed lying in bed for more than 20 minutes at a time; as an academic, the bed is where I do my best work. After a few weeks, the time dilation got pretty intense. Too many sunrises in one day can wear on you. I never thought I could consider being awake a prison, but I learned that I really rely on my 6-8 hour reset sleep every night.
I'd reccomend it if you have time to get through the adjustment period, but strongly caution that we just don't know how unhealthy/health this sort of thing really is.
Mike
· 6 months ago
When I was in college, for a Summer I was going to compressed Summer classes, and had a third-shift job. My sleep came in three separate 2-hour naps per day, which sounded horrible to most people, but really wasn't all that bad. So I can see the logic in this article.
I'd love to try this out, but unfortunately it's just not flexible enough for me. I've got the 9-5 job during the week, but I like to stay out late on weekends. Talking until 6 or 7am sometimes. That would throw the Everyman schedule way off, I think. I might try out a siesta type sleep schedule though.
Are there any studies on the effectiveness of this? How many people could manage to stick with the different plans, tests as to cognitive abilities before and after modifying their sleep schedules in these says? Episodes of unexpected (i.e. off-schedule) sleepiness as described by Steve in the comments? I'd be very interested to see such a study.
Trevor
· 6 months ago
Very nice. I have not seen single bloggers use graphics to the extent that you do here and I must say, the effect is great. I feel more like I am reading a magazine. Excellent work.
lui
· 7 hours ago
The graphics is good but I don't understand why the first nap has orange under(with) it, but the rest doesn't.
Nicholas
· 6 months ago
Interesting take on sleep, but there's one important part missing. Man can't exist on REM sleep alone. Lack of REM is bad, for sure, but there are other phases that are quite important. Stage 4, the stage you typically visit after REM, is just as important: http://www.sleep-disorders-help.com/30917-stage....
I was just recently diagnosed with sleep apnea and my sleep study showed that while I do hit REM sleep multiple times during the night, I never reach stage 4, and as a result I have all kinds of other medical problems. Your immune and nervous systems can't function properly without stage 4 sleep even when REM is plentiful. Bottom line: be careful trying to change your sleep pattern. Trying to trick your body usually doesn't lead to good things.
Be well, all.
Tej
· 6 months ago
I want to sleep more than 8 hours.
Artyom Morozov
· 6 months ago
Hey, very interesting =)
yet, there's a big hairy 'but' lurking around the corner: could you provide a few reliable sources concerning this statement - "It was recently discovered that all you really need to survive and feel rested is the REM phase"?
I heard quiet the opposite - having discussed the subject with a scientist, doing research on sleep.
Saverio Miroddi
· 6 months ago
I have physical training for roughly 18-20 hours/week (in addition to programming 40 hours/week). If I'd sleep two hours a day, I would certainly enter a coma in a very short time.
Articles on polyphasic sleep, which cyclically appear in public medias, more or less intentionally hide the fact that there are some certanties on the sleep, one of which is the fact that muscle repair and rebuilding happens during the sleep. This makes the statement "There’s no clear biological reason for it" false, and every single person practicing sport at a certain level knows and experience it.
I of course don't want to discredit the theory (I did my own experimentation as well), but these kind of perspectives make the idea quite misleading.
Aximilation
· 6 months ago
Good to see more about this popping up, one of the best resources is one of the pioneers, puredoxyk (http://puredoxyk.com) I also have a blog where I mainly talk about polyphasic sleep, I've been doing it for nearly 3 years, come visit if you get a chance!
Jen
· 6 months ago
For those interested in what it's really like, Steve Pavlina is sort-of-well-known for doing the polyphasic thing (Uberman, I believe). His account of switching to it is really detailed and encouraged me to add "switch to polyphasic sleep" to my long-term to-do list. (As soon as I'm able to commit to taking daytime naps, really.)
Trouble being that there is no way I could take a nap and be asleep so fast. I'd be there for half an hour if I'm lucky before I drift off. Thus the 20 minute nap is more like 1 hour.
Matt
· 6 months ago
Not if you're used to doing it every day.
Chris
· 5 months ago
Agreed - also the nap has to be a bit away from your 'normal' sleep time or it's tough to wake up.
Pietro
· 6 months ago
Nice! Is there any information on when Ubermen practice sports? After running for 45 minutes, for instance, I won't be able to sleep for at least 3-4 hours. I suppose Ubermen do it immediately after a nap, so that they don't stretch the 3h40' wake time.
mg
· 6 months ago
Do you exercise?
Ian White
· 6 months ago
I've never been able to do the 20min powernap, but I tried something similar a few years back and felt the most rested in all my life. I was living at the beach and wanted to be out surfing at prime time instead of staring at the ocean from my desk. In order to do it I split my sleep time in two, usually 2-3 hr blocks. I'd go surfing, come back and work a bit, sleep for a couple hours, then get up and do the bulk of my work, eat, play, and then sleep for 2 more hours.
The only trouble is that, like your 28 hr day, you get out of synch with the everyone else. You start to feel like you're in your own world and the people around you just pass in and out of it. Which actually made me even more productive because I could focus on the work at hand much easier.
I imagine even the Uberman method would have that effect. Having to excuse yourself from normal social schedules to take a nap coupled with staying up for most hours in the night would keep you partially disassociated from the rest of the planet.
alq
· 6 months ago
Let's just hope that the "seemingly useless phases" are indeed useless in the long run, else...
Marc
· 6 months ago
Well, we all saw what happened to Kramer when he tried this method of sleep.
He ended up in a river IN A SACK!
Anyways, another great article Dustin. I find myself looking more and more forward to your customized posts (an idea I'm also toying with on my upcoming site). Keep up the good work!
jmilloy
· 6 months ago
Another interesting resource is the book _Why We Nap_ (ISBN 0-8176-3462-2).
There is another option you should include: "biphasic" sleeping, which is observed by most other mammals. During a normal "waste sleep" there are two peaks of productivity with light sleep in the middle. Waking up for 30 minutes or an hour during that time can give you more wake time but also reset, getting you into the second natural deep sleep phase.
puredoxyk
· 6 months ago
That is a good resource, though it's huge and expensive. It does have one experiment -- the only known "real" scientific study -- on the Uberman schedule. Unfortunately it's not as complete as it could be, and it only involved one person. But it does have an overall positive conclusion, so there's that.
I've heard from a few people who were biphasic, though none for long periods of time. Usually they napped for two three-hour blocks. That always sounded nice to me -- two looong naps a day -- but I've never been able to pull it off. (Anyway, I'm on Everyman right now, & I'd actually lose two hours if I went 3-hour biphasic! ;)
jmilloy
· 6 months ago
For about a year I always slept in exactly three hours chunks. It's great, because you're body's used to it so you wake up naturally and alert. The trouble is, I couldn't wake up in less than three hours for the life of me, no matter how hard I tried!!
quaid
· 6 months ago
good information, your graphics could use some work, though, as the little green bubbles are misaligned. a six nap day, for example, would put naps at every 4 hours (ie 12,4,8,12,4,8)
Edward
· 6 months ago
I was falling asleep reading this... I need sleep!
Cool though.
Steve
· 6 months ago
My friend was trying this for quite a while, and was on the Everyman 4-nap cycle I believe. He was extremely punctual about his sleeping, and never missed a nap/sleep. He was also a very healthy eater.
However, he was driving somewhere, and he said he felt himself get really tired really fast, and just fell asleep... while driving. He said the wave of sleep came out of nowhere and knocked him out :) Luckily, his crash was minor, and he didn't get hurt.
mwah
· 6 months ago
Kramer did this on Seinfeld in the Friar's Club episode
Kleb Nilus
· 6 months ago
Yeah, worked real well for Cosmo Kramer...
drake (from drake and josh)
· 6 months ago
yea, whoever wrote this is a str8 up dick
puredoxyk
· 6 months ago
Very nice article -- and I've read quite a few. I like your layout, the very clear graphics and excellent explanations. I would offer one minor correction, and I apologize for not being able to cite a source, but I can't remember the name of the study...a while ago someone brought it to our attention on the Polyphasic Group (at Google Groups). I used to believe the same as you, that the reason polyphasic sleep works is that it "cuts out" the unnecessary sleep phases -- and that conception of it, by the way, opens it up to a lot of criticism from people who want to say it's unhealthy or unsafe. I heard a lot of that after I wrote my Everything article on the Uberman Schedule, in which I espoused that theory. However, the study that one of the Polyphasic Group members found had shown that people taking short naps experienced the same sleep cycles *in the same proportion* as during longer sleep -- the cycles just didn't last as long.
The study wasn't about *polyphasic* sleepers, so IMO that leaves things pretty up in the air...but there is at least some evidence that sleeping polyphasically, you're getting the same types of sleep, just structured in a more efficient way.
Sleep is a funny thing, no? Even when you're taking it in nibbles. ;)
PD
Isa
· 6 months ago
I have a problem with this since I'm a weight-lifter. Like Miroddi pointed out, I would prob end up in a coma too! Can't do naps, just straight-froward sleep.
moi
· 2 months ago
i agree, i've been strictly told and warned that if i don't rest enough i may not recover properly for the next day's training (no amount of protein and energy drinks will help me heal quickly). i do a lot of cardio, plyo, and free weight strength training, and the amount of tearing and abuse my muscles take daily definitely means i need at least 6 hours of full sleep. i'd no doubt bonk by 12pm if i tried any of these. sleep is just plain weird...
smindux
· 6 months ago
You missed dymaxion sleep. The main dissadvantage of polyphasic-sleep is the huge hunger after every nap. Your body was fooled into thinking it was asleep long and your metabolism boosts .... whereie is the food? Good luck to everybody trying it.
Jared Hooste
· 6 months ago
Studies show that while REM sleep will rest the mind and improve cognitive ability. Sleep deficits decrease physical ability and health. So eight hours is best because you get REM and the requisite amount to restore physical well being. I have a 6 week old baby, so I know I'm not getting enough sleep. This plan might work for a short time, but if used long term will have serious side effects to your physical health.
Tech Tweak
· 6 months ago
Great Article !
Ackernaut
· 6 months ago
I've heard having six small meals a day is ideal for maintaining a great metabolism/body weight. When would these meals occur for the Uberman in relation to the nap times?
Mike
· 6 months ago
I did Uberman for a while. It takes time to get used to and it's really hard to work into your lifestyle. I think it's easiest for college students that can fit a 20 minute nap between classes and activities and who live on campus. If you can fit your entire life on a campus, you can just head to your dorm to sleep for 20 minutes. Also, I think it helps to leave the lights on when you sleep. It makes it easier to wake up again for naps at 2 to 4 am when it's really quiet.
tengal
· 6 months ago
Does it really have to be 20-minutes? Can't it be 30 mins or 45 mins?
Channing Walton
· 6 months ago
I don't think I could do this. The arrival of a child who is now 2 means I get 6 hours a night sleep and a 20 minute nap during the day. I also try to exercise. The problem is I usually feel tired most of the time and my sports performance is rubbish. On the occasions I do get more than 6 hours, I feel much better and sports performance improves.
Note also that growth hormone is secreted during deep sleep and there are probably lots of other reasons why we have evolved to sleep like we do.
Pete
· 5 months ago
My body feels exactly like one sentence from wikipedia article: "the body essentially insists that the day is longer than 24 hours and refuses to adjust to the external light/dark cycle". Unfortunately, I´m on a row of college exams right now, but I´m also excited about starting to try hacking my brain with this, as soon as I finish it. The only problem I can predict is this: I´ve a really heavy sleep, which means I´m usually tough on waking up. Sometimes, even with the best alarm clock is difficult to wake up. I´m studyng my opportunities to solve this problem, right now... Any ideas?
$166 is sort of up there if you ask me, but it could be worth it, and you might be able to find a cheaper version. Also check out the similar alarms from BioBrite. Oh, plus if you happen to want to wake up around sunrise, you can use the sun :D Just leave a window open.
Exciting new discovery?
· 5 months ago
This polyphasic sleep could be exciting new discovery. The way to overcome the lifestyle incompatibilities is to get elected then make everyone else in the country do it too. You could choose one method, say, the Everyman 5-nap, with the same 5 times for everyone, perhaps dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, suppertime, and late evening. Then across the whole country, build a network of sirens and sound them off everyday at those times, so people knows when to sleep. Many people will sleep easiest lying down, so have people carry light hygienic mats with them. To prevent running out of floor space, make a rule requiring everyone to point their mats in the direction of Washington. After a few months, some people might think the lucid dreaming that starts to happen is divine communication, so call the mats "prayer mats", and the sirens "minarets".
Aimee Tang
· 5 months ago
How odd! This kind of comes across as a false 'how-to' guide, but I have to say, if there's truth to it, how good would it be for teachers! Imagine institutions being flexible, with special REM pods in schools and workplaces. If it's that beneficial, then you begin to wonder why there isn't more flexibility. But then perhaps we don't want to be available for more hours, because then workplaces would find ways of invading that gained time etc.... actually, I don't think it would do much for society if this were taken on en masse, but it's an interesting concept.
nemogbr
· 5 months ago
Something about Anglo-American culture. THe companies want to get as much work from people as possible, whilst many other cultures have the siesta.
It seems to be more civilised and healthier.
I'm on day 22 of my everyman. 3 hours core with 4 naps of 15 minutes. I plan to cut my core nap to 1.5 hours, from day 30.
Gabriel Harper
· 5 months ago
This is particularly interesting to me since I've had problems sleeping my entire life. It's common for me to go 2-3 full days without any sleep, then a 3-4 hour nap, followed by another 2-3 full days with no sleep. A couple of times I've stayed up a full seven days w/o a single nap.
Anyway, one thing I've become intimately familiar with after 29 years of sleep deprivation are the distinct cycles my body follows when deprived of sleep. The first 12 hours after waking I'm a total wreck, and the longer I slept the worse it is. After 12-24 hours I become alert and productive. After 48 hours I start getting a little delirious, and my body starts to "shut down". During this period I also have some of my greatest ideas and clearest moments, like the fog has been lifted for a little while. After 72 hours physical movement becomes retarded, I start to slur my words, and begin hallucinating. If there's any hope of staying up longer than four days it means a LOT of caffeine + water, and small meals.
What is most interesting is that after several days of sleep deprivation, I can literally blink my eyes and have a dream. I actually feel as though I'm already dreaming in the background while I struggle to maintain focus on the real world for just a few more hours. A almost wonder if my brain is already in REM, or at least teetering on the cusp of it, having given up hope that I'll ever go to sleep!
I could go on forever with armchair theories about what's really happening, but I can say that from someone who's spent their entire life with an irregular sleep pattern, and who has spent the last 6 years sleeping on average 3 hours per day, that the human body is remarkably adaptable. I don't recommend anyone just go out there and deprive themselves of sleep, trust me it sucks, but if you already have problems sleeping it can't hurt to try something new.
I wonder why this particular page on this site has a comments section, yet the rest of the drivel on the site is not open for comment (like #11 for instance)?
Eric
· 5 months ago
I've fooled around with my sleep patterns a fair bit, but not to the extremes mentioned. A little less sleep during the night and a good 20 minute power nap midday left me feeling really refreshed. The short sleep at night made it easy to nod off for the power nap and go right into REM.
Someone mentioned sleep apnea in the comments. You get this, and all you wish for is a regular good night of sleep.
Like some others, I found out I had sleep apnea in a round about way. I'd been very fit but during a routine physical the doctor noted my blood pressure and triglycerides were high. As a precaution he took a simple EKG,,, telling me afterward it looked like I might have had a heart attack and they needed to do more tests... tests showed I had an enlarged heart, though my heart valves were OK... more and more tests over time. Finally doctor says I have a hunch and schedules a sleep study.
Turns out I have mild sleep apnea, but all these problems are the result of a "mild case". Not progressing through REM sleep, my mind and body are never fully rested no matter how many hours I sleep or how many naps I take.
This is not to suggest that experimenting with sleep patterns will cause such problems, but if for any reason you lose the ability to get the full benefits of sleep, you will suffer and want to get the ability back.
Be careful hacking your brain. There is no reboot.
Elisha
· 5 months ago
It's cool, but what about possible side effects? All animals sleep, which makes it important. What if by missing out on significant hours of sleep, we do miss out on possibly important benefit unknowingly. After all, your article did say "We don’t really know much about sleep."
Guest
· 5 months ago
I don't think this could be really good for someone...but hey, everybody's different. So maybe it could work for several people. I think one power nap each day would be the most interesting and efficient approach for an average person. In that way, one would normally be able to work at least 1 power nap in his/her daily schedule, but still have the all-circle-sleep at night. Just a little bit more practical i think, especially since studies have shown all the parts of the sleep could be important..
achellios
· 5 months ago
First--many thanks for integrating comments directly into the articles. As you can see, your writing provokes much discussion.
I'm inclined to agree with Ade. Although I can personally attest to the effectiveness of the siesta, sleep is a largely unknown frontier; omitting portions that seem unnecessary to us now could have negative repercussions on long-term health. I know I feel a little crazy after missing a couple of nights' sleep--I can't imagine how I would feel after a month of 20-minute naps.
That said, I feel your pain--my natural sleep period falls between 4am and noon. I revert to it every weekend and spend Mondays readjusting.
Jason
· 5 months ago
wow... i'll take "the waste" over any of that other bullsh*t...
Chung Nguyen@The Write Network
· 5 months ago
I sleep 4-5 hours a day myself and have done for years and with pretty intense and busy days I go straight to sleep once head hits the pillow - someone told me I fell asleep in mid-conversation in bed.
All the talk about sleep (getting 8 hours a day) and food (men =2500 calories and women = 2000 calories) make so much 'noise' - it hinders people from stopping and just saying "everyone is different".
Some people (example athletes) need more than the calorie intake people scream about and likewise some people, do not need as much sleep.
I'm sure more energetic on 4 hours sleep than my friends who have 9.
Dan
· 5 months ago
I played with polyphasic sleep a few years ago. Make sure you're reading modern sleep research and not just the preliminary work done in the early 1900's, a lot has been learned since then. I'm sorry that I don't have a citation but the more recent studies have show how important non-REM sleep is. Even though, as others have pointed out, once you adjust to napping your body goes through all phases you may be missing crucial components of non-REM sleep.
My anecdotal experience can be found in my blog. I followed a 6 30 minute nap schedule, commonly referred to as uberman. I already ate 6 small meals a day so everything seemed to fit together. It worked but not without its side effects.
My mental capacity never felt more than 80-90%. While I had a lot more time I was never functioning at my normal level. I strongly recommend you find some standardized mental tests to measure your performance when playing with your sleep schedule.
I felt cold 24/7 despite eating well and working out. This is pure speculation but it may have had to do with hormone imbalance. Sleep is important to your body's regulation of hormone levels and only a few hours of sleep a day can disrupt it.
The rest of my experience is outlined in my blog. For someone like you with an abnormal sleep schedule some form of polyphasic sleep may be best. I personally found that combining core sleep on 1.5h increments (3h, 4.5h, 6h, etc) with a nap or two works best for me. On average a human's natural sleep patterns follow 1.5 hour cycles and waking up near or at the end of a cycle during REM sleep is the most refreshing.
Could you post more specific times for the naps? I would love to try this. As a college student, I can schedule breaks in my schedule for naps, and these times would be VERY consistent from day to day. However, my core hours of sleep usually start at about 2 AM, and I don't know when to insert my naps.
Jason
· 5 months ago
F*&K that, lift weights and do heavy squats and you'll sleep like a baby each night!
btw, sort out the line height on these comments, it's too tight.
Robert Moekoe
· 5 months ago
i have a 26 hour sleep-wake cycle instead of 24 or 28, and been very confused with it. i thought it was because of my reluctance to wake up in time, and never have thought about it the way you do. i'll try the uberman method now. THANKS!
dotcalm / Veronika F
· 5 months ago
Wow - I'm fascinated! So glad @skydiver pointed this out. I'm a work-at-home entrepreneur and I totally believe in naps - guess I should consider scheduling them and see what happens! I see there is some debate on it based on the comments here; but seems worth a try as I do find naps in general to be helpful. I agree with Trevor - you do have a great looking blog! V-
esquareda
· 5 months ago
I love the idea of hacking life... great article. It certainly makes you wonder how much more we could do if we didn't sleep so much.
Miles
· 5 months ago
at high school i was so into the 28hr day i even got so far as to make signs 'abolish tuesday' 4 days on 2 days off each day 28hrs long = same length as one week.
i even tried (with a friend) doing this for about a week and a half. bit of a mess in practice.
be great when we finally get to space since we'll be able to set the length of the day
omerzach
· 5 months ago
You misspelled "research" in the third paragraph.
Very interesting article, nevertheless.
Typegeek
· 5 months ago
An interesting, but more importantly, beautiful looking article. I may dig into your HTML to see how it was done. Did you use Illustrator to design the layout?
one_of_them
· 5 months ago
Years of heavy drug use have taught me that sleep is optional.
Fenn
· 4 months ago
Heyhey,
Love the article - really, really good.
I used to have crazy sleep as a teenager (couldn't wake up, insanely long sleep times) in highschool and ended up doing a sleep study at the specialty sleep unit in hospital.
To their surprise, I experienced no REM sleep at all and was only experiencing stage 4 sleep (only delta waves) from within 30 seconds of falling asleep.
I always used to claim that I "never dreamed" though in my case it was actually true for about 3 years.
Despite many articles to the contrary, I seem to be fine/have no health problems/etc, though who knows, I might go insane by the age of 30 :)
Cheers!
Fenn.
anthonyelmore
· 4 months ago
I am a 'seista' believer but most in-house jobs don't lend themselves to it. Now that I freelance, I've found that I am more productive in the afternoon and evenings than mornings. However, I think I really only need 5 hours of sleep since I'm awake about 5am and just lie there waiting for my wife to wake up. I take a 20 minute nap about 3pm.
I have heard of some companies doing the 2-hour siesta schedule, but the old boys in most companies are dead against it. If they only knew how many more productive hours they can get from their charges.
Dave
· 4 months ago
Do you know anyone who has actually tried polyphasic sleep? I'd be interested in hearing about how it worked out.
Mário Rodrigues
· 4 months ago
Howdy, well i have something to say, its 2009 and since 2000 i dont sleep almost never 8 hours because im a webdeveloper a web entrepeneur and do a lot of things and sometimes im awake for 24 or even 48 hours straight.
After so many years without a normal sleeping pattern one thing i've noticed is that if i dont sleep for about 24 hours and then i feel tired and got to bed and sleep 2 hours im ready for another 24 hours no problem.
If i dont sleep for for a long period past lunch is the worst time i feel very sleepy if im not active but if im doing something physical then i have no problems being awake, and when the night comes i feel rested again even without sleeping and im ready for another straight night.
I only need to sleep like 30 minutes to 2 hours to feel rested but YES there is a problem, i feel like i dont know when is today or yesterday because there is no breaking point there is no reset there is no good morning and no good evening its all the same, i like to a certain point because living and working like a machine for my personal projects its really effective and gave me a lot of success but some times just some times i feel im alone..its weird.
Mike
· 4 months ago
I wouldn't recommend this if you wanted to live a long lifespan. The science studies on longevity in humans has proved that 8 hours of sleep is a common denominator in centurions.
Mário Rodrigues
· 4 months ago
Do you know a man called Leonardo Da Vinci, well he only slept 4 hours a day and in the afternoon, and he worked like a genius and had a brain we all could only dream to have and lived till 67 yup its not much and yes i agree with you, you could shorten your life a little bit, but i know other people that don't sleep 8 hours a day and are a lot older than my friend leonardo.
But as i said i agree with you, but i think it depends a lot on our own individual biology and adaptability and if its done well and I certainly don't, that problem could be shortened, which is something i want to improve. A better polyphasic sleep pattern.
bob
· 2 months ago
False. I knew a man who recently died at the age of 102 who only slept 3hrs a day divided in naps.
Also statistics indicates that people sleeping 4hrs daily tend to live longer lives than those who sleeps 8hrs. (I remember reading about this in the paper 10yrs ago)
santina0424
· 4 months ago
Intriguing, I shall learn well.
john7878
· 4 months ago
If you have a girlfriend, than you are done. Still, siestas are always nice.
marker411
· 4 months ago
Sleeping is very necessary for a good health body.
Name
· 3 months ago
How do you train your body to take those 20-minute naps? I waste all of my nap time trying to fall asleep. Are there any tricks to falling asleep/ waking up quickly?
fccfu
· 3 months ago
I would go for the 420 man Twenty 20 minute naps and 4 hours of hard core sleep 10.6 hours a day give or take
tomgustafson
· 3 months ago
I work as a sleep physician and had to post in response to this article. Large portions of the argument for this method simply are not supported by basic science research or evidence based medicine. I would say that the last method mentioned of only sleeping 2 hours per day total are overtly dangerous solely from the risk of sleep deprivation and the micro sleep episodes that can happen within 2-3 days of sleep deprivation and can be fatal if occuring while driving.
Another enormous loophole in this method is that REM sleep has not been shown to be the most important sleep phase and the deep slow wave NREM sleep is felt to function the restorative benefits of sleep.
What puts the final nail in deflating this method is that REM sleep occurs at the end of a sleep cycle, so the thought that multiple 20 minute naps will be adequate sleep and get you only the REM sleep you need is blatantly false. The only situations where REM sleep occurs at sleep onset is with the narcolepsy spectrum of disorders and chronic sleep deprivation.
I would strongly recommend against this method and to see your physician before trying this and to please, please not drive if you are getting only 2 hours of sleep per day.
hjrf
· 3 months ago
I think I have a new one. Cat stalker.
Brush teeth and do hygiene when the cats do it. Sleep when cats sleep. Have a trusted,fertile yet not too hung (prevents rivalry over dat sweet pussy?? eww myself on that one) male cat spray you in the face to wake you up when its killing time.
Eat only the grasses and herbs they approve of, and raw lean meat they approve of such as squirrell,bird,rat,mouse,frog,lizard,snake,small rabbit, unnaturally tiny dogs, insects,large ants,etc..
Whenever they run go bipedial and give me 100 yard sprints. When they climb a tree follow then give me 50 pushups,5 minutes of situps and 15 pullups (not chinups mind you).
Watch the cat yoga closely. Master it. Be one with it. Apply it. Become it.
In 6 months you will be a pussy magnet. Feel great too. Your skin will have gotten so tough you won't even feel those ticks and fleas. (rich in iron! eat em up)
For the ladies please read my ebook bitchin for detailed info on how to remain at your sexual maximum at any age.
Jumper2
· 3 months ago
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Luis
· 3 months ago
Just like Kramer!
Name
· 3 months ago
I just took my first 20 minute nap after staying awake for about 26 hours. I feel amazing. I have a good feeling about this sleep cycle. Thank you for convincing me to try it!
chajoy
· 3 months ago
this is all very logical and makes total sense based on what i know about sleep phaes and such....but i can't help but wonder...who gets to sleep like this and be an active participant in life? work? family? household duties? friends? this schedule resembles that of a toddler's and their sleep schedules definitely break up the day and limit activities. just my thoughts.
lylezik
· 3 months ago
I am just wondering about your statement "the rest is wasted on the other seemingly useless phases." I have learn recently that stage 4 sleep is extremely important because that is when your brain is really resting and catching back up. Not sure if this is true but I thought some psychologists did studies that showed the technique you present does not keep a person as awake.
Nick H.
· 2 months ago
It should be noted that other things happen during non-REM sleep, such as short-term memory consolidation (learning), as well as non-brain functions such as healing (your immune system is typically at its best when you're sleeping). Thus, while this "hack" is useful for short periods, living like this for a long period of time may have additional unforeseen costs. Nevertheless, a fascinating post. Thanks for sharing.
EasyBee
· 2 months ago
Your article makes an important unrecognized assumption: non-REM sleep is unimportant. Just because no one has found it's purpose, doesn't mean it doesn't have one. Can you back up the assumption with any research aimed at the purpose of the other sleep phases?
¿Cómo hackear tu cerebro?
· 2 months ago
[...] Estos métodos los pueden encontrar con más detalle en el siguiente enlace y se encuentran agrupados en la categoría de sueño polifásico, los cuales se dividen a su vez en varios tipos [...]
Polykan
· 2 months ago
There's tons of info and an active IRC network for polyphasic sleep patters at www.poly-phasers.com
predator by nature
· 1 month ago
Sleep is very important. Daring the awake phase our cells perform different tasks, which for them are normal day to day routine. Everything that takes place in our bodies is just like a program being run on a computer. Instead of virtual code (you can see this page and the code behind it even it doesn't really exist in physical form) our body uses pre-established smart chosen chemical substances and smart chains of chemical reactions which are ignited when some changes appear (example: when sugar comes too high in our blood insulin is secreted which tells the body to transform the sugar for later use and have it stored in the cells in a modified form). All these chemical reactions are ONLY possible when certain substances are activated. Those substances are the enzymes, the body's catalysts. Most enzymes are asleep and are woke up by an activator substance: tpa (tri-phosphoric acid) which is used throughout the day. After 16 hours the tpa quantity decreases so much that our batteries (small parts of our cells called mitochondriae) have to reload and revert the process transforming the dpa back into tpa. That's why you need 8 hours of sleep. It's how we've been designed and engineered by God. These are our physical limits. You can push the limits with some costs. But the costs are higher than you imagine since your cells will begin to deteriorate if you don't allow them the self repair and reload times. The consequence: you'll age sooner and you'll encounter more health issues as you become older.
chris ronk
· 1 month ago
I think I have a non-24-hour sleep-wake syndrome too, but I am pretty certain I could not keep any of these schedules. I work full time and have a busy family life.
I wish I could though. Very intriguing.
Contrive
· 1 month ago
WOW!! what a find. I have been this way since Jr. high school and never knew why. I Just accepted it for what it was and try to deal with it. This article makes perfect sense to me and answers my wondering why's. I'm no expert on the subject but my guess would be that the only negative affect of using these methods is if you really don't have the disorder. It never claims that this is for everyone. I work out as a hobby and know the benefits of sleep repair so I think the everyman 2-3 would be best for me. I also have another related sleeping problem that likely relates to this. Doctors have told me that I sleep too deep sometimes and lose control of certain functions. Perhaps this will help avoid the "too deep" problem as well. I'll give it a shot and keep you posted. Many thanks!
joe2
· 1 month ago
i've had this problem my whole life - it got me kicked out of highschool for chronic tardiness, fired from most jobs, and caused a few breakups too. i live alone now, unemployed, with a poor education, and i blame my sleep condition.
Miss Cola
· 1 month ago
Interesting! I have a problem keeping to a normal 24-hour sleeping schedule myself. I love how the sleep schedules are illustrated because although I've heard of this before (Steve Pavlina), I wasn't able to understand how it goes. I'd like to try one of the Everyman myself.
Bookmarking this. Thanks!
Gustavo
· 1 month ago
How does this affect eating habits. Less sleep means more calories burned, means more calorie intake required?
ammar
· 1 month ago
Nice article, but here is something to consider: (I'm not a doctor)
To keep you heart healthy, your average heart pulse through out the day (24h) should be 60. When you're awake and not doing any work, it's usually near 70. when you're working out (might be just walking), it should go up to 140. And it can go up to 180 when running for example. To make it up and get an average of 60 in a 24h, you pulse rate should drop during your sleep. Sleeping for less than 6 hours a day will prevent that and will increase your daily pulse rate average.
I also read once that people who can't sleep (usually because of stress) risk heart failure.
Just consider that before you start sleeping 2 hours a day. If we still don't know why we sleep 6 to 8 hours a day doesn't mean there is no reason.
Most importantly, what are you going to do with the extra 4 hours? Do you really need an extra 4 hours a day to do more work? check other ways first to be more productive.
petercooper
· 1 month ago
I have the same problem. Luckily I have a newborn now so crazy sleep schedules == happy mom :-) But.. I did try some of these alternate schedules a while back, not even as crazy as the Uberman one, and.. after two days I felt like I could go postal or do myself some serious harm. So I quit it. I don't want to go back there again!
Shantri.dk
· 1 week ago
Interesting stuff. Not far from my own sleeping pattern, though I practice it a bit differently.
For a period of 2-3 weeks I only sleep 2-3 hours each night. After the period, I use one day to sleep 8-9 hours, then back to the 2-3 hours. I dont feel tired during the day, after work I can experience a period of 30-60 mins, where I feel very tired, a nap 10-20 mins, does the trick, and Im ready for the rest of the evening, fully rested. I dont need to tak ethe nap though, I can manage fine without, but if I have the time, not doing sports or any other activity, I take the nap
Ryan Snowden
· 1 week ago
I polyphasic slept for 12 months. It increased cortisol uptake, so I was craving sugar which can make you fat. Luckily, I had a well planned exercise routing of a 10km run at lunch every day. Coupled with a diet rich in vegies and fruit, life was good. A reboot sleep every month was required, and I was sleeping 24 minute segments.
All Comments
My personal anecdotes seemed to match Puredoxyk's (who seems to have the greatest amount of information, that or Steve Pavlina, both mentioned in other comments), but I have to say the psychological effects are why I stopped. I never fully adjusted, so late at night, I'd get very tired and have to fight off sleep. This made the gained time rather useless, but was definitely getting better when I finally gave it up.
In the end, I missed lying in bed for more than 20 minutes at a time; as an academic, the bed is where I do my best work. After a few weeks, the time dilation got pretty intense. Too many sunrises in one day can wear on you. I never thought I could consider being awake a prison, but I learned that I really rely on my 6-8 hour reset sleep every night.
I'd reccomend it if you have time to get through the adjustment period, but strongly caution that we just don't know how unhealthy/health this sort of thing really is.
I'd love to try this out, but unfortunately it's just not flexible enough for me. I've got the 9-5 job during the week, but I like to stay out late on weekends. Talking until 6 or 7am sometimes. That would throw the Everyman schedule way off, I think. I might try out a siesta type sleep schedule though.
Are there any studies on the effectiveness of this? How many people could manage to stick with the different plans, tests as to cognitive abilities before and after modifying their sleep schedules in these says? Episodes of unexpected (i.e. off-schedule) sleepiness as described by Steve in the comments? I'd be very interested to see such a study.
I was just recently diagnosed with sleep apnea and my sleep study showed that while I do hit REM sleep multiple times during the night, I never reach stage 4, and as a result I have all kinds of other medical problems. Your immune and nervous systems can't function properly without stage 4 sleep even when REM is plentiful. Bottom line: be careful trying to change your sleep pattern. Trying to trick your body usually doesn't lead to good things.
Be well, all.
yet, there's a big hairy 'but' lurking around the corner: could you provide a few reliable sources concerning this statement - "It was recently discovered that all you really need to survive and feel rested is the REM phase"?
I heard quiet the opposite - having discussed the subject with a scientist, doing research on sleep.
Articles on polyphasic sleep, which cyclically appear in public medias, more or less intentionally hide the fact that there are some certanties on the sleep, one of which is the fact that muscle repair and rebuilding happens during the sleep.
This makes the statement "There’s no clear biological reason for it" false, and every single person practicing sport at a certain level knows and experience it.
I of course don't want to discredit the theory (I did my own experimentation as well), but these kind of perspectives make the idea quite misleading.
I also have a blog where I mainly talk about polyphasic sleep, I've been doing it for nearly 3 years, come visit if you get a chance!
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyph...
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://w...
The only trouble is that, like your 28 hr day, you get out of synch with the everyone else. You start to feel like you're in your own world and the people around you just pass in and out of it. Which actually made me even more productive because I could focus on the work at hand much easier.
I imagine even the Uberman method would have that effect. Having to excuse yourself from normal social schedules to take a nap coupled with staying up for most hours in the night would keep you partially disassociated from the rest of the planet.
He ended up in a river IN A SACK!
Anyways, another great article Dustin. I find myself looking more and more forward to your customized posts (an idea I'm also toying with on my upcoming site). Keep up the good work!
There is another option you should include: "biphasic" sleeping, which is observed by most other mammals. During a normal "waste sleep" there are two peaks of productivity with light sleep in the middle. Waking up for 30 minutes or an hour during that time can give you more wake time but also reset, getting you into the second natural deep sleep phase.
I've heard from a few people who were biphasic, though none for long periods of time. Usually they napped for two three-hour blocks. That always sounded nice to me -- two looong naps a day -- but I've never been able to pull it off. (Anyway, I'm on Everyman right now, & I'd actually lose two hours if I went 3-hour biphasic! ;)
Cool though.
However, he was driving somewhere, and he said he felt himself get really tired really fast, and just fell asleep... while driving. He said the wave of sleep came out of nowhere and knocked him out :) Luckily, his crash was minor, and he didn't get hurt.
The study wasn't about *polyphasic* sleepers, so IMO that leaves things pretty up in the air...but there is at least some evidence that sleeping polyphasically, you're getting the same types of sleep, just structured in a more efficient way.
Sleep is a funny thing, no? Even when you're taking it in nibbles. ;)
PD
The main dissadvantage of polyphasic-sleep is the huge hunger after every nap. Your body was fooled into thinking it was asleep long and your metabolism boosts .... whereie is the food?
Good luck to everybody trying it.
Can't it be 30 mins or 45 mins?
Note also that growth hormone is secreted during deep sleep and there are probably lots of other reasons why we have evolved to sleep like we do.
Unfortunately, I´m on a row of college exams right now, but I´m also excited about starting to try hacking my brain with this, as soon as I finish it.
The only problem I can predict is this: I´ve a really heavy sleep, which means I´m usually tough on waking up. Sometimes, even with the best alarm clock is difficult to wake up. I´m studyng my opportunities to solve this problem, right now... Any ideas?
$166 is sort of up there if you ask me, but it could be worth it, and you might be able to find a cheaper version. Also check out the similar alarms from BioBrite. Oh, plus if you happen to want to wake up around sunrise, you can use the sun :D Just leave a window open.
This kind of comes across as a false 'how-to' guide, but I have to say, if there's truth to it, how good would it be for teachers! Imagine institutions being flexible, with special REM pods in schools and workplaces.
If it's that beneficial, then you begin to wonder why there isn't more flexibility. But then perhaps we don't want to be available for more hours, because then workplaces would find ways of invading that gained time etc.... actually, I don't think it would do much for society if this were taken on en masse, but it's an interesting concept.
It seems to be more civilised and healthier.
I'm on day 22 of my everyman. 3 hours core with 4 naps of 15 minutes. I plan to cut my core nap to 1.5 hours, from day 30.
Anyway, one thing I've become intimately familiar with after 29 years of sleep deprivation are the distinct cycles my body follows when deprived of sleep. The first 12 hours after waking I'm a total wreck, and the longer I slept the worse it is. After 12-24 hours I become alert and productive. After 48 hours I start getting a little delirious, and my body starts to "shut down". During this period I also have some of my greatest ideas and clearest moments, like the fog has been lifted for a little while. After 72 hours physical movement becomes retarded, I start to slur my words, and begin hallucinating. If there's any hope of staying up longer than four days it means a LOT of caffeine + water, and small meals.
What is most interesting is that after several days of sleep deprivation, I can literally blink my eyes and have a dream. I actually feel as though I'm already dreaming in the background while I struggle to maintain focus on the real world for just a few more hours. A almost wonder if my brain is already in REM, or at least teetering on the cusp of it, having given up hope that I'll ever go to sleep!
I could go on forever with armchair theories about what's really happening, but I can say that from someone who's spent their entire life with an irregular sleep pattern, and who has spent the last 6 years sleeping on average 3 hours per day, that the human body is remarkably adaptable. I don't recommend anyone just go out there and deprive themselves of sleep, trust me it sucks, but if you already have problems sleeping it can't hurt to try something new.
Please check out my shout out to your blog on my blog: http://frumhacks.blogspot.com/2009/06/sleephack...
Please check out my shout out to your blog on my blog: http://frumhacks.blogspot.com/2009/06/sleephack...
Someone mentioned sleep apnea in the comments. You get this, and all you wish for is a regular good night of sleep.
Like some others, I found out I had sleep apnea in a round about way. I'd been very fit but during a routine physical the doctor noted my blood pressure and triglycerides were high. As a precaution he took a simple EKG,,, telling me afterward it looked like I might have had a heart attack and they needed to do more tests... tests showed I had an enlarged heart, though my heart valves were OK... more and more tests over time. Finally doctor says I have a hunch and schedules a sleep study.
Turns out I have mild sleep apnea, but all these problems are the result of a "mild case". Not progressing through REM sleep, my mind and body are never fully rested no matter how many hours I sleep or how many naps I take.
This is not to suggest that experimenting with sleep patterns will cause such problems, but if for any reason you lose the ability to get the full benefits of sleep, you will suffer and want to get the ability back.
Be careful hacking your brain. There is no reboot.
So maybe it could work for several people. I think one power nap each day would be the most interesting and efficient approach for an average person. In that way, one would normally be able to work at least 1 power nap in his/her daily schedule, but still have the all-circle-sleep at night. Just a little bit more practical i think, especially since studies have shown all the parts of the sleep could be important..
I'm inclined to agree with Ade. Although I can personally attest to the effectiveness of the siesta, sleep is a largely unknown frontier; omitting portions that seem unnecessary to us now could have negative repercussions on long-term health. I know I feel a little crazy after missing a couple of nights' sleep--I can't imagine how I would feel after a month of 20-minute naps.
That said, I feel your pain--my natural sleep period falls between 4am and noon. I revert to it every weekend and spend Mondays readjusting.
All the talk about sleep (getting 8 hours a day) and food (men =2500 calories and women = 2000 calories) make so much 'noise' - it hinders people from stopping and just saying "everyone is different".
Some people (example athletes) need more than the calorie intake people scream about and likewise some people, do not need as much sleep.
I'm sure more energetic on 4 hours sleep than my friends who have 9.
My anecdotal experience can be found in my blog. I followed a 6 30 minute nap schedule, commonly referred to as uberman. I already ate 6 small meals a day so everything seemed to fit together. It worked but not without its side effects.
My mental capacity never felt more than 80-90%. While I had a lot more time I was never functioning at my normal level. I strongly recommend you find some standardized mental tests to measure your performance when playing with your sleep schedule.
I felt cold 24/7 despite eating well and working out. This is pure speculation but it may have had to do with hormone imbalance. Sleep is important to your body's regulation of hormone levels and only a few hours of sleep a day can disrupt it.
The rest of my experience is outlined in my blog. For someone like you with an abnormal sleep schedule some form of polyphasic sleep may be best. I personally found that combining core sleep on 1.5h increments (3h, 4.5h, 6h, etc) with a nap or two works best for me. On average a human's natural sleep patterns follow 1.5 hour cycles and waking up near or at the end of a cycle during REM sleep is the most refreshing.
btw, sort out the line height on these comments, it's too tight.
i'll try the uberman method now. THANKS!
I see there is some debate on it based on the comments here; but seems worth a try as I do find naps in general to be helpful.
I agree with Trevor - you do have a great looking blog!
V-
i even tried (with a friend) doing this for about a week and a half. bit of a mess in practice.
be great when we finally get to space since we'll be able to set the length of the day
Very interesting article, nevertheless.
Love the article - really, really good.
I used to have crazy sleep as a teenager (couldn't wake up, insanely long sleep times) in highschool and ended up doing a sleep study at the specialty sleep unit in hospital.
To their surprise, I experienced no REM sleep at all and was only experiencing stage 4 sleep (only delta waves) from within 30 seconds of falling asleep.
I always used to claim that I "never dreamed" though in my case it was actually true for about 3 years.
Despite many articles to the contrary, I seem to be fine/have no health problems/etc, though who knows, I might go insane by the age of 30 :)
Cheers!
Fenn.
I have heard of some companies doing the 2-hour siesta schedule, but the old boys in most companies are dead against it. If they only knew how many more productive hours they can get from their charges.
After so many years without a normal sleeping pattern one thing i've noticed is that if i dont sleep for about 24 hours and then i feel tired and got to bed and sleep 2 hours im ready for another 24 hours no problem.
If i dont sleep for for a long period past lunch is the worst time i feel very sleepy if im not active but if im doing something physical then i have no problems being awake, and when the night comes i feel rested again even without sleeping and im ready for another straight night.
I only need to sleep like 30 minutes to 2 hours to feel rested but YES there is a problem, i feel like i dont know when is today or yesterday because there is no breaking point there is no reset there is no good morning and no good evening its all the same, i like to a certain point because living and working like a machine for my personal projects its really effective and gave me a lot of success but some times just some times i feel im alone..its weird.
But as i said i agree with you, but i think it depends a lot on our own individual biology and adaptability and if its done well and I certainly don't, that problem could be shortened, which is something i want to improve. A better polyphasic sleep pattern.
Also statistics indicates that people sleeping 4hrs daily tend to live longer lives than those who sleeps 8hrs. (I remember reading about this in the paper 10yrs ago)
10.6 hours a day give or take
Another enormous loophole in this method is that REM sleep has not been shown to be the most important sleep phase and the deep slow wave NREM sleep is felt to function the restorative benefits of sleep.
What puts the final nail in deflating this method is that REM sleep occurs at the end of a sleep cycle, so the thought that multiple 20 minute naps will be adequate sleep and get you only the REM sleep you need is blatantly false. The only situations where REM sleep occurs at sleep onset is with the narcolepsy spectrum of disorders and chronic sleep deprivation.
I would strongly recommend against this method and to see your physician before trying this and to please, please not drive if you are getting only 2 hours of sleep per day.
Brush teeth and do hygiene when the cats do it. Sleep when cats sleep. Have a trusted,fertile yet not too hung (prevents rivalry over dat sweet pussy?? eww myself on that one) male cat spray you in the face to wake you up when its killing time.
Eat only the grasses and herbs they approve of, and raw lean meat they approve of such as squirrell,bird,rat,mouse,frog,lizard,snake,small rabbit, unnaturally tiny dogs, insects,large ants,etc..
Whenever they run go bipedial and give me 100 yard sprints. When they climb a tree follow then give me 50 pushups,5 minutes of situps and 15 pullups (not chinups mind you).
Watch the cat yoga closely. Master it. Be one with it. Apply it. Become it.
In 6 months you will be a pussy magnet. Feel great too. Your skin will have gotten so tough you won't even feel those ticks and fleas. (rich in iron! eat em up)
For the ladies please read my ebook bitchin for detailed info on how to remain at your sexual maximum at any age.
I wish I could though. Very intriguing.
Bookmarking this. Thanks!
To keep you heart healthy, your average heart pulse through out the day (24h) should be 60. When you're awake and not doing any work, it's usually near 70. when you're working out (might be just walking), it should go up to 140. And it can go up to 180 when running for example. To make it up and get an average of 60 in a 24h, you pulse rate should drop during your sleep. Sleeping for less than 6 hours a day will prevent that and will increase your daily pulse rate average.
I also read once that people who can't sleep (usually because of stress) risk heart failure.
Just consider that before you start sleeping 2 hours a day. If we still don't know why we sleep 6 to 8 hours a day doesn't mean there is no reason.
Most importantly, what are you going to do with the extra 4 hours? Do you really need an extra 4 hours a day to do more work? check other ways first to be more productive.
For a period of 2-3 weeks I only sleep 2-3 hours each night. After the period, I use one day to sleep 8-9 hours, then back to the 2-3 hours. I dont feel tired during the day, after work I can experience a period of 30-60 mins, where I feel very tired, a nap 10-20 mins, does the trick, and Im ready for the rest of the evening, fully rested. I dont need to tak ethe nap though, I can manage fine without, but if I have the time, not doing sports or any other activity, I take the nap
Hardest part?
Starting.