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Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

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Re: Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

#81
post #42

I attempted uberman on two separate occasions and had to stop in fear that lack of sleep would permanently damage my brain. I was able to hit rem every nap after 2-3 weeks but never recovered on sleep within the 30 day transition period. I'm pretty sure it is because it is much easier if you are a vegetarian since eating meat is so heavy and messes with your sleep. It was a neat experience though. I had the most vivi…

I also tried uberman some years ago, I don't remember how many days I lasted but I'd guess between 5 and 10. It was amazing that I was able to fall asleep, have a dream and wake up before an alarm, and feel refreshed. But still, I was severely sleep-deprived, I was starting to hallucinate, and I gave up. I was sensing some presence in the room, I knew it wasn't real, but I got scared as shit and decided to fall asleep.

In hindsight, that was stupid as hell. The shit kids read on the internet.

Re: Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

#82
post #77
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you count an early afternoon nap as the second phase, then yes. Otherwise, no. The whole medieval "second sleep" thing was probably a cultural thing and not a biological thing and it seems to have been limited to Europe during that time period.

Jared Diamond in "The World Until Yesterday" says that when he was on expeditions with natives in New Guinea, they would all go to sleep when the sun went down (near the equator so usually pretty close to 7pm), then wake up around midnight and chat for an hour or two around the fire, before going back to sleep again and waking up at sunrise (again around 5 or 6).

That's 10 hours of sleep at night? Or are you being euphemistically and are you including time spent on sex?

Re: Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

#83
post #17

Isn't human sleep naturally biphasic rather than monophasic? https://www.sciencealert.com/humans-used-to-sleep-in-two-shi...

I'd look at studies like [0], which indicate that the answer is "no". When given no indication of time, humans tend towards a ~24h sleep period.

[0]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1330995/

Re: Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

#84
post #2

One unintended consequence of Covid19 related lockdown/work from home has been less commute and more hours to sleep. This is the most regular/high quality sleep i've had in years and I'm only now seeing how badly my normal sleep habits have been effecting me. Experimenting with any non-monophasic sleep pattern sounds exhausting and I'm afraid could have serious health impacts...would love to see the science/literatur…

I can take a nap if I feel tired. Usually in the afternoon, which would have been impossible when in the office.

Re: Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

#85
I'll echo the same sentiment as many others in this thread: tried polyphasic sleep in college (2 hour block at night and 3-4 20 min naps during day) and found it to be horrible. Any inconsistencies in my schedule and I was a wreck. Was _slightly_ better than just getting the 2 hour block like I had originally been doing, but wasn't anything like getting a healthy 6-8 hours.

Re: Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

#86
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Biphasic and triphasic are actually pretty normal, historically. Is there evidence of this? I'm not doubting - I think I've seen this suggested before. I just don't know how people figured this out?

Biphasic sleep is pretty common in Asian cultures. An afternoon nap is common in pre-schools and elementary schools, less common but still not non-existent in higher education and the workplace.

[deleted]

Re: Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

#87
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Midnight used to be the middle of the night, hence the name. Now it's when you think "Oh, I'll just check twitter one more time" Try telling a modern person you go to bed at 8 and wake up 4. They'll look at you like you're insane.

Speak for yourself. I try and sleep by 10 every night, unless I'm socialising, then get up at 6am.

That’s still far from the middle of the night for you.

Re: Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

#88

Having recently experienced raising an infant, let me tell you, getting all my sleep in I was getting what this article suggests would be a viable polyphasic sleep schedule (total of 8 hours per 24 hour period, in chunks of 1-2 hours throughout the day and night whenever the baby slept), but I started hallucinating, got deeply depressed, and felt like I was losing touch with reality. All the symptoms vanished as soon…

Might be that your sleep was just short of a single cycle (1~2 hours usually) which, from what I understand, could feel the same as no sleep at all. Sleeping short chunks is probably only viable if you can be sure to fully complete a cycle every time.

Re: Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That must have been the happiest days of your life! We woke up and thought he had died. 10 minutes later everything was awesome.

I admit, I misinterpreted the sentence in the first read and was pretty shocked.

If you swap the conclusions of the two sentences it is pretty shocking indeed.

Re: Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

#90
post #13

It’s unsustainable but you don’t need to sustain it forever, you only sustain it during a time of your life where it can have the most impact, then phase it out when you get diminishing returns.

Agreed it can be effective short term. But you'll feel the effects of sleep deprivation over time and that comes with certain health risks.
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