Polyphasic sleep. Has anyone tried it?

#1

Post by methane » Sun, Oct 30, 2011, 4:42 AM UTC

It's extremely interesting topic. Has anyone tried? Tell your story if you have.

More info about it: http://www.dustincurtis.com/sleep.html

Re: Polyphasic sleep. Has anyone tried it?

#2

Post by ArmstrongRSBC » Sun, Oct 30, 2011, 6:04 AM UTC

I had a friend in college who was on it and it worked for him, but he had the incredibly flexible schedule of a college student.

But if you did not have great flexibility and something unexpected comes up you could be caught with your polyphasic pants down and be nonfunctional.

Re: Polyphasic sleep. Has anyone tried it?

#3

Post by Adaptive » Sun, Oct 30, 2011, 6:11 AM UTC

Everytime I read about polyphasic sleep I think it sounds appealing, probably for the reasons that I find Dvorak keyboard layouts appealing. It promises to marginally optimize an important part of my life after extraordinary effort in manner which results in incompatibility with said rest-of-the-world.

Ultimately, my own sleep schedule is the same as my coding schedule: long blocks of uninterrupted time.

I want to meet someone doing this kind of nap sleeping in person to see if they seem fully alert. Genuine curiosity. As long as it's not my bus driver.

Re: Polyphasic sleep. Has anyone tried it?

#4

Post by akkartik » Sun, Oct 30, 2011, 6:20 AM UTC

Only since the beginning of HN. A probably-incomplete sample: http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=pol...

Super boring. Sssssssuuuuuuuuuuper boring.

Re: Polyphasic sleep. Has anyone tried it?

#5

Post by willpower101 » Sun, Oct 30, 2011, 8:04 AM UTC

I tried but could not make it past the 3rd day. Don't know why it didn't work for me, I simply could not stay awake.

Re: Polyphasic sleep. Has anyone tried it?

#6

Post by div » Sun, Oct 30, 2011, 8:30 AM UTC

Steve Pavlina has blogged extensively about polyphasic sleep:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/

Re: Polyphasic sleep. Has anyone tried it?

#7

Post by saiko-chriskun » Sun, Oct 30, 2011, 5:33 PM UTC

I've tried but I always end up shutting off my alarm clocks subconsciously... something akin to sleepwalking or something :P. I've even bought one of those alarm clocks where you have to solve a geometric puzzle to turn it off and I STILL do it hahahah.

Re: Polyphasic sleep. Has anyone tried it?

#8

Post by coffeenut » Sun, Oct 30, 2011, 5:55 PM UTC

willpower101 wrote: post #5

I tried but could not make it past the 3rd day. Don't know why it didn't work for me, I simply could not stay awake.

Same here, I've tried it twice and both times gave in about day 3. It's not that I couldn't physically stay awake, just that my resolve and willpower trended towards zero.

Re: Polyphasic sleep. Has anyone tried it?

#9

Post by coffeenut » Sun, Oct 30, 2011, 5:57 PM UTC

I've tried and failed twice.

However, I did gain one lasting benefit. I taught myself how to reliably fall asleep within 2 minutes. That's a pretty awesome skill.

Re: Polyphasic sleep. Has anyone tried it?

#10

Post by dtwwtd » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 4:24 AM UTC

It's something I've always been interested in although I don't have the flexibility in my schedule to make it work.

From what the accounts I've read, It provides some benefit in the short term however it doesn't seem sustainable in the long term (think months or years).