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Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

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Re: Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

#31

Post by leesec »

Used to work on a cement tugboat, 12 hour days 28 days a time. Unfortunately, it wasn't 12 on 12 off, it was 6 x 6 x 6 x 6. Meaning you could rarely get more than 4.5 hours of sleep at one time for the whole hitch. Depending on if the Captain had it out for you or what your route demanded, your sleep schedule could be even more irregular.

It felt unsustainable to me. You'd come off the boat a zombie, and in just 12 days of drinking and disrupted sleep later, you'd get to do it again.

Re: Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

#32

Post by ashtonkem »

ghettoimp wrote: post #29
ashtonkem wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Biphasic and triphasic are actually pretty normal, historically. Modern humans go to bed super late compared to our pre-electricity brethren; most people the world over would go to bed super early and have a “first” and “second” sleep, plus maybe an afternoon nap. You’ll notice this effect if you go camping. The moment the sun goes down you’ll crash much sooner than you would at home, and you might find yourself full…

> 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?

Oh, there’s tons of evidence for this, largely in the writings of pre-electricity figures who clearly treated the subject as common knowledge. Advice manuals from the time even indicate that this was the best time for couples to conceive.

Modern tribes without access to continuous light actually still sleep like this too, which is fascinating.

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16964783

Re: Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

#33

Post by toast0 »

bonniemuffin wrote: post #5

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…

Oh man, raising an infant and sleep deprivation hit me too. For about a week, I had to just chart if I was awake or not and just sleep when the chart said to sleep...

Other than the couple of times where I ended up not sleeping for 24 hours, I thought the wake up/eat/sleep cycles around 2 hours were ok, but 3 hours was torture, the wakeup would always happen in the middle of deep sleep and really mess things up. Once it got over four hours, it all seemed fineish. Not a lot of memory retention from that period though. Pretty happy we had a good sleeper or I would have been wrecked.

Re: Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

#34

Post by fny »

I was on a polyphasic sleep schedule for two weeks when I was in high school. I had an econ class where the teacher didn't mind if I fell asleep. It worked fairly well for about two weeks. Towards the end, I was very sleep deprived, but I didn't realize it: I had forgotten what it felt like to be fully rested.

While the increased hours in a day we're incredible, mentally intensive tasks were difficult. Homework was easy, but working through AMC practice questions did not go as well.

It's a clear quantity vs quality trade-off.

I stopped the experiment early when I started having trouble falling asleep in that econ class.

Also, I felt perpetual in this somewhat giddy state: that feeling when you just catch a second wind and everything seems funny. Mild delirium. In retrospect, it seems like hypomania.

I could see a case for polyphasic sleep for a few weeks at a time if you're in a crunch to do a lot of work that doesn't require too much thinking. Recharge for a week and repeat if necessary. Otherwise, it's a really, really bad idea.

Re: Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

#35

Post by jabirali »

ghettoimp wrote: post #29
ashtonkem wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Biphasic and triphasic are actually pretty normal, historically. Modern humans go to bed super late compared to our pre-electricity brethren; most people the world over would go to bed super early and have a “first” and “second” sleep, plus maybe an afternoon nap. You’ll notice this effect if you go camping. The moment the sun goes down you’ll crash much sooner than you would at home, and you might find yourself full…

> 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?

Maybe check the references in this article?

https://theconversation.com/did-we-used-to-have-two-sleeps-r...

Re: Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

#36

Post by samtheprogram »

ghettoimp wrote: post #29
ashtonkem wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Biphasic and triphasic are actually pretty normal, historically. Modern humans go to bed super late compared to our pre-electricity brethren; most people the world over would go to bed super early and have a “first” and “second” sleep, plus maybe an afternoon nap. You’ll notice this effect if you go camping. The moment the sun goes down you’ll crash much sooner than you would at home, and you might find yourself full…

> 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?

Anecdotally I remember reading that in Britain it used to be more common for some to wake up in the middle of the night and do light reading, but you’ll probably want to do some more research as I don’t recall the source.

Re: Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

#37

Post by monkeydreams »

bonniemuffin wrote: post #5

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…

> getting all my sleep in I can sympathise with this. My son spent about 18 months (from 4 months old onwards) only sleeping 45 -50 minutes at a time, before waking up crying. It felt like every aspect of our lives at that point was outside of our control and any attempt to organise ourselves or to co-ordinate outside assistance (in the form of family, friends, medical intervention) was an ordeal beyond our mental capabilities.

Things improved just before his 2nd birthday. He went from 45 minute sleep to 6 hour sleep in the course of two days.

Re: Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

#38

Post by taeric »

corty wrote: post #22
taeric wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would guess electric lights.

That doesn't make sense to me, siesta wastes precious daylight. If anything, the availability of light at night should have promoted daytime sleep, if there was any influence.

Lights help extend the evening. Such that you sort of barrel through a time that would make you tired by just cranking up the light.

Re: Polyphasic sleep takes napping to the extreme

#39

Post by taeric »

nijaru wrote: post #26
corty wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't make sense to me, siesta wastes precious daylight. If anything, the availability of light at night should have promoted daytime sleep, if there was any influence.

Growing up somewhere with a Mediterranean climate that has hot summers, I’ve always assumed it was to sleep through the heat before a/c was invented.

There is almost certainly something to this. Sun exposure is dangerous.
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