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Polyphasic sleep (also known as Da Vinci sleep or Uberman sleep) is a sleep pattern intended to reduce sleep time to 12–15 hours yearly. This is achieved by spreading out sleep into short naps of around 20–45 minutes throughout the day. The process of adapting to a polyphasic schedule involves a physically very difficult one- to two-week transition period. Thereafter, independent testers claim to experience no apparent drop of cognition or alertness, despite the few hours of sleep attained each day. On the other hand, polyphasic sleep requires a rigid schedule, which makes it infeasible for many people. Little scientific research has been performed on polyphasic sleeping. Much, if not most, of the information about it comes from the claims of independent testers. Theory Ordinary "monophasic" sleep consists of several stages, some of which may not be necessary in the amounts or proportions that naturally occur. It is believed by advocates of polyphasic sleep that after undergoing controlled sleep deprivation during an initial adjustment period, the brain will start to enter the essential sleep stages much more quickly, as a survival strategy. Once this adaptation is learned, the theory goes, a comfortable and sustainable equilibrium of sleeping in only naps can be established. Boat racers have used a similar technique to avoid dangers of sleeping for extended periods alone at sea. Astronauts have also occasionally tried similar strategies during extended crises. There is a substantial interest in polyphasic sleep at NASA and among the US military, especially the Marine Corps. Practice Current polyphasic users and scientific evidence from Stampi both suggest that most tiredness dissipates around 10 days into the schedule, and it disappears completely around 14 days into the schedule. However, self-testers often accidently oversleep while attempting to convert to the polyphasic schedule and consequently fail to fully adapt. Therefore, they remain tired long after the target 14-day end date and eventually terminate the experiment. Mechanism According to Claudio Stampi's book (""), in sleep deprived condition, measurements of a polyphasic sleeper's memory retention and analytical ability show increases as compared with monophasic sleep and biphasic sleep (but still a decrease of 12% as compared with entrained free running sleep). According to Stampi, the improvement is due to an extraordinary evolutionary predisposition to adopt such a sleep schedule; he hypothesizes this is possibly because polyphasic sleep was the preferred schedule of ancestors of the human race for thousands of years prior to the adoption of the monophasic schedule. There are at least two schools of thought as to how polyphasic adaptation affects sleep patterns. One school claims that REM sleep is the most necessary stage, and that the body needs multiple hours of this stage each day, so therefore every nap taken by a polyphasic sleeper consists entirely of REM sleep. Another school acknowledges research done on users of this schedule (Scientific American Frontiers 1991), which suggests that the body will enter different stages of sleep during the different naps—REM during some, deeper sleep during others—in order to get some of each essential stage. The idea that polyphasic sleepers experience only REM sleep is relatively popular among advocates, perhaps because some theories of sleep suggest that REM is largely responsible for the mental rejuvenation effects of sleep. However, the role of REM sleep has been disputed in recent years. It has been documented that depriving rats of REM sleep in particular leads to death in 3 to 8 weeks, but the notion that REM sleep is the most important phase of sleep, or even necessary for good health, is dubious: depressed people are known to have excessive REM sleep *; and monoamine oxidase inhibitors nearly completely abolish REM sleep, yet patients who take MAOIs do not exhibit any obvious cognitive deficits (Siegel 2001). Types The term "polyphasic sleep" itself means only the practice of sleeping multiple times in a 24-hour period (usually, more than two, in contrast to "biphasic sleep") and does not suggest any particular schedule. "Uberman" is likely to be the most widely known type of polyphasic sleep, and also the most strict. It consists of six naps of 20–25 minutes each, occurring four hours apart throughout the day. This is also the closest schedule to the type that has been studied by Claudio Stampi in connection with long-distance solo boat races. "Core sleep" is a variant of Uberman that adds a block of sleep, usually several hours, to the Uberman schedule, replacing one or two naps. (This term is also sometimes heard to describe a short accidental oversleep by someone following Uberman.) Buckminster Fuller advocated "Dymaxion Sleep," * a regimen consisting of 30 minute naps every six hours. A short article was published about this schedule in Time Magazine's Oct. 11, 1943 issue (Time 1943). According to this article, Bucky followed this schedule for two years, but after that had to quit because "his schedule conflicted with that of his business associates, who insisted on sleeping like other men." Criticism Some consider the theory behind polyphasic sleep unsound claiming there is no brain control mechanism that would make it possible to switch from a typical biphasic (or monophasic) sleep pattern to "multiple naps" system. The body will always tend to consolidate sleep into at least one solid block of sleep (usually during the night or early in the morning). As a result, adepts of polyphasic sleep suffer through a never-ending period of "adaptation". There is no scientific evidence supporting the possibility of entrainment of the polyphasic pattern. There are no peer-reviewed publications. Critics have expressed concern that the ways in which polyphasic sleep limits actual sleep time, restricts time spent in peripheral stages of the sleep cycle, and disrupts the circadian rhythm of the body will eventually cause subjects to suffer the same negative effects as with most forms of sleep deprivation, such as decreased mental and physical ability, increased stress and anxiety, and weakened immune system. There is a lack of controlled study documenting the negative side effects, but critics point to journals kept by subjects who have difficulty waking at specific intervals without oversleeping as anecdotal evidence that the pattern is unsustainable. Advocates of polyphasic sleep often claim that the procedure boosts their alertness, but skeptics question whether this alertness is related to the sleep pattern or whether increased adrenaline and cortisol is gained from eagerness to succeed in their polyphasic experiment and their other productive pursuits. A study published in the Journal of Sleep Research in September of 2002 concerning the effects of napping on productivity found that 10-minute naps tended to improve productivity more than longer naps, which may suggest that the onset of sleep is the cause of the increased alertness. Polyphasic sleep is also thought to increase REM sleep, but it may also be likely to upregulate slow-wave sleep, causing a polyphasic sleeper to gain less REM sleep in a given period of time than with standard sleep patterns. Different sleep patterns may also give varied results (former polyphasic sleeper Steve Pavlina reported dissatisfaction with the 4-nap per 24 hour period, 30-minute nap variation *). Most polyphasic sleepers tend to claim that the most difficult aspect of the sleep pattern to overcome is the social aspect, as the work hours of modern careers generally do not allow for the required nap periods at regular intervals. Personal accounts indicate that missing even one nap can cause heavy drowsiness, and thus even successful polyphasic sleepers often revert to monophasic sleep to accommodate their schedules. Attributed polyphasic sleepers Proponents claim that several famous people applied catnapping to a large extent. These include: Polyphasic sleep in fiction Criticism Praise, support, advocates Analysis Other Success stories of variations on polyphasic sleep (90 Days+) Stories of happy polyphasic sleepers that apply biphasic sleep, polyphasic sleep with "core sleep", polyphasic sleep with naps longer than 20 minutes, or periods with "oversleep": | |||||||
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