Polyphasic Sleep
Added Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 3:21 am | View Comments
We understand that everyone sleeps differently. That’s why bedstar has an entire knowledgebase dedicated to different sleep types and problems as well as a massive catalogue of the cheapest beds online, so you can find the bed that really suits your needs.
Polyphasic sleep involves sleeping several times in 24 hours, as opposed to monophasic which is the usual 8 hour block of sleep and 16 hours of waking. It aims to reduce the total sleep time from 8 hours down to fewer than 3, allowing more time awake for other activities. Polyphasic sleep is used by people in extreme situations such as in the military and is common in long distance boat racers and astronauts. But other people choose to use this pattern long term in their regular lives.
A typical polyphasic sleep schedule might involve having 6 naps at 2, 6 and 10 am and 2, 6 and 10 pm for just 20 – 30 minutes at a time. So you end up with a total of 2 or 3 hours sleep but theoretically still functioning well. It is reported to take about a week or two to adapt if you really stick to the schedule, and then the hardest part is working out how to fill all the extra time - of which you have around 40 hours a week!
In order to make the transition to polyphasic sleep you need to be disciplined, making sure you don’t miss naps and setting alarms to prevent oversleeping. It also requires quite a flexible timetable - in many jobs taking 30 minute naps at 10 am and 2 pm just won’t work. Support from family and friends plays a key role in the adaptation too as they have to be understanding when you run off for your scheduled naps.
Normal 90 minute sleep cycles involve 65 minutes of non-REM, 20 minutes REM and 5 minutes non-REM. So whilst the polyphasic pattern sounds like dangerous sleep deprivation, the theory behind it says that the body will learn to enter REM sleep much earlier than usual, so you can still go through all the vital stages of sleep, just much faster.
People who have tried this have had mixed success with some stopping after a couple of days and others continuing long term. A primary reason for changing back to monophasic sleep is the social aspect – you are awake when everyone else is sleeping and then have to fit in naps every 4 hours when others are awake.
In general experts think that the long term effects of this sleeping pattern will be detrimental to physical and mental health. But as yet no one has evidence of its success or failure over periods greater than a couple of years.
Whether you’re thinking of trying polyphasic sleep or not it’s important to have a sleep environment that helps you drop off quickly. So to help you get the best possible rest, day or night, bedstar have a massive range of the cheapest beds online. We stock all the major bed brands at very competitive prices so check out our catalogue to find your bargain bed.
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