Polyphasic sleep
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Polyphasic sleep (also known as the Uberman sleep schedule and Dymaxion Sleep) is a sleep pattern specification intended to compress sleep time to 2-5 hours daily. This is achieved by spreading out sleep into short (around 20-45 minute) naps throughout the day. This allows for more waking hours with relatively high alertness.
This is an excellent method for using natural human sleep mechanisms to maximize alertness and where sleep time needs to be minimized, but requires a rigid schedule which make it unfeasible for most. It can work well for people who cannot afford sleep (e.g. sailors).
The theory is that ordinary monophasic sleep consists of many cycles, only a few of which is needed for survival. REM sleep, occurring quite late in the sequence, is commonly believed to be one of them. It is believed that after being deprived of sleep during an adjustment period, the brain will start to enter the required stages much quicker - with the result that each short nap consists almost solely of such sleep. Some theories of sleep suggest that REM is largely responsible for the mental rejuvenation effects of sleep, but the role of REM sleep has in recent years been disputed. It has been documented that depriving rats of REM sleep specifically leads to death in 3 to 8 weeks (that doesn't happen with depriving test animals of other specific sleep phases), but it has also been documented that humans survive without REM sleep. Since polyphasic sleepers get a lot of Stage 4 NREM and REM sleep, they may achieve higher alertness levels than those who do not know the art of catnapping.
Concern has been expressed about the long-term effects of suppressing the other sleep stages, although no long-term side effects have been documented yet. Some negative effects may be unrelated to this particular schedule, but to the general lack of sleep. It has been shown that lack of sleep weakens the immune system, decreases the amount of growth hormone produced and decreases the ability of the body to metabolize sugar, but since polyphasic sleep is completely different from simply sleeping less, it is difficult to apply such research to polyphasic sleep.
Several famous people applied catnapping to a large extent. These include Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison and Buckminster Fuller. Other figures said to be associated with polyphasic sleep experimentation include Nikola Tesla, Napoleon, and Winston Churchill. This method was also popularized on Seinfeld, where the character Cosmo Kramer attempted to adapt to a polyphasic sleeping pattern.
Boat racers use this technique to avoid dangers at sea. Astronauts use this technique during extended crises, and military personnel, especially marines, use this technique in training.
One of the leading advocates of polyphasic sleep research is Dr. Claudio Stampi (Founder and Director of the Chronobiology Research Institute in Boston, Massachusetts).
See also
References
- Claudio Stampi, Why We Nap: Evolution, Chronobiology, and Functions of Polyphasic and Ultrashort Sleep (1992)
External links
- Kuro5hin article on polyphasic sleep (http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/4/15/103358/720)
- Uberman's Sleep Schedule (http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=892542) at Everything2
- Discussion group (http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/uberman/) at yahoo
- Sleep facts (http://www.virginatlanticglobalflyer.com/ScienceAviation/SleepFacts.jsp) from Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer site.
Testers' diaries
- Stuart Hogton's blog (http://www.hogton.com/uberman/blog.htm)
- http://polyphasic.blogspot.com/
- http://slightlymad.net/polyphasic/
- Arthur Dick's diary (http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~dicka/projects/uberman/blog.php)