Nobody does. It's impossible (although there are a few case studies where it's apparently been "achieved" but these are sketchy).
I advise taking a read of this page http://www.supermemo.com/articles/polyphasic.htm.
But in short, the problem with polyphasic sleeping is that it doesn't work. The human body needs a major sleeping episode daily to function properly (short term adjustments for physical purposes are exceptions since the body can do work on little sleep for short periods of time). Trying to force your body (i.e. the "adjustment period") in to a silly sleeping pattern which does not respect the bodies requirements (i.e. 5 stages of sleep, with a sufficient amount of time in each) ends catastrophically, and you will feel extremely tired most of the time.
The article explains more. One of the myths is that "only stage 5 sleep (REM, dreaming) is needed to recharge your body so you no longer feel tired". The opposite is true; the earlier stages of sleep are responsible for the "recharging" part (i.e. waking up feeling refreshed). Stage 5 is for the more complex processes (memory rearrangement etc). You will die without stage 5, which is why when trying polyphasic sleeping the body will dive straight in to stage 5 very soon after falling asleep. People say they have "trained" their bodies to do this, but rather it is the bodies defense mechanism.
And if anyone says "but I knew a guy who did it successfully...".....no, you didn't.
I advise taking a read of this page http://www.supermemo.com/articles/polyphasic.htm.
But in short, the problem with polyphasic sleeping is that it doesn't work. The human body needs a major sleeping episode daily to function properly (short term adjustments for physical purposes are exceptions since the body can do work on little sleep for short periods of time). Trying to force your body (i.e. the "adjustment period") in to a silly sleeping pattern which does not respect the bodies requirements (i.e. 5 stages of sleep, with a sufficient amount of time in each) ends catastrophically, and you will feel extremely tired most of the time.
The article explains more. One of the myths is that "only stage 5 sleep (REM, dreaming) is needed to recharge your body so you no longer feel tired". The opposite is true; the earlier stages of sleep are responsible for the "recharging" part (i.e. waking up feeling refreshed). Stage 5 is for the more complex processes (memory rearrangement etc). You will die without stage 5, which is why when trying polyphasic sleeping the body will dive straight in to stage 5 very soon after falling asleep. People say they have "trained" their bodies to do this, but rather it is the bodies defense mechanism.
And if anyone says "but I knew a guy who did it successfully...".....no, you didn't.
Original post by moya
Nobody does. It's impossible (although there are a few case studies where it's apparently been "achieved" but these are sketchy).
I advise taking a read of this page http://www.supermemo.com/articles/polyphasic.htm.
But in short, the problem with polyphasic sleeping is that it doesn't work. The human body needs a major sleeping episode daily to function properly (short term adjustments for physical purposes are exceptions since the body can do work on little sleep for short periods of time). Trying to force your body (i.e. the "adjustment period") in to a silly sleeping pattern which does not respect the bodies requirements (i.e. 5 stages of sleep, with a sufficient amount of time in each) ends catastrophically, and you will feel extremely tired most of the time.
The article explains more. One of the myths is that "only stage 5 sleep (REM, dreaming) is needed to recharge your body so you no longer feel tired". The opposite is true; the earlier stages of sleep are responsible for the "recharging" part (i.e. waking up feeling refreshed). Stage 5 is for the more complex processes (memory rearrangement etc). You will die without stage 5, which is why when trying polyphasic sleeping the body will dive straight in to stage 5 very soon after falling asleep. People say they have "trained" their bodies to do this, but rather it is the bodies defense mechanism.
And if anyone says "but I knew a guy who did it successfully...".....no, you didn't.
I advise taking a read of this page http://www.supermemo.com/articles/polyphasic.htm.
But in short, the problem with polyphasic sleeping is that it doesn't work. The human body needs a major sleeping episode daily to function properly (short term adjustments for physical purposes are exceptions since the body can do work on little sleep for short periods of time). Trying to force your body (i.e. the "adjustment period") in to a silly sleeping pattern which does not respect the bodies requirements (i.e. 5 stages of sleep, with a sufficient amount of time in each) ends catastrophically, and you will feel extremely tired most of the time.
The article explains more. One of the myths is that "only stage 5 sleep (REM, dreaming) is needed to recharge your body so you no longer feel tired". The opposite is true; the earlier stages of sleep are responsible for the "recharging" part (i.e. waking up feeling refreshed). Stage 5 is for the more complex processes (memory rearrangement etc). You will die without stage 5, which is why when trying polyphasic sleeping the body will dive straight in to stage 5 very soon after falling asleep. People say they have "trained" their bodies to do this, but rather it is the bodies defense mechanism.
And if anyone says "but I knew a guy who did it successfully...".....no, you didn't.
You know polyphasic just means sleeping multiple times a day? Not necessarily sleeping really short periods. The Spanish and Latin-Americans do this all the time, they sleep for slightly shorter periods during the night and have a siesta during the day.
And yeah, it's not like there haven't been several documented cases of people adopting a polyphasic sleep schedule, like Thomas Edison.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by CharlieTT
You know polyphasic just means sleeping multiple times a day? Not necessarily sleeping really short periods. The Spanish and Latin-Americans do this all the time, they sleep for slightly shorter periods during the night and have a siesta during the day.
And yeah, it's not like there haven't been several documented cases of people adopting a polyphasic sleep schedule, like Thomas Edison.
And yeah, it's not like there haven't been several documented cases of people adopting a polyphasic sleep schedule, like Thomas Edison.
Having a siesta is bi-phasic.
Thomas Edison was not a polyphasic sleeper. Again, http://www.supermemo.com/articles/polyphasic.htm#Thomas%20Alva%20Edison
Old thread, but this can't be left unchallenged anymore... Some clarifications:
- Siesta is indeed biphasic, but that is a form of polyphasic, too. Poly just means multiple, ie more than one.
- The sentence "the problem with polyphasic sleeping is that it doesn't work" should be appended with "for me" or "for everyone" or similar, since obviously there are a bunch of guys and gals practising poslyphasic sleep with great success.
Arguing against the feasibility of sleeping polyphasic like some previous posts, has the problem of referencing a single source. While Piotr Wozniak (the man behind Super Memo) is most certainly a skilled and talented researcher, he seems to lack the ability to challenge theory with empirism. I'm not saying he is simply wrong, but the large amount of empiric studies of individuals around the world should tell him that "maybe I have missed something in my models/experiments?", or at least feel that his results are a little challenged. Instead he seems to go in defence of his own pride (or something, I can't really tell) and even try his best to humiliate those who actively experiment with sleep (calling it "comic relief" doesn't really make it any better). For me it is hard to take him seriously when he's acting like that. But sure, he presents impressive material and one should try to look beyond the arrogance in parts of his texts to absorb the outcome of his research.
I can tell you about my own experience with polyphasic sleep. During two of my university years I worked night shift. For social reasons, I ended up going to bed like most others, at 10-11pm, rose at 2am to go to work, went back to sleep at 6-6:30am and slept until I woke again. At the time I had no clue of the term polyphasic sleep or that I had actually implemented a biphasic sleep schedule. I only noticed that I seemed to need less sleep with this routine. After two years I went back to full-time studies and also went back to monophasic, like "normal people". Only lately I read up on polyphasic sleep patterns, and realised not only that a lot of people do this, but also that old documents suggest that pre-industrial humans often naturally slept biphasic, which is interesting. Also most other animals (all?) don't sleep monophasic, which suggests that it is not necessarily the only natural way to sleep. I was inspired to experiment with polyphasic sleep and since I started taking powernaps regularly (3x20 minutes a day), some six months ago, I wake up at night after approximately 3.5h of sleep. Apart from some "social obstacles" sometimes (people don't expect you to take naps in the day), I'm very happy with this routine. I think anyone can experiment to find something that works, but of course you should also pay attention to your health.
That said, there is science pointing at the necessity of one single core sleep, while there are empiric studies suggesting that, at least for some, sleeping in multiple phases works very well, not only for bloggers (who obviously amuse dr Wozniak) but also others like me, as well as friend and neighbours who by chance developed a sleeping routine of multiple phases. I would welcome more research in this area to sort out effects of polyphasic sleeping. Just saying "It doesn't work", pointing at a single source, when it *obviously* works for quite some, is just not good enough.
- Siesta is indeed biphasic, but that is a form of polyphasic, too. Poly just means multiple, ie more than one.
- The sentence "the problem with polyphasic sleeping is that it doesn't work" should be appended with "for me" or "for everyone" or similar, since obviously there are a bunch of guys and gals practising poslyphasic sleep with great success.
Arguing against the feasibility of sleeping polyphasic like some previous posts, has the problem of referencing a single source. While Piotr Wozniak (the man behind Super Memo) is most certainly a skilled and talented researcher, he seems to lack the ability to challenge theory with empirism. I'm not saying he is simply wrong, but the large amount of empiric studies of individuals around the world should tell him that "maybe I have missed something in my models/experiments?", or at least feel that his results are a little challenged. Instead he seems to go in defence of his own pride (or something, I can't really tell) and even try his best to humiliate those who actively experiment with sleep (calling it "comic relief" doesn't really make it any better). For me it is hard to take him seriously when he's acting like that. But sure, he presents impressive material and one should try to look beyond the arrogance in parts of his texts to absorb the outcome of his research.
I can tell you about my own experience with polyphasic sleep. During two of my university years I worked night shift. For social reasons, I ended up going to bed like most others, at 10-11pm, rose at 2am to go to work, went back to sleep at 6-6:30am and slept until I woke again. At the time I had no clue of the term polyphasic sleep or that I had actually implemented a biphasic sleep schedule. I only noticed that I seemed to need less sleep with this routine. After two years I went back to full-time studies and also went back to monophasic, like "normal people". Only lately I read up on polyphasic sleep patterns, and realised not only that a lot of people do this, but also that old documents suggest that pre-industrial humans often naturally slept biphasic, which is interesting. Also most other animals (all?) don't sleep monophasic, which suggests that it is not necessarily the only natural way to sleep. I was inspired to experiment with polyphasic sleep and since I started taking powernaps regularly (3x20 minutes a day), some six months ago, I wake up at night after approximately 3.5h of sleep. Apart from some "social obstacles" sometimes (people don't expect you to take naps in the day), I'm very happy with this routine. I think anyone can experiment to find something that works, but of course you should also pay attention to your health.
That said, there is science pointing at the necessity of one single core sleep, while there are empiric studies suggesting that, at least for some, sleeping in multiple phases works very well, not only for bloggers (who obviously amuse dr Wozniak) but also others like me, as well as friend and neighbours who by chance developed a sleeping routine of multiple phases. I would welcome more research in this area to sort out effects of polyphasic sleeping. Just saying "It doesn't work", pointing at a single source, when it *obviously* works for quite some, is just not good enough.
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