Polyphasic sleep. Has anyone tried it? | Hacker News Reader

Polyphasic sleep. Has anyone tried it?

13 pointsmethane16 comments

It's extremely interesting topic. Has anyone tried? Tell your story if you have.

More info about it: http://www.dustincurtis.com/sleep.html

Everytime I read about polyphasic sleep I think it sounds appealing, probably for the reasons that I find Dvorak keyboard layouts appealing. It promises to marginally optimize an important part of my life after extraordinary effort in manner which results in incompatibility with said rest-of-the-world.

Ultimately, my own sleep schedule is the same as my coding schedule: long blocks of uninterrupted time.

I want to meet someone doing this kind of nap sleeping in person to see if they seem fully alert. Genuine curiosity. As long as it's not my bus driver.

Did 6x23m for half a year 6 years ago until it was to cold outside (17 degrees celcius) and the pressure by society, work and friends was becoming to annoying:

* Some friends: "I'd rather not want you to nap when you are here, it's anti-social", "ok i'll do it outside" didn't go over very well. * People waking me when I'm outside napping. "Are you ill", "Is he alive?"... and on a beach party "have you done to much drugs?". * At work I had to leave the office each time - napping in a local park, in a sauna or car. * "Honey, why can't you just lie next to me the whole night instead of 23:00-23:30?", Me: "Does it matter, you're asleep anyway!"

Now I am doing 3-5 hours each night with 2 naps. A dutch interview with me here: http://www.intermediair.nl/artikel//53439/kan-een-mens-toe-m...

Only since the beginning of HN. A probably-incomplete sample: http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=pol...

Super boring. Sssssssuuuuuuuuuuper boring.

I had a friend in college who was on it and it worked for him, but he had the incredibly flexible schedule of a college student.

But if you did not have great flexibility and something unexpected comes up you could be caught with your polyphasic pants down and be nonfunctional.

I am using this with only one 20 min nap from when I can remember - this is something my grandpa told me about - the secret is that naps shouldn't be longer than 20 min, after that time you begin to dream and you have trouble coming back, but in the short time you gain some kind of meditative clarity.

Nikola Tesla was even more hardcore than the link you posted. Look at this: http://www.puredoxyk.com/index.php/2009/07/24/uberman-too-wu...

I'm currently on the everyman schedule and it works fine. It gets easier to get up in the middle of the night every day. Tiredness wears of very quick after naps. I'm in Germany though. I don't experience sleep walking or something. Just don't fuck with the schedule, it's critical to modify while in adaption phase. STICK TO THE SCHEDULE when u try it.

Positive effect: I don't have jet lag from the switch to wintertime I stick to the same hour.

I want to switch to the Uberman Schedule in december and I will do it together with a mate.

For more to read look for puredoxyk.

for contact: aszantu@yahoo.de

I've tried but I always end up shutting off my alarm clocks subconsciously... something akin to sleepwalking or something :P. I've even bought one of those alarm clocks where you have to solve a geometric puzzle to turn it off and I STILL do it hahahah.

It's something I've always been interested in although I don't have the flexibility in my schedule to make it work.

From what the accounts I've read, It provides some benefit in the short term however it doesn't seem sustainable in the long term (think months or years).

Steve Pavlina has blogged extensively about polyphasic sleep:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/

Steve Pavlina is insane and it taints all of his advice.

I've tried and failed twice.

However, I did gain one lasting benefit. I taught myself how to reliably fall asleep within 2 minutes. That's a pretty awesome skill.

would you like to share - how you figured out to fall asleep in 2mins? I don't fall asleep for at least 20 mins.

Sleep well for 8hrs. You really need good sleep. All this hacks looks great but have a long term effect on health for sure.

Many animals have all sorts of odd sleeps, sharks most of all. There's been no real research into it, but it's something like REM sleep matters the most, and in polyphasic sleep you get to REM really quickly. Maybe 1.5-2h of an 8 hour sleep is REM, but 15 of 20 mins is REM, if you are used to 20 mins.

I tried but could not make it past the 3rd day. Don't know why it didn't work for me, I simply could not stay awake.

Same here, I've tried it twice and both times gave in about day 3. It's not that I couldn't physically stay awake, just that my resolve and willpower trended towards zero.

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