(no subject)
As I am currently unsatisfied with my current sleep schedule, I've decided to attempt something a bit different. Browsing Digg one morning, I ran across an article about beating the need for sleep. Interested, I began reading of polyphasic sleep methods, as opposed to the current norm of monophasic. Monophasic sleep schedules approach sleep one phase at a time, one phase per day. Polyphasic sleeping schedules split that up a bit. Instead of sleeping just once per day, I have begun sleeping six times per 24 hour period. The advantage however, is that I'm only sleeping for 30 minutes at a time, resulting in an overall sleep of just three hours per day.
How does this work? Well, it's basically rigorous training for one's body and brain. Basically, much of a full night's sleep is virtually a waste. Approximately every 90 minutes, your body goes through one full sleep cycle. This cycle consists of five stages, the most important for your mind being REM. Of the 90 minute cycle, only about 20 minutes is REM sleep. So for a 7.5 hour night of sleep, the average person will go through 5 cycles, and accumulate about 100 minutes of REM sleep, or just under 2 hours. This means that 5.5 hours of a 7.5 hour sleep night is not as useful as it could be.
Through forcing myself to sleep just 30 minutes at a time, for a total of 3 hours per day, my brain will (hopefully) learn to jump quickly into REM sleep, skipping the other phases. This saves approximately 5 hours per night of awake time, leading to higher productivity and free time. This is all the upsides. The downside is the adaptation period. For the first 1-2 weeks, your body does not know how to jump so quickly into REM sleep, meaning all you're getting is light wave sleep. My body is rested, but my mind is in terrible condition right now. Without REM sleep, my mind is unable to organize and set up thoughts and memories correctly. The first week is the hardest, but once you start jumping into REM sleep, it all gets better, hopefully.
Anyway, I've officially begun my second day. The first day was decent, felt as if I hadn't really slept... which was pretty much the case. My 7:00am nap this morning was pretty good, I felt decently awake until about 10:00am, which is now. Right now I'm feeling pretty sleepy, but at this point my next nap is right around the corner. I'm trying hard to not get into the habit of simply waiting for my next nap. I've been doing decent at filling my time up to this point, but at any point an oversleep or an early nap could make the first day a waste. Holding strong for the next 2-3 days could be tough, but very worth it in the end I think.
We'll see I suppose..
How does this work? Well, it's basically rigorous training for one's body and brain. Basically, much of a full night's sleep is virtually a waste. Approximately every 90 minutes, your body goes through one full sleep cycle. This cycle consists of five stages, the most important for your mind being REM. Of the 90 minute cycle, only about 20 minutes is REM sleep. So for a 7.5 hour night of sleep, the average person will go through 5 cycles, and accumulate about 100 minutes of REM sleep, or just under 2 hours. This means that 5.5 hours of a 7.5 hour sleep night is not as useful as it could be.
Through forcing myself to sleep just 30 minutes at a time, for a total of 3 hours per day, my brain will (hopefully) learn to jump quickly into REM sleep, skipping the other phases. This saves approximately 5 hours per night of awake time, leading to higher productivity and free time. This is all the upsides. The downside is the adaptation period. For the first 1-2 weeks, your body does not know how to jump so quickly into REM sleep, meaning all you're getting is light wave sleep. My body is rested, but my mind is in terrible condition right now. Without REM sleep, my mind is unable to organize and set up thoughts and memories correctly. The first week is the hardest, but once you start jumping into REM sleep, it all gets better, hopefully.
Anyway, I've officially begun my second day. The first day was decent, felt as if I hadn't really slept... which was pretty much the case. My 7:00am nap this morning was pretty good, I felt decently awake until about 10:00am, which is now. Right now I'm feeling pretty sleepy, but at this point my next nap is right around the corner. I'm trying hard to not get into the habit of simply waiting for my next nap. I've been doing decent at filling my time up to this point, but at any point an oversleep or an early nap could make the first day a waste. Holding strong for the next 2-3 days could be tough, but very worth it in the end I think.
We'll see I suppose..