Thread: Sleep now and later. Does it all add up?

Google.com <-- Go there and type: "Polyphasic Sleep".

Okay well after reading up on that... I still don't understand if it's okay to to sleep in parts instead of getting all your needed sleep at once.

I usually sleep in two 5 to 6 hour long periods, and it seems to work alright for me. (If I sleep all at once, it'll be 10 to 15 hours.)

I'm not sure but from experience I'm inclined to say that indeed if you sleep more in the day you will need less, or at least feel like you need less, at night.

Yes and no.

I'm not sure but from experience I'm inclined to say that indeed if you sleep more in the day you will need less, or at least feel like you need less, at night.

That's true, as obviously, once your body has rested for 4 hours it's not like you loose that rest as soon as you're physically active again.

But then comes some problems that you might face in the first few weeks if you over work yourself, because remember, when you've not done your full time (10 hour sleep), your body is clearly not fully rested and you can't have an entire active day out because your body will not be prepared.

However, from sleeping in small "chunks" for prolonged time (several weeks)- you might have come accross this if you read how polyphasic sleep works; your brain get used to "skipping" or shortening the time of the first 4 sleep stages (SWS/Non-REM Periods) and concentrating on the main REM period which you'll have seen the stages here, hence, your body will eventually get a much larger amount of rest in those 4 Hours you sleep than the amount of rest you get from interrupting an 8-10 hour sleep with a sudden 4 Hour rest as your body is prepared.

In theory, after several weeks of doing this "adding up" of sleep, your body will be so used to the few hours of sleep that it will be able to make up for it anyway.

It's just those first weeks, if you're prepared to risk your health with most possibly drowning yourself with fatigue then consequently, you could face such small symptoms of exhaustion and spots (pimples), to somethings more dramatic such as depression, and however unlikely, yet still risks you'll want to be aware of- narcolepsy and schizophrenia .

Read up some more things about it, you might find that if you are a deeply in-control individual, you're body is used to extremes and you think that you can research enough to map out how you're going to make the hurdle, then polyphasic sleeping could be the thing for you, still, there is still going to be a risk of the things I mentioned above.

Good luck =] Tell us what you think.
Jim.

I get five and a half hours of sleep a night weekdays, and thirty min. nap too and from work each day. I find that if I stay awake to and from work and get more sleep at night I do better at work and don't feel so worn out by the end of the work week. But It's hard not to sleep on the way to work, since I am not a morning person and wake up at 05:30.

Isn't the human body designed from years of evolution to sleep at night, and be awake during the daytime hours? I've read that some people may develop problems from having their biological clocks messed with too much. Sun light effects some of your body's hormones from what I understand. Thoughts?

Every now and then I fall into a vicious nap cycle. I take a nap one day, then can't sleep well that night. I'm tired the next day, have to take a nap... rinse and repeat.