Polyphasic Sleep - Has anyone tried it?

[secretfastlane]

I discovered polyphasic sleep and I'm contemplating whether to do it or not. It's probably pretty ireelevant for this forum LOL but here we go why not.

I know Leonardo Da Vinci and Nikola Tesla were famous for doing it doing their lifetime.

For people who don't know what it is. It's essentially where you sleep 20 minutes (can be more, but I'm using the "huberman" method) every 4 hours. So you get 2 hours of sleep everyday. It's not like a thing you do once in a while, it's estimated that Da Vinci did it for days or even months at a time.

I'm wondering if anyone has tried it and what your experiences with it is. Let me know.

Nichlas

 

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[Prdgy]

I tried it during the last summer: it's not worth it unless you're a genetic freak. Your body needs continuous sleep, not short naps. While the research on sleep isn't that conclusive, stuff like the uberman method is completely unpractical and is bound to give you massive fatigue. If you really want to do polyphasic sleep, I'd stick with stuff like the everyman or the biphasic siesta types.

 

[Akaushra]

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad idea

 

[EngineerThis]

I tried it for a month, if I remember I'd go to bed at 11 pm, wake up from 2-5 am, 20 min nap... Another nap around noon, and another around 5pm... So 4hrs of sleep total.. From my usual 8... It was hard but I also think working full-time, and college at night made it harder to stick to... Always wondered if I could. Try it! Naps are normal, I think cultures with a "Siesta" are better.

 

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[Happyheart]

I discovered polyphasic sleep and I'm contemplating whether to do it or not. It's probably pretty ireelevant for this forum LOL but here we go why not.

I know Leonardo Da Vinci and Nikola Tesla were famous for doing it doing their lifetime.

For people who don't know what it is. It's essentially where you sleep 20 minutes (can be more, but I'm using the "huberman" method) every 4 hours. So you get 2 hours of sleep everyday. It's not like a thing you do once in a while, it's estimated that Da Vinci did it for days or even months at a time.

I'm wondering if anyone has tried it and what your experiences with it is. Let me know.

Nichlas

Sleep duration is to a great extent genetic. I wouldn't mess with sleep patterns in the sense that you are forcing yourself to be awake when your system wants to sleep. As you age, your sleep will be more fragmented and you can use that time to work.
There is some scientific evidence, that you can "save" a little bit of sleep by trying to sleep longer in the days preceding jet lag or something, but people who have very short sleep duration and feel good about that have genetic traits that are different from people who need 7 hours.
Too little sleep is one of the most important factors that decide about your performance.

It helps to have a few weeks off/in home office/as an entrepreneur to find out what your natural pattern is and at what time of the day you are at peak performance and ten work with that.

 

[Matt Lee]

Haven't tried, but I would go and research the hell out of it before trying.

Who practices it? Are they alive? What are the current researches on it? What is the group of the participant in the research? Then take into consideration whether is it some part of trendy self-help bullshit that sounds good but is horrible in practice? etc.

Sleep is the basis of all your energy, drive, creativity, and motivation. I tell my brother he should miss homework if he needs to cut into his sleep to do it. You can always be more productive after sleeping but you cannot easily fix your mental health once your sleep pattern is downhill.

You mess it up and no discipline, willpower, or caffeine drink will save you from making bad choices. And choices will either make or break who you become in a few years or even months.

I've turned into a completely different person once I prioritize sleeping as much as my body needs and not sleep just enough to optimize for "productivity".

 

[secretfastlane]

Haven't tried, but I would go and research the hell out of it before trying.

Who practices it? Are they alive? What are the current researches on it? What is the group of the participant in the research? Then take into consideration whether is it some part of trendy self-help bullshit that sounds good but is horrible in practice? etc.

Sleep is the basis of all your energy, drive, creativity, and motivation. I tell my brother he should miss homework if he needs to cut into his sleep to do it. You can always be more productive after sleeping but you cannot easily fix your mental health once your sleep pattern is downhill.

You mess it up and no discipline, willpower, or caffeine drink will save you from making bad choices. And choices will either make or break who you become in a few years or even months.

I've turned into a completely different person once I prioritize sleeping as much as my body needs and not sleep just enough to optimize for "productivity".

Yeah I get your point and I agree. But still, I don't understand how these smart people was able to do it and did it for so many years...

 

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[Matt Lee]

But still, I don't understand how these smart people was able to do it and did it for so many years...

Smart people that are dead can't tell you their step-by-step guides, but the people who borrow these dead people's credentials can.

It's actually a trick to elevate your claim if you quote something from history or borrow names from well-known people. In what I do, it's called "trend jacking", quoting pop culture, or using the faces of well-known people in the thumbnail or having someone else say what you want to say.

People start associating your work with the person you put on the cover. Of course, some people will see the marketing tactics and others will love your stuff and become "cult-like" followers.

This is the very same reason celebrities sell sponsorships. Their name is associated with a certain credibility/reputation even if the product is actually the a$$ or average.

Ex.

"Have you heard of this? It's life-changing and apparently practiced by Elon Musk".

The people that can think will go, does Elon actually practice it? What is the evidence?

The people that are dying fans of Elon will go, I'll try it too since Elon practices it.

This is a smart tactic to use if you're a producer but if you're on the consumer side of the equation, it's how people hijack your logical brain and buy into their worldview, products, and practices that might not serve you.

"because there's so and so, it must be credible" --- clown emoji

Hope that helps bro

 

[Raedrum]

I think what @Prdgy is saying is facts: it's only working when you have specifics predispositions.

Out of that this is clearly a bad idea. At best it might work a time but will slowly but surely affect you in a bad way.

@Matt Lee is correct too: this is confirmation bias. Do not follow that, follow logic based on large sample.

Large samples say that most humans need to sleep correctly.