The Uberman's Sleep Schedule

[Kerensky287]

So, the Cracked website is a font of information. Somehow I was recently led to this page (http://www.cracked.com/article/127_5-ways-to-hack-your-brain-into-awesomeness_p1), which lists a way to manage 2 hours of sleep per day, while still functioning as if you had gotten the usual amount! Madness, craziness, tell me how to do it before I cut you - those were my immediate thoughts. And then I realized that it sounds far too good to be true.

Is it?

The idea is that every few hours, you take a short nap. For the first 10 days or so, you'll apparently feel absolutely worthless... and then your brain adjusts to the weird schedule and goes straight into the most important stage of sleep when you go for your naps. I don't know much sleep science, but this didn't conflict with anything I knew of it when I read it. So I decided to research it a bit.

It's easy to find anecdotal evidence in favour of the schedule. You can find (http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/4/15/103358/720) people (http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=892542&lastnode_id=124) everywhere (http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/) who have tried it, and who claim it works. A bit of info that keeps popping up is that "people like Leonardo da Vinci and Thomas Jefferson" (always those two, and always indicating that more famous examples are available) slept that way, though I have yet to find evidence that backs it up. The thing is, I haven't actual found any scientific studies or other research supporting the idea, and that sets off warning lights for me.

I'm very tempted to try it out - I mean, who HASN'T thought to themselves that there should really be more hours in a day? - and with the recent couple of threads touting a love or hate of sleep, I figured it was sort of a current topic. But I figure that there must really be a reason for having multiple stages of sleep, and skipping all but the most important one could mean cutting some serious corners. Has anybody stumbled on this concept before? Even better, has anyone seen any information coming from someone who really knows what they're talking about? Because this is a potentially dangerous concept, and even though success would mean the reward of having a ton of extra time during the day, I'm not sure the biological drawbacks would be worth it.

What do you guys think? Have any of you tried it? Or is there anyone who can say for sure that no, this is a terrible idea that you should stay the hell away from?

[Corel]

Not that I would trust anything at all from Cracked, just reading this paragraph:

While other stages of sleep help your body to heal and grow, the REM sleep is what makes you feel rested.

Implies that your body heals and grows mostly outside of REM sleep and this proposed sleep cycle doesn't allow your body to do this?

Think of all the awesome things we could achieve if we didn't need sleep. There certainly are not enough hours in the day!

[Kerensky287]

Forgot to throw out the Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uberman%27s_sleep_schedule#Uberman.27s_sleep_sched ule) on polyphasic sleep - that is, sleep that occurs multiple times a day for shorter lengths. Ironically there's actually a link from that page that I forgot to check out - it deals with facts and myths surrounding the idea. Not sure if it's generally positive or negative yet, but it debunked the "Famous people used it" thing with a few specific examples... including da Vinci and Jefferson. I'll read more for now, but I felt that linking the page (http://www.supermemo.com/articles/polyphasic.htm) was important.

EDIT: "One of the myths of "Uberman sleep schedule" is that it makes it possible to enter REM sleep and skip non-REM sleep stages entirely. That myth is derived from another false claim that implies a non-essential role of deep sleep. I will ignore these claims as standing in total disagreement with laboratory findings and models of sleep." Not looking good for the Uberman schedule.

EDIT EDIT: Looks like a no for the Uberman.

"- Healthy humans cannot entrain polyphasic sleep without a degree of sleep deprivation. It is not possible to sleep polyphasically and retain one's maximum creativity, alertness, and health in the long run
- Whoever claims to be on a perpetual polyphasic schedule must be either suffering from a sleep disorder, or be a liar, a mutant, or a person with a mulishly stubborn iron-will that lets him plod through the daily torture of sleep deprivation"

...Oh well. That sucks. But what sucks more for me is that the page keeps talking about all the merits of sleeping in a regular schedule, which includes waking up without an alarm clock - something I find I can't ever do. If I turn off my alarm clock, I sleep until the afternoon without fail. Once, when TRYING to wake up without an alarm clock, I went to bed at 7pm. That night I got 19 hours of sleep. Next objective: finding a way to fix my goddamn fucking broken anti-insomnia.

[Archbio]

So... Cosmo Kramer does Cracked's research?

[katiuska]

I've studied sleep a little bit, but I'm not an expert myself. I'm not sure what the long-term ramifications are--in general, yes, there's a reason why the sleep pattern occurs the way it does, and if you mess it up, it causes problems. That's one reason why alcohol isn't as good a sleep medicine as people think it is, because it suppresses REM sleep (the other reason being how quickly it wears off). There's a lot of variation among people, though. 7-8 hours is right for most people, but there are extremes on both ends--my favorite was a woman who apparently only needed like 15 minutes per day.

If you want, I could e-mail my old professor about it; I'm not sure how they mind random questions from students they had 2 years ago, but I can try.

[Geminex]

EDIT EDIT: Looks like a no for the Uberman.

"- Healthy humans cannot entrain polyphasic sleep without a degree of sleep deprivation. It is not possible to sleep polyphasically and retain one's maximum creativity, alertness, and health in the long run
- Whoever claims to be on a perpetual polyphasic schedule must be either suffering from a sleep disorder, or be a liar, a mutant, or a person with a mulishly stubborn iron-will that lets him plod through the daily torture of sleep deprivation"

...Oh well. That sucks. But what sucks more for me is that the page keeps talking about all the merits of sleeping in a regular schedule, which includes waking up without an alarm clock - something I find I can't ever do. If I turn off my alarm clock, I sleep until the afternoon without fail. Once, when TRYING to wake up without an alarm clock, I went to bed at 7pm. That night I got 19 hours of sleep. Next objective: finding a way to fix my goddamn fucking broken anti-insomnia.

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Almost got me, sneaky bastard

[BitVyper]

Aside from the fact that your body needs more than REM sleep, being able to fall into it so quickly is probably not a good thing.

[Krylo]

7-8 hours is right for most people

Actually, I read somewhere that this isn't completely true. It's the fact that we're forced to work on 24 hour days that makes it such, but spelunkers and other people who spend long periods away from the sun and clocks tend to slowly shift to a 36 hour day, and the average cycle for them is 12 hours asleep, 24 hours awake.

[BitVyper]

Wasn't there a woman who lived in a cave for a long time, and by the end was going two or three days between long sleep periods?

[Bob The Mercenary]

Wasn't there a woman who lived in a cave for a long time, and by the end was going two or three days between long sleep periods?

Krylo's mom?

[Melfice]

Actually, I read that 6 hours of sleep is most ideal for a grown human-being.
Supposedly, they tend to live longer and healthier.

Might be all bull, I don't know.

[Truce]

Mh. The biggest problem I find with this sleep cycle is that it puts you out of sync with the rest of society.

I mean, it sounds perfect if you can plan out an entire weekly routine, but how about dealing with other people? There'll be times where there won't be many people will be awake - and, other times, you'll be in the middle of something when you'll need to take a nap.

[Ryong]

You could try this. (http://www.xkcd.com/320/) Just make sure to read the small print, though.