BBC Breakfast Presenter Tries Polyphasic Sleep
I was watching BBC Breakfast this morning and one of it’s main presenters; Bill Turnbull is doing a 10 day experiment with Polyphasic Sleep. It’s a shame that it’s only for 10 days as he probably won’t start reaping the benefits of it because he will need more time to adapt to the new pattern. (He looked pretty out of it this morning!) I’m sure if he had more time he could adapt to the life but for someone who does presents the breakfast for four hours in the mornings it may somewhat be a tough challenge!
Steve Pavlina posted on his experiences of living a polyphasic lifestyle for just over 5 months.
When I first heard about Polyphasic sleep I was like…”Are you nuts?!” but I guess that it goes to show that it is possible but it’s just a question of whether you presonal lifestyle choices allow it or not. As much as I would love to try it some day I think it just wouldn’t be possible with the commitments that I have. My brother and I had a huge debate about this. His opinion was that it was completely unnatural to not sleep during the night hours just as the majority of the animal kingdom do whereas I believe that if people are living and doing it now and reaping benefits from it then surely it’s a good thing!
Good luck Bill!
I could NEVER jump onto the polyphasic sleep wagon. But differnt strokes for different folks!
I think i’d like to try it for a while just purely as a personal experiment but it would never be long term thing. I just wish they would introduce nap breaks at work, now that would come in handy! 😀
I wonder what this does to the body’s self-healing capabilities. I believe the sleep stages Are important, and that certain lengths of sleep which allow one to experience all the stages Are important. I don’t think it matters whether one sleeps during the day or night, but the length of sleep, counted in hours-in-a-row, is important.
This sounds like it may allow you to be alert longer, but what does it do to life-expectancy if your body doesn’t get the required hours of regerative sleep it needs?
I don’t think I’ll be trying it any time soon, thanks anyway. 🙂
Hi Michelle, nice to have you drop by! 🙂
I would’ve thought that the quality of sleep was more important than the quantity. For the past 6 years…I would estimate that for 90% of the days through the 6 years, I’ve slept an average of four hours a night. That was without any naps during the day. Sometimes it would be even less. But I never suffered any ill effects as a result. In fact, I’ve always felt much more alert on about 4 – 5 hours of sleep a night than I ever have with 7 – 8 hours or more. I’m not saying that the results would be the same for everyone but in my case, less is more! 😉
Good wishes,
A
Hi Amit,
Oh, I agree that there is such a thing as too much sleep! I’m much happier with 6 – 7 hours than any more or less than that.
This is food for thought, and now I am curious enough to do some research and maybe write an article about it. 🙂 It’s certainly true that many people who experience stress also have difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep, and do not awake as refreshed as they should.
I was taught that relaxation during sleep takes place across phases of sleep, and that a certain amount of time is required…it’s not instantaneous to go from drowsy to sleeping and completely relaxed. That is why taking sleeping medications for an extended period of time is not a good idea….it bypasses the relaxing phases between drowsy and complete relaxation.
If you decide to try the polyphasic sleep, I hope you’ll comment on how it goes.
Thanks for you comment on laughter. 🙂
I don’t know when I’ll get the chance to try it out, I may end up never doing it but I’ll see how things go…one thing I would love to master, which some people do very easily, I would love to be able to nap anytime and anywhere! Got any good tips, links, recommendations?
is this cocept the same as monophasic sleep?
I was reading about monophasic sleep at
http://snoozester.wordpress.com/2006/09/05/alternate-sleeping-strategies/ and it seems like a similar concept
Hi Rambadajan,
I think monophasic sleep is having just one segment of sleep per night. That could be any length of time e.g. 8 hours.
Polyphasic sleep is having multiple short segments of sleep during the day, e.g. 6 x 30 minute naps and that is it.
Are you planning to try this for youself?