Polyphasic Sleep: The Conclusion
For the last three weeks, I’ve been deeply engaged in an experiment with a sleep pattern known as polyphasic sleep. What follows is an eclectic mix of my observations, hypotheses, and responses to questions about the adaptation.
The Last Week: I’ve slowly been discovering that my work schedule isn’t quite as fit for polynapping as I’d originally believed. This isn’t to say that I’m giving up the schedule; on the contrary, I’m trying even harder to make it work. (Did you honestly expect anything less? 
) Rather than ducking out during lunch for a nap, I’ve been taking a two-hour nap from 3:30-5:30am, and otherwise following the schedule as normal (with the exception of a 6:30 nap right before work, during which I almost never actually sleep). The “core nap” appears to be pretty effective in allowing me to survive the workday - however, it may be short-lived. My supervisors have mentioned allowing me to dial in and work from home, which would probably allow me to return to the normal schedule, at least for a couple of days a week. I’ll post updates on this as I learn more.
Hydro-powered Alarms: I’ve received several questions about how exactly I’ve set up an alarm clock to dump water on my face. It’s really pretty straightforward; I use the Sonic Boom alarm clock with a vibrating disc. Instead of placing the disk under my pillow like the manufacturers would suggest, I like to place it above my head on the edge of a table, then attach a cup of water to the disc (and attach the disc cord to the table with a little slack, so the disc doesn’t smack me in the face). The alarm goes off, the disc vibrates and falls off of the table, and if I’m not quick enough to roll out of the way, then I’m reaching for a towel. If you try this at home, just know that you will spend a lot of time with wet sheets, even if you yourself avoid the torrent. It’s a fact of life. Get used to it.
Blog & Summary Updates (or lack thereof): From this point on, I will only post blog updates when something significant occurs, and I will no longer keep track of the days. To be honest, I’m not even sure what day I’m on now… 22? I stopped updating the summary page last week because I no longer feel that it’s helpful. I’m in a phase where I’m modifying the schedule almost every other day, so keeping track of my progress means little, because the definition of “progress” keeps changing. I’m not sure what I’ll do with the logs of the first two weeks; for now, they remain.
Does polyphasic sleep really work? A resounding YES! Only a few times over the last three weeks have I slept more than four hours in a 24-hour period, and I’m in no way feeling sleep-deprived. Once my schedule stabilizes, I’m confident that I’ll be able to reduce that time to three hours or less, and be a lot more consistent with it. I can’t comment yet on the cognitive benefits; I haven’t personally experienced them, but my adaptation has probably been more erratic than most people who have. Whether or not those benefits ever surface, the sheer amount of extra time I have is more than enough of a benefit to outweigh the drawbacks of sleeping polyphasically.
Have you noticed any physical weaknesses? None at all. One of my main concerns before adapting was whether I would be able to fight off all of the cold-season sickies, but so far, I haven’t had any problems (*knock on wood*). I’ve had cold symptoms off and on, but they haven’t been as severe or as long-lasting as I would expect. So either I’ve been fighting a cold pretty well, or the germs just haven’t been fighting back.
Would you recommend polyphasic sleep to me? That depends. Are you creative enough to make use of an extra six hours every day? Can you handle a zombification period of anywhere from 24 hours to 24 days? (Just kidding. It’s no more than a few days, usually.) Do you have a baby? If so, you’ll be sleeping just like it, only for shorter durations. Do you have a boss who will understand why you want to bring a pillow to work? In short, I would recommend polyphasic sleep to just about anyone who can manage it in their schedules. Actually, I’d recommend it to just about anyone, regardless of their schedules. The way I see it, there are very few conflicts that would be worth passing this up. Not that I’m biased.
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Interesting series; I enjoyed reading it.
I will definitely be back for an update
Adrienne
Are you still doing this?
Adrienne
Yes and no. My work schedule wasn’t exactly accommodating to a polyphasic schedule, so I had to struggle along for awhile before deciding (earlier in March) to go back to a completely monophasic schedule. However, since then, I’ve had several spurts of polynapping… as if I can’t decide what I really want.
So, I would classify my current sleep schedule as: Weird. Eventually, though, I do plan to return to polynapping… and after that, I’m never coming back. 