[NetBehaviour] Polyphasic sleep
marc
marc.garrett at furtherfield.org
Sun Oct 23 15:29:47 CEST 2005
Polyphasic sleep
Polyphasic sleep is a sleep pattern specification intended to compress
sleep time to 2–5 hours daily. This is achieved by spreading out sleep
into short naps of around 20–45 minutes throughout the day. This allows
for more waking hours with relatively high alertness.
The method uses natural human sleep mechanisms to maximize alertness
when sleep time needs to be minimized. However, it requires a rigid
schedule which makes it unfeasible for most people. It can work well for
people who cannot afford sleep (e.g. sailors).
The theory is that ordinary monophasic sleep consists of many phases,
only a few of which are needed for survival. REM sleep, occurring quite
late in the sequence, is commonly believed to be one such necessary
phase. It is believed that after being deprived of sleep during an
adjustment period, the brain will start to enter the required stages
much quicker - with the result that each short nap consists almost
solely of REM sleep. Some theories of sleep suggest that REM is largely
responsible for the mental rejuvenation effects of sleep, but the role
of REM sleep has in recent years been disputed. It has been documented
that depriving rats of REM sleep specifically leads to death in 3 to 8
weeks (which doesn't happen with depriving test animals of other
specific sleep phases), but it has also been documented that humans
survive without REM sleep. Since polyphasic sleepers get a lot of Stage
4 NREM and REM sleep, they may achieve higher alertness levels than
those who do not know the art of catnapping.
more...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep
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