Polyphasic Sleep: pros and cons

1) Anyone ever heard of this? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep#Com…)

2) Would it work in banking?

Pros: only requires 2 hours of sleep a night Cons: inflexible schedule, requires short naps every 4 hours, drinking much screws it up

Thoughts?

25 Comments
 

Yeah - I've heard of it and I think it's ridiculously impractical. The potential for having your sleep patterns disrupted by a necessary meeting or call or deal is too high, and if you're making it through on only a couple of hours of sleep a day, you NEED that couple of hours. ie - cancelling one of your naps could likely have a major detrimental impact on your health. Besides, it's really rare that anyone expects analysts to be working all night long every day. Possible scenario:

Senior banker: Hey, why are you sleeping in the middle of the day? Polyphasic Sleeping Analyst: Oh, don't worry about it. I sleep a total of 2 hours a day. I will be working at 3am. SB: Wtf? I need you working now. Not at 3am. PSA: Hm. I didn't think of that. Damnit. I lost 3 minutes of my two hours.

Outcome: PSA's productivity drops by 95%, SB thinks PSA is a retard.

 

Neil Strauss describes a self- experiment of his with sleep patterns similiar to those you just described, in one of his books... I think he called it the "sleep diet"...

As far as I remember, he said that you have to get trough an adjustement period of ten days or so in wich the body gets acustomed to the new sleeping rythm. He and his fellow experimentee never made it trough that period though, because it just became too hard to stay awake and one of them started to develope a slight delirium because he was kinda... dreaming while being awake.

even if it worked, I doubt that you would find the time to nap every 4 hours for 20 min.

 

OP,

No disrespect intended to you, as I say this as a completely general blanket statement...but you have to be completely out of your head to even consider stuff like this. The cognitive damage you can do to yourself long term with these sorts of routines is ridiculous. Kinda like the people who live of diet pills and vitamins for a month without eating to lose 15 lbs. Then they wonder why their liver fails a few months later.

 
IlliniProgrammerIf this is a discussion you are legitimately having, it's time to find a new job. Better to be able to live till 65 and make more money over the long run than die 40 of a heart attack.

Nah, I'd rather make as much money as possible until 30, then take those earnings and trade forex around the clock for 10 more years before retiring..

Hence, the need for polyphasic sleep. Plus, when you work 16 hours a day and sleep 3 hours, it leaves you 5 more hours to have more fun..

 

^^That's why you wreck your Aston at 39...so you don't have the chance to die of a heart attack at 40

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 
Best Response

I don't think you get it. As you age, you lose your ability to do that.

At 21, I could have run on 20 hours/week of sleep for long periods.

At 24, I couldn't do that anymore.

Other studies have shown that getting less than seven hours of sleep shortens your life by more than the sum of the hours you've missed. You will age faster and your body will really be more like 45-50 when you retire at "40".

Perhaps a better solution is to work 12-14 hours/day, get 7 hours of sleep, and save, save, save. Despite a financial meltdown and a secular bear market, it's worked out extremely well for my savings. And the easiest way to move up your retirement age, IMHO, is to keep your standard of living under control.

 
IlliniProgrammerI don't think you get it. As you age, you lose your ability to do that.

At 21, I could have run on 20 hours/week of sleep for long periods.

At 24, I couldn't do that anymore.

Other studies have shown that getting less than seven hours of sleep shortens your life by more than the sum of the hours you've missed.

I'm interested to know what study proved that. As far as I've known, sleeping less than 7 hours does decrease your lifespan but so does sleep 8 hours. http://health.ucsd.edu/news/2002/02_08_Kripke.html

 
IlliniProgrammerI don't think you get it. As you age, you lose your ability to do that.

At 21, I could have run on 20 hours/week of sleep for long periods.

At 24, I couldn't do that anymore.

Other studies have shown that getting less than seven hours of sleep shortens your life by more than the sum of the hours you've missed. You will age faster and your body will really be more like 45-50 when you retire at "40".

Perhaps a better solution is to work 12-14 hours/day, get 7 hours of sleep, and save, save, save. Despite a financial meltdown and a secular bear market, it's worked out extremely well for my savings. And the easiest way to move up your retirement age, IMHO, is to keep your standard of living under control.

Can you link these studies?

 

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