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Polyphasic sleep as a solution?

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Polyphasic sleep as a solution?

Postby aeiouaeiou » Wed Jan 29, 2014 10:53 pm

I've just been reading about delayed sleep phase disorder (DSPD), which is a disorder that makes you a night owl. You feel like you perform best during the night feeling alert and awake whereas during the day you would just sleep, sleep and sleep. I could say that I have DSPD, but that's not the point, because I'm aware that this disorder, at least in my case, has it's origin in my social anxiety. I'd rather sleep, instead of having to deal with people, and then when everyone is asleep during the night time I'd reach my energy peak. During the day time I have moments when I'm feeling like I'm about to fall asleep while standing. Sometimes I just feel so tired. And I know it's a sort of vicious circle, because if I don't get a proper sleep during the night, then I will be dead tired during the day. But in the end, it's my choice not to sleep like everyone else, because it's an easy way out for me. OK, so that was me and my messed up sleeping routine. Now, here comes the part related to my question.
Today when I woke up around 11 am I was feeling very low and wasn't feeling like getting up at all. I was waiting for my roommates to leave for their classes, before I finally got up. I absolutely hate having to see anyone in the mornings when I wake up. It's one of the worst things ever. I remember back home, I couldn't stand the idea of seeing my own parents in the morning so I was just waiting them out, getting up just after they left home even though I knew I would be late for my classes because of that. Back to the point, today I went to sleep around 5 am and woke up at 11 am feeling like $#%^. Then around 7 pm, I started feeling very sleepy. (Now that I think back to it, coincidentally[?] it was around the same time when my roommates started coming back home.)
Anyway, at 7 pm I took a 1 hour nap. The thing is that when I woke up I felt just amazing and what's important had no symptoms of social anxiety. I woke up, went to the kitchen to make myself some tea or something and actually felt very comfortable around people. Normally I'm so self-conscious, it's basically impossible to truly enjoy anyone's companionship (unless I'm very drunk.) This time I actually talked to people, not out of a painful neceessity, but simply because I felt like being friendly. It's actually not the first time, that after taking a nap I feel so good I'm able to storm into the kitchen without giving two sh*ts about people around me. No comparison between how I felt after my today's attempt at getting a night's sleep and after this nap.
And I started thinking. If naps as opposed to full time sleep can make me feel so good, why not give up on full time sleeping altogether and substitute it with naps. I googled „no sleep only naps” and what I got is polyphasic sleep. Does anyone have any experience with it? I'm willing to give it a try, since my sleeping routine is already pretty messed up. Any ideas on how this works? Or why today I felt so much better after the nap than the 6 hours “night” sleep? Did anyone have similar experiences? I know that there may be no strict correlation between napping and feeling good, it all may have been accidental, I may not be able to repeat this, and it may not work in the long run but I guess I will never find out, unless I give it a try.
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Re: Polyphasic sleep as a solution?

Postby aeiouaeiou » Fri Jan 31, 2014 4:40 am

Considering that I just had another day without getting proper sleep I'd like to share some more thughts on the topic.
I would also like to add some questions concerning sleep deprivation. Have you ever noticed that after not getting enough sleep you get more creative? Like all of sudden you're able to come up with solutions that have never occured to you before. I'd even say that it kind of feels as if my IQ went up. Also I remember that when I was back home sleep depravation would result in poetry writing.
I've read somwhere that sleep deprivation somehow disturbs the normal way brain wavelenghts work. I think it wasin the context of bashing the old fashioned forensic method of determining someone's sanity based on the graph of their brain wavelengths. The conclusion was that there's no use to it if a person who didn't get enough sleep last night gets a graph of similarly disrupted brain wavelengths as a person who for example suffers from schizophrenia.
Also some time ago I noticed that sleep deprivation works as a sort of solution for my hightened self-consciousness and nervousness. It could be that it's because when I don't sleep I'm too tired to be even bothered with what other people say and do. It sometimes feels as if thare always were some sort of white noise in my head that disappears when I don't get enough sleep. And then I'm finlly able to get a clear vision, I'm calmer and more detached. I'm really wondering if that's how normal people around me feel like all the time.
Anyone has similar experiences with sleep deprivation or any thoughts or helpful advices on polyphasic sleep?
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Re: Polyphasic sleep as a solution?

Postby Oliveira » Sun Feb 02, 2014 10:04 am

In bipolar disorder sleep deprivation works as one of the triggers for hypomania or mania, which are both creative phases (sometimes over-creative, though). No idea if this would also work the same way with a non-bipolar person though.
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Re: Polyphasic sleep as a solution?

Postby scififan » Thu Apr 24, 2014 7:28 am

I should not give any advice have not practice much at all.
But I like on of the many schemes. ¤ hour some awaken rest
and then some 4 hours again seems my body like that one better
than others I have tested.

Only problem it needs some discipline to give body signals
so that one don't miss the windows of opportunity to fast
go into deep sleep again.

I imagine one can get two deep sleep this way but I only wild guess.
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