My Polyphasic Sleep Experiment

Surfing the net on vacation, I found that I've been experimenting - although unintentionally - with sleep patterns for the last year or so. What I've been doing is something called "polyphasic sleep."

Polyphasic sleep, as opposed to monophasic sleep, is when you sleep in several small stretches throughout the day, instead of getting your sleep all in one big chunk. The theory is that this form of sleep reduces your need for sleep to about two hours a day, and actually leaves you more mentally alert than getting eight hours in one stretch.

Now I'm not really practicing polyphasic sleep as it was meant to be done. True polyphasic sleep should be about 20 minutes every four hours. But who can live like that? Supposedly, this alteration in your sleep will provide you with an extra six hours a day of productive waking time. I'm a little skeptical.

My polyphasic sleep pattern is more out of necessity. I have one daughter that swims very early every morning, requiring that I be up before the sun. And by the time everyone at my house is in bed at night, I absolutely have to have some alone time. Therefore, I stay up too late.

The result is I don't get enough sleep between bedtime and my first wakeup call. So after my daughter's swim practice, I go back to sleep for a few hours. Then sometimes in the afternoon, schedule permitting, I'll nap for a few minutes.

Most people think my schedule is crazy. But I'm relatively healthy and get through my day without mishap. Besides, I can't figure out any other way to do it, unless I give up my alone time and go straight to bed at midnight every night.

But I love my alone time. I get more done late at night than at any other time. How about you? When is your most productive time of day? Am I the only person who lives by this wacky schedule of broken up sleep?

Thanks to Interesting Thing of the Day for the great article on polyphasic sleep.