[QUOTE]Originally posted by An0therN00b:
[B]I am interested in polyphasic sleeping. I want to do the 4-5 hour core sleep variation, what do you all think would be a good schedule?
Well from what I've read on other sites, like on http://polyphasic.blogspot.com/. and my own experiences, ith 4-5 hours of core sleep you want to nap 2-3 times a day from 15-30 minutes long. I'm going to try to stick to 1.5 hour of core sleep with 3 naps or 3 hours of core sleep with 2 naps. I figure that if people normally sleep 7 to 9 hours or core sleep with no naps, and your sleep cycles range from 1 hour & 15 minutes to 1 hour & 45 minutes long, then just use simple math. Figure 6 naps = 8 hours of core sleep. That would make each nap representative of 1 hour & 20 minutes or core sleep. You can always time the length of your sleep cycle by taking a nap in the middle of the day and timing it. Many people will get up in the middle of the day after just one sleep cycle in order for their body temperature to adjust back to normal 1. This is of course, if they weren’t exhausted from sleep deprivation. Just time yourself. A good way to make sure you fall asleep within a few minutes of when you start counting is to do something that doesn’t produce much physical or mental stimulation. One example would be watching a Dateline special on the sport of Curling. If you were already feeling tired before sitting down to watch people sweep an ice floor then you should be able to fall asleep within 10 minutes. Subtract 6 minutes2 from the time when you get up. Repeat this 3 more times and average the 4 total sleep cycles out3.
Say your sleep cycle averages 1 hour and 20 minute long. For each nap you can subtract 1 hour & 20 minutes from 8 hours (i.e. if is your normal bulk/core sleep schedule). So if you take 4 hours of core sleep then you should nap 3 times (i.e. 3 times 1.333 = 4 hours; 4 hours + 4 hours = 8 hours). Add naps appropriately on increased or reduced core sleep.
I’ve assumed the above. It makes sense logically from what I’ve read on other sites and from what I’ve done.
Footnotes
1Many land animals have their body temperature increase during the early afternoon do to afternoon meals expending a lot of energy to digest but more routinely because of a drop off of atmospheric heat. Digesting food increases your body temperature because your metabolism speeds up. Afterward your body temperature drops back to normal. When the heat of the afternoon starts to wane then your body temperature drops back to normal. The dropping of your body temperature in a short amount of time causes you to feel tired. This is similar to the hyperthermia of extremely cold atmospheres, but of course on a smaller, non-harmful scale. After about 1.5 hour your body temperature is back to normal. This afternoon body temperature increase and then decrease is in your DNA. If you are in an air conditioned office you will still experience this effect. An constant excessive stimulation mentally or physically could keep this effect from occurring.
2Figure it takes a person 2 minutes at the least to fall asleep. So if you fall asleep within 2-10 minutes then the average is 6 minutes.
3Technically you should do this a total of at least 25 times over 4 months. However, 4 times when you aren’t sick and sleeping a normal 7-9 hour core sleep schedule is okay for non-lab statistics.
