Well, for as long as we’re stuck here on earth (hopefully not forever!), we’ve got to be content with a puny 24 hours to use each day. I don’t know about you, but this just isn’t enough for me to accomplish everything I set out to do each day. I’m not about to go and build a rocket and migrate to Mars (whose days last 30 minutes longer), though I seriously would if I could. So, as you can guess, I’ve been pondering over some ways to make the most of the 24 hours I have.

Sure there’s all sorts of time-wasters I could cut out, like television, computer games, wasting time on the internet, and so on. But that’s boring! Besides, I enjoy spending my down time doing useless things.

It occurred to me that the one thing I spend the most time doing is sleeping. One third of my life I spend in bed (probably more actually!). It’s not that I have anything against sleep, actually I love sleeping, but it would be great if I could get a bit extra mileage out of these hours. One third of a lifetime is a major investment after all! Surely it requires a second thought.

Polyphasic Sleeping
A few months ago I stumbled across the concept of polyphasic sleeping. Literally it means to sleep (or nap) several times a day. These naps, in general, sum to less than the amount of sleep acquired in a normal (monophasic) sleeping pattern. Hence, it caught my attention immediately.

There are several different patterns that have been (apparently) adopted by individuals around the world. Some consist of regular and equal sized naps; others include a small block of sleep at night augmented with short naps throughout the day.

Uberman Sleeping Schedule
One of the most radical patterns has been called the “uberman” sleeping schedule, whereby 20 minute naps are scheduled every 4 hours, adding up to 2 hours of sleep per day.

Everywhere you see the uberman schedule, or any similar to it, you’ll find plenty of myths and controversy. Some saying it’s not possible to maintain it, others saying they have, other groups saying it’s possible to live on such a schedule, but is not healthy, whilst many report no health deterioration.

Theory behind the Uberman Sleeping Schedule
During a normal night, humans generally cycle several times through 5 different stages of sleep. Of these 5 stages, the REM stage (normally the last in a cycle), is considered to be the most restorative stage, particularly for the brain. The aim of the uberman schedule is to maximize the quantity of REM sleep, whilst reducing the quantity of the less necessary stages of sleep and thus maintaining a healthy state (apparently).

It is known that when a person is deprived of sleep, they will more quickly enter the more important stages of sleep, ie. REM and deep sleep stages.

Sleep is taken in regular naps, rather than a single 2 hour period of sleep, since the REM stage entered in the first cycle will generally last no longer than 15 to 20 minutes, before slipping into less important stages.

After awaking from a 20 minute nap consisting entirely of REM stage sleep, one will apparently feel very refreshed – in some cases more so than after an 8 hour sleep. A few hours later, REM deprivation should set in (since the body is used to having gained more REM by this point on an ordinary schedule), and at this point, another nap is taken. This pattern, being followed indefinitely, is akin to topping a car up with just enough high octane fuel to reach the next fuel station.

… Or so the supporters of polyphasic sleeping would have you believe. The theory sounds plausible and very attractive. It is not that simple unfortunately. We human beings are very complex, and so are our sleeping needs.

It has been proven that radical sleeping schedules like this one, can keep one in a constant state of something (subjectively) like 75% awake, alert, and mentally functional. It has uses in times where sleep deprivation is inevitable, and when the effects must be minimized. For example, survival situations, military operations, solo boat races, space missions, etc.

For a good unbiased read on the topic, have a look over the wiki on sleep, and polyphasic sleeping. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep.
Head over here for a very well written article, debunking many of the myths and rumours surrounding polyphasic sleeping. http://www.supermemo.com/articles/polyphasic.htm

Adaptation
It’s said that it takes a week or two for the adaptation to this schedule to start taking effect. Most of this time is spent wandering the streets as a zombie eating people and making groaning noises like in Resident Evil. This is because you’ll probably be half hallucinating while you feel like a zombie not knowing what’s going on. Though this is a bit of an exaggeration, but the adaptation is extremely difficult and trying, taking a heck of a lot of self discipline. Not only must you force yourself to remain awake at all kinds of ungodly hours, but you’ll have to force yourself out of a nice comfortable bed right when you want nothing more than to sleep ‘just a little bit longer’. After all, there is a reason that sleep deprivation is considered a method of torture and a useful interrogation technique.

Nevertheless, after a couple weeks of sticking diligently to the napping schedule, and not oversleeping or skipping naps, one should start feeling slightly more alive and functional. The quality of the naps should also begin improving, i.e. falling asleep quickly, falling into a dreaming state (which often characterizes the REM stage), and awaking feeling fresher.

EDIT: I still have not yet made an attempt to adapt to this schedule but I plan to sometime this year hopefully. It would be a good experiment to see how my chess rating changes, and how it will affect my weight training in the gym!