So, I have been interested in poly-phasic sleep for a while. It is fairly well known that Aspergians have a different sleep schedule than neuro-typicals and I hypothosis that Aspies are more easily able to go on a poly-phasic schedule than NTs. Certainly, anecdotal stories (which, obviously do not actually take any weight as evidence) are suggestive that poly-phasic sleeping may be linked with Aspergers.
The next question was to pick a sleep-schedule. There are enough to choose from (Everyman, Uberman, Dymaxion, etc.) to suggest that pretty much you can make up your own schedule. I don't see why you couldn't have a schedule of 5 sleep-cycles per 24 hrs. After looking at a number of blogs of people that switched and maintained polyphasic sleep for at least 4 months, the most common cited reason for giving it up is that it interferes with your social and working life. As the rest of the world is on monophasic sleep, it becomes difficult to schedule things with the rest of the world.
As I work for myself, I do not think that I will have a great deal of difficulty accommodating my work schedule. If I am unavailable for 30 minutes during the work day, that is unlikely to be noticeable. On the other hand, having a sleep schedule that deeply restricts social events would impact my life significantly. My social schedule includes ultimate (5:00 till 8:00), dinner with my wife (anywhere from 6:00 to 9:00), dinner parties (5:00 till 11:00), going to movies (6:00 to 9 or 9 till midnight), and weekend activities which can happen anytime during daylight hours.
Since most events start at 5 or 5:30 because of peoples work schedules, it seems obvious that I need to stick a nap in that gets up at around 4:30 or 4:45. This seems to fix the schedule. On the uberman, with it's six sleep cycles/day you have 4 hrs between naps. That means that the next nap is at 8:30. Clearly this is very awkward. With the dymaxion schedule, the next nap is at 10:30, which is more do-able. Five phases puts a nap at about 9:20 which is a bit early socially, and interferes with going to the movies, but has the benefit of putting a nap at noon, which is simple to incorporate into a work day.
The simplest model to incorporate would be one that has three sleep phases per day, so every 8 hrs. One at 4:00, midnight, and 8 am. This doesn't seem to have a name, so if I can get it to work, clearly I get to name it. It also has the advantage of going to bed in the dark (mostly) and getting a nice re-set from the morning sunlight when I get up at 8:40. Additionally, it might be the easiest to adapt to, by splitting the core night-time sleep of the bi-phase pattern.
The next question was to pick a sleep-schedule. There are enough to choose from (Everyman, Uberman, Dymaxion, etc.) to suggest that pretty much you can make up your own schedule. I don't see why you couldn't have a schedule of 5 sleep-cycles per 24 hrs. After looking at a number of blogs of people that switched and maintained polyphasic sleep for at least 4 months, the most common cited reason for giving it up is that it interferes with your social and working life. As the rest of the world is on monophasic sleep, it becomes difficult to schedule things with the rest of the world.
As I work for myself, I do not think that I will have a great deal of difficulty accommodating my work schedule. If I am unavailable for 30 minutes during the work day, that is unlikely to be noticeable. On the other hand, having a sleep schedule that deeply restricts social events would impact my life significantly. My social schedule includes ultimate (5:00 till 8:00), dinner with my wife (anywhere from 6:00 to 9:00), dinner parties (5:00 till 11:00), going to movies (6:00 to 9 or 9 till midnight), and weekend activities which can happen anytime during daylight hours.
Since most events start at 5 or 5:30 because of peoples work schedules, it seems obvious that I need to stick a nap in that gets up at around 4:30 or 4:45. This seems to fix the schedule. On the uberman, with it's six sleep cycles/day you have 4 hrs between naps. That means that the next nap is at 8:30. Clearly this is very awkward. With the dymaxion schedule, the next nap is at 10:30, which is more do-able. Five phases puts a nap at about 9:20 which is a bit early socially, and interferes with going to the movies, but has the benefit of putting a nap at noon, which is simple to incorporate into a work day.
The simplest model to incorporate would be one that has three sleep phases per day, so every 8 hrs. One at 4:00, midnight, and 8 am. This doesn't seem to have a name, so if I can get it to work, clearly I get to name it. It also has the advantage of going to bed in the dark (mostly) and getting a nice re-set from the morning sunlight when I get up at 8:40. Additionally, it might be the easiest to adapt to, by splitting the core night-time sleep of the bi-phase pattern.
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