Polyphasic sleep survey

[Scott]

Hello, everyone!

I'm creating a detailed write-up about polyphasic sleep for my website, and I was wondering if any of you who have attempted it (regardless of whether you succeeded) would be willing to fill out a quick survey.

Much of the information that's available comes from blogs, and unless you can get your hands on Claudio Stampi's Why We Nap (the only real scientific studies that I'm aware of on this topic), you'll have a hard time drawing many conclusions.

I want to get some data in aggregate form and present just how feasible (or infeasible) this schedule is, and what it takes to adapt to it.

Your time is very much appreciated! I'll post a link once I get the write-up online.




FYI: I define "successful" as having gone 2-3 weeks without a single oversleep. You don't have to be completely out of the adaptation phase, but you should be able to bet a good amount of money that you'll be able to wake up after your next nap. Also, please fill out the first survey if you are no longer on the schedule, but were on it at one time.

EDIT: I received a question about whether to include biphasic sleep - The answer is yes. Anything that consists of more than two blocks of sleep per 24 hours (barring a normal schedule + short afternoon nap) is fair game. Because of the first question, I'll be able to distinguish between the different schedules anyway.

For successful adapters:
1. How many naps per day do you take, and how long are they?
1a. Please specify each if your naps are not of equal length.
2. What times are each of your naps?
3. During the adaptation, approximately how many days did it take until you were able to function at least as well as you did pre-adaptation?
4. About how many times did you oversleep during your adaptation?
5. Was there any sort of pattern or average duration of oversleeping? If so, how long?
6. About how far from a given "naptime" can you shift a nap (earlier or later) and still function well?
7. On a scale of 1 to 9 (9 being the best), let's say each of the following measures were a 5 before you became polyphasic. Please rate how (compared to a 5) you perform now in these areas:
-Alertness
-Concentration
-Creativity
-Physical endurance (e.g. running)
-Physical strength
-Ability to fight illness
-Ability to heal after injury
-Happiness
-Mental quickness
8. Please state approximately how many servings of each food group you consume per day:
-Grains
-Veggies
-Fruits
-Dairy
-Meats
-Cups/Liters of water
8a. Was the above any different while you were adapting? If so, please specify how.
8b. Did you find it necessary to change your diet before you could feasibly do this schedule? If so, please specify what your diet was before.
9. About how many hours per week do you exercise?
9a. About how many hours per week did you exercise during the adaptation?
9b. What about pre-adaptation?
10. In your opinion, what was the main factor which caused you to succeed?
11. If you were on the schedule at one time but aren't anymore, what caused you to drop it?

For failed attempts:
1. How many naps did you take per day, and how long were they?
1a. Please specify each if your naps were not of equal length.
2. What times were your naps?
3. How long did you try to adapt to the schedule before you gave up?
4. About how many times did you oversleep during your adaptation?
5. Was there any sort of pattern or average duration of oversleeping? If so, how long?
6. On a scale of 1 to 9 (9 being the best), rate how well you stuck to your schedule.
7. Please state approximately how many servings of each food group you consumed per day during the adaptation period:
-Grains
-Veggies
-Fruits
-Dairy
-Meats
-Cups/Liters of water
8. About how many hours per week did you exercise during the adaptation?
9. In your opinion, what was the main factor which caused you to fail?

[Scott Bird]

Scott, are you including biphasic sleep in this survey? It's definitely a form of polyphasic, but some people don't class it as such.

[Scott]

Originally Posted by Scott Bird

Scott, are you including biphasic sleep in this survey? It's definitely a form of polyphasic, but some people don't class it as such.

That's a good question. Let's go ahead and include biphasic sleep just for completion. It is technically polyphasic, even if there are only two phases. If it becomes apparent that biphasic hasn't provided much benefit over monophasic sleep, I can leave those responses out of my article. I'm curious, anyway, to compare it with Uberman and with monophasic schedules.

[Scott Bird]

Originally Posted by Scott

For successful adapters:
1. How many naps per day do you take, and how long are they?
1a. Please specify each if your naps are not of equal length.
A: Currently I have two sleep periods, which include 1 nap and 1 period of core sleep. These are around 80 min and 4.5 hours respectively.

During the initial 30 day trial I began with a 1.5/3 hour split, and modified it to the current length after a couple of weeks.


2. What times are each of your naps?
A: the nap usually begins around 19:30, and the core sleep usually begins around 02:00.

3. During the adaptation, approximately how many days did it take until you were able to function at least as well as you did pre-adaptation?
A: 7

4. About how many times did you oversleep during your adaptation?
A: Based on the initial routine, 5 (although 3 of these would now be seen as normal).

5. Was there any sort of pattern or average duration of oversleeping? If so, how long?
A: The most common length was an extra 1 cycle (90 minutes) added to the core sleep. The core sleep is now 1 cycle longer, and the oversleeping problem is quite rare.

6. About how far from a given "naptime" can you shift a nap (earlier or later) and still function well?
A: The biphasic routine can be modified in a few ways for 2-3 days (and probably longer, I haven't actually tried it) successfully without causing problems. The nap can be moved either way by about 3 hours; it can be transformed into 2x20 min naps; or it can be ignored entirely in favour of monophasic sleep.

In the case of monophasic sleep, the requirement seems to be core sleep + (2 x nap length), or 7.5 hours in my case (instead of a daily total of just under 6 hours on a biphasic routine).

7. On a scale of 1 to 9 (9 being the best), let's say each of the following measures were a 5 before you became polyphasic. Please rate how (compared to a 5) you perform now in these areas:
-Alertness - 7
-Concentration -7
-Creativity -7
-Physical endurance (e.g. running) -5
-Physical strength -6 (probably due to training rather than sleep changes)
-Ability to fight illness - untested, though I rarely become ill in any case
-Ability to heal after injury -5
-Happiness -7
-Mental quickness -7

8. Please state approximately how many servings of each food group you consume per day:
-Grains
-Veggies
-Fruits
-Dairy
-Meats
-Cups/Liters of water
A: how large are the serving sizes?

8a. Was the above any different while you were adapting? If so, please specify how.
A: I ate more, generally high-carb foods.

8b. Did you find it necessary to change your diet before you could feasibly do this schedule? If so, please specify what your diet was before.
A: I didn't change my diet specifically for the change to biphasic sleep, but several changes made over the past couple of years undoubtedly helped. These include a reduction in both caffeine and alcohol consumption.

9. About how many hours per week do you exercise?
A: Strength training probably averages out at 30 min per day.

9a. About how many hours per week did you exercise during the adaptation?
A: None at all during the adaptation phase.

9b. What about pre-adaptation?
A: The same as now. No change at all.

10. In your opinion, what was the main factor which caused you to succeed?
A: Self confidence. I was never in any doubt that I would.

11. If you were on the schedule at one time but aren't anymore, what caused you to drop it?
A: Still on the routine. It's a permanent change.

For further information on my findings with biphasic sleep, I humbly offer up my 30 day summary. In addition to several observations on the change itself, this contains links to the individual days of the trial period.

[Scott]

Thanks! As far as serving sizes, I was thinking the standards that are on the Nutrition Facts label (e.g. one slice of bread = one serving of grains), but I notice you're in Australia, so I'm not sure what kind of measures you would have. If anyone else has this problem, they can estimate (or leave it blank).