Best way to get 3-5 hours of sleep a night, applying "phase" idea?

[Erock]

Obviously the premise of polyphasic sleeping is to only sleep a limited amount of time and still feel great throughout the day. If you take a 20 minute nap every 4 hours that works great, but what if you want to get an hour or two more sleep then that? Sleeping 20 minutes every 2 hours would be nearly impossible. I'm going to be a college student next year, and I'm thinking I probably won't get that much sleep anyway, so I might as well learn how to sleep in a way that lets me still feel good throughout the day.

Has anyone successfully implemented a sleep strategy that lets them get 3-5 hours of sleep a night and still feel great, and done it for a long period of time?

Thanks a ton
Erock

[Trustme]

It's right in front of your nose:
Switching to Biphasic Sleeping? Start here.

Biphasic sleep. I am not sure how many really do the hardcore version with nap + 3 hours but nap + 5 hours a night is no problem.

Hope that helps.
Volkmar

[Erock]

Hum... if a full sleep cycle is 90 minutes, has anyone tried breaking that down into three 90 minute sleep cycles? That's 4.5 hours.

Erock

[Brutha]

Since 1,5 hours + 3 hr is done ( www.glenrhodes.com - The power of the Sleep Cycle) I see no reason why 90+90+90 minutes shouldn't work.

[kat]

Originally Posted by Erock

Hum... if a full sleep cycle is 90 minutes, has anyone tried breaking that down into three 90 minute sleep cycles? That's 4.5 hours.

Erock

I can't find the page now, but one site suggested transitioning to polyphasic, starting with 90 minutes 3 times a day for a week, then 80 minutes the next week, etc - reducing each nap by 10 minutes a week, and increasing the number of naps accordingly, until arriving at 30 minutes 6 times a day.

[Scott Bird]

Originally Posted by Erock

Hum... if a full sleep cycle is 90 minutes, has anyone tried breaking that down into three 90 minute sleep cycles? That's 4.5 hours.

Keep in mind that the 90 minute cycle length is only an approximation. In my case it's about 75-80 minutes, but it varies from person to person.

I've been getting 4 cycles (about 5 1/2 hours) for about 7 months now - quite happily, I might add - but the times I've tried to switch to 3 cycles I've been tired the next day.

I'm not saying that 3 cycles can't work, just that at 5.5 hours per day I'm happy with 4.

[CoryLehan]

I've heard of a few people trying the 3 90-minute schedule, and I remember it was extremely hard for them, and they eventually stopped. I'd suggest an Everyman schedule. Take a 3 or 4.5 hour core with three 20-25 minute naps.

It's much more flexible than most schedules, especially compared to the 3 90-minute schedule (I'd hate to miss a nap with that!)

For puredoxyk's (the one who basically brought polyphasic sleep to the masses) opinion on schedules, go here: Paradoxes! - Everyman