Bodybuilding and Polyphasic sleep
 

Any serious bodybuilders out there that have experimented with polyphasic sleep? I am dubious that it is possible as recovery from heavy workouts requires a lot of rest and at the moment I need 9 hours a night to stay healthy, including some daytime naps. Also, many people who experiment with polyphasic sleep look a bit underweight (judging by their blogs).
Steve seemed OK, but he was not pumping iron heavy once or twice a day and he looks pretty lean to me.

Polyphasic, no - but biphasic doesn't seem to have any negative affect on recovery. I'm currently getting a little under 6 hours (roughly a 1.5/4.5 hour split), and it seems to result in better quality sleep than I was getting before.

A few observations :

The weights/reps haven't decreased for any exercise since the switch (a couple of exercises use the same weight as before, but other aspects have been adjusted).

My weight is stable, although I haven't been actively trying to change it. Same goes for bodyfat.

I feel more refreshed after the 4.5 hour core sleep than after 7-8 hours when I was monophasic.

During the first week of the transition from monophasic to biphasic, I knew I was going to be tired and kept away from the weights (no easy task, but worth doing). The first couple of sessions afterward were the same as you'd expect after a week's break for any other reason.

Most of the Polyphasic people are geeks and most geeks aren't exactly serious bodybuilders.

If you rest six times a day you rest six time as often as someone who sleeps only one time.
The usage of Sleep is not linear.

Yep, you're right about the geek element in polyphasic sleep experiments - I get the feeling that one of the driving reasons these guys are doing it is to avoid contact with other people.
I am currently sleeping biphasically, with an extra 2 X 10min naps but I still need 9 hours to recover properly. I am really going hard though, doing many one rep maximums and 20 rep breathing squats.

I'm not quite sure where that stereotype comes from - it certainly isn't the case with anyone I hang with (and I'd class myself as a geek).

Lonewolf, what type of biphasic routine do you have at the moment? A couple of things that really make a difference with recovery time are :

1. separation between nap and core sleep
2. number of cycles in core sleep

I believe the most growth hormone release is during the first two hours of monophasic sleep, and leuteinizing hormone release largely occurs in the morning just before you wake up after a full nights rest. Take that for what you will.

I am a bodybuilder but uninterested in polyphasic sleep.

I'm a former bodybuilder and powerlifter (3rd in state competition some 20+ years ago). Now a days people call it biphasic sleep. Back then we called it napping or siesta (1-1.5 hrs) after the afternoon workout. :D

Of course it was much easier for me back in the day to take afternoon naps because I was in college and had a more flexible schedule. I no longer bodybuild or powerlift, so I don't know what the latest research has to say.

Good luck!

Morias, with your current schedule, do you still take the naps?

I nap too, but splitting sleep up into two halves doesn't seem to reduce the daily quota. Currently I sleep from 10pm - 6am, take a 10m nap at 9.30am and 12.00 midday, then a 20 min sleep at 3pm. I work out twice a day, going unusually hard and I eat very heavily with the goal of putting on weight. I drink a small amount of coffee and take ginko and ginseng.
On this schedule, I only just recover between workouts, i.e. it feels like I am progressing at maxiumum capacity.

Lonewolf, over the past week or so I've been experimenting with a short nap and a longer core sleep. The result is that a slight reduction in the nap length equates to a large amount of oversleeping.

As an example, previously I had a 1.5/4.5 hour split with no problems. Reducing this nap to 10-15 minutes meant oversleeping 2 hours last night, and a similar amount the night before.

Perhaps by increasing the length of your nap to 90 minutes or so you will greatly reduce the length of core sleep you need. Try a 1.5/7.5 hour split for starters, and gradually decrease the length of core sleep until it feels right to you (and obviously doesn't affect your recovery).

No nap time for me at the moment. Just a straight 5-6 hours of sleep a night. I just saw an article somewhere that said meditation can be more effective than napping. I'll see if I can find it.

I meditate too, and it is great for mental clarity, but does not refresh the cells of the body in the same way that true sleep does.