Polyphasic Sleep Long-Term Consequences (Blog)

[Savage]

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Steve Pavlina's blog:

Polyphasic Sleep Long-Term Consequences

[danas]

OK, out of all the things you've ever written about, this makes me the most jealous. (but not jealous enough to try Polyphasic Sleep)

When I was small and asked if I could make one wish - what would it be?
I always said to have a little button where I can fall asleep whenever I wanted to by pushing the button

Im usually half awake even if Im asleep.
I'm ultra alert, so even if someone will make the slightest sound, Ill be awake immediately. Im also a thinker. I enjoy thinking and it can keep me up for 5 hours after Ive gone into bed.
Last night I went to bed at midnight, fell asleep at 3:30-9:30am
The night before I fell asleep at 9:30pm till 2am, was awake from 2am-7am then fell back asleep from 7-10 am. I guess maybe I am kind of Polyphasic?
This is also why Im not an early riser.

I never even took a job where I had to wake up early. Because it makes no difference how tired I am, I can never rely on myself to just fall asleep.

A few years back I had a teaching job once a week in a college, I never once, through out the whole 2 years I taught there, slept more than one or two hours the night before I taught. It was terrible.
Ive accepted it though. I dont really know if I can change it.

[Andrew Brunelle]

Falling asleep in this way is like accepting an invitation. I don’t have to do anything. I just have to welcome the dream world that’s already beckoning me to join it. It’s a feeling of being pulled into the dream world as opposed to trying to get myself to fall asleep. It takes more effort to stay awake.

This kind of reminds me of the Steven Wright joke, "I have to be asleep by 1 AM, otherwise my dreams start whether I'm asleep or not."

Good to know the long-term consequences of polyphasic sleep. That would be convenient falling to sleep within seconds. Would really save me a ton of time.

[Elfwing]

I can attest to consequences. I was biphasic for about a year when I was in highschool, and before then, I slept very deeply and could sleep through the entire night. Now I wake up in the middle of the night two times out of three.

But a good consequence is that now I can take naps without trouble. I used to never be able to nap before I went biphasic.

[Snorkledorf]

A by-product like this totally makes me want to try polyphasic sleep again. I gave it a shot a year ago for something like 4 days, but I was just too sleep deprived to continue. I never got to the point where I could consistently fall truly asleep during the 20-minute window. A few times, but less than 1/3.

It used to take me 2-4+ hours to fall asleep on a normal night, but I've gotten it down to "only" about an half hour now. Meditation taught me how to deliberately disengage the verbal-thinking part of my mind, and for me it turns out that's one key to gaining some control over my sleep patterns. When I remember to do it, and not fall into my old habits anyway.

[SarahLuvzYu]

Oh wow! That is amazing! Usually takes me 15-30 minutes to go to sleep. On rare occasions it takes me a couple of hours or more. Ahh wow if I could do this...Just thinking of all the time I would save.

30 seconds...wow...Can you choose when you wake up? I'm guessing no...would be awkward if you were sleeping on public transport & you missed your stop haha.