Nap - Systematic Napping As A Lifestyle

Systematic Napping As A Lifestyle

A contemporary fad called polyphasic sleeping entails avoiding long sleeps, instead taking regularly spaced short naps. Sara Mednick, whose sleep research investigates the effects of napping, included a chapter, "Extreme Napping", in her book Take a Nap!. In response to questions from readers about the "uberman" schedule of "polyphasic sleeping", she commented as follows:

This practice rests upon one important hypothesis that our biological rhythms are adaptable. This means that we can train our internal mechanisms not only when to sleep and wake, but also when to get hungry, have energy for exercise, perform mental activities. Inferred in this hypothesis is that we have the power to regulate our mood, metabolism, core body temperature, endocrine and stress response, basically everything inside this container of flesh we call home. Truly an Uberman feat!

Polyphasic sleep is claimed to be of particular benefit in cases where very long periods of wakefulness (+24 hours) are necessary and a normal circadian rhythm is impossible (such as certain cases of military duty or emergency service). Critics of polyphasic sleep dispute the notion that the human brain can simply be classically conditioned to tolerate a state of near constant wakefulness without deleterious effects. Studies by the US military showed the success rate of introducing polyphasic sleep varied widely depending on individual physiology/psychology, the amount of time provided to acclimate to the new schedule, and the type and difficulty of the tasks being performed. Attempting to acclimate to a polyphasic schedule often induced significant stresses in the participants, with a corresponding deficits in alertness and skill that became progressive and did not improve until the restoration of normal sleep. Many of the more radical cycles (such as Mednick's "Uberman Schedule", allowing only 15 minute naps every 4 hours) are so demanding that to date their only successes have been anecdotal reports from serious devotees and are widely considered to be harmful and physically unsustainable for the average person.

Read more about this topic:  Nap

Famous quotes containing the words systematic and/or lifestyle:

    Every nation ... whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability may calculate on every loss which can be sustained from the more systematic policy of its wiser neighbors.
    James Madison (1751–1836)

    The hippie is the scion of surplus value. The dropout can only claim sanctity in a society which offers something to be dropped out of—career, ambition, conspicuous consumption. The effects of hippie sanctimony can only be felt in the context of others who plunder his lifestyle for what they find good or profitable, a process known as rip-off by the hippie, who will not see how savagely he has pillaged intricate and demanding civilizations for his own parodic lifestyle.
    Germaine Greer (b. 1939)