Polyphasic Sleep - Scheduled Napping To Achieve More Time Awake

Scheduled Napping To Achieve More Time Awake

In an early mention of systematic napping as a lifestyle, in order to gain more time awake in the day, Buckminster Fuller reportedly advocated a regimen consisting of 30-minute naps every six hours. The short article about Fuller's nap schedule in Time in 1943, which also refers to such a schedule as "intermittent sleeping," says that he maintained it for two years, and further notes:

Eventually he had to quit because his schedule conflicted with that of his business associates, who insisted on sleeping like other men.

However, it is not clear when Fuller practiced any such sleep pattern, and whether it was really as strictly periodic as claimed in that article; it has also been said that he ended this experiment because of his wife's objections. Moreover, Fuller is the only figure on record who claimed a successful Dymaxion sleep. Thus, there is no certitude about the sustainability of this schedule.

A more recent example involves Steve Pavlina. After approximately 4.5 months he decided to end his Uberman sleep pattern due to incompatibility with social activities of other people.

Critics such as psychologist and software entrepreneur Piotr Woźniak consider the theory behind severe reduction of total sleep time by way of short naps unsound, claiming that there is no brain control mechanism that would make it possible to adapt to the "multiple naps" system. They say that the body will always tend to consolidate sleep into at least one solid block, and they express concern that the ways in which the ultrashort nappers attempt to limit total sleep time, restrict time spent in the various stages of the sleep cycle, and disrupt their circadian rhythms, will eventually cause them to suffer the same negative effects as those with other forms of sleep deprivation and circadian rhythm sleep disorders, such as decreased mental and physical ability, increased stress and anxiety, and a weakened immune system. Woźniak further claims to have scanned the blogs of polyphasic sleepers and found that they have to choose an "engaging activity" again and again just to stay awake and that polyphasic sleep does not improve one's learning ability or creativity.