"I don't suffer from insomnia, I enjoy every minute of it"
If if remember it right there are five cycles you brain goes through at night, each one up to 90 minutes. Most people sleep 7h 30min or less a day. It is assumed that the average person takes 30min to get to sleep. This is why people think they need eight hours a day of sleep.
I have problems with sleep too. I can't get my brain to shut down in order to sleep, and I sometimes don't go to sleep at all if I have a new idea I want to think about. This is part of my ADD. I decided to start reading about and experimenting with sleep schedules in 2004 to see what I could learn. Some people have a sleep schedule that is out of phase with everyone else, so they sleep better at different times of the day. This is thought to be a survival trait from the past when there was an advantage to a group if a few individuals were awake and able to alert others about a threat. So a few people with sleep disorders may have resulted in increased survival of a group. Today it is just a problem though. Others do not have a 24 hour sleep schedule.
I experimented with a 28 hour day for a few weeks and it was easier than a 24 hour day, but I had to start classes. I also began experimenting with a reduced sleep schedule. I managed to get down to 4h 15min a day without being too tired. The less I slept, the more food I ate. If I worked/exercised for an hour, I usually had to sleep an hour longer the next day. I then tried a polyphase sleep schedule. I couldn't do it. The idea of polyphase sleep is that you sleep for short intervals many times a day, and that it makes people more efficient because the are getting their brain "reset" every four hours. It is possible for someone to sleep two hours a day for months at a time with no significant health problems, and possibly better mental performance in some. If you want to spend as much time awake as possible, are healthy and not growing, then this is a good option.
Stuff I've learned from experience that may or may not apply to others: (Some of this may be common sense, or stupid):
Caffeine causes me to stay awake longer.
Eating a meal before sleeping helps me go to sleep earlier.
Sleeping on a flat surface such as a floor helps.
Exercising or being in a stressful situation/environment before sleeping helps.
Having a set sleep schedule, no matter what type of pattern it is, is better than a changing schedule with no pattern.
Food consumption is inversely proportional to amount of sleep. When I nearly cut my sleep time in half, the food I ate nearly doubled.
If you sleep less you may crave certain foods that will replace what you body would make if you were sleeping, or repair your body in place of sleep. This in normally some type of vitamin and protein deficiency. The ability to process food may be less efficient.
Find how much sleep you really get. For me it is around 4h 45min to 5h 30min. Make yourself sleep during that time by setting an alarm, and going to sleep at that set time before the alarm. after two to four sleep cycles your brain should adapt to it. Later you may not need an alarm.
If you give yourself less time to sleep then you body with adapt by resting less. If you set aside eight hours to sleep then your brain will know that it has eight hours and will not start sleeping until later.
Sleeping in small amount several times a day is much more efficient that sleeping once a day. Similar to eating one big meal a day vs. eating five or six small ones. The maximum time that someone can sleep efficiently is around 16 hours in a 48+ hour day. The minimum time for many people is 20min to an hour. Some people can sleep as little as 15min at a time.
27 Apr 2007, 11:41 am
