Polyphasic sleep myths
This text is part of: "Science of sleep" by Piotr Wozniak (2017)
Myth: We can adapt to polyphasic sleep. Looking at the life of sailors, many people believe they can adopt polyphasic sleep and save many hours per day. In polyphasic sleep, you take only 4-5 short naps during the day totaling less than 4 hours. There are many "systems" differing in the arrangement of naps. There are also many young people ready to suffer the pains to see it work. Although a vast majority will drop out, a small circle of the most stubborn ones who survive a few months will perpetuate the myth with a detriment to public health.
Fact: Humans are biphasic and the attempts to modify the inbuilt circadian rhythm will result in loss of health, time, and mental capacity. A simple rule is: when sleepy, go to sleep; while asleep, continue uninterrupted.
When reading polyphasic sleep blogs, I could identify a number of myths that keep getting transmitted from blog to blog like a bad VD infection. Some even hit mainstream media:
- False! most animals are polyphasic and so must be humans
- False! adaptation period is hard but it ends at some point
- False! polyphasic sleep saves you time
- False! polyphasic naps are REM-only
- False! you are more alert if you sleep polyphasically
- False! you are more productive if you sleep polyphasically
- False! you lose weight on the polyphasic sleep schedule
- False! polyphasic sleep reduces ghrelin (the appetite hormone)
- False! polyphasic sleep boosts testosterone levels
- False! polyphasic sleep is healthy
- False! long naps are bad for you
- False! many naps are better than one nap even if you are not sleep deprived
- False! Claudio Stampi recommends polyphasic sleep to everyone
- False! polyphasic sleep maximizes the amount of REM an individual gets
- False! many geniuses of history slept polyphasically. Not a single one has been documented actually
To read some hilarious extract from polyphasic sleep blogs, see: Polyphasic sleep: Myths and Facts : Excerpts from polyphasic sleep blogs
For more see: Science of polyphasic sleep