I received an interesting comment on my last post, “Never Blog Alone“. It was from fellow blogger Phi and it related to his experiments with polyphasic sleeping. Phi states that he has had great results with a core three hour sleep period followed by three strategically placed 20 minute naps throughout the day. This relates well to my experiments with “Qudraphasic sleeping“, where the day is broken down into 4 quadrants and includes a long sleep period and two naps. The difference can be seen in the 24 hour graphs below where green is sleep time.
I really like Phi’s modified schedule. It provides the 3 hour core sleep containing two 90 minute REM sleep cycles along with only three naps. The great thing is you will only need to take one nap during the average 8 hour workday which can be done at lunch. This schedule would work for the average worker whereas the traditional polyphasic schedule would have you napping two or three times during an average 8 hour workday.
As you can see from the graph it is identical to a quadraphasic pattern with the addition of 3 to 4 hours of productive “awake” time. I have tested this in the past when I have had a big project due and it works for me in the short term. It will be interesting to keep up with Phi and see how it works for him long term. He has reached his 30 day milestone with no ill effects so it sounds promising.
Phi mentions that to make this work he has dropped caffeine from his diet and is eating healthier meals. In my experience I have found that “low glycemic” meals of 500 calories or less along with similar snacks are the best when following a modified sleep schedule since they will keep blood sugar levels constant.
Check out Phi’s post here.
