stringingalong asked: What's your opinion (if any) on polyphasic sleep?
Polyphasic sleep (for people who don’t know) is the idea that instead of sleeping for a long time at night, a person could take several naps during a 24-hour period, potentially giving more time to be awake. This could be really beneficial in situations where someone would not have about 8 hours straight to devote to sleep (i.e. military operations, outer space, finals time…).
Sleep and circadian rhythms are very unique to an individual. One thing many scientists agree on is that everyone has their own circadian rhythms and different people have different needs for sleep. The one thing we do know is that everyone needs sleep in one way or another, but the patterns and amounts differ from person to person.
Research has often been pointing to the amount of REM sleep as being the most critical. Someone who sleeps, but only in stages 1-4 (Non-REM sleep), will not feel rested. This has been done with rats whose brainwaves were monitored and forced to wake up right before they got into REM, for instance. They will also slip more quickly into REM sleep (go through the first four stages faster or skip stages to get into REM), as their brain rewires to give them more REM. I do think the idea of polyphasic sleep is interesting. Personally, I enjoy my long sleep at night all at once, but I totally believe that polyphasic sleep could work well for other people and in other situations. I think it would depend on that person’s circadian rhythms, need for sleep, and the quality of the naps they were able to take. Thanks for the question!
