Recently, I’ve been reading about a particular sleeping habit called Polyphasic Sleep (wiki), which involves a person eliminating the usual habit of sleeping at night, and replacing that sleep with short naps throughout the day. The total amount of time slept with Polyphasic Sleep is actually lower than having one big block of sleep, which allows for more wake-time, and is probably the biggest incentive in taking up this habit. It sounds outrageous, but people have tried this and documented it. It sounds plausible to me, and I believe I should try it before rejecting it.
Seeing that I’ll be starting my third year in Mechatronics Engineering, I figure I should try this out to get more wake-time for work. I’ve read that it takes a week or two to actually be used to this method of sleeping. My plan to get used to this is to gradually reduce my core sleep and increase the amount of naps I have in the day. By gradually doing it, my circadian rhythm will have a lot easier time adjusting. I’ve dubbed this as my “Sleeping Plan”. When I had told David about this, he thought I said “Schlieffen Plan”, in reference to Germany’s invasion plan for the speedy elimination of France in the First World War. I guess I could call it the “Schleepin Plan”
Ever since I had to take transit to school, I’ve lost a lot of time that I could have used for schoolwork. Naturally, I sacrificed quite a bit of sleep to make up for it. During the first term of my second year, I slept about 7 hours a night, which is pretty typical for most people. In second term, it became 6 hours. During my Co-op workterm at the university in the summer, I reduced my sleeping time down to about 5/6 hours. Now, I’ve reduced to 4. Napping throughout the day definitely helps me stay awake and alert. It is the basis of Polyphasic Sleep. By getting REM sleep during naps, energy can be replenished bits at a time rather than all at once.
I’m reluctant to push it any further at this point since it is inconvenient for me to take naps given my current schedule. I feel that I should not be sleeping at my workplace even if it is my lunchbreak. I tend to wait until I get off work to sleep. I’m very interested in seeing how this will turn out.