Polyphasic Sleep

Sleeping for only two or three hours a day.

Participant: Steve Pavlina

Hypothesis: That it is possible to train yourself (through extreme sleep deprivation) to go into REM sleep immediately upon falling asleep. Since you only need a couple of hours of REM sleep a night, this means you can then drastically cut the number of hours you need to spend in bed. Ideally you end up taking a few half-hour naps spaced throughout the 24-hour period, rather than hibernating like a bear for eight hours on end.

Summary: Steve is the master of the 30 day trial. His original plan was to put polyphasic sleep into practice for 30 days and see if he could adjust to it. It turned out he liked the huge amounts of extra free time it gave him so much that he went on to follow this sleeping pattern for over five months. He kept a detailed log of his experience here.

In the end he gave it up because he found it difficult that his schedule was so out of step with the rest of his family's and with the world at large (having to take naps regularly in the middle of working hours, but being wide awake and active almost all night).

Other bloggers who have trialed polyphasic sleep do not seem to have had the same success adjusting to the pattern that Steve had.