Polyphasic Sleep cycles are diffreent types of sleep cycles.
so essentially instead of sleeping the 8 hours a night you essentially do 4-6 20-30min naps a day. when your body adapt to it you can go into your rem cycle which is the most important part of your cycle its when your body recovers.
but you essentially only sleep 2 hours a day
My friend tried this when he was younger, he said it seemed like he got more done per day but when he slipped off the cycle he was exhausted for several days. I doubt it's good for your health. Read some criticisms of it from professionals before you decide to do it.
I played with my sleep pattern about 10 yrs ago.
Aside from the obvious mind fuck that I experience on a erratic sleep cycle, I did discover something.
During the hours from 11pm-6am, I was the most productive. Hell, I'd even call it being in the zone (Most notably around 3am). There's something about having a relaxed mind while going about what your doing...
When the brain doesn't battle itself, ideas seem to flow from one to the next in a dreamlike sequence/pattern. - All your hand has to do, is keep up.
During this time, another reason for this focus could be that the world was shutoff.
Nothing on TV, no interesting updates on Reddit, or interruptions from any friends/coworkers. Just what was infront of my eyes.
Good luck with it, you might discover something useful for yourself
Maybe consider other adjustments to your lifestyle before you try this. Also if you feel you aren't getting enough done with work perhaps your workflow could be improved? There have been some really amazing 1 hour speed environments posted on these forums; and I'm not sure that a sleeping pattern helped those along, but probably new ways of working...
Correct me if I am wrong, but I am under the impression that a lot of people attempting alternative sleep cycles are already in sleep debt to begin with ("busy professionals") - meaning that there is not really any healthy control to compare things to.
That said I remember hearing that 2-phases sleep was the norm not too long ago. Electric lighting probably changed our behavior a lot over a very short time period. Interesting stuff.
Regardless, I find that going to bed when tired and getting up without setting an alarm is a pretty damn effective way of tackling this issue. That leaves about 16 hours/day for full productivity which I think is more than enough. If one's daily routine doesn't allow for a solid 8 hours chunk of rest time to begin with, that tells me that there are other pretty important issues to address before attempting some kind of exotic sleep schedule as a fix
You could try the 5:2 diet or eating every other day.
I'm currently been doing this for the last three months and on the day I eat less I need less sleep.
P.S. I'm also eating lot less junk food. I feel one of the biggest problem with first world is there is so much food you don't get used to being hungry.
iirc, we sleep, because our bodies need a period of time to clean out the waste products built up in our brains as we use them throughout the day. A single larger block of time for that to happen is preferable, as the process takes some time.
I tried something like the polyphasic sleep cycle a while back, and while it worked at first, after about a week (by my already somewhat under-slept standards) I started having trouble with attention, and cognitive tasks.
In the end I settled on aiming for 6-hours of sleep a night, with 8-9 hours once every few days.
I've found that the best thing you do can do to take much greater advantage of your time, is to start working out regularly, and eating more healthily. It keeps you sharp, focused, and more productive over longer periods of time.
If that fits into your life, sure, go and experiment with sleeping patterns and see what works better for you Each person is different and there's no substitute for actual experimentation, no matter what people say. There's a lot of people preaching around for 6, 8, 9 or whatever amount of hours but they never seem to take in account that people live in completely different environments with different schedules etc.
I've moved from the tropics to the frozen tundra and different sunlight hours throw my sleep cycles around a bit, I had to experiment what felt better for me.
I noticed that when I was freelancing a few years ago I kinda fell into a polyphasic cycle automatically, since I'd take naps around when I felt too tired to keep working and it just happened naturally. Once laying down I can fall asleep within seconds and I tend to go into deep sleep quite quickly so it works for me.
Just make sure you plan well and be aware that you might have weird energy spikes and be a bit confused if you get it wrong. If you have important work to do in a tight schedule I'd postpone the experiment.
There was a great series of articles by Mark Serrels on Lifehacker about how he attempted Polyphasic Sleep. A terrifying account of a man's slow descent into insanity.
this + lucid dreaming is great way to improve as an artist, i wanted to try it but you cant leave school/work to take a nap. Our lives are adapted to 8 hours sleep right now and you cant change it sadly. It takes quite a lot of time to get used to it before you will see improvements, also you are really tired at the beginning month or 2. Its not (that) bad for health as we were taking short naps rather then sleeping only in the night when we still were living in caves and later. REM phaze is a key here. But if you dont do that properly you can damage your health too
i would rather say 8hour sleep cycle is a bollocks :P
Its not (that) bad for health as we were taking short naps rather then sleeping only in the night when we still were living in caves and later.
but other apes are monophasic. and even uncontacted tribes sleep overnight. it used to be two distinct chunks within a 12-hour "night" period but that's pretty different from the ol' "uberman" sleep schedule
the whole point of me to attempt this was i really want to lucid dream and i work allot better in big chunks, i only have a part time job and am not attending university so scheduled wouldn't matter. might try the meditation thing. currently sleep less the 5 hours a night try the every man with 2-3 naps. so a 3.5 hour major sleep then 2-3 20 minute ones. People who have used this one say that they feel alot better and energetic then on a monophonic (regular 8 hour) because they are constantly recharged. reducing the time you go into your rem state is also a huge benefit of the whole thing as it allows you to have lucid/outer body experiences more often. there have been many great philosophers and anthers that have been on these kind of cycles and have written books while sleeping.
everyone, every single one, i know who praticed lucid dreaming, quit it for the cray wakeup paralyzis they experienced. totally doesnt sound worth it to me
but other apes are monophasic. and even uncontacted tribes sleep overnight. it used to be two distinct chunks within a 12-hour "night" period but that's pretty different from the ol' "uberman" sleep schedule
The amount of the great people of the older days Leonardo da Vinci, Napoleon, and Nikola Tesla. in saying that there is obviously a reason that they accomplished such great things and why they chose a different sleep cycle. the us military nasa and the Italian air force are also known to practice these cycles because of the benefits
Obviously long term it is not practical one bit from what i read most people give it up when they get a girlfriend because of the whole sleeping in the same bed intimacy and having naps when they are around would piss them off the longest known one in the 21st centenary is 2 years and 1.5 and they were both given up because of the got girlfriend
There are both big negatives but big positives to it in saying that you up a extra 1.5 days a week concentration has been known to been increased and overall energy, being productive while sleeping with the outer body experience . but fitting it in with a social life is near impossible + there have been cases of major crashes that is known as a zombie phase from the name you can figure out why. lucid dreaming problems as heard of above strict diet is needed, and i have seen one blogger that during his lucid dream he was in a war woke up and still thought he was in the dream and was thinking there was a war outside his window until his room-mate came through and spoke to him but then 20 mins later he had no memory of it happening.
dude if you want to be a bettr artist/improve your art etc just stop posting on GD and actually do some art.
Its not induced self tricks that will give you the discipline not to procrastinate etc.
I see lots of people coming up with "tricks" to "impove their art" but then they either just post on GD or ask technicall questions on Technical talk that could be solved with a 20 seconds google search...
everyone, every single one, i know who praticed lucid dreaming, quit it for the cray wakeup paralyzis they experienced. totally doesnt sound worth it to me
This is a horrific side effect of lucid dreaming and the main reason I stopped. It's all great to get some control in your dreams but losing control in the real world is the stuff of nightmares.
dude if you want to be a bettr artist/improve your art etc just stop posting on GD and actually do some art.
Its not induced self tricks that will give you the discipline not to procrastinate etc.
I see lots of people coming up with "tricks" to "impove their art" but then they either just post on GD or ask technicall questions on Technical talk that could be solved with a 20 seconds google talk...
today is my rest day it was just a thought it wasn't necessary just for the art reason... its always interesting to try things like this..im not saying it will help me stop procrastinating. i just like trying these different things, wanted a opinion on it and if people have done it. i was going to attempt it on my crunch month in January
This is a horrific side effect of lucid dreaming and the main reason I stopped. It's all great to a some control in your dreams but losing control in the real world is the stuff of nightmares.
everyone, every single one, i know who praticed lucid dreaming, quit it for the cray wakeup paralyzis they experienced. totally doesnt sound worth it to me
if they experienced wakeup paralyzis they were doing something wrong, its there to prevent moving our body during sleep and it shouldnt happen when waking up. What technique were they using? I assume WILD? Even if you experience it often you can make it positive experience, sometimes just focusing and saying you are safe can help. Mind can be easily fooled like that. Some people are so afraid of it that they make it even worse or they subconsciously want it(sic).
We cant be sure that great people used to sleep like that, there are a lot of "facts you didn't know about" that are just pure bullshit. I'm not saying none of them did, just dont trust everything.
But i dont undertand why you need diet for it? If you dont have some minerals yeah you can experience some problems, some say paralyzis can happen because of it too.
but other apes are monophasic. and even uncontacted tribes sleep overnight.
good point but you are talking about other species. Yes we were very similar to apes but we werent apes, in the end apes havent evolved like us (but we had similar/one ancestor) I saw someone talking with aboriginals once, and they sounded really.. primitive yet interesting. That leads me another point, we are different, someone from asia will experience it different than someone from africa. We are one species but we are from different subspecies (i hope thats how its called). And one argument, rather bad one but still, how young kids are sleeping? In in few shorter periods, or in long one? Most uncontacted tribes already have small villages, with farmind etc. and sleeping like that is just handy.Our body can adapt. I hope you understand something from what i posted :P
Guys, if you experience wakeup paralyzis as a side effect of lucid dreaming, something is wrong, maybe i could help here but there are also a lot of websites about it on the web
if they experienced wakeup paralyzis they were doing something wrong, its there to prevent moving our body during sleep and it shouldnt happen when waking up. What technique were they using? I assume WILD? Even if you experience it often you can make it positive experience, sometimes just focusing and saying you are safe can help. Mind can be easily fooled like that. Some people are so afraid of it that they make it even worse or they subconsciously want it(sic).
We cant be sure that great people used to sleep like that, there are a lot of "facts you didn't know about" that are just pure bullshit. I'm not saying none of them did, just dont trust everything.
But i dont undertand why you need diet for it? If you dont have some minerals yeah you can experience some problems, some say paralyzis can happen because of it too.
good point but you are talking about other species. Yes we were very similar to apes but we werent apes, in the end apes havent evolved like us (but we had similar/one ancestor) I saw someone talking with aboriginals once, and they sounded really.. primitive yet interesting. That leads me another point, we are different, someone from asia will experience it different than someone from africa. We are one species but we are from different subspecies (i hope thats how its called). And one argument, rather bad one but still, how young kids are sleeping? In in few shorter periods, or in long one? Most uncontacted tribes already have small villages, with farmind etc. and sleeping like that is just handy.Our body can adapt. I hope you understand something from what i posted :P
Guys, if you experience wakeup paralyzis as a side effect of lucid dreaming, something is wrong, maybe i could help here but there are also a lot of websites about it on the web
The dieting thing because lots of sugar and caffeine can stop you from sleeping and delaying naps making the whole cycle pointless and harder to recover.
i had never heard of people waking up paralysed after lucid dreaming before this thread
dude if you want to be a bettr artist/improve your art etc just stop posting on GD and actually do some art.
Basketball players practive free throws during ld. And after sleep brain still remembers your moves making you better at playing basketball in real life. Why not do art during sleep too? Practice some painting? If you use it properly this can help you be a better artist, but its not going to do that somehow magically, you need to pratice.
Or you can create new world and that way get inspired. its not a trick, its training
i had never heard of people waking up paralysed after lucid dreaming before this thread
me too, to be honest. weird, it happens but not as side effect
Basketball players practive free throws during ld. And after sleep brain still remembers your moves making you better at playing basketball in real life. Why not do art during sleep too? Practice some painting? If you use it properly this can help you be a better artist, but its not going to do that somehow magically, you need to pratice.
Or you can create new world and that way get inspired. its not a trick, its training
me too, to be honest. weird, it happents but not as side effect
your positivity is accentually amazing.
It is a great point as well.
dude if you want to be a bettr artist/improve your art etc just stop posting on GD and actually do some art.
Was thinking the same thing ...
Basketball players practive free throws during ld. And after sleep brain still remembers your moves making you better at playing basketball in real life. Why not do art during sleep too? Practice some painting? If you use it properly this can help you be a better artist, but its not going to do that somehow magically, you need to pratice.
Why not just get some sleep rather than trying to maximize every second of your existence? This seriously sounds like overkill to me.
To put that another way ... is there a single instance of a digital artist crediting working in lucid dreams as the reason they attained their success or skill level?
Why not just get some sleep rather than trying to maximize every second of your existence? This seriously sounds like overkill to me.
not everyone just 'wants to sleep' i personally don't like sleep if i didn't have to i wouldn't sleep at all.
"Why not just get some sleep rather than trying to maximize every second of your existence?" are you serious we only have certain time on this earth and your saying you don't want to maximise every second that you can??
The thing about polyphasic sleep is it sounds too good to be true. Lots of people will tell you it IS to good to be true. But because of how 'good' it sounds, people will always be down to try it. Maybe it works for 1/100th of the people who do?
I'm definitely more interested in Bi-Modal sleep. When you look back in history, there are records of people going to bed, then waking up about 1 - 3 am to do some work, or read, or whatever, and then going back to sleep. There's also a significant correlation between creative 'Grand Masters' and a (REGULAR) schedule of sleep work and exercise that see's them creatively active very early in the morning, or very late at night.
I'll try and find out where I was reading about this, it was pretty interesting..
I wasn't trying to offend you in any way. Sometimes I just can't help myself.
I can imagine that it helps for getting ideas, because you often have a lot of ideas in your dreams or the moment before you actually fall asleep. But given the negative aspects that were mentioned I wouldn't want to try it.
everyone, every single one, i know who praticed lucid dreaming, quit it for the cray wakeup paralyzis they experienced. totally doesnt sound worth it to me
I had been trying lucid dreaming in college and had some successes and around the same time I had a lot of times where I felt paralyzed waking up. I never knew those things were connected.
I can really recommend it. The Everyman cycle added 4 hours to every single day for me, freeing up much time for exercise, gaming and art.
I felt fresher and more aware (after the first 2-3 days of converting).
If it wasnt for my current job, I would still be doing it. I just cant make it work in my current situation.
Man, I don't know. I've been getting about 5.5 hours of sleep per night for the last year or so, just for the purpose of having more time to work on art; and I see some pretty scary effects on my memory on some days. Like, 3 days past, I went to pick up a pack of cigarettes and I coudldn't remember the brand I wanted; I blanked out for about 30 seconds. Or the other morning, someone asked me where I was born and it took me about 10 secs to remember.
On the other hand, I fired up Blender last week and hadn't used it for abour one year (swithed to max a long time ago) and I remembered everything almost instantly. Or, I can remember every details of that complex shader tutorial I watched a month ago and reproduce it in UE4 without looking for any reference.
I guess it's fine to try those things if you're young and reckless but as I am growing older I feel the need to take it easier on myself. Be careful with this...
Sorry, but cuting on your sleep and thinking it will help you improve as artist is one of the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.
To learn art efficiently you don't need more time, you just need to use it well. You need to sleep in order to retain the information you just learned.
Polyphasic sleep could be great if you need more time to do brainless tasks, but not to learn art.
Replies
so essentially instead of sleeping the 8 hours a night you essentially do 4-6 20-30min naps a day. when your body adapt to it you can go into your rem cycle which is the most important part of your cycle its when your body recovers.
but you essentially only sleep 2 hours a day
the cycle also helps lucid dreaming meaning you can always be productive
Aside from the obvious mind fuck that I experience on a erratic sleep cycle, I did discover something.
During the hours from 11pm-6am, I was the most productive. Hell, I'd even call it being in the zone (Most notably around 3am). There's something about having a relaxed mind while going about what your doing...
When the brain doesn't battle itself, ideas seem to flow from one to the next in a dreamlike sequence/pattern. - All your hand has to do, is keep up.
During this time, another reason for this focus could be that the world was shutoff.
Nothing on TV, no interesting updates on Reddit, or interruptions from any friends/coworkers. Just what was infront of my eyes.
Good luck with it, you might discover something useful for yourself
lmao
That said I remember hearing that 2-phases sleep was the norm not too long ago. Electric lighting probably changed our behavior a lot over a very short time period. Interesting stuff.
Regardless, I find that going to bed when tired and getting up without setting an alarm is a pretty damn effective way of tackling this issue. That leaves about 16 hours/day for full productivity which I think is more than enough. If one's daily routine doesn't allow for a solid 8 hours chunk of rest time to begin with, that tells me that there are other pretty important issues to address before attempting some kind of exotic sleep schedule as a fix
It's more important to have a regular routine and to be working efficiently.
Also, burn out is very real.
I'm currently been doing this for the last three months and on the day I eat less I need less sleep.
P.S. I'm also eating lot less junk food. I feel one of the biggest problem with first world is there is so much food you don't get used to being hungry.
I tried something like the polyphasic sleep cycle a while back, and while it worked at first, after about a week (by my already somewhat under-slept standards) I started having trouble with attention, and cognitive tasks.
In the end I settled on aiming for 6-hours of sleep a night, with 8-9 hours once every few days.
I've found that the best thing you do can do to take much greater advantage of your time, is to start working out regularly, and eating more healthily. It keeps you sharp, focused, and more productive over longer periods of time.
This not gonna help you improve your skills
https://www.ted.com/talks/russell_foster_why_do_we_sleep?language=en
if you want to mess yourself up go for it :poly121:
I've moved from the tropics to the frozen tundra and different sunlight hours throw my sleep cycles around a bit, I had to experiment what felt better for me.
I noticed that when I was freelancing a few years ago I kinda fell into a polyphasic cycle automatically, since I'd take naps around when I felt too tired to keep working and it just happened naturally. Once laying down I can fall asleep within seconds and I tend to go into deep sleep quite quickly so it works for me.
Just make sure you plan well and be aware that you might have weird energy spikes and be a bit confused if you get it wrong. If you have important work to do in a tight schedule I'd postpone the experiment.
Good luck!
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/tags/polyphasic-sleep/
Start here:
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/07/sleeping-like-superman-can-i-survive-for-a-month-sleeping-two-hours-a-day/
I think I'll stick with regular sleep patterns. My health is already screwed up enough by poor sleeping habits.
i would rather say 8hour sleep cycle is a bollocks :P
The amount of the great people of the older days Leonardo da Vinci, Napoleon, and Nikola Tesla. in saying that there is obviously a reason that they accomplished such great things and why they chose a different sleep cycle. the us military nasa and the Italian air force are also known to practice these cycles because of the benefits
Obviously long term it is not practical one bit from what i read most people give it up when they get a girlfriend because of the whole sleeping in the same bed intimacy and having naps when they are around would piss them off the longest known one in the 21st centenary is 2 years and 1.5 and they were both given up because of the got girlfriend
There are both big negatives but big positives to it in saying that you up a extra 1.5 days a week concentration has been known to been increased and overall energy, being productive while sleeping with the outer body experience . but fitting it in with a social life is near impossible + there have been cases of major crashes that is known as a zombie phase from the name you can figure out why. lucid dreaming problems as heard of above strict diet is needed, and i have seen one blogger that during his lucid dream he was in a war woke up and still thought he was in the dream and was thinking there was a war outside his window until his room-mate came through and spoke to him but then 20 mins later he had no memory of it happening.
and how is anything you just described about it appealing?
Its not induced self tricks that will give you the discipline not to procrastinate etc.
I see lots of people coming up with "tricks" to "impove their art" but then they either just post on GD or ask technicall questions on Technical talk that could be solved with a 20 seconds google search...
This is a horrific side effect of lucid dreaming and the main reason I stopped. It's all great to get some control in your dreams but losing control in the real world is the stuff of nightmares.
today is my rest day it was just a thought it wasn't necessary just for the art reason... its always interesting to try things like this..im not saying it will help me stop procrastinating. i just like trying these different things, wanted a opinion on it and if people have done it. i was going to attempt it on my crunch month in January
how did you start?
We cant be sure that great people used to sleep like that, there are a lot of "facts you didn't know about" that are just pure bullshit. I'm not saying none of them did, just dont trust everything.
But i dont undertand why you need diet for it? If you dont have some minerals yeah you can experience some problems, some say paralyzis can happen because of it too.
good point but you are talking about other species. Yes we were very similar to apes but we werent apes, in the end apes havent evolved like us (but we had similar/one ancestor) I saw someone talking with aboriginals once, and they sounded really.. primitive yet interesting. That leads me another point, we are different, someone from asia will experience it different than someone from africa. We are one species but we are from different subspecies (i hope thats how its called). And one argument, rather bad one but still, how young kids are sleeping? In in few shorter periods, or in long one? Most uncontacted tribes already have small villages, with farmind etc. and sleeping like that is just handy.Our body can adapt. I hope you understand something from what i posted :P
Guys, if you experience wakeup paralyzis as a side effect of lucid dreaming, something is wrong, maybe i could help here but there are also a lot of websites about it on the web
The dieting thing because lots of sugar and caffeine can stop you from sleeping and delaying naps making the whole cycle pointless and harder to recover.
i had never heard of people waking up paralysed after lucid dreaming before this thread
Or you can create new world and that way get inspired. its not a trick, its training
me too, to be honest. weird, it happens but not as side effect
your positivity is accentually amazing.
It is a great point as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilex_guayusa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silene_undulata
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calea_zacatechichi
Why not just get some sleep rather than trying to maximize every second of your existence? This seriously sounds like overkill to me.
To put that another way ... is there a single instance of a digital artist crediting working in lucid dreams as the reason they attained their success or skill level?
what are you on about you make it out like im saying i want to think about doing stuff in that time and no work will be done. don't be so ignorant
not everyone just 'wants to sleep' i personally don't like sleep if i didn't have to i wouldn't sleep at all.
"Why not just get some sleep rather than trying to maximize every second of your existence?" are you serious we only have certain time on this earth and your saying you don't want to maximise every second that you can??
you need a balance,
you cant be brave if you are not afraid.
you cant be happy if you cant be sad.
you cant work if you cant relax.
deep quote... i rarely post on this forum at all.
I'm definitely more interested in Bi-Modal sleep. When you look back in history, there are records of people going to bed, then waking up about 1 - 3 am to do some work, or read, or whatever, and then going back to sleep. There's also a significant correlation between creative 'Grand Masters' and a (REGULAR) schedule of sleep work and exercise that see's them creatively active very early in the morning, or very late at night.
I'll try and find out where I was reading about this, it was pretty interesting..
Here's a nice source: https://podio.com/site/creative-routines
I can imagine that it helps for getting ideas, because you often have a lot of ideas in your dreams or the moment before you actually fall asleep. But given the negative aspects that were mentioned I wouldn't want to try it.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=138157
I can really recommend it. The Everyman cycle added 4 hours to every single day for me, freeing up much time for exercise, gaming and art.
I felt fresher and more aware (after the first 2-3 days of converting).
If it wasnt for my current job, I would still be doing it. I just cant make it work in my current situation.
On the other hand, I fired up Blender last week and hadn't used it for abour one year (swithed to max a long time ago) and I remembered everything almost instantly. Or, I can remember every details of that complex shader tutorial I watched a month ago and reproduce it in UE4 without looking for any reference.
I guess it's fine to try those things if you're young and reckless but as I am growing older I feel the need to take it easier on myself. Be careful with this...
One thing won't directly help the other.
no its not... the whole purpose is sleep less do more for a month
as in a art project? im working on a roof mounted turret
To learn art efficiently you don't need more time, you just need to use it well. You need to sleep in order to retain the information you just learned.
Polyphasic sleep could be great if you need more time to do brainless tasks, but not to learn art.