Stumbled upon Segmented Sleep!!!

[Toad]

During the summer I had developed this nasty habit of sleeping all day and staying up all night. About a couple of weeks ago, I decided to correct this by not sleeping at all during the day. I failed, and fell asleep at 5 pm. However, I woke up at 10 pm then proceeded to fall back to sleep at 5 am. I wake up at 9 am and fall asleep at 7 pm!

To make a long story short, my new sleeping pattern is 7 pm - 11 pm and 3 am - 7 am. It is fucking awesome.

I used to be one of those guys that could NEVER wake up in the morning. It turns out my body is not suited for 8 hours of consecutive sleep. Each time I wake up, I feel extremely rested and alert.

Turns out there were people who did and still do what I thought I created:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segmented_sleep

I love my new sleeping pattern so much. The only problem is that it conflicts with "normal" people times...Usually from 7 pm - 11 pm, people and family come together to socialize and talk. I will be missing out a lot if I continue this sleep pattern. However, I will also be gaining so much also. Sigh...Why do I have to be the black sheep all the time...

I must say that my free time from 11 pm - 3 am is so peaceful. It is a very good time to study and surf the web.

Also see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep

 

[Draves]

That pattern doesn't work with everyone's lifestyles/jobs. How to become a morning person-If you are trying to reshape you sleeping patterns here is a trick. Wake up in the middle of the night, exercise, and go back to bed. I worked on a nuero experiment on rats like this. When you woke the rats and made them exercise there sleep patterns would shift. They would wake up earlier and earlier if you kept making them exercise in the middle of a sleep cycle.


Anyways I like splitting my sleep up too. Having to interact for a full day becomes too much for me. I love a break to process information (with sleep/napping.) It isn't such a bad idea. Siesta anyone?

 

[Firehazard159]

I've actually been intensely curious about an alternate sleep schedule, I really want to try one specifically, but you have to sleep deprive yourself for about 5-7 days, if I remember right, and then have access to a quiet place for 30 minutes every 4 hours. A 30 minute break in ones day isn't bad at all for continuing to socialize, just might be kind of awkward if every 4 hours people notice you sneaking off to catch a few winks XD.

I guess if you manage it though, you fall directly into REM mode for those 30 minutes, and it's enough to stay refreshed.

Thinking about your sleep schedule, I've noticed I have a tendency to sleep about 4 hours naturally before waking up, and almost always 'have' to go back tos leep, so to speak, just to keep with the norm, but I've always felt like I'd do much better off if I split my sleep schedule up and took a nap after lunch sometime. Ah, the curse of living in modern day society and being constrained by social restraints, eh? I suppose I could just try to sleep up until work, and then sleep right when I get off work...

 

[echoplex]

Waking up once is shitty enough. Why would I want to do endure it twice a day? lol. I doubt I've ever woke up feeling this thing you call "rested". I've assumed that the first hour upon waking is nature's way of training us for death. Why else would I feel like I was already there?

Good to know you've found something that works for you though.

 

[Vrecknidj]

I remember reading about an experiment where a woman lived underground for a year or so. She had no access to natural day/night cycles. Her body acclimated to a schedule of being awake for 25 hours followed by something like 10 hours of sleep. She completely disconnected from the 24-hour schedule, but was happy and healthy.

Dave

 

[echoplex]

^ Wow, I'd love to be awake for 25 hours without taking drugs and/or copious amounts of coffee. lol

 

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

^I do that sometimes when I don't do any drugs at all.(not by choice, I get very irritable and my thoughts are very violent after about 24 hours.) Its 1/2 the reason I do them sometimes. My brain just feels like its stuck on overdrive and I need something to slow it down so I can sleep or at least not be angry and stressed from the lack of sleep. My heart also feels like it works a lot harder in this state as well, it gets uncomfortable and keeps me awake. I can tell theres more going on upstairs because when I am actually able to sleep I dream at least once a week or at least remember my dreams more lately. Actually more vivid and entertaining as well. Normally I'm lucky to remember a dream more than once every 2 months. Normally I would sleep 6-12 hours. Then again I'm now lucky if I get more than 4 hours of sleep at a time.
I made some posts here about 1 or 2 weeks ago in that state of 25-30 hours insomnia, very depressing and angry.

edit: yes, alcohol is a drug, nyquil, even aspirin, even legal things are drugs. its sad that most people always assume illegal stuff or bad stuff when they hear the word drug. Even food is a drug, air is too, almost everything is a carcinogen too if you think about it. Life is an STD and lack of alternate mindstates is a depressant

 

[echoplex]

Yeah, going too long w/o sleep can get depressing, and scary too. For some reason it just makes me very easily freaked out by things.

 

[Toad]

I remember reading about an experiment where a woman lived underground for a year or so. She had no access to natural day/night cycles. Her body acclimated to a schedule of being awake for 25 hours followed by something like 10 hours of sleep. She completely disconnected from the 24-hour schedule, but was happy and healthy.

Dave

wtf did she do all that time? I would be bored out of my fcking mind! I would, however, enjoy being a test subject for such an experiment. I would probably catch up on a lot of reading and SLEEP hehe.

 

[Kuu]

Haven't you read the old, lenghty sleep deprivation thread? I believe we discussed polyphasic sleep there, as well as "24hr cities". I discovered it like 5 years ago, but still have found impossible to implement it. Stupid society with its 8 hours work, 8 hours "fun" (right) and 8 hours sleep. Whoever was that made that crap up be damned! I believe that we could advance immensely as a culture if only we could shed that arbitrary and oftentimes unproductive and flawed pattern that is so ingrained into the civilization that few people even think about it.

We'll have to once we go out to space!

 

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

I think tiered job times would do wonders, either that or rush hour would be constant instead of 7-9am and 5-7pm

 

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

I've heard that if you get used to it, taking a 20-30 min. nap every 2-4 hours can work

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

I remember reading about an experiment where a woman lived underground for a year or so. She had no access to natural day/night cycles. Her body acclimated to a schedule of being awake for 25 hours followed by something like 10 hours of sleep. She completely disconnected from the 24-hour schedule, but was happy and healthy.

Dave

I get close to that kind of pattern fairly often these days. To be awake for 25-30 hours straight is easy and common for me. It's 2:45 am for me and I suspect I'll be up to see the dawn at least. I may end up staying awake until this evening sometime. Either way, I'll get 8-10 hours sleep when I do sleep.

 

[The Fury]

I'm glad that I don't share the INTP trait of insomnia. The second my head hits the pillow, I turn off my mind and just drift away into slumber.

 

[Zero]

Hmm, that's interesting. I thought my patterns were due to being "a college student". I don't party or anything, but I guess we're suppose to be somewhat irresponsible and lazy. So... my sleeping pattern, despite how I try to fix it, flips over.

I've tried staying up all day, it never works. I've tried sleeping all day, that... doesn't work either. I've tried taking naps... I've tried eating more normally (which probably helped the most), doing more in a day, etc. I always get off.

My patterns actually very predictable and I've begun to notice there are certain hours I'll fall asleep easier. 8pm is the most obvious one, because everyone else is still wide awake and I suddenly have a crash. I also get tired after eating a ton or drinking. It seems like I get tired about 4am as well. Probably 8am if I could manage to stay up that late/early. Even when I go to bed at 5am I have a tendency to wake at 9am. If I get back to sleep and I have something to do that day I'll usually wake up every hour. If I go back to sleep and there's nothing urgent or that I want to do I'll sleep until 12-2pm.

Some people can get by on an hour or a nap. I have to sleep at least six hours and ideally I'll get about ten. That sounds like too much to most people. But with 9-10hrs I can think well and get along with everyone. I can function with six hours, but not very well/extroverted. My eating habits definitely have something to do with it.

It's kind of hard to work out. I can be hungry and not have an appetite and I won't eat unless I have something in mind to eat. I can't sleep if I'm cold and I can't sleep if I'm extremely hungry. If I eat I'll tend to stay up longer, unless I overeat- then I'll sleep for a few hours. I'll sleep as a way of procrastinating or if I feel like there's nothing to be excited about that day.

It's been harder to get up these days.