What is Polyphasic Sleep?
How to try polyphasic sleep schedules
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep
Polyphasic sleep is essentially the practice of taking several short naps in a 24 hour period as opposed to sleeping once during the day. Most often, polyphasic sleep is referred to as an intentional way of “power napping” in order to get more value out of awake time. Polyphasic sleep can also be an unwanted condition in the sleep deprived. Elderly people, people with head trauma, and people with dementia can also experience polyphasic sleep that is beyond their control. There are also cases where disruption of the circadian rhythm has brought on polyphasic sleep conditions.
The US military, especially the Air Force, has studied polyphasic sleep as a countermeasure for fatigue. Some Astronauts have also tested polyphasic sleep. In most cases the naps are between 45 minutes and 2 hours at a time, and still intended to add up to 8 hours per day of sleep.
Many people in the field of personal motivation have adopted (or tested) polyphasic sleep as a way of getting more hours out of the day. Some people actually swear by the polyphasic sleeping schedule, but others have tested it out and found that they could not coordinate their lives in the same way as night sleepers.
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Notes and Special Information
Special note: Not everyone adapts well to a polyphasic sleeping schedule.