3 ms·

From my reading, the research only looks at monophasic sleeping patterns and so gives no real useful information on the effects of polyphasic sleep on health.

• swombat 16y ago
  Agreed in principle, but in practice I think the argument goes as follows: 1) There is evidence that prolonged lack of sleep (6h/night or less) leads to an early death 2) Many polyphasic sleep methods involve dramatically less sleep than 6h a night 3) There is no implied correlation between those two statements, but a cautious person who wants to maximise their chance of living as long as possible would infer that: - Given the lack of data, it is probably a better idea to avoid polyphasic sleep altogether until proper studies are conducted. Previously, the argument was that there is no evidence linking lack of sleep with death, therefore why not give polyphasic sleep a go. I think that argument is not valid anymore.
  • tome 16y ago
    Not necessarily. Perhaps it's staying awake for more than 18 hours consecutively that causes early death.
    • swombat 16y ago
      Read my comment more carefully. I didn't say there's conclusive evidence of a link - just that a cautious individual who wants to maximise their lifespan will probably assume that it's best to sleep 6-8 hours a night. Edit: Of course, that's assuming the study results are actually correct, which according to ajkirwin's comments, they're possibly not.
  • drKarl 16y ago
    Polyphasic sleep is based in maximizing the amount of time sleeping in REM cycles, which is supposed to be the phase of sleep when the benefits of sleeping are higher. Monophasic sleep deprivation doesn't have as many cycles of REM sleep as polyphasic sleep, given equals amounts of time slept. To compare monophasic and polyphasic a study should include both types of sleepers. Perhaps such study could find a proper pool of candidates in forums like http://groups.google.com/group/polyphasic http://groups.google.com/group/polyphasic