Sleep cycles

I have recently become aware that it is possible for people to have sleep cycles other than the traditional 8 hour one. For instance, some people sleep four times a day, for only half an hour each time. They claim to be much more refreshed by this than other wise.

So, what do people here think of alternate sleep cycles?

Sleep cycles that aren't the 'traditional model' haven't worked for me, though that's probably because I stay up stupidly late and wake up at the same time in the morning.

Usually forces me to sleep in the evenings, and forms an actual cycle of tiredness.

Sleep cycles are tied to how the body responds to daylight-night time.

Current CFLs high in blue light can potentially confuse the body and allow for reduced sleep.

I read a lot about polyphasic sleep cycles, and found an author who because he did telecommuting decided to put it to the test, Ill try to find his journal.

He kept one for a large portion of his experiment.

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/p...leep-log-day-1/
THere, he also tested biphasic sleep.

He did polyphasic sleep for 5.5 months, you can find lot of people who use it, but the schedule is fucked, so having a regular job it just wont work.
Anyway he gives a detailed account.

Ive done biphasic sleep, and it works good for me and isnt as rigid as polyphasic, but you dont quite get the same amount of waking time with biphasic. BUt its easier to adjust around a normal schedule.

Your body adapts to the change it just a takes a week or two of being tired to get over it.

I had a fried who did it, he slept two times a day (just as falls). It was quite fun if we had long days at school because then the last lesson was during his "sleep time" and he got extremely tired after only a couple of minutes and then he fell a sleep. He had to stop it after school contacted his parents

He told me quite a bit about it, sleeping two times a day is very possible even though he said 4 times a day is better (the body gets in to REM sleep faster, so the total time spent sleeping is even less).

Sleeping to times a day he only slept 4 hours total. He also adapted in around a week to the new schedule, but I remember him complaining after about a month and a half that everything was starting to feel like one long day...

I don't think there is much to any of these things.

8 hours is not a fundamental requirement to start with, some people need much more and some people less. So cutting sleep below this is not necessarily an accomplishment.

Even if it is possible to significantly cut sleeping time and maintain awareness there's zero evidence about what it might do to you long term. But it's probably bad.

The need to sleep for a significant period of each day is probably non-negotiable. Every animal with a brain does it - including cephalopods which developed their brains independently of vertebrates. Because lying unconscious for a good part of the day is dangerous the fact that is so well preserved in vertebrates and evolved in other animals with comparable intelligence suggests it plays an essential role.

My body naturally defaults to a 36-hour clock. It really messes with things, and I have had to deal with doctors for it before. I will naturally sleep for 12 hours, stay awake for 24 hours. Roughly. Outside of this causes me a lot of issues in regards to being tired and such. I manage a "normal" work day by starting a week doing 6/sleep 12/awake, and adjusting as the week progresses to keep my work scheduled proper. Then I binge it on the weekends. It's not healthy, but it's all I have.

This has caused me untold problems although I've never been to a doctor about it. It's actually a very good description of how I sleep (36 hour clock.)

Latest snippet of sleep science I saw said that binging sleep at the weekends doesn't make up for sleep lost during the week even if the total time is made up. No source, this is just from memory but it was published in a journal...somewhere.

I also found this which is fairly relevant:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783

Ekraysia beat me to it with that BBC article.

yeah "binge" sleeping doesnt really help you, you cant store sleep, you need to enter REM regularly.

As a consequence of how I sleep I'm only in a deep sleep for like and hour. Other than that I sleep very light.

I can also sleep in just about any position and not move, though I cant sleep standing up yet. I can go to sleep for 3 hours holding a glass of water, and wake up still holding the glass of water...though might be muscle memory from years of drinking.

I basically shut off.

Not sure if these are related, I have a good sense of time.