I recently heard about this Uberman Sleep Cycle and I was sort of intrigued by it and thought it would be a nice topic of discussion here. Has anyone done it? Or thought about doing it?

If you don't know what it is, the best way I can begin to explain it is simply this: You get two full hours of what we could call "night time sleep" each day and every four hours after that, you take 20 minute naps. As soon as you start this nap, you are sent instantly into REM5, I believe. When you wake from that 20 minutes, you feel as though you slept for 8 hours. I'm sure there are drawbacks to this cycle, but you gain an additional 5 hours for your day, so you are actually awake for 22 hours. As to my understanding, some of the greatest minds had trained their bodies to this cycle.

Thoughts?

I have thought about doing it. Many, many times. Only one greatest mind I know of trained himself on that cycle and that was Da Vinci. I do the Einstein sleep cycle (ten hours a night).

It's not very good for you. Polyphasic sleep has the same drawbacks as nocturnalism. However, if you're willing to take that risk, props.

If I remember correctly, this is one of the strategies that the people who do the sailboat-around-the-world race use when they're in hazardous waters.

I would love to try it, but I can't fall asleep easily and I feel like these 20 minute naps would always fall in inconveniant time blocks ><

Sleep 7-9 hours a day on a comfortable mattress and pillow that provide your body with adequate suspension, and otherwise leave it alone.

It is interesting and would make for an insightful experiment, but to my knowledge far too little is known and less is certain of the human body and (especially) mind to trust.


Of course, here I am, listening to "binaural beat music."


So try it. In a worst case scenario, you'll wind up like Sheogorad, and that won't be so bad.

The 2-hours only rests your mind. So if you do any type of regular physical exercise, bad idea.

Why the hell would anyone want to be awake for an extra five hours a day? I could understand it being necessary if you're a soldier in the middle of a siege or something, but by choice? Every day? Egh.

More time for mudding!

If you're a college student, you need all of the time in the day that you can get.