I get an email every once
in a while from a reader who happens to be well versed with the concept of
sleep hacking as well as possesses the basic knowledge about the functioning of
sleep itself. The email usually starts with quoting some statement I made on the
blog or in the guides, followed by the reader citing some piece of information or
study or anecdotal evidence which contradicts my initial statement and finally
ending the email with a long explanation stating why I am wrong.
The weird aspect of this
situation is that both, me as well as the guy opposing my work on here, both
have a decent argument to back up our claims. Here’s the funny thing though, neither of us are
wrong and neither of us have 100% surety that we are right.
Scientists, philosophers,
psychologists and the likes have been trying to figure out the whys and whats
of sleep since a few centuries now and despite the advance in technology and
the numerous studies conducted over the years, all the great minds put together
don’t have a definite answer as to why we sleep, yet. They do have ‘theories’ however and then they have theories to contradict the previous theories and on goes the
loop.
No one knows why we sleep
or every single intricate functioning of the mind and body during sleep. I have
myself presented an elaborate explanation of the internal functioning of the
mind and body during sleep in the guides but that is just a droplet in the ocean
of knowledge.
We have been advised to
not sleep a minute less than 8 hours of sleep a day but at the same time, we have quite a few
odd folks who haven’t slept for years but seem to be doing alright. Then we have us, the
sleep hackers, who lie somewhere in between by trying to decrease our sleep as
much as possible without damaging our body, mind and brain.
Science. Anecdotal Evidence. Dymaxion Sleep.
Science. Anecdotal Evidence. Dymaxion Sleep.
Here are a couple of questions that are frequently asked when it comes to Dymaxion sleeping and I
will try answering them below using science and anecdotal evidence. Obviously
there is a contradictory piece of information out there to every single word I
say below. But I still choose to present evidence in support of dymaxion sleep
to show you guys that dymaxion sleeping or polyphasic sleeping as a whole is
not puffery.
1. Will I suffer from __________ if I transition to the
dymaxion sleep cycle?
No. According to the Evolutionary
theory of sleep and hormesis, you will adapt to the
changes you make in your sleep schedule and long as they are progressive in
nature. Even giant animals like giraffe and elephants have adapted themselves
to sleep on 2 hours of sleep a day and they seem to be functioning perfectly.
What actually is fatal however
is complete sleep deprivation. Complete sleep deprivation is when you go
without sleep for days or couple of weeks on end. This can also lead to death
in extreme cases.
On the
Dymaxion/Uberman/Everyman sleep cycle, you are giving the body the essential
REM phase of sleep that it needs. Hence, you can function perfectly and need
not worry about any harmful effects which are actually caused by complete sleep
deprivation.
To answer this, allow me
to talk about the two theories of sleep hacking first.
Sleep Hacking Theory #1: Polyphasic sleeping
makes the onset of REM phase of sleep immediate and eliminates the seemingly
wasteful NREM phases of sleep. It is said that you require 1.5 to 2 hours of
REM phase of sleep and hence when you sleep on the Dymaxion/Uberman sleep
cycle, your REM onset is immediate and hence you can function perfectly on as
little as two hours of sleep a day.
Sleep Hacking Theory #2: On polyphasic sleep
schedules, your entire sleep cycles are compressed. Your naps become the
miniature versions of your normal 8 hour sleep and since you get all the
essential phases of sleep you require, you can sleep for as little as 2 hours a
day.
Now here is my answer: No,
the SWS phase of sleep is not essential. Here is the reason why, the second
theory of sleep hacking fails. If your nap was the miniature version of your
monophasic sleep then there would be no need to split your sleep into 3, 4 or 6
naps! One single nap would have been sufficient.
Plus it has been seen via
EEGs and Zeos that the mind goes through chunks of REM and NREM sleep in an
irregular pattern during the course of the sleep. Hence, it is impossible that
the entire monophasic sleep can exist in a miniature version in your nap.
However, various sleep
hackers over time like Steve Pavlina, Puredoxyk, over a dozen Youtube vloggers
and forum commenters and myself have documented that it is very much possible
to function perfectly on two hours of sleep a day while not even taking into
account the great intellectuals in the past like Leonardo Da Vince, Buckminster
Fuller, Edison, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
Hence, it makes sense
that the Uberman/Dymaxion cycle would be possible only if the onset of REM was
immediate because if it wasn’t then the 20/30 minute nap would consist of only
N-REM phases of sleep. And if your sleep consisted of only NREM phases of sleep
and no REM phases then most polyphasic sleepers on the advanced sleep schedules
would be dead by now.
3. Why do you prefer Dymaxion sleep schedule over
Everyman/Uberman sleep schedule?
I prefer the Dymaxion
sleep schedule over Everyman sleep schedule because the Everyman sleep schedule
gets your sleep down to only 4-5 hours a day. If I am dedicating so much effort
and mental energy to polyphasic sleeping, than 4-5 hour of sleep a day does not
feel worth the effort. The Dymaxion sleep however, not only is it equidistant
and easier to keep track of but also lets me get my sleep down to 2 hours a
day.
And I have already
written in detail about why I prefer the Dymaxion sleep cycle over the Uberman sleep cycle.
In conclusion, it is said
that, “The plural of anecdote is not data” but since sleep is such a complex and
essential part of human life but still hasn’t been figured out and before we
have all the scientific evidence in support of polyphasic sleeping, we have to
go with the little scientific and anecdotal evidence available in our hands and
live up to our true potential.
There is an another
saying which goes as, “The mind sees what it wants to see” and currently my
mind knows and can see that us humans can function perfectly on the 2 hour sleep life so that is what I choose to see and stick to, despite all the
contradictory theories out there.
