Sleep deprivation or sleep adaptation?

Posted by admin on Nov 26, 2010 in Academy | 0 comments

Studies have shown that only 13% of students manage to get a healthy seven to eight hours of sleep a night. Unless you are a member of that lucky 13%, you’ve probably wondered if there’s a way to maximize those short hours of sleep you do get. You may be surprised to hear that it includes everybody’s favorite Spanish excuse for a nap – siesta!

According to who? There are three main types of sleep patterns that we adhere to; monophasic, biphasic, and polyphasic. Monophasic is by far the most common and consists of a solid block of sleep once a day. Polyphasic, on the other hand, is the most deteriorating routine because it consists of multiple short naps throughout each 24 hour period.

Biphasic sleep, as you may have guessed seems to be the best middle-ground as far as sleeping routines. It is usually made up of going to sleep at 2:00am for approximately 4.5 hours, but also adding a 90 minute nap at around 7:00pm. But the siesta during the evening can be moved around a bit depending on how tired you feel during the day.

According to Scott Andrew Bird, who blogged about his experiment and his conversion to biphasic sleep, there seem to only be two main cons to this routine. The first is that “you may have less time to spend with your spouse/partner,” which, granted, probably does not affect the average Trinity student. And the second is that “you’ll certainly be tired during the adaptation period.”

Although, you can be the judge, the pros of biphasic sleep seem to outweigh the cons of it. For one, the adaptation period only seems to be a week which completely overcomes the second con of being tired more than usual.

Also, in case you haven’t done the math already, biphasic sleep means you’ll be asleep for 6 hours per day, and 42 hours per week, which gives a stunning 14 hours bonus on the typical 7-8 hour sleep routine. That’s enough added time to write a solid 10 page paper each week. And I’m sure we could all use that.

Overall, after researching both biphasic and polyphasic sleep from many first-person accounts and based on analysis from several doctors’, it seems to be that biphasic sleep is just as healthy for us as monophasic can be. But there is a very strong understanding that polyphasic sleep is the most detrimental in the long run although some people have recorded a few positive effects.

So now it’s up to you. Have half a mind to try biphasic sleep? Sound off on www.marshillonline.com if you decide to attempt it, or think it’s the most ridiculous suggestion ever.