For a few months at university I slept twice a day, but I was just being lazy XD.

Used to use an alarm program that wakes windows up from a hibernated state, then plays an audio/video/opens any file. Think it was called “talking alarm clock”. Now my phone does that.

I think it works and is great etc, etc, but is just quite impractical. Trying to do it around an eight working day isn’t easy.

I unfortunately have this sleep pattern.  Not by choice, but because my job demands it.  I DO NOT recommend it.

Using any polyphasic sleep schedule that constitutes more than one nap per day, still giving you somewhere around 7 hours of sleep, will make you sleep deprived. The more you do it, or the more intensely you do it, the more tired you will be throughout the day, and the less productive and creative you will be. The fact of the matter is, the non-REM sleep phases are actually very important, and if you need blaring alarm clocks to wake you up, (there are plenty of non-blaring zen alarm clocks)  there is a problem. You might think you can just “get used” to a rigorous schedule of only a few hours of sleep, but there is no getting used to it, you’ll just feel perpetually tired until you decide that it isn’t worth it.

@kanjiman8

I end up sleeping about 4 hours awake for 8, sleep another 4, awake again for 8.  After 4 hours I do feel wide awake, however your alert level and energy level is much shorter.  In a normal sleep pattern you are awake 16 hours, sleep 8 hours. I am awake 8 hours, sleep 4 hours, awake 8 hours.  So I am not really getting extra work hours.  Also, the time I am awake is not as useful.  To make it more clear, a normal person who sleeps for 8 hours winds down in the evening and sleeps.  Those last couple hours before going to bed are not that useful for learning or exercise because you are tired. As for me, I wind down twice a day and thus become less efficient compared to people who wind down once a day.  Power naps help a lot, but that just makes you even less efficient compared to a normal sleep cycle.  Also, there are personality changes that you may experience.  Things that are normally laugh out loud funny may barely get you to smile and things that you wouldn’t notice will annoy you and you will get progressively more forgetful.  There is some very good research about circadian rhythm disruptions and the effects on TSH and Melanin hormones.  (You can google search it) Your brain is confused about why you are not sleeping when you should so increases TSH hormone levels.  Eventually you will get symptoms of mild hypothyroidism over time.  Also, if you miss a 4 hour sleep cycle you risk micro-sleep.  That is when your body will involuntarily sleep for a second or two and you will not notice it, regardless what you are doing.  Many car crashes happen in this way because people don’t properly calculate how much sleep they have had before getting behind the wheel.

I tried doing the “Siesta” version last year (as shown here http://www.dustincurtis.com/sleep.html), but I found that it took me too long to get to sleep during the day, even though I was tired. I would set my alarm for say 20-25 minutes, but it would take me the majority of that to fall asleep. Setting the alarm for much longer eats into the “extra time” you’re given.

Why not try the 28-hour day? https://xkcd.com/320/