Giraffes.
That’s right, giraffes need on average only 90 minutes sleep per night.
Think of all the things we could do if we could get away with that…..
Well you may not get away with 1.5 hours, but some people manage to sleep only 2-3 hours each 24hours cycle by adopting the Polyphasic/Uberman sleep schedule.
[The details are at the Official Uberman Sleep Blog, located at http://officialuberman.blogspot.com. (UPDATE: The site has been moved to http://www.puredoxyk.com.)]
This sleep schedule requires 6 naps of 20-30 minutes every 24hrs - the first 1-2weeks of getting into the schedule is very hard, and afterwards you must keep to the nap times very strictly never delaying the nap by more than 1 hour or you will suffer and it will take at least the next 2 naps to recover.
Some of the drawbacks are :
- being able to get away with this schedule while everyone around you is on the straight 8hrs schedule
- you only have 3.5hrs or 4.5hrs max of continuous wakefulness which may be limiting factor for some commitments
- sticking at it to make it work - it is hard to get into the schedule.
But the rewards are certainly appealing:
- an extra 35-40hrs a week —- you could fit a whole extra job
in that time. - Also an increased awareness and energy level due to the lower sleep times.
- Some sleep disorders like nightmares,sleepwalking,and others may disappear as claimed by the people who tried this sleep schedule.
- Probably something you can experiment with at college when u need time to get all your work done + party time and there is less pressure to stick to an 8hr schedule - as long as you can fit your exams in your 3.5hr awake time!!
Read about people who have tried the polyphasic sleep schedule,
more about polyphasic sleep schedule
even more about people on polyphasic sleep schedule