Introduction
Many people who pursue a polyphasic sleep schedule do it for certain health benefits. Polyphasic sleep can possibly help with both physical and mental health. It does so by:
- Splitting up the monophasic sleep block into multiple parts. This serves to condense sleep quality in each sleep session.Â
- Providing more time for self-care. The extra waking hours will become available for self-care.
The purpose of this page is to provide further resources about health. Furthermore, it will also be updated over time.
Polyphasic Sleep in the World
You have ever expressed health concerns for polyphasic sleepers, right? And while that is legitimate, there has been rampant practice of polyphasic sleep around the world!
Although that is no guarantee that these individuals will have permanently good health, historical evidence shows:
- They either have longevity. For example, Buckminster Fuller had 98 years of life, or…
- The surrounding environments “enforce” natural polyphasic patterns.Â
Therefore, in a way, you can say that polyphasic sleep is a way of life for quite a few individuals. Sleep patterns in humans can indeed be very diverse.Â
Health Effects on Endocrine System
The human body is a hugely complex “machine”. Every organ, hormone and gland works together to ensure that everything works right. Unfortunately, their relationships with polyphasic sleeping have only been studied short-term.Â
Regardless, with all the available information, we hope to somewhat elucidate on certain cautions of polyphasic sleeping on the endocrine system. Taxing adaptations may pose questions of whether this nap-based lifestyle is truly healthy.Â
If you have heard of how natural sleep is best for humans, you know that no alarm clocks are probably the best bet. Thus, we provide some insights on how cortisol plays a role in that.Â
Optimizing Sleep-Wake Hours to Maximize Health
The optimal sleep times for health benefits often vary between individuals. However, it is important to question which time is “subjectively” or “objectively” optimal. For example, you may learn that many people say they sleep at 2 or 3 AM habitually. And their health turns out fine! For a long time, probably years or so.Â
Nevertheless, does that mean they will still be “fine” after several decades sleeping at strange hours?
- The start of nocturnal sleep time is only one issue; more specifically, polyphasic sleep with various sleep timings in the day deserves similar questions.Â
- Once you understand that certain scheduling options turn out much more difficult to adapt to than others, you will see how there are certain guidelines to distribute your sleep times.Â
Other Notable Lifestyle Options for Health
Your lifestyle and habits can bolster or wreck your health. Aside from apparently horrific habits such as overeating, some lifestyles may benefit you or not.
While these remain largely unpopular in the polyphasic community, they allegedly have helped some sleepers. Here, both yoga and autogenic training serve as self-care methods. Some of the extra time you gain from your polyphasic schedule may dedicate to these activities!Â
Main authors: Crimson & GeneralNguyen
Page last updated: 5 March 2021