Is surviving on 20-minute naps bad for you?

Re:Is surviving on 20-minute naps bad for you? by jerf on Wednesday May 13, 2015 @02:25PM (#9540961)

I've posted this challenge a couple times here, so it's as good a time as any: Has anyone done the Uber sleep schedule for, say, at least a year, and preferably still doing it?

Last time I asked this was: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6258098 (thanks https://hn.algolia.com ) and, well, the score I have for this remains at "zero accounts I trust", even from this relatively interested forum.

(Caveats: I recognize there is significant sleep variation in humans. Science has confirmed this, even if it doesn't know why. I also believe in "bi-phasic" sleep of shorter nights and significant naps, again, this has been established reasonably well. This isn't generalized skepticism, it's specifically the Uber & other variants that I've never heard even solid anecdotal evidence for.)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is surviving on 20-minute naps bad for you? by dkersten on Wednesday May 13, 2015 @02:52PM (#9541161)

I agree - I feel that trying it for a few weeks or even a month or two isn't long enough to really know if it works or not.

I tried a 28 hour day cycle (awake for 20 hours, asleep for 8; 6 day week) for a few weeks when I was in uni (as Mondays through Thursdays had me awake at relatively normal times and this suited my lecture schedule at the time) but then other obligations knocked me off schedule for a few days and I reverted back to normal. I feel like it could have been successful longer term, but I didn't do it long enough to know for sure. I guess the hardest part is making sure other things don't interfere.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is surviving on 20-minute naps bad for you? by pavel_lishin on Wednesday May 13, 2015 @02:49PM (#9541133)

As far as I can tell (without doing any sort of comprehensive survey), I think most people who do this regularly are people who cross oceans solo, and they only do it for that period of time.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is surviving on 20-minute naps bad for you? by jerf on Wednesday May 13, 2015 @02:59PM (#9541198)

I'm willing to tack on to my caveat list that it can be possible for a brief period of time. Since we know that no sleep leads to death, and people have clearly done Uber for longer than that threshold and not died, it can clearly be done for a period of time and you stay alive.

It's just that there does not seem to be any hope of doing it indefinitely. Sad. My personal biases and desires, like many here, lead me towards really wishing it could be, but I just don't see the evidence.

[ Parent | on HN ]