Yes, there is a lot of research about it and you can go really wild with it. Bottom line is, if you try to reduce the total amount of time you spend sleeping, your body will use the time as much as possible for regeneration. You'll have a harder time memorizing new things. But basic modes of sleeping mostly during the night with a nap during the day or so are completely normal and unproblematic.
this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2025
4 points (66.7% liked)
Ask Science
9930 readers
77 users here now
Ask a science question, get a science answer.
Community Rules
Rule 1: Be respectful and inclusive.
Treat others with respect, and maintain a positive atmosphere.
Rule 2: No harassment, hate speech, bigotry, or trolling.
Avoid any form of harassment, hate speech, bigotry, or offensive behavior.
Rule 3: Engage in constructive discussions.
Contribute to meaningful and constructive discussions that enhance scientific understanding.
Rule 4: No AI-generated answers.
Strictly prohibit the use of AI-generated answers. Providing answers generated by AI systems is not allowed and may result in a ban.
Rule 5: Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.
Adhere to community guidelines and comply with instructions given by moderators.
Rule 6: Use appropriate language and tone.
Communicate using suitable language and maintain a professional and respectful tone.
Rule 7: Report violations.
Report any violations of the community rules to the moderators for appropriate action.
Rule 8: Foster a continuous learning environment.
Encourage a continuous learning environment where members can share knowledge and engage in scientific discussions.
Rule 9: Source required for answers.
Provide credible sources for answers. Failure to include a source may result in the removal of the answer to ensure information reliability.
By adhering to these rules, we create a welcoming and informative environment where science-related questions receive accurate and credible answers. Thank you for your cooperation in making the Ask Science community a valuable resource for scientific knowledge.
We retain the discretion to modify the rules as we deem necessary.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
I just think it's hard to have such a rigid lifestyle, polyphasic sleep requires a lot of control over your schedule and consistency.
I mean, the landmark paper by doctors T. Chong and C. Marin describing the scale of dankness would place this somewhere between Labrador and, Hey, man, don't scratch the record.
Is dank the opposite of dangerous in your title?
The Wikipedia article on polyphasic sleep is very interesting. I learned something new today.
Purely anecdotal but I accidentally fell into this during university when studying for final exams. 3 hours sleep at night, 3 hours in early afternoon. Was great and never felt better so tried to keep it after exams but it was just impossible. Once I got back to real life, it was impossible to keep such a rigid and inflexible system. I didn't do it long enough to see any long term effects but just found it impossible to keep anyway so naturally reverted back to 7-8 hours overnight
Anecdotal story: I found on a vacation with no lights and no internet but lots of physical activity it just happened by itself.
Every night I fell into bed exhausted and slept deeply shortly after sunset. Every night in the middle of the night I woke up to go to the bathroom and wandered around for an hour or two like a Shakespeare character, then fell asleep for another shift until dawn.
Did not notice any effects besides being well rested from getting plenty of sleep which was unusual for me at the time.
Didn't Mythbusters do an episode on this?
You will get some crazy-ass dreams in the second half, but other than that I personally haven't had any health issues from it.