Healthy Living
Sleepless writes
It’s been a wide, jagged road toward sleep deprivation, and I don’t anticipate approaching the straight and narrow anytime soon. I’m not sure what quality in snoozing earns it the boot when given the choice between it and anything else, but I do know that when sleep goes, a chunk of my consciousness/functionality goes with it. Notice the overuse of the word “it.”
Whether or not I need to loosen up my schedule, if it stays the way it is I’ll have to figure something out. I have a friend who has experimented with polyphasic sleep, a sleep pattern that involves several short naps spread evenly throughout a 24-hour period. In the Uberman version of polyphasic sleep, the total sleeping time is condensed to about three to five hours, which can give someone a few extra waking hours a day. Usually naps are taken every four hours in 20-minute or so increments.
There are a couple of problems with polyphasic sleep. First of all, the rest of the world does not operate on that kind of schedule. Meetings, work, class and events are typically placed between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m., so a person who needs several naps during the day may have to choose between life-giving sleep and whatever else is going on. Secondly, there is an adaptation period for polyphasic sleep that requires a person to endure zombie-hood for a week or two while his/her body adjusts to the changes. Since REM is essential for rejuvenation of the mind and body, and it takes approximately 90 minutes on a normal sleep schedule for REM to take place, the lack of REM is evident during the transitional period. Eventually a person makes do, and REM is ushered in earlier in order for the person to get the renewal he/she needs.
Despite the drawbacks, polyphasic sleep is still something I would like to try. I may not be able to do it now, but I hope to get to a point of flexibility in my schedule where naps throughout the day and some extra waking hours would be beneficial. In the meantime I’ll probably have to stick with daydreaming about dreaming.
Renee is a senior journalism student at the University of Florida. Her focus is photography, and she hopes to document her experiences while working overseas with a humanitarian organization. After graduation, she will most likely teach English in Korea, where her mother’s side of the family lives.
Renee enjoys short, stunted walks on the beach, bulgogi, reading influential political novels such as Martha Stewart’s The Martha Rules, and large sunglasses. She sometimes finds herself laughing to herself as she replays the Katie Couric/Sarah Palin interview in her head. She doesn’t enjoy public speaking to any capacity, despite her desire to teach in a foreign country.