You may have noticed, especially if you have a pet, that human beings sleep differently than other animals. While we sleep once a night and stay awake the rest of the day, our pets sleep in small periods throughout the day.
It is the difference between monophasic sleep (ours) and polyphasic sleep (that of animals). These ways of sleeping are not arbitrary, but have a meaning. For animals, sleeping in small amounts, many times a day, allows them to be in a permanent state of alert.
In a hostile environment, their instinct tells them that it is not a good idea to sleep soundly for long hours. On the other hand, humans have lived in society for thousands of years, and this way of relating has allowed our bodies to adapt to a deeper and more lasting sleep.
Anxiety about having more hours a day
However, it is possible to accommodate our body to be able to have polyphasic sleep. In fact, if you think about it, little babies sleep like that too.
People who have very demanding jobs, such as ship captains, military or astronauts usually train to sleep in several short periods, as they must always be alert.
But lately many people are trying this way of sleeping simply because they want to have more hours a day available. Living in a world where “time is money”, sleeping hours seem like a waste.
Thus, there are different methods of polyphasic sleep. The most controversial is the “Uberman schedule”, who proposes sleeping only six 20-minute naps throughout the day. That is, 2 hours per day total.
Health
Health specialists do not recommend this type of sleep. Since bedtime is not a waste of time. On the contrary, they are the hours that our body needs to “recharge”. The brain, the muscles, and all our systems are recomposed during those hours.
According to Dr. Alon Avidan, sleep is like the time a loaf is in the oven: for it to cook, it needs to stay in the oven for a certain amount of time. If that time is permanently interrupted, the bread is not done.
The experiment
But Ryan Bergara is the kind of guy who doesn’t believe it until he tries it, so he decided to do the experiment and sleep 5 hours a day.
So, for a week, he slept a period of 4.5 hours (from 12:30 to 5 am) and two 20-minute naps during the day.
What happened?
The first few days Ryan had a particularly difficult time waking up, but once he was up he was able to go about his tasks quite normally.
By the third day, performing the usual tasks was costly. He had to pay special attention to drive, since his reflexes were not as good as usual.
Besides, being awake really wasn’t being helpful. Well, being so tired, he didn’t have the strength to do anything. “It’s being awake for being awake,” he says in the video.
On the fifth day, things got a bit out of hand. For example, Ryan had a 20-minute fit of laughter just because his boss told him that he made homemade hummus. Yes, it sounds a bit like being drunk, but it was just the effect of sleep.
By the seventh day, Ryan gave up on the experiment and got some more sleep.
The morale
It is true that there are certain people who can function by sleeping a few hours a day. But they are the minority. The vast majority of human beings need to sleep at least 7 hours a day, and that’s fine.
If we force our body to act outside of our capabilities, for example, sleeping 5 hours a day when we need 7, sooner or later we will see it in our health.
Therefore, before deciding based on your productive needs, you must first listen to your body.
Important: It should be clarified that Bioguía does not give medical advice or prescribe the use of techniques as a form of treatment for physical or mental problems without the advice of a doctor, either directly or indirectly. In the case of applying any information on this site for this purpose, Bioguía does not assume responsibility for these acts. The intention of the site is only to offer information of a general nature to help in the search for personal development and growth.
Sources:
buzzfeed
hypertextual