Who slept for 15 minutes every hour. Polyphasic sleep: reviews, "theory", personal experience

The results of recent studies by scientists from Germany showed that a 15-minute sleep can bring more benefit than rest for two or even three hours. It turns out that many beneficial features dreams are manifested precisely on initial stages, therefore, a short period of time is enough to activate the activity of the central nervous system. But these are “extreme measures”, since not only the brain, but the whole body should rest.

Sleep in several phases

Some people can sleep several times a day, while the time of wakefulness significantly prevails over the allotted time for sleep. Nikola Tesla preferred night sleep for 2 hours and 20 minutes daily. Representatives of the Piraha tribe believe long sleep harmful to health, so they sleep for short periods of time. Leonardo da Vinci's sleep lasted from 15 to 20 minutes, and his periods of wakefulness were no more than 4 hours.

The above examples characterize the polyphasic type of sleep, for which certain periods of time are allocated for 24 hours. This method allows you to increase the productivity time, but it also has some disadvantages.

Benefits of sleeping in 15 minutes

This technique allows you to give the necessary rest to the main systems of the body, increase productivity for short span time. It contributes to the rest of the brain, the accumulation of energy necessary for the performance of various organs. Some scientists believe that 15 minutes daytime sleep equivalent to an hour of rest at night.

Flaws

Studies by American scientists have shown that sleep in several phases should be practiced for no more than 5 months, as it is possible Negative influence on the body. Since no long-term studies have been conducted, data on possible harm when using the technique for more than 1 year are absent.

Another drawback is the period of adaptation to the new regime (from 7 to 10 days), during which productivity can significantly decrease. In addition, the frequency of eating, as well as portions, will increase.

People who have chosen polyphasic sleep for themselves are advised to stop drinking alcohol. You should also limit your intake of coffee, tea, and other caffeinated drinks. During the adaptation period, you should refrain from driving.

The Roman politician and commander Gaius Julius Caesar founded the great Roman Empire and forever changed the culture of the future Europe. He won in civil war and became the sole ruler of the "Roman world".

To achieve all this, according to the memoirs of contemporaries, Caesar slept about 3 hours a day. At the same time, he did not give himself privileges - during military campaigns, Julius Caesar slept with his soldiers, right on the ground under the open sky.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

Perhaps the list should be supplemented with one more item. The brilliant artist and inventor slept for 15-20 minutes a day every four hours (about 2 hours in total). The remaining 22 hours Leonardo worked.

Today, this sleep system is called "polyphasic sleep." It is believed that this mode allows you to increase the time of wakefulness up to 20-22 hours a day. This pattern has a lot of followers, but apparently there is no second da Vinci among them.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Benjamin Franklin - famous politician, diplomat and scientist. His signature is on the US Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1783, and his portrait adorns the hundred dollar bill.

In his opinion, good should not be much. And sleep is definitely a blessing. In addition, he adhered to a strict daily routine, in which sleep was given no more than 4 hours.

Napoleon I Bonaparte (1769-1821)

Many have heard Bonaparte's aphorism: "Napoleon sleeps four hours, old people five, soldiers six, women seven, men eight, and only the sick sleep nine." Indeed, Napoleon usually went to bed around midnight, sleeping until 2 am. Then he got up, worked and, closer to 5 in the morning, went to bed again for a couple of hours. He ended up sleeping about 4 hours a night.

However, historians point out that great commander Due to constant stress, he often suffered from insomnia. It is the catastrophic lack of sleep that some explain the strategic failures of Bonaparte at Waterloo.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

Thomas Jefferson slept only 2 hours a night. At the same time, it can be concluded from his correspondence that the politician did not adhere to any regime. He always went to bed different time(most often - late), always read before going to bed, and woke up already with the first rays of the sun.

Thomas Edison (1847-1931)

The world famous inventor, who invented the phonograph, incandescent lamps and the iconic word "hello", claimed to sleep 5 hours a day. Like many geniuses, he considered it a waste of time and a sign of laziness. Therefore, Edison frankly despised the dormouse and couch potato.

Maybe this prompted him to invent light bulbs. In the old days, when candles were used, people slept for 10 hours, and with the advent of Thomas Edison's incandescent lamp, the sleep rate was reduced to 7 hours a day. It's also funny that in the scientist's laboratory there was a small sofa, and gossips it was rumored that Edison occasionally allowed himself to take a short nap during the day.

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)

Another brilliant scientist, famous physicist and inventor who made a significant contribution to the study alternating current, slept only 2-3 hours a day.

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, he could work all night long, even if he was very tired. “I'm completely exhausted, but I can't stop working. My experiments are so important, so beautiful, so amazing that I can hardly tear myself away from them to eat. And when I try to sleep, I think about them all the time. I guess I'll keep going until I drop dead,” Tesla said. True, after such exhausting days, he fell asleep for a long time in order to restore strength.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

One of the greatest Britons in history (according to the British themselves), Winston Churchill adhered to the following: he went to bed at 3 am and woke up at 8 am. Thus, he slept five hours a day.

However, a wise politician never neglected the opportunity to take a nap for an hour after dinner. “You must sleep between lunch and dinner, and no half measures, never! Take off your clothes and get into bed. This is what I always do. Don't think that you will perform less work because sleep during the day. This is a stupid opinion of people who have no imagination. On the contrary, you will be able to do more, because you get two days in one - well, according to at least one and a half".

Salvador Dali (1904-1989)

It is not known for certain how many hours the Spanish artist Salvador Dali took to sleep. But there is evidence that he, like Leonardo da Vinci, practiced "torn" sleep.

To do this, Dali placed a metal tray near the bed, and took a spoon in his hands. As soon as he entered deep phase sleep, the spoon fell - the artist woke up from the roar. According to him, the intermediate state between sleep and wakefulness gave him new ideas.

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013)

The Iron Lady was already on one of our lists -. Therefore, you know that she was a real workaholic - she slept 4-5 hours a night, and sometimes only one and a half or two. Thatcher herself spoke of sleep like this: “I never slept more than four or five hours. Anyway, my life is my work. Some people work to live. I live to work. I often sleep only an hour and a half, preferring to sacrifice sleep time to have a decent haircut."

Everyone knows that in order to be alert and productive, an adult needs about 7-8 hours of sleep. However, many people who have great results and became famous, used individual and sometimes incredible sleep techniques.

Leonardo da Vinci

The brilliant artist slept for 15-20 minutes every four hours (only about two hours a day). Now this technique is called “polyphasic sleep,” but not many people can do this way of life.

Winston Churchill

Surprisingly, Churchill needed only five hours of sleep a day. He went to bed at 3 am and got up at 8 am. However, every day between lunch and dinner, the Prime Minister drank a light whiskey and soda, and then went to take a nap for a couple of hours. Churchill worked half the night.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Typically, the French commander went to bed around midnight, then got up at 2 a.m., worked until 5 a.m., and went to bed again for a couple of hours. So Napoleon slept about four hours per day. Historians note that Bonaparte often did not sleep at all, suffering from insomnia.

Salvador Dali

Probably the most unusual way awakening from sleep was invented by the great Spanish artist. He, like da Vinci, practiced "polyphasic sleep", but in order to surely wake up, he came up with a strange, but effective way. Before going to bed, Dali put a metal tray near the bed, and took a spoon in his hands. As soon as he fell asleep, his hands relaxed and the spoon fell - the artist woke up from the roar. According to him, this practice often gave him new ideas.

Honore de Balzac

The writer went to bed at 6 pm and woke up at one in the morning. Then he sat down to work, and at 8 in the morning lay down to take a nap for an hour and a half. The rest of the time he naturally devoted to work.

Charles Darwin

An integral part of the awakening and going to sleep of a great scientist is a walk. He went to bed after midnight, but he always woke up at 7 in the morning. After getting up, Darwin always went for a walk. In the evening, around 9 pm, Darwin allowed himself to take a nap for about 30 minutes, then again went for a walk.

Nikola Tesla

The famous physicist and scientist was obsessed with work, so sleep is “a waste of time” for him. He slept no more than three hours a day, usually 2 hours between 2 and 4 a.m., then napped for 20 minutes around noon.

Human sleep is an integral part of our life, as well as eating and other important instincts and needs. It's believed that normal duration good night an adult is approximately 7-8 hours per day (from 6 to 9). The modern rhythm of life is such that we have to work hard, study, move around the city, communicate with people. All this reduces the duration of the night's rest. A natural question arises, how to get enough sleep in a short time in order to do everything in the world?

Sleep is a natural human need

Everyone is familiar with situations when we spend about 20-22 hours without sleep, but then we sleep soundly for half a day. But how to get enough sleep in a short period of time?

Sleep phases

Ordinary night rest consists of cyclically changing phases: slow (occupies 75-80% of the total duration) and fast. The fourth phase of non-REM sleep is called deep sleep when most of us see 80% of our dreams per night. It is difficult to wake a sleeping person during this period. Fast phase (fifth) brain activity resembles the state of wakefulness: eyeballs make quick movements, but the muscles are completely disabled. If a person wakes up now, he can experience the state of " sleep paralysis”, when awakening occurs, and the muscles have not yet reached normal tone (consciousness has returned, but it is impossible to move the limbs). A rather scary and unpleasant situation, but resolved after a few seconds.

Historical examples

Change of all phases good sleep happens in about 1.5 hours. There should be 4-6 such cycles per night, that is, you need to sleep 6-9 hours. What will happen if you sleep less, for example, 4 hours? Many people know that Leonardo Da Vinci spent only 4 hours on vacation, Julius Caesar - three, and Nikola Tesla two hours. It is worth noting that these are outstanding personalities who worked hard and made great discoveries in their lives. Did they really only get 2-4 hours of sleep? It's believed that people like that only 2%, everyone else needs more than 5 hours of sleep per day in order to restore energy costs.

Leonardo da Vinci practiced polyphasic sleep

Most a large number of the time spent by a person without sleep is considered 19 days! The record holder subsequently received a mental disorder, memory lapses, auditory hallucinations, loss of vision and other disorders! The record is listed in the Guinness book.

Less rest over time can lead to irreversible serious consequences not only for physical health but also for the psyche.

1. Concentration of attention, memory decreases, mental activity is inhibited.
2. At regular lack of sleep immunity decreases.
3. Increases the amount of stress hormones (adrenaline, cortisol).
4. There are hormonal disruptions, disruption of the heart, kidneys, genitals, brain.
5. Increased aggression, irritability, dizziness.

How to sleep less?

As you can see, sleep restriction is not in the best way affects health. Nevertheless, there are situations when you just need extra time to solve any problems, to work. You can take it at the expense of a night's sleep, but how can you stay alert, sane and feel rested at the same time? After all, not everyone has enough three hours a day, like Caesar! There are several ways to get enough sleep in a short time: the special forces technique (polyphasic sleep), the study of one's own biorhythms, the gradual getting used to sleep little.

polyphasic sleep

Five basic sleep modes

Most of us are accustomed to living in a monophasic rhythm of sleep: 8 hours at night and no rest during the day. polyphasic sleep is when a person falls asleep at night on short term, and then another day for 15-20 minutes at certain intervals (so several times). Several different modes such a dream, everyone chooses the most suitable for himself. Below are the most popular:

1. Siesta mode: 5 hours at night and as a bonus an hour and a half at lunch (suitable for those who want to sleep in a short time during the day).
2. Tesla: 2 hours at night, 20 minutes during the day.
3. Everyman: night 1.5-3 hours, then daytime rest for 20 minutes at regular intervals.
4. Uberman: 15-20 minute nap every 4 hours (6 episodes total) short rest total duration 2 hours per day). As an example, at one time Da Vinci got enough sleep (in 15 minutes)!

In fact, there are a lot of polyphasic sleep modes. This technique used in the military and special forces special purpose. It is very common in the training of special forces soldiers, where great endurance and endless strength training are required.

Polyphasic sleep is not for everyone

Benefits of polyphasic sleep:

• The body, bypassing slow sleep, more rapidly enters the phase REM sleep, in which the brain analyzes and processes information, neurohumoral, endocrine, mental and other processes are activated.
• Working capacity, brain and muscle activity after fast phase increases significantly.
• The brain and the whole body will be tricked into getting the feeling of a complete eight-hour uninterrupted rest. This is due to the absence of slow phases.

Unfortunately, not every person will be able to withstand such a wakefulness regime and sleep less than four hours a day. There are a few simple secrets, which will tell you how to sleep the fastest, sleep less regularly and not feel like a walking "zombie":

1. Do not eat 3 hours before bedtime, do not drink tonic drinks for dinner, alcohol, spicy, fried, fatty meals, sleeping pills.
2. Airing the room will allow you to fall asleep faster and more soundly.
3. It has long been known that if you go to bed before midnight for 1-2 hours, then this has a strong restorative effect and reduces the duration of a night's sleep.
4. Use every opportunity to take a nap during the day (sitting on a chair, in the subway, traffic jam) for at least 10-15 minutes.
5. Getting enough sleep in a short period of time will allow restriction external stimuli: use earplugs, dark curtains, take your mind off negative thoughts postpone decision important issues for the morning.

gradual decrease in sleep

In addition to polyphasic sleep techniques, there is another good way to get enough sleep in a short time at night. It is necessary to reduce the duration of night rest gradually: by 15-20 minutes daily. In this way, you can limit your sleep to four hours a month (no longer recommended). The body will gradually get used to the new regimen and 5 hours a day will already be enough to restore strength. This method is very efficient.

Exploring your own cycles

Some experts offer the following technique to everyone who wants to sleep a little. During the day, a person is awake and during this time he studies his condition, writes down episodes of drowsiness in his diary or, conversely, excellent performance. You need to hold out and not fall asleep for 24 hours, and then get enough sleep and analyze the results. For many of us, sleepiness peaks between 4-9 am and sometimes in the afternoon at 12-2 pm. If it turned out differently, no big deal.

Calculating the time for effective sleep

Thus, you can choose what hours are best to sleep in order to get enough sleep (the most suitable rest time for you, but no more than 4.5 hours a day in total). Of course, not everyone will be able to follow this method for many reasons, but you can try.

The last 2 methods are suitable for people who have not been able to get used to polyphasic sleep.

The harm of lack of sleep

In conclusion, I would like to note the danger of a long stay in the regime of the shortest possible sleep. In life there are different situations, and, sometimes, it is really necessary to know how to learn how to get enough sleep in a short time and free up to 20 hours a day for work, moving, urgent matters. For some time, all of the above methods can help in this, but a long-term restriction good rest fraught with big problems for health and mental state person.

Lack of sleep can cause irreparable harm to the body

Learn for yourself, as a rule: you can sleep well in a short time, but does your body need it? People who do this type of sleep experiment gain hormonal disorders, strokes and heart attacks, depression, neurosis, hallucinations and other disorders. In addition, it has been proven that reducing sleep to 4-5 hours a day reduces life expectancy. Many of those who have tried polyphasic mode, returned back to the 8-hour night's rest and noted an improvement in well-being.

A lot of people daily enter the phrase “how to sleep in 15 minutes” into the search engine, and many of them do not find an answer. In fact, even in 15 minutes you can get enough sleep if you follow some rules that will help you relax in between “before” and “after”. But it’s clear that you won’t get enough sleep in such a short time, but you can definitely gain strength in the next five hours! The main thing is not to forget that even with such techniques, you need to sleep 8 hours a day for at least three days, since a person’s energy is taken precisely from sleep, and without it, he is like working without a battery. Therefore, the “how to get enough sleep in a short time” method can be used only when something urgent and urgent is really needed. In other cases, sleep is a must.

And yet, how to get enough sleep in a short time, when, for example, deadlines are running out at work, but you can’t work during the day? There is no basic system for this, only recommendations that must be followed. 15 minutes is not enough, but it will not hurt to recharge the energy battery a little. So, in order to get enough sleep in a short time, you must definitely be in the dark and lie on your back. The thing is that when a person lies on his side, he is comfortable there, and he is unlikely to respond to the alarm signal: he simply will not wake up at the right moment. Therefore, it is necessary to lie on your back, pre-set the alarm clock and lie down a bit with open eyes. Then close them and sleep until the alarm goes off. Due to the fact that a person lay with his eyes open for several minutes, it will seem to him that he has been sleeping all night!

Another thing about the alarm signal. It is advisable to download the sound of the surf to your phone and set this melody as an alarm clock: it is quite soothing and will help a person who has slept for only half an hour to get up without any problems. Of course, some drowsiness will be present, but the alarm clock will help to calm down a little, since the sound of the sea is very beautiful music, just the same as the morning signal. Sleeping for 15 minutes on the first day, of course, will not work. Therefore, if possible, then before sleepless night it is better to practice falling asleep on your back several times and getting up exactly on the alarm clock. So to speak, to develop a certain habit, which will come in handy later in life. But if it was not possible to prepare in advance, then the alarm signal needs to be made louder.

It happens that you have a free 15 minutes to sleep, but you can’t fall asleep. In this case, classical music will help. Moreover, a person will practically not sleep, but because of this music, he will feel fresh and light, as if he had slept all day! This is a deception, but it still gives some energy for work. Therefore, it is worth trying a reception with classical music: it will help you sleep and gain strength within 15 minutes. But you need to look for music that is calm, quiet, so that it helps you fall asleep, and does not make you get out of bed and go to work with drooping eyelids. Also, if the music does not interfere with work, then during it you can also listen to the classics, as it adds energy and helps to speed up due to its rhythm. All hard workers should try it.

In addition to all these tricks with music, there really is a certain technique that helps to quickly fall asleep and oversleep for a very short time, and also get enough sleep. There is no exact author of this method, but it is not the main thing, the main thing is what needs to be done for fast sleep. So, lie on your back, as mentioned earlier, and look into the distance. The room must be dark. Lie with your eyes open for about 10 minutes, not paying attention to the fact that you want to blink or scratch somewhere. Soon, a person will enter a kind of trance, and in order to quickly fall asleep, he only needs to close his eyes. Waking up on an alarm clock, he will feel sleepy. This technique may not suit everyone, but "an attempt is not torture", and you can try all the methods for yourself.

Here are all the ways how you can gain energy in 15 minutes of sleep. Not all of them are effective, but it already depends on the body: if you really want to, then you can get enough sleep in 15 minutes, if you look at it all pessimistically, then there will be no result. But it is better not to be interrupted by such dreams in such a short time, but to sleep in a normal mode: at night, in your bed, at least 8 hours. Then in a day you can manage to do everything that was planned, and you won’t have to look for ways to quickly recharge the body. Although, the methods are very effective, and it won’t hurt anyone to try them!

And probably last tip: do not get carried away with sleep for 15 minutes, as it can greatly harm the body! Especially if this organism is still a child, or a person suffering from a serious illness!