Las técnicas de sueño polifásico y REM artificial permiten dormir menos horas reduciendo los problemas de cansancio.
AVISO: no probar estas técnicas durante un largo plazo sin supervisión médica.
El Sueño Polifásico[]
Fuente: http://www.neurologiainba.com.ar/polifasico.pdf
Instituto de Neurología Buenos Aires
Ciudad de la Paz 1485 (C1426AHA) Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires
República Argentina Teléfono (54 11) 4788-4800 (Líneas Rotativas)
info@neurologiainba.com.ar I.N.B.A
El Sueño Polifásico
¿Qué es?
Básicamente, un intento por dormir menos horas.
La idea es vivir una Vigilia más larga y un Sueño más breve y concentrado. El Sueño se busca que sea solamente tipo
REM.
(Polyphasic sleep)
Everyman, Uberman, y Dymaxion
Dymaxion: El cronograma más duro y extremo, siestas de 30 minutos cada 6 horas. Poca gente puede adaptarse a este
cronograma y el período de adaptación es muy difícil de soportar..
Uberman: Básicamente, dormir entre 15 y 20 minutos cada 4 horas. Mucha gente usa este cronograma, y muchos fallan.
El período de adaptación es duro, como dymaxion, aunque quizá menos ya que las siestas están mas cerca una de otras.
Everyman: Variación de Uberman para hacer más facil el período de adaptación, 1 siesta de 3 horas y 3 de 20 minutos o
alguna variante de una siesta larga y varias cortas. Es más fácil pero más lento adaptarse (1 mes aproximadamente).
ÉSTOS MÉTODOS DE SUEÑO POLIFÁSICO NO ESTÁN AVALADOS MÉDICA NI CIENTÍFICAMENTE. HAY GENTE QUE LO HA
PROBADO PERO SE DESCONOCEN LOS PROBLEMAS QUE PUEDA PRODUCIR AL CUERPO HUMANO. ADEMÁS QUE
REQUIEREN DE MUCHA DEDICACIÓN Y NO SERÍA RECOMENDABLE PARA PERSONAS CON PROBLEMAS DE SALUD, PUES
AL PRINCIPIO REQUIEREN MUCHO SACRIFICIO Y PRIVACIÓN DE SUEÑO.
¿En qué consiste el sueño?
El sueño se compone de 4 etapas NO REM (1 y 2 ó sueño NO REM superficial, 3 y 4 ó sueño NO REM profundo) + el
SUEÑO REM. Estos 5 estados componen un ciclo de unos 90 minutos, que se repite durante toda la noche hasta que nos
despertamos. Dicho ciclo, en humanos, dura entre 90 y 110 minutos.
Cada fase tiene sus peculiaridades pero se tiene la idea que la memoria y el aprendizaje, básicamente dependen del REM.
Un sueño polifásico (Polyphasic Sleep)
El sueño polifásico es cuando se duerme en dos o más partes durante el día. El método menos agresivo y más conocido
es la siesta.
La "siesta"
La siesta es un sueño corto de 10 a 30 minutos que se acostumbra a hacer después de comer. Si no se abusa (alargar la
siesta) de ese sueño puede mejorar el rendimiento del organismo. Una siesta bien calculada puede permitir reducir las
horas de sueño nocturnas, hasta cierto punto (muy poco).
Se trata de un sistema de sueño polifásico muy poco agresivo, pues no modifica el sueño nocturno, simplemente lo puede
reducir (hasta una hora menos, por ejemplo).
El método Uberman (Muy agresivo, no recomendable)
El método Uberman es el método de sueño polifásico más agresivo pues reduce al máximo los minutos de sueño
maximizando la fase REM y suprimiendo las demás.
Consiste en dividir las 24 horas del día en sueños de 20 minutos (lo que dura, por media, una fase de sueño). El objetivo
es conseguir el máximo de minutos de sueño REM y por ello se fuerza el organismo a aprovechar los únicos 20 minutos
de sueño para esa fase (la más importante del sueño).
Para ponerlo en práctica basta con dormir 20 minutos cada 4 horas, lo que da un total de 2 horas de sueño al día
repartidas al largo todo el mismo.
Los primeros días (y semanas) son muy difíciles, porque al principio en los 20 minutos destinados al sueño no logramos
conciliarlo. Para que ese sistema funcione es muy importante seguir el horario de sueño de forma absolutamente estricta.
Se requiere mucha constancia y decisión.
Cuando se ha adaptado el organismo (unas 2 semanas aproximadamente) la gente que lo ha probado dice que se
duerme en seguida y entra DIRECTAMENTE en fase REM y se despierta aún en fase REM (o sea, que recuerdas los
sueños que has tenido). Instituto de Neurología Buenos Aires
Ciudad de la Paz 1485 (C1426AHA) Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires
República Argentina Teléfono (54 11) 4788-4800 (Líneas Rotativas)
info@neurologiainba.com.ar I.N.B.A
Desventajas:
1. Poca flexibilidad de horario.
2. Se priva al organismo de las otras fases de sueño (NO REM) lo cual no se conoce si es perjudicial.
3. Si te saltas un sueño programado el resto del día estarás completamente cansado y soñoliento, como si no
hubieras dormido nada.
4. Muy difícil lograr la adaptación al principio.
5. Difícil de mantener, pues no puedes hacer nada que no puedas interrumpir en 4 horas.
6. Pérdida de la noción de la duración del "día": al dormir 6 veces al día pierdes la noción del calendario. Se pierde
la diferencia entre el día y la noche.
7. No se puede tomar café si evita el dormir los 20 minutos imprescindibles cada 4hs.
8. Al consumir más energía (más tiempo despierto) se necesita adecuar la dieta.
Ventajas:
El beneficio más importante del programa Uberman es que solo se duerme 3 a 4 horas al día. Por tanto se invierte
mucho más tiempo en las actividades de todos los días. Se puede disponer de 21 horas netas por día para nuestras
actividades.
Dr. Alejandro Andersson
Neurología. INBA Instituto de Neurología. Electroencefalogramas. Mapeo Cerebral. Estudios de Sueño. Potenciales Evocados.
Electromiogramas. Evaluación Electrofisiológica del Temblor. Toxina Botulínica. Consultorio de Neurología. Enfermedades Desmielinizantes.
Epilepsia. Consultorio de Dolor. Jaqueca. Neurootología Mareos y Equilibrio. Biomecánica de la Marcha. Parkinson. Consultorio de
Trastornos de Ansiedad, Fobias, Pánico y Depresión. Psiconeuroinmunoendocrinología (PINE).
Activación Multisensorial Breve (AMSB). Evaluación de la Memoria. Psicología. Psicopedagogía. Nutrición.
Everyman Sleep Schedule[]
Most recent update, 2010: Everyman, along with other types of polyphasic sleep, has accumulated quite a body of information since this article was written. I myself have been on the Everyman 3 schedule for over four years now. Updated details, instructions, and even a book discussing polyphasic sleep adaptation can all be found at http://www.puredoxyk.com.[]
Everyman is another type of polyphasic sleep schedule that grew out of the experiments I first wrote about in 2000 under Uberman's Sleep Schedule. As of this writing --January 2007 -- I have been living on the Everyman Sleep Schedule for approximately six months.
How the Everyman Schedule was born
The "Uberman" schedule, which was the first polyphasic schedule I experimented with, is very cool, but also really hard to adjust to. A very small percentage of the people who try it make it through the first week, and not even half of those go on to succeed for a month, which is the time required by the mind and body to really adjust. Not that you can blame them: Not only is the sleep deprivation utterly crushing for the first couple days of Uberman-adjustment, but maintaining the schedule requires the kind of anal-retentivity that you usually only see in damaged people (like Lex Luthor or Dr. Doom). Naps must be taken every four hours on the dot; small deviations become possible only after at least a solid month of perfect or darn-near-perfect adherence to the schedule. So even assuming the subject is crazy enough to adjust to the schedule and iron-willed enough to stay on it, for many people it simply isn't possible. Lifestyle can really throw a monkey-wrench in the process, no matter how dedicated the sleeper wants to be: No amount of iron will can compensate for a hectic work-schedule, or kids, etc.
Right about the time I was experimenting to determine the validity of the above sentence, people began howling at me about how unfair it was that only hermits andsupervillians could ever have both the character and the kind of life-schedule that accomodated the Uberman schedule. After finding out myself, the really hard way, that no amount of sheer guts could maintain the Uberman schedule in the face of work/kids/etc., I realized that I shared their pain: I deeply missed my polyphasic schedule, but it seemed that now that I was a "grown-up", I couldn't have it back! Crushing.
Then someone--I don't remember who was first--suggested that maybe another type of schedule would work. Perhaps Uberman could be modified to make it more flexible.
The "Core Nap"
The
modification that makes Everyman what it is is the addition of a "core nap" -- a longer nap that occurs regularly somewhere in the 24-hour cycle. The core nap is much less sleep than a monophasic person gets at night -- usually no more than 3 hours, though I've heard of 4 and 5 being used for short periods -- and is supplemented by a corresponding number of 20-minute naps throughout the day.
Please note that not every combination of naps and core-nap seems viable. Of the ones that have been tested, the most successful combinations seem to be 3 hours core + 3 naps (the one I'm using), and 1.5 hour core + 4-5 naps. While this seems to suggest a pattern, anything shorter than a 1.5-hour core might as well be just another 20-minute nap (and you'd be doing Uberman); and more than 3 hours' core might as well be siesta-sleep, which involves a short night's sleep and a single afternoon nap. So for now and until somebody proves otherwise, those two schedules above are what we generally mean by Everyman.
My experiments with the Everyman schedule, which have now been going on for nearly six months (as of Jan. 2007), showed an interesting effect: The longer the core nap, the more flexibility one gains in the nap-times. Obviously individual results vary a bit, but in my case, a 3-hour core nap (1-4 a.m.) means I can take three 20-minute naps throughout the day and feel great, plus my naptimes can be shifted by as much as an hour in either direction. So I can nap at 9, 2, and 9 (which is what I aim for), or 8, 1, and 9; or 9:30, 3, and 8:30...etc. This provides that crucial ability to work around meetings, sick kids, traffic jams, and all the "etcetera" that made sticking to Uberman so impossible.
Other differences from Uberman
The addition of the core naps causes some other differences from the Uberman schedule as well. Really, Everyman and Uberman are more than just two schedules; they're two different classes of polyphasic schedule, technically referred to as "equiphasic" (all naps equal) and "nonequiphasic" (duh). Whether you're using Uberman (orDymaxion, another equiphasic, naps-only schedule named by Buckminster Fuller) or either/any variety of Everyman, the following differences remain fairly solid.
One major difference is the adjustment process. As you might expect, the sleep-deprivation involved in adjusting to an Everyman schedule is not as bad as it is for Uberman, though it can still be tricky for a day or two. Significantly, though, to fully adjust to Everyman takes quite a bit longer than it does to adjust to Uberman, so one can expect to be using alarms and carefully monitoring one's sleep for several months rather than a couple weeks. Uberman, being more severe and more extreme, becomes habit a lot quicker once you get the hang of it; and you get the hang of it faster, because it's more "do or die" for your body. Everyman doesn't cause the kind of sleep dep that forces a full adjustment in a matter of days, so it's something you have to get more gradually used to. Having done both, I can honestly say that it's a pretty even toss-up, being horrifically sleep-deprived for a week and vigilant for another week or two, versus being quite sleep-deprived for a few days and vigilant for at least a month. They're both pretty annoying...but I would also say they're both completely worth it. (Of course I would!)
Another big difference is the psychological impact. Uberman's is very profound. You've eradicated "sleeping at night" completely. After a while you'll lose track of the days completely if you don't take additional measures. Days will stretch reeeeealllly long, which can be very cool or quite intolerable, depending on your lifestyle. With Everyman, however, you're still getting a chunk of sleep with which to divide the days in your mind, so you probably won't lose track (or not very often, anyway). The days seem long on Everyman (long enough to get dangerously bored if you don't really need / use the extra time), but not endless (like they can/do on Uberman).
In both cases, you'll get used to living outside the normal schedule after a couple months, but even once you're used to it, it can feel a little eerie--like being a vampire. There can be social effects accompanying both schedules, that range from a mild reputation for weirdness to full-on rewrite of your social life, depending on what it was like before. As with the psychological effects, the social changes are usually more profound with Uberman than Everyman. (For my part, being both a late-nighter and an early-riser has made me a bit of a conversation piece at work and on a few social occasions, but it's not much of a big deal, since it's not unheard of for some people to only need three hours' sleep, period. Now, when I "never slept", I often felt like a circus freak and sometimes went to great lengths to hide it.)
Also, myself and every other successful adopter of Uberman I've read or spoken to has reported impressive effects on consciousness -- increased awareness / energy,sharpened senses, a feeling that the whole world is moving in slow motion and you're not, so you have all the time in the world for everything, even small things like catching a ball. My friend and I, when we first did the experiment, couldn't get over how awesome this was, and while the effect was less noticeable after 3 or 4 months, it was there right up until I quit. On Everyman, you get something of the same effect, but much less so. The feeling of being superhuman that caused us to name the Uberman schedule what we did is more muted and practical on Everyman -- you're gaining about four hours onto your day, but you don't feel as though you've "beaten sleep" or transcended it. The altered-consciousness part is pretty much invisible; I've felt a flicker of it here and there, but nothing like before.
They're the same in a few ways, too -- the ways that characterize polyphasic sleep, as I know it.
- Both require strict dedication in the beginning to adjust to.
- Both require that you don't mind people thinking you're a weirdo!
- Both will cause a shift in your psyhological perception of time, which is probably more inherent to your mental state than you'll realize before you go messing with it. ;)
- Both are also apparently safe, physically speaking -- Other people have seen doctors while doing Uberman/Dymaxion schedules, and I've had regular checkupswhile doing Everyman, and we're all fine.
- Both types of schedule will NOT result in being "tired all the time" once you're fully adjusted, though as I mentioned, full adjustment takes longer with Everyman -- for a while you'll still get yawny at night, but it's only aggravating for the first 2-3 weeks in my experience.
- Oh, and both schedules can be lifesavers for people who just don't have enough hours in the day!
The Normative Analysis
Having done each schedule for about six months now, I would have to call them a tie. They both have benefits, and both have
detriments against each other (the purpose of this writeup isn't really to judge polyphasic vs. monophasic schedules, so I'll comment on that later).
Probably the biggest benefit of Everyman is its accessibility. Out of the people who want to sleep polyphasically, only about 2% of them seem to be suited for the Uberman schedule, in lifestyle and disposition. Probably about another 25-30% seem to be compatible with the Everyman schedule, and I've seen quite a few people besides myself benefit from it. (For my part, I don't know how I'd live without it. My hectic schedule would leave me no room to relax or pursue my hobbies without the extra time Everyman gives me, and I'd probably go insane.)
I'll end this writeup on polyphasic sleep the same way I always end things I write about this topic: With the plea that polyphasic sleeping desperately needs more attention from scientists, who can conduct long-term and controlled research studies. I and others have provided enough testimonial evidence, I think, to show that the projects would be worthwhile. (I also have issued an open invitation for people who'd like to use me or my data in experimental research, and I'm not alone in that either.) I hope to have my book on the subject done by the end of this summer, with all the details I can muster about the hows, whys, and wherefores of polyphasic sleeping, all wrapped up in an enticing package of pay-attention-to-me that hopefully will drive scientific interest by better informing the public.
Sueño polifásico (artículo de Taringa)
Fuente: http://www.taringa.net/posts/ciencia-educacion/9021374/Suenos-polifasicos.html
Sueños polifásicos[]
Buenas buenas. Hoy voy a hablarles de los sueños polifásicos, algo que no encontré en Taringa! y quería compartirlo.
¿Qué son los sueños polifásicos?
Los sueños polifásicos, un término acuñado por el psícologo de principios del siglo XX, J.S. Szymanski, refiere a la práctica de dormir múltiples veces en un período de 24 horas -usualmente mas de dos, en comparación con sueños bifásicos (dos veces por día) o sueños monofásicos (una vez por día). Esto no implica ninguna agenda particular de sueños. Los sueños polifásicos son comunes en muchos animales, y se cree que es el estado ancestral del sueño. - [Traducido de Wikipedia en inglés] -
Estos sueños polifásicos se encuentran en estado de experimentación. Existen modelos, los cuales fueron armados a partir de experimentadores que lograron con éxito emplear esta técnica, pero uno independientementepuede probar y jugar con los horarios de las siestas, siempre y cuando lo haga de manera razonable. Así, en el mejor de los casos, se puede lograr dormir hasta 2 horas, logrando 22 horas despierto por día. Como máximo se podrían dormir 5 horas, obteniendo 19 horas de lucidez.
- El Everyman, el que probé yo durante 6 meses, es uno de los que hace mas justicia a los horarios sociales.Consta de dormir una siesta larga de 3 horas, sumado a 2 o 3 siestas de 30 o 20 minutos, respectivamente. Con esto, solo se duermen 4 horas por día.
- El Dymaxion es el más óptimo de todos. Aún así es el más difícil de conseguir, no todos pueden adaptarse a este modelo. Consta de 4 siestas de 30 minutos a lo largo del día, obteniendo solo 2 horas de sueño.
- El Uberman es similar al Dymaxion. Pueden ser 5 siestas, o incluso 6 siestas. La duración de estas siestas pueden ser de 20 a 30 minutos, dependiendo de la persona. Con esto se pueden obtener de 3 a 4 horas de sueño.
Esos 3 modelos son los principales. Como ya dije antes, no hay reglas estrictas. El que suele ser muy estricto es el Dymaxion, ya que al ser tan poco lo que se duerme es necesario tener los horarios bien arreglados.
Contras de los sueños polifásicos
Factor Bonus
Genios del movimiento
Experiencia personal
Además, está comprobado que las siestas, aunque sea una sola, hacen muy bien para la actividad cerebral y para el rendimiento de uno mismo.
Bueno, eso es todo por ahora. Cualquiera que le interese la movida es bienvenido a intentarlo. Si necesitan mas información pueden fijarse en la fuente, aunque están en inglés, pero creo que todo lo que necesitan está escrito en el post .
Saludos !
Fuente 1 + Fuente 2 + Fuente 3 + Fuente 4
Artificial REM Sleep[]
Fuentes: http://home.earthlink.net/~jedcline/arsl.html
Artificial REM Sleep
by James Edward David Cline 930627 Revised on 19990810
Artificial REM Sleep is a consciously self-monitored simulation of REM sleep.
PURPOSE
When circumstances have caused signifant sleep deprivation in oneself, the ability to cope with new events is reduced. Contemporary environmental increases of extraneous stimulation, such as of sound and light and excessive late TV watching, could interfere with adequate sleep, which is slightly over 8 hours a day. If the sleep deprivation is chronic, the effects can become severe enough to not be able to adequately respond to emergency conditions or do activities requiring intense coping skill.
FUNCTION
This is a mental process which has the ability to make up for lost sleep, at least in part, which I call "artificial REM sleep". The more sleep-deprived one is, the easier it is to do the process, once it occurs to oneself to do it. It can provide a stress relief at a deep level, and the practice of urging one's healing sleep-type processes to go on deliberately at will while keeping a part of one's consciousness monitoring and supervising the process, provides self-discipline benefits as well as enabling some of the improved creativity and coping ability that is associated with adequate sleep. Recent research has found that the normal human being's need for sleep is slightly over 8 hours a day of good sleep; so less than that 8 hours sleep indicates a need for action; this artificial REM sleep process seems to me to be of great value in supplementing otherwise inadequate restful sleep daily. The artificial REM sleep process, after it has taken the edge off of severe lack of sleep, can also be used to urge forth new creativity for one's life, in many ways.
DURATION
It can be done for a few seconds, even several minutes, whatever it takes to make up some badly needed sleep time but have no time or place to sleep at the moment. I have tested the process many times over the past 20 years, with only beneficial results found each time.
DOING THE PROCESS
When suffering from sleep deprivation, relax unnecessarily-tense body muscles just a little, relax the eyes closed, then urge the start of a flood of images to pass across the inner eye, whatever images happen to appear there ... recent events, whatever, rapidly sequencing as if of their own volition. With practice, what appears to be a rapid tiny movements of the brain mass itself, which may help pump the cemistry of the brain. Consciously and impartially observe this ongoing process, allowing whatever images to come up that do so, mentally stepping-in only if certain conditions occur. These conditions are:
1. If some image gets stuck, staying there for more than, say, 5 seconds, deliberately force a change in the scene, then "step back" and again allow whatever comes up to come up.
2. If the eyes are not darting around enough under the closed eyelids, deliberatly urge the eyes to move somewhat further each quick motion. This usually also stimulates greater imagery.
After doing this artificial REM-sleeping awhile, bring your eye muscles and images slowing to a halt, then open your eyes and check how you feel now.
VARIATION: REM WITH WHOLE BODY AND BRAIN RANDOM MOVEMENTS
When the situation permits, the artificial sleep can be made more effective if small muscle movements are made thruout the body quasi-randomly as part of the artificial sleep. A sensation of a random scattered flutter of muscle-like tiny motions felt inside the brain also contribute to the relief from sleep deprivation.
VARIATION: PROTECTIVE IMAGERY #1
Another experiment one can do, if there seems to be some odd problem, involves imagining a protective white shell encompasing one's body space, to block others' (possibly less than benign) subtle energy interaction while you are doing the artificial REM sleep process.
Return to JEDC's main page Copyright © 1995 1999 James Edward David Cline
I'd appreciate any comments and suggestions to jedcline@earthlink.net, and would be happy to answer any questions.