What do Leonardo da Vinci, P. Diddy and Bill Clinton all have in common? They have all been rumored to have "alternative sleeping habits." With papers galore, quizzes and exams, go ahead and add me to the list.
I have always admired the few determined souls who are able to commit to a regular sleep pattern, especially one of a full eight hours' worth of beauty rest, each and every night. As T.J.'s good pal Benjamin Franklin said, "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."
He probably has a point, but I'm vouching that he also probably never had an 8 a.m. discussion like most of us have the pleasure of dealing with for at least one semester in our college career.\nI'm not sure why, but often I find myself in conversations with people about sleep, most of which amuse me. We ask each other questions like, "What's your ideal night of rest?" "Are you groggy the whole day if you oversleep that by a half-hour?" "Does the 20-minute power nap actually work for you?" It makes it seems as if we are all searching for some miracle regimen that will maximize how productive we are during our waking hours.
I stumbled across some articles this past weekend that talked about alternative sleeping habits; needless to say, they pushed some pretty absurd theories. One type of sleep, called "polyphasic sleep," maximizes your waking hours and requires only 2-5 hours of sleep per night. To do this, you must take short naps periodically throughout the day, ideally taking a 30-minute nap every four hours. I know some long to go back to their preschool and kindergarten days when nap time was built into the school day, but I'll skip the gross carpet squares used for sleeping mats, thanks. Fine, maybe that was just my unfortunate preschool experience, but polyphasic sleep sounds a little like that and comes across as unfeasible for the typical U.Va. student. A visit to the McGregor Room in Alderman Library, however, might indicate otherwise.
Then I stumbled across "biphasic sleep." This technique involves sleeping three hours at night, then taking a 90-minute nap during the day. Believe it or not, some people actually maintain these sleep regimens. If you do the math, people that maximize their waking hours with these alternative sleep schedules end up gaining, on average, an extra 45 days per year!
Of course, I would not recommend this lifestyle change because it not only sounds crazy but also leaves you out of sync with the rest of the working world. In theory, though, it is a nice idea. For all those who recognize themselves as biphasic sleepers during exam weeks, start training now. By the time final exams roll around, it might just seem as if you are getting the best sleep you've ever gotten.
Vanessa's column runs biweekly Fridays. She can be reached at v.stephenson@cavalierdaily.com.
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