DALLAS (KLIF/WBAP) — We’ve all heard that in order to be health, and stay healthy, doctors recommend a full eight hours of sleep.
But is there another way to get the rest your body needs, without an eight hour commitment? That depends on who you ask.
Some of history’s greatest minds adopted what’s called a “polyphasic” sleep schedule, meaning they divided up their sleep into several short naps instead of one big span of time.
Nikola Tesla and Leonardo DaVinci were polyphasic sleepers. The most common adaptation is to divide sleep into 8 twenty minute periods of rest. In DaVinci’s case, he slept just 15 minutes for every four hours.
There’s no actual research on the long term effects of polyphasic sleeping. Doctors say there’s no way for your body to get enough rest, so it’s not recommended.
But according to the Polyphasic Sleep Society, most mammals are polyphasic sleepers. They say humans are an anomaly.
Show producer Robyn Geske is a polyphasic sleeper, though not by choice. She says that you do, in fact, get the rest you need, even when it’s not ideal.
She joined Dave and Amy to talk about it.
Dave Williams & Amy Chodroff, KLIF/WBAP, Copyright © 2017
