Switching from a 24 to a 48 hour sleep cycle

[TheSeanieB]

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Just curious if anyone has every tried switching from a 24 to a 48 hour sleep cycle. If so how did it go? Would you recommend it?

 

[tco]

I've never even heard of such a thing, but I don't see anything that could go wrong with it at all.

Let me know how it goes for you.

 

[cbrons]

Never heard of it... perhaps it's just self-explanatory? (Sleep 16 hours?) Could you explain what the regimen is?

 

[link2swim06]

sounds miserable.

 

[dude1344]

Why would you ever want to attempt anything like this? 😕

 

[normtheniner]

We had a sleep lecture this past semester... it was mostly confusing, but from what I did understand the lecturer said we're pretty hardwired for a 24 hour sleep cycle. Even in complete darkness for days you'll be programmed between 24-25 hour sleep cycle.

With that said... good luck... I'd be interested to hear how you feel after a few days.

Actually this is what they referenced in the lecture:

http://books.google.com/books?id=I7...a=X&ei=HhoKUIyhNYK69QS5lqHKCg&ved=0CFgQ6AEwAA

 

[michaelrack]

Would you recommend it?

no

 

[cbrons]

^^^ guess that settles it

 

[CaptainSSO]

We had a sleep lecture this past semester... it was mostly confusing, but from what I did understand the lecturer said we're pretty hardwired for a 24 hour sleep cycle. Even in complete darkness for days you'll be programmed between 24-25 hour sleep cycle.

With that said... good luck... I'd be interested to hear how you feel after a few days.

Actually this is what they referenced in the lecture:

http://books.google.com/books?id=I7...a=X&ei=HhoKUIyhNYK69QS5lqHKCg&ved=0CFgQ6AEwAA

Yea, the circadian rhythym is basically maintained by proteins synthesized in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus on like a 24-25 hour cycle, which is only actually slightly influenced by light (I.e., my understanding is that light cannot change the total number of hours in the cycle, it can only restart the cycle).

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLOCK#section_4

 

[Law2Doc]

I've never even heard of such a thing, but I don't see anything that could go wrong with it at all....

LOL. There's not much you can do to alter the cycle itself. There will be point in the wee hours of every day where you feel exhausted no matter what you do. However you can certainly shorten up your sleep time for a finite period. Many residents survive sleeping 4-5 hours a night/day for very long stretches of time without dropping the ball. When i did night float i had a very hard time getting much sleep during daylight hours -- you block off seven hours and get up in 4. To some extent you even will get conditioned to this -- many don't even need to use an alarm clock to jump out of bed in 4-5 hours. You still feel tired, but you will be functional.

 

[Marcus Brody]

48 hour sleep cycles, what an excellent idea

I think you can use melatonin, photo therapy, caffeine, and exercise to switch to a new 24 hr cycle but you can't just change your biology. At least not legally.

 

[ucladoc2b]

48 hour sleep cycles, what an excellent idea

I think you can use melatonin, photo therapy, caffeine, and exercise to switch to a new 24 hr cycle but you can't just change your biology. At least not legally.

Well, this was how the first residency training program was started...

 

[Medstudent1968]

Only in med school...

 

[nmskyle]

I know vulcans can go weeks on end without sleep and we are similar enough physiologically to reproduce offspring, give it a try...


Source: Tuvok

 

[honeyyygirl]

I havenʻt read much literature on this but my first / major concern would be your ability to function / process info towards the end of the cycle.. I guess if you conditioned your body to function on this sort of cycle over time it could work... ? I wouldnʻt recommend it based on how miserable I have felt after pulling allnighters...

 

[FIREitUP]

This makes no sense. Your hypothalamus was made to function on a ~25 hour sleep cycle. I believe you can change that by altering your exposure to sunlight, but even then, that's super unhealthy and you would probably end up with metabolic syndrome.