Sleep Techniques Of Geniuses - How Great People Slept

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

How to sleep to be a genius - secrets of great minds

Scientists advise sleeping 7-8 hours a day. But some people do not have enough time left to implement all ideas and ideas, complete all the cases and complete all projects. What if the allotted 24 hours in a day are not enough? You can try to save money on sleep - at least, many (but not all) brilliant minds did this.

What is polyphasic sleep

Polyphasic sleep is a type of wakefulness and sleep mode, when the latter is divided into several intervals of the same or different duration. In contrast to polyphasic sleep, one can call the usual monophasic sleep - when all the prescribed hours "fall asleep" in one go (usually at night).

Polyphasic sleep involves at least two sleep periods per day. Daytime siesta is also a type of polyphasic sleep.

The most "hardcore" methods of polyphasic sleep can increase the waking time to 20-22 hours a day. These include, for example, Uberman ("superman") - this is when every 3 hours 40 minutes a person sleeps for 20 minutes.

On the diagrams, you can clearly see the five main sleep modes, where Asleep is the period of sleep, and Awake is the wakefulness

There is a theory that polyphasic sleep allows you to increase your daily wakefulness without sacrificing well-being, concentration and cognitive function. There is still debate about whether this sleep pattern is really safe. For example, Doctor of Biological Sciences Piotr Wozniak argues that there is no mechanism in our brain that would allow us to adapt to such a segmented sleep. The US Air Force has come to the conclusion in their experiments that the healthiest are periods of naps of 2 hours or more, but not 20-30 minutes, as in the "superman" mode. NASA is also leaning towards this conclusion - two-hour naps were better at restoring cognitive function.

Table: Basic Sleep Modes

Name	Hours of sleep per day	Sleep periods ("neps")	Description
"Monophasic", single phase operation	7-10	one	1 time at night 7-10 hours
Biphasic, biphasic mode	5-7	2	1 time at night for 5-7 hours and then 1 time 20 minutes during the day
Everyman, common man mode	2.5-4	4	1 time at night for 1.5-3 hours and then 3 times for 20 minutes during the day
Dymaxion, dimaxion mode	2	4	4 times for 30 minutes every 5.5 hours
Uberman, Superman Mode	2	6	6 times for 20 minutes every 3 hours 40 minutes

How famous geniuses slept

People with brilliant minds often suffered from a lack of time to realize their potential. Therefore, they were among the first to experiment with their regime.

Leonardo da Vinci

Who knows how the development of science and art would have developed if the famous inventor, sculptor and artist had not discovered the delights of polyphasic sleep? For many years of his work, Leonardo da Vinci has found an ideal (for himself) regime - 4 hours of work followed by 15–20 minutes of sleep. And so endlessly. This allowed him to achieve a 22-hour wakefulness period.

The author of "La Gioconda" preferred to sleep every 4 hours

Nikola Tesla

At the beginning of his career, Tesla slept 2 hours a day - and not in polyphasic sleep, but in monophasic sleep. As a result, by the age of 25, the scientist developed a mental disorder. After that, he tried to restore sleep, but not completely successfully.

It is difficult to say something about Nikola Tesla's sleep schedule. The catch is that the inventor didn't have a daily routine per se. As Nicola himself says: “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. The scientist alternated such long periods of inspired work with no less long sleep - according to his contemporaries, after the next brainstorming session, he could sleep for almost a day in a row.

Despite this apparently unhealthy lifestyle, Nikola lived for 86 years

Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali did not leave behind any notes that would make it possible to judge his daily routine. However, judging by the stories of his contemporaries, he practiced polyphasic sleep (how long - history is silent). A separate mention is his nap with a metal spoon in his hands - he held it over a metal tray. When the artist fell asleep, the spoon fell and woke him up with its crash on the tray. In this state of "half-sleep" (now scientists call it hypnogogy), Dali found inspiration for his extraordinary paintings.

Indeed, such vivid images are unlikely to arise in a fully awake, rational brain.

Albert Einstein

The author of the theory of relativity is somewhat out of our list - on the contrary, he preferred to sleep 10-12 hours a day. Einstein believed that it is precisely this kind of long sleep that can maintain high productivity and mental clarity. However, modern scientists believe that this mode, on the contrary, causes problems with cognitive functions. However, the debate on this matter has not yet stopped - who knows, perhaps the great theoretical physicist was right.

Albert began to practice this sleep regimen in his youth.

Margaret Thatcher

The Iron Lady claimed that she did not work to live, but lived to work. Therefore, I tried to reduce sleep time to a minimum. Usually she slept 4-5 hours a day, and sometimes she was limited to two. Sometimes Thatcher jokingly motivated such a sleep pattern by the desire to always have a perfect haircut. But we understand that, in fact, the iron lady simply could not miss the opportunity to work another extra hour.

Thatcher was able to raise the profile of the UK, as well as restore its economy - perhaps thanks to her unusual sleep patterns.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The brilliant composer apparently adhered to a monophasic sleep regimen. True, he did it in a way that modern scientists and doctors would hardly appreciate - he went to bed after midnight, and got up every day at 6 in the morning. Apparently, the duration of his sleep rarely exceeded 5 hours a day. Oddly enough, Mozart did not devote the time freed from sleep to playing music and composition - he worked for about 4-5 hours a day. Perhaps his muse was much more sleepy than himself.

Mozart, in addition to composing, was also a renowned music teacher

Other famous personalities

Among lovers of polyphasic sleep, you can find many famous historical figures:

• Napoleon Bonaparte slept 4 hours a day. The commander preferred the time from 12 to 2 am and then from 5 to 7 am. He believed that only women should sleep for 5 hours. And those who sleep 6 or more are fools;
• Thomas Edison adhered to the "superman" regime - every 3-4 hours he took a break for sleep for 30 minutes;
• Honoré de Balzac, although he slept 8-9 hours a day, split his sleep into two intervals - from 6 pm to 1 am he slept soundly, then worked until 8 am, after which he took a break for 1–2 hours sleep;
• Winston Churchill slept twice a day - from 3 am to 6 am and from 4 pm to 6 pm.

Infographic: how famous people slept

Among genius people, many practiced polyphasic sleep.

Many genius people have practiced polyphasic sleep. However, its benefits and safety have not yet been confirmed by scientists.