[drzaiusapelord]

How old were you? It seems like if you're in your teens or twenties you can pretty much do any crazy sleep schedule and be fine with it as you're in the "superpowers" stage of your life.

Its a little different in your 40s. As someone with sleep apnea, sleep quality is so important to me. I can't imagine messing with it, especially considering we don't fully understand sleep and if there may be long term consequences with weird sleep schedules. We do know that sufferers of apnea have increased risk of stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, and depression.

[outworlder]

Another sufferer here (mid 30s). Latest exams are already showing a blood pressure increase (yay).

In my early twenties I could spend the whole night partying and drinking, then sleep half an hour and show up for work on time and still manage to do useful work.

Should I try these shenanigans now, I'll either be zombified and nauseated for the whole day or, if I try napping, collapse for the whole day, alarm clock or not. And that's without apnea.

My personal belief is that any schedule involving an alarm clock is wrong at best, and damaging at worst. The schedules may seem to 'work', but who knows what kind of damage they may be doing to the body.

[Dewie3]

Steve Pavlina did an experiment with polyphasic sleep when he was 34. It worked great for him. But he quit because that sleep schedule is unsociable. He is a personal development guy, though, so he isn't that keen on chanting the old "everything is hard or impossible after 40" which people on HN seem so keen on. "You did what? Oh, but you're probably young so it doesn't count. I could do anything too when I was your age."

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/