I thought this was quite damning. It’s been in circulation for a long time (since 2010?) without any refutation.
That said, it is clear that there’s a tension between (mental) sleep efficiency and sleep debt. Unfortunately, it’s easy to demonstrate all kinds of mental impairment from undersleeping.
Actually, I wrote a refutation of it years ago. It’s more vitriolic than I’d write if it were today (but then again, today I’d just say that my book contains the refutations for most of this in much more polished form), but it did get answered.
It’s very strange to see my past self’s words there three years later… (I’m one of the other participants in that thread.) Fortunately I didn’t say anything I now regret...
Here are two articles quite skeptical of polyphasic sleep that might be of interest.
http://www.supermemo.com/articles/polyphasic.htm http://www.supermemo.com/articles/polyphasic2010.htm
I don’t necessarily agree with the author, but I guess it’s good to be aware of arguments on both sides of the debate.
I thought this was quite damning. It’s been in circulation for a long time (since 2010?) without any refutation.
That said, it is clear that there’s a tension between (mental) sleep efficiency and sleep debt. Unfortunately, it’s easy to demonstrate all kinds of mental impairment from undersleeping.
Actually, I wrote a refutation of it years ago. It’s more vitriolic than I’d write if it were today (but then again, today I’d just say that my book contains the refutations for most of this in much more polished form), but it did get answered.
Here’s the refutation: http://www.puredoxyk.com/index.php/index.php/about-polyphasic-sleep/an-attack-on-polyphasic-sleep/
And a follow-up discussion I thought was pretty helpful at the time: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!topic/polyphasic/_R4-kdZbpJI
Yes, the comments by “a reader” and Michael Turner helped me situate Wozniak’s (supermemo polyphasic skeptic) point of view. Thanks for the link.
It’s very strange to see my past self’s words there three years later… (I’m one of the other participants in that thread.) Fortunately I didn’t say anything I now regret...