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Comment on Polyphasic Sleep: One Man's 6-Month Experiment (2005)parent

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- the accepted rule is: if you need an alarm clock to wake up in the morning, then you are sleep deprived. sleep deprivation is detrimental for your performance

I have no problems getting to sleep, am not usually tired during the day, and have none of the usual symptoms of sleep apnea, but if I didn't use an alarm clock or similar, I would sleep 12-15 hours a day no problems. Yet, there's no way I can consider that acceptable so I make judicial use of alarms, and I feel just great once I get over 5 minutes or so of sleep inertia.

Often, I can set an alarm for 6 or 7.5 hours after I fall asleep, and I feel great when the alarm goes off and can get up right away. Yet, if I didn't use that alarm, I would not be waking up naturally for several more hours. Perhaps I'm just a deep sleeper?

I think if you can sleep for more than half of a day you've definitely got some sleep debt going. Do you use caffeine at all? That may account for some of your other symptoms.

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