matt comments on Group rationality diary, 8/20/12 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: cata 21 August 2012 09:42AM

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Comment author: matt 21 August 2012 10:11:22PM 1 point [-]

I'd point out that being a polyphasic sleeper is a major confound here

Agreed.

… we all know that sleep is necessary for learning & long-term memory formation...

With some sleep phases more important than others. High quality evidence is thin on the ground here, but what is available says I'm getting a normal amount of REM and slow wave sleep, and nearly none of the other phases. Wiki (and other sources I've found) suggest that those are the sleep phases important in memory formation. (Note some studies listed on that wiki page have found napping to improve memory - my schedule gives me REM naps during the day (which is right at the top of the list of my super powers).)
[Lots of speculation here ↑. Available data below.]

Incidentally, do you do spaced repetition? I and Wozniak would be interested in your statistics/database if you started it before the polyphasic sleeping.

Before polyphasic sleeping I didn't have enough time to do spaced repetition :)
[That was the available data - sorry about that.]

There are moves afoot to organise the several July minicampers who plan to try a polyphasic schedule to gather before and after data. Do you want an introduction to the organisers of that effort?

Comment author: gwern 22 August 2012 12:23:56AM 0 points [-]

Before polyphasic sleeping I didn't have enough time to do spaced repetition :)

Oh well.

Do you want an introduction to the organisers of that effort?

Nah; my advice would be simply to start spaced repetition in advance, and look into getting a Zeo for recording sleep data. Not complex, but also not advice they're likely to take.

Comment author: JGWeissman 22 August 2012 01:39:02AM 1 point [-]

I think they are likely to take your advice, and I would encourage them to do so.

I myself plan to adapt to polyphasic starting September 7th, and would interested in any tests you think I should do.

Comment author: gwern 22 August 2012 02:13:49AM *  1 point [-]

would interested in any tests you think I should do.

Having tried to do polyphasic myself twice, and having read a good deal of material from other people, I really would not suggest many tests for 2 reasons:

  1. as far as I know, there are ~0 extant records of either long-term spaced repetition users or Zeo users. The latter is particularly striking since multiple Zeo users were supposedly doing polyphasic (see the Zeo blog & forum). Any dataset is good, so there is no point risking someone returning no useful results by demanding they maintain 3 or 4 separate metrics - as valuable as they all might be.
  2. Keeping up unautomated metrics like spaced repetition is particularly risky for polyphasic sleepers, since willpower & energy are precisely what is most lacking in the transition phase. Something dropped in the transition phase may never be resumed.

So, that's my basic suggestion. Pick 1 metric, at most, which requires effort on your part.

Zeos require little-to-no effort, so you can add on 1 metric. My suggestion is spaced repetition (Wozniak would also thank you for data), but also valid would be something like dual n-back (DNB) or the Psychomotor vigilance task (PVT).

Comment author: JGWeissman 21 August 2012 10:40:12PM 0 points [-]

There are moves afoot to organise the several July minicampers who plan to try a polyphasic schedule to gather before and after data. Do you want an introduction to the organisers of that effort?

I have emailed them to point them at this thread.

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