I’ve read all over that Leonardo Da Vinci never really slept but rather took naps every 4 hours being 15 minutes each. Is there truth to this claim? Reason being I want to become something, become more productive.
Dopers, Urban Legend or the Truth?
In response to your subject, I’d be impressed if he could condense time like that ;).
For the record, I’ve heard this too, and it’s not on Snopes (I didn’t really expect it to be, but…).
I once read a book called “How to Think Like Leonardo DaVinci”. It’s at home so I can’t tell you who it’s by. I don’t remember anything like this being mentioned, and the book was very thorough. If you’re interested in emulating DaVinci, you could do worse than to find that book and give it a read.
I seem to recall some other famous person reportedly doing this… Edison? Brunel?..?
Click here and then click on “Catching Catnaps”
… then Google for “Claudio Stampi”. Should keep you busy for awhile.
OP: 15 Hour Naps Every 4 Hours
Now that I could handle. The heck with sleeping only [sup]1[/sup]/[sub]3[/sub] of my life. Sleeping over [sup]3[/sup]/[sub]4[/sub] of it sounds much better! 
I recall reading a book by Salvador Dali in which he said that he used to take naps during the day. He would sit in a chair holding a metal spoon over a metal plate. When he fell asleep the length of his nap was the time it took for the spoon to fall from his fingers and hit the plate. He insisted that simply falling asleep was enough to refresh him, he didn’t need an actual sleep.
I seem to remember that Dali did that so he could quickly record the weirdo things that went through his head at the moment of falling asleep. No, I don’t have a site, but if you look at some of his paintings, it sort of makes sense.
I also seem to remember reading about Buckminster Fuller staying awake for longer periods of time by taking what he called “micronaps.”
Yeah, Dali’s technique is a way to record hypnagogic hallucinations. It’s in his book Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship.
50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship, that should say.
Napoleon was another who slept very little, maybe 3-5 hours a night, and made the most of being productive for 20 hours a day.
Kramer? 
Kramer: Leonardo da Vinci…you know that means “from Vinci”?
Jerry: That must be some book.
Well, I can’t say anything about Leo, but I for one can vouch for the effectiveness of what we called the “power nap.” In Architecture school we would often spend LOONG periods of time awake. This is a major that recognizes that the course load is full enough to warrant giving the students 24 hour access to the building, showers in the building, full kitchens and of course lounges. Believe me, Architecture students know all about sleep deprivation. Most of us would end up staying awake 36 hours at least once every week or two. And that was the easy weeks. When a project due date was approaching we would spend days (or in my case weeks) at a time at our desks, taking 10 or 15 minute naps every 3 or 4 hours or so. My personal record was 4 days without a full 5 hour dose of sleep, though there were a few times I had to put my head on the table for 5 or 10 minutes, (mostly because I had nothing else to do while the computer was rendering). The power nap (along with heavy doses of Coffee, Mountain Dew, Coke, and Josta :D… Josta 
) was our weapon of choice to keep productive. And it really worked. When you are VERY tired (this is key because you have to be able to get to sleep FAST) set your alarm for 15 minutes or so. Close your eyes and go to sleep. That 15 minutes is pure ecstacy and when the alarm goes off you feel twice as good as you did 15 minutes before. You might still be tired, but you can get back to work. It never ceased to amaze us.
There is a point where the nap turns into sleep. Once you pass that threshold (whatever it may be: 30 minutes? 45?) getting up is really hard to do. And then until you get enough real rest you feel really awful, as I’m sure you all know, and your productivity will suffer.
One reason the power naps worked so well for us was that we had a lot of people there keep each other awake. Lots of loud music, horsing around, and chatting really helped. When I tried to work alone at home I just couldn’t do it. You could always tell the difference in the projects in people who worked at home and those that did all of their work in Studio. Those that worked in Studio were more productive and more creative. They had better craft and the projects were frankly (generally) better, because we would help each other out. And you could tell that we spent more time working on our projects.
But even if you have a group of people to keep you awake, nothing beats the productivity of a fully rested (normal) human. Eventually I came to the realization that I was more productive in a 24 hour period (including a full 6 or 7 hours of sleep than) 24 hours of power naps, stimulants, and diligent work. Plus I felt a lot better. But in this case having a group of like minded people to discuss our project really helped our projects, which ever sleep strategy we subscribed to.
Bottom line, if you are trying to get more productivity, the power nap works. But it’s no way to live, especially if you are doing it alone. Unless you are above average, which Leonardo da Vinci obviously was. There are people that don’t require much sleep. I think I remember hearing that Thomas Jefferson required very little sleep as well. Or was that Ben Franklin? My guess is if Leonardo da Vinci didn’t sleep much it was because he was an extraordinary person, not (only) because he had another way of doing things.
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Prisoner, thank you so much for another reminder of why I’m so glad I didn’t go for an architecture degree:)
[sub]…And since you architects did all that schooling, why can’t you guys design a decent kitchen? I’m only half kidding, I’m a technical editor for a cabinet manufacturer and former kitchen designer; I can always tell the architects’ designs because they are almost always in serious need of major revisions. They will usually look pretty on paper but trying to use them in real life? heh.[/sub]
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Re: sleep, I find that stagerring my work periods helps me stay awake longer and more efficent when I am awake. e.g. work till 11 one night, then sleep in and the day after, get up at five and put in a couple hours before hand.
I hear ya, brother… ::sigh::…
Dali’s style was surrealism, and thus he was inordinately intrigued by the subconscious and sleep. He wanted to paint what his subconscious saw. Dali was less concerned with the idea of automatic painting(like automatic writing) unlike other surrealists. They basically thought that their subconscious minds would emerge when they paid no attention to what they painted or drew (which resulted in rather awful works in my opinion).
Dali’s most famous painting, The Persistence of Memory(you know, that one with the melting clocks) was supposedly a landscape he dreamt.
No cite, these are just memories from art history 301…
I remember a programme on this 10 years ago or so. I think it was Q.E.D.
Basically it showed a sleep study where this one guy slept for 20 minutes every 4 hours. They tested him on mentally and physically and it turned out that he functioned better this way!
The only problem was, that as the experiment progressed, they found it harder and harder to wake him up. After 3 months of this, not even electric shocks would wake him after the 20 minutes so they finished the experiment then and he slept for almost 4 days solid.
15 hour naps every 4 hours…
That’s not far out from my sleep patterns.
Ahhhhh, the joys of being self-employed.
