# Have there been any long term studies of the Uberman Sleep Schedule?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-any-long-term-studies-of-the-uberman-sleep-schedule/530345>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 25, 2010, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-any-long-term-studies-of-the-uberman-sleep-schedule/530345 "2010-02-25T02:03:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TNWPsycho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/47e85d/32.png) [@TNWPsycho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TNWPsycho)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-any-long-term-studies-of-the-uberman-sleep-schedule/530345/1 "2010-02-25T02:03:28Z")

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Title says it all.

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**Author:** ![TNWPsycho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/47e85d/32.png) [@TNWPsycho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TNWPsycho)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-any-long-term-studies-of-the-uberman-sleep-schedule/530345/2 "2010-02-25T21:14:19Z")

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_Bump_ Give this one more try before it fades away.

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-any-long-term-studies-of-the-uberman-sleep-schedule/530345/3 "2010-02-25T22:13:14Z")

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A Google Scholar search turned up this short paper: [The Effects of a Combination of Monophasic and Polyphasic sleep](http://education.uncc.edu/cmste/summer%20ventures/2010%20Topics%20in%20Biology/Yvonne%20Tran%20-%20Sleep.pdf) (PDF) by one Yvonne Tran, who experimented upon herself by trying a polyphasic sleep schedule. (The paper mentions Uberman in particular in passing.)

Here is her conclusion:

> [@](#):
>
> While I slept through some REM, I was generally in delta sleep due to the sleep deprivation caused by  
> cutting the sleeping time in half. It was often extremely difficult to wake up from the naps suggesting that  
> naps do consist of mainly delta sleep although it is possible that I had woken up after the REM cycle had  
> ended. Also, the lack of dreaming suggests that REM sleep was missing from the naps.  
> At the end of the experiment, I was tired and did not experience the benefits of polyphasic sleep; this is  
> mainly due to the fact that I had not completely adapted to the schedule. Having to take naps at hours in  
> which I normally felt awake was inconvenient, and the time spent in bed was frequently almost twice as  
> much as the sleep. However, this sleep schedule was effective in gaining boosts of energy and taking  
> restoring breaks from mental work.