What’s the best research say about whether a person can significantly change the amount of sleep he needs?
The wiki article on Polyphasic sleep has some references to research, but the conclusions seem to be that the results cannot be sustained longterm. Drugs such as Modafinil can be used to promote wakefulness, but the longer term implications of such uses are unknown.
There are SMDB threads here on Polyphasic sleep - have a search.
Si
You’d probably want to look into polyphasic sleep. I’ve actually been doing it for the past two years, due to me working the graveyard shift, and loathing it (so I end up not sleeping as long as I should because I wanna be up during the day). The way I do it is I sleep 30 minutes during my ‘lunch’ at work, and 15 minute naps on my breaks. In the late morning/middle of the afternoon I’ll sleep between 2 to 4 hours. Then before work I’ll sleep around two hours. So during the work week I get around 5 hours of sleep a day on average. The key to it is consistency. On my days off I automatically go back to my ‘real’ schedule, where I go to sleep around 10 PM and wake up at 7 AM.
I’ve likened my circadian rhythm to an interpretive dance 
Be forewarned that your sense of morning and night gets all screwed up doing it this way. I don’t have any real concept of time anymore. 4 AM feels just like 4 PM. It also helps that I can sleep pretty much anywhere, and I’ve always been able to fall asleep quickly. If you’re a light sleeper you may not be able to do it.
Edit: Hee hee si_blakely beat me to it. But I’m relating real world experience.
I can vouch for monafidil. I got a script when I was going to school and working nights on weekends. It definitely works as advertised. I didn’t take it for much longer than a month straight but I didn’t notice and weird effects. YMMV. I still have a bunch that I save primarily to deal with hangovers.
I have had a few instances in which I had to work both a day shift and a night shift for three weeks running. I would get to the client site at about 0830, work until 1600, go back to the hotel and sleep until 1900, eat my main meal, go back to the site at 2100 and work until about 0230, and then go back to the hotel, eat a snack and sleep until about 0700 or so.
After three weeks of this, I felt as if 6 weeks of time had gone by.
It was very difficult at first but easier as I adjusted.
Oh, and the client site was a newspaper for what it is worth. That’s why the shifts weren’t continuous.
I used to take Modafinil as a study aid, and I can also vouch for its potency.
I used to take it when I woke up and go to work two hours early so I could study before work started. It did make me start to act a little weird at work though.
Studied like a machine though.
Stanley Coren’s book Sleep Thieves is a great read about sleep.
The bottom line is that human sleep is variable between individuals anywhere from 6-10 hours. Most people need more and we don’t get enough.
You may think you are fine getting less sleep but it makes you crankier and more likely to make mistakes within tasks that require concentration.
That being said there are tricks to tweeking your cycle such as always going to bed and getting up at the same time. This is hard for people who like to party on the weekend.
“Sleep, those little slices of death — how I loathe them.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
Help yourself to Google results for the great Russian Sleep Machine.
I seem to remember Isaac Asimov or Arthur Clarke referring to it in notes for one of their short story collections. I can’t remember in what sense they referred to it though, perhaps as a lot of hot air. This suggests a more thorough rubbishing of the idea;
Totally anecdotal: I need much less sleep since committing to a low-carb diet, but YMMV (other low-carbers I know have also had this as a side-effect, but not all). No more sugar, no grains, I try to stick to under 100 grams of carbs per day from potatoes, sweet potatoes, fruit and veg. It’s also eradicated my headaches (migraine and tension - I’ve had them since I was 4 year old).
Anyway I’m refreshed on 5 or 6 hours now instead of 8 or 9. However if I ‘cheat’ I get sleepy just like I used to and can’t get up in the morning.
His was a great sin who first invented consciousness. Let us lose it for a few hours.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald (“The Diamond As Big As The Ritz”)