Catching On, Are We?

So Yahoo Finance, of all places, has this really in-depth (well, compared to other recent ones) article about napping, specifically how it's catching on in our sleep-deprived work-your-butt-off society. It even mentions polyphasic sleep without being completely wrong about it! Check it out:

A strict dozing regimen, such as the kind employed by sailboat racers, military pilots, and astronauts, can replace nocturnal sleep altogether for a limited time. Leonardo da Vinci experimented with erratic sleep schedules, but it wasn't until the early 1980s that Italian researcher Claudio Stampi invented "polyphasic ultrashort sleep," which breaks up the day into several equal sections, each of which ends with a brief nap. As long as these mini "days" are kept intact, one can then whittle the naps down to as little as two hours of sleep per 24 hours—at least according to research published in Stampi's 1992 book, Why We Nap.

Such daring sleep habits are not for everybody. "Going ultrashort is like running a marathon or climbing Mount Everest," writes Dr. Mednick in her book, Take a Nap! Change Your Life. "You need careful training and a generous period of recovery." However, the simple "productivity nap" does hold an undeniable appeal for time-crunched workers. Most sleep experts welcome the consequent uptick in nap-friendliness at work, though some are leery of its unintended consequences. "It can get out of hand: If you start encouraging the workforce to sleep in the afternoon, you're encouraging them to have late nights," says Horne. "Our society is getting more used to napping in the workplace, but it is still seen as something that could get you fired."

via napping-gets-a-nod-at-the-workplace: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance.

OK, so it does make a claim ("for a limited time") that's unsupported by evidence; and it uses the word "erratic" incorrectly to describe polyphasic sleep (though it may be accurate when it comes to da Vinci specifically; though if that's the intent it should be clearer). But still, it has merits I think; overall I'm pretty geeked. A), it's great material to show your boss if you're trying to get a nap-friendly setup going at work. B), yay finally, a not-half-bad mainstream description of how occasionally people who are not (at least not entirely) batshit do in fact sleep polyphasically; and C), some of the advice in the article about napping at work (polyphasic or not) is pretty good, if not — to me at least — kind of obvious. Then again, I've been napping at work for yeeeears, and I'm a bit beyond questions like "do I need headphones", heh; and I'm sure I'm not exactly their target audience. ;)