Polyphasic sleep - Brilliant idea or Sleep deprivation?

There is another aspect to this;

The endocrine system.

About two hours prior to waking up your hypothalamus triggers your pituitary to trigger your adrenal glands to produce cortisol. Cortisol is 100% essential to life; it regulates blood pressure (keeps it from dropping to the point your heart stops), modulates your immune system, allows your liver to metabolize fat and protein in to sugar, and lots of other functions. Throughout the day your cortisol levels gradually drop. Healthy endocrine systems can produce additional cortisol on demand. The longer you are up without at least a few hours of consecutive sleep the more it taxes your adrenal system to compensate for the lack of a cortisol recharge cycle. Failing cortisol feedback cycle is a major aspect of physical exhaustion syndrome.

While the brain may adapt to a REM only existence, your endocrine system will not.

I know this because I have Addison's Disease; my body can no longer produce any cortisol. I have to take cortisol tablets every four hours I am awake until the day I die. I was no longer able to produce enough cortisol to keep up with my job demands and developed full blown Addison's (always had it but was dormant until my body was truly taxed). It only took six months to go from a slightly low cortisol production to none at all, and once there it was not until I was literally on death's door before I realized there was a major issue. My only symptoms during those six months were exhaustion and falling blood sugar levels. Long story short the night I got closest to death my BP fell and fell until I lost consciousness and went into convulsions. My heart could no longer pump blood to my brain, but it never stopped beating, despite being only 37/20 bp. I had five more near death experiences while working out a dosing regimen until I got it right.

While non-Addisonians won't have to worry about dropping dead, a drained adrenal system can cause Addison's like episodes in normally healthy people.

Glad you got it sorted out, we're better for having you Sir :beer:

~ LB

Mark this off my things to try list then! I'll play nice with my endocrine system. Glad you are okay! How long had you known about it?

Sigurthr said:

There is another aspect to this;

The endocrine system.

About two hours prior to waking up your hypothalamus triggers your pituitary to trigger your adrenal glands to produce cortisol. Cortisol is 100% essential to life; it regulates blood pressure (keeps it from dropping to the point your heart stops), modulates your immune system, allows your liver to metabolize fat and protein in to sugar, and lots of other functions. Throughout the day your cortisol levels gradually drop. Healthy endocrine systems can produce additional cortisol on demand. The longer you are up without at least a few hours of consecutive sleep the more it taxes your adrenal system to compensate for the lack of a cortisol recharge cycle. Failing cortisol feedback cycle is a major aspect of physical exhaustion syndrome.

While the brain may adapt to a REM only existence, your endocrine system will not.

I know this because I have Addison's Disease; my body can no longer produce any cortisol. I have to take cortisol tablets every four hours I am awake until the day I die. I was no longer able to produce enough cortisol to keep up with my job demands and developed full blown Addison's (always had it but was dormant until my body was truly taxed). It only took six months to go from a slightly low cortisol production to none at all, and once there it was not until I was literally on death's door before I realized there was a major issue. My only symptoms during those six months were exhaustion and falling blood sugar levels. Long story short the night I got closest to death my BP fell and fell until I lost consciousness and went into convulsions. My heart could no longer pump blood to my brain, but it never stopped beating, despite being only 37/20 bp. I had five more near death experiences while working out a dosing regimen until I got it right.

While non-Addisonians won't have to worry about dropping dead, a drained adrenal system can cause Addison's like episodes in normally healthy people.

Click to expand...

WELL explained. I didn't know that. As you may have readed I didn't achieved polyphasic...

We just have to sort out how people survive years doing the uberman cycle then (6 naps 20 min each)... I've found info that polyphasic actually induces cortisol production...
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CD8QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov%2Fpubmed%2F9415946&ei=ocLFUZr3CLO50QGcl4C4Bw&usg=AFQjCNG9duVMk9fvUczOvNf1KoWkJk5QVw&bvm=bv.48293060,d.dmQ

Yes in a healthy person the physical stress will induce production as the body needs it, but not without cost to the system. In order to trigger production the person will have to experience a low prior to the start of production. The problem is that lows can be very dangerous depending on your level of health; blackouts, fainting, hypoglycemia, insulinemia, tachycardia, hypotension, impaired judgement, etc are all effects of low cortisol levels. Passing out while driving can mean certain death.

Prior to cortisol production being induced the body calls to adrenaline first to get it through a low, the swing from a lack of cortisol low to an adrenaline rush and then a crash when it wears off can mimic manic depression and bipolar mood swings.

A little under a year ago I started the job. Within 45days I was feeling run down. Over the next three months I had massive weight loss and developed chronic acute hypoglycemia. I was I taking more than 4500calories per day to compensate and keep my blood sugar above mental fog levels. Still losing weight while eating as much as possible too. At the six month mark, 1/1/13 I got a mild cold which put extra stress on my system, and that was the night I nearly died. I was one heartbeat from death, very lucky. Still had no idea what was going on. Addiso's is rare so medics had no clue. It wasn't until the second attack (called an Addisonian Crisis) a month later that I sought out a specialist. $3000 of bloodwork and tests later we found out my cortisol levels were next to nonexistent. I think I officially found out around 3/7/13. I've been attack free since 4/13.

Do you mind if I ask what age range you are? And what job ran you down so much?

Somewhat off topic but I don't mind at all. I'm 27, and my job (was) Overnight Stocker at Walmart.

During September through December I was Dairy Department, so I was working mostly in and out of a 37degF dairy cooler. What makes the job so demanding is not the overt weight of the stock but the pace required by the company. On paper it is only 40 crates per hour, but dairy/deli/frozen department is actually required to do 90-140 crates per hour. Crates typically have 6 or 12 items each in them, which yields 1080 items per hour average, that is 18 items per minute or 300milisec per item. Extra time is not allotted for the required unboxing, sorting, clearning, or deconstruction of packing materials. With a total crew of three we typically completed six to nine pallets per night, each pallet containing on average 400 crates of stock.

After January I gave up my Dairy Associate status (it was a promotion - I took a pay cut giving it up) and went back to Dry Food & General Merch dept. There the expected minimum is only 50-60 crates per hour, so I was able to reduce my pace.

Unfortunately, both positions require regular lifting of 40-100lb crates, working on your knees, bending, twisting, working on tall ladders while carrying said crates. You don't get to stay in one position for more than a minute or so, it is a lot of movement and walking. I typically did about 5 to 12 miles of walking per night depending on which section I was stocking (tracked with pedometer). A typical routine is to clock in, use the My Guide terminal to find your assignment, go to the back room and get a cart full of crates for your area, bring it to your area, then stock each crate. The carts have to remain at a certain spot at the end of the isle, so you do a lot of leg work back and forth for each item. Carts in the food section typically weigh between 400lbs and 1800lbs, and they all have bad bearings and need oil. Most of the carts have bent aluminium rails because you have to push/pull so hard to move it. Ladders are not allowed on the sales floor, so each time you need one you have to walk the 1/8 a mile to the storage area to get it. Certain isles have pallets instead of carts, as they are not sorted once they come off the truck, so you have to move the 9ft 1 to 1.5 TON pallets with a mechanical pallet jack the 1/8 to 1/2 mile to your station.

I was fired from my job on 4/23/13 due to injuring my knee on 3/28/13 as a result of the workload and degenerative joint damage caused by untreated Addision's Disease during the first eight months of my employment. I'm currently disabled with temporary disability as a severance package from Walmart. It is slated to run out next month.

Sounds like it was a terrible job Hopefully something where you can use your brain will open up for you.

~ LB

uh.....no.
I worked 3rd shift for like 4 months at one point in my life and that wreaked havoc on my sleep cycle and health. This cycle sounds like a great way to torture yourself. I'll stick to my 6-8 hours per night.