Glossary
Biphasic (Sleep Schedule)
Circadian (Biorhythm)
Latin, "about a day"
Clatternaps
This is a word I made up to describe the technique of Salvador Dali while napping:
Hold a fork over a plate, and when you drop the fork, it makes such a clatter that you wake up.
I actually did something like this myself once while trying to stay up until 9pm while changing timezones. I was at my uncle's place in the USA having just
come from Australia, and arrived at 10am in Seattle after having only a half-hour nap in the last 20 or so hours. My aunt and uncle both had something on that
day so I was home by myself for a few hours. To stay up until 9pm, I began doing blues improvisation on their electric keyboard (I can do this with my eyes
closed). When I made a mistake, that woke me up, because I was falling asleep, although I think this arrested me at an earlier stage than Salvador Dali.
Einstein did something similar in his thought experiments.
They were probably achieveing something different than what we want. Einstein, for example, was attempting to put himself in an imaginative state, and found
that it was very easy to go from there to sleep, and the rock were actually to prevent sleep.
Core Sleep Offset
How far from midnight people's core sleep starts (+ve or -ve)
Crash
An oversleep that is long enough that it's the equivalent of a monophasic sleep
Equihexaphasic
A hexaphasic sleep schedule (see below) with evenly-spaced naps
Equitriphasic
A triphasic sleep schedule (see below) with evenly-spaced naps
Hexaphasic (Sleep Schedule)
Lark
1. Larks are passerine birds of the predominantly Old World family Alaudidae.
Only one species, the Horned Lark, has spread to North America (Thanks Wikipedia), and also known for singing in the morning.
2a. Someone who gets up early in the morning
2b. Someone whose natural tendancy is to get up early in the morning, but has trouble staying awake late at night
Long watch
When your watch extends past its usual length (see watch).
Monophasic (Sleep Schedule)
Nap
A period of sleep less than 4 hours (for longer sleeps, see core, crash)
Oversleep
Sleeping longer than intended. Usually not considered to be as long as a crash (see above) although it can be.
Owl
1. An owl is any of some 200+ species of solitary nocturnal birds of prey in the order Strigiformes
(Thanks Wikipedia).
2a. Someone who stays up late at night
2b. Someone whose natural tendancy is to stay up late at night (and possibly later each night), but has trouble getting up in the morning
Phase
A period of waking and sleeping, usually compounded to represent how many phases people
are using per day (ie. biphasic, hexaphasic).
Polynap
A nap used by a polyphasic sleeper (especially the 15-30 minute naps usually advocated)
Polyphaser
One who sleeps polyphasically, one who lives a polyphasic lifestyle.
Polyphasic (Sleep Schedule)
REM
Rapid Eye Movement, one of the stages of sleep.
Schedule (Sleep Schedule)
A sleeping schedule you can go on, ie. monophasic, biphasic, hexaphasic
Siesta
An afternoon nap, as used in biphasic sleep, and in some cultures.
Stage
A level of sleep, identified by the brain waves produced.
Triphasic (Sleep Schedule)
Tetrahoric (Biorhythm)
This is the 4-hour ultradian sleep rhythm
Überman (Sleep Schedule)
This is the hexaphasic, 4-hour cycle
Übermensch is apparently the German word for "Superhuman" (or more literally "Over-human", or
"Above-human"). In polyphasic circles, it's often written "Uberman", which I'm told
is a hybrid Germlish word.
It's also a concept used by Nietzsche. The
name was originally transferred from Nietzsche by PureDoxyk on the
E2 Uberman node.
Ultradian (Biorhythm)
See Tetrahoric
Watch
A 4-hour period of time, either the nautical ones used on boats, or the period between naps
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