Does 'Da Vinci sleep' help you rest well?

Recently a sleep method named "Da Vinci sleep" went viral online. It enables people to save more time and to engage themselves in creation with full spirit and energy, as long as one has 15 to 20 minutes of sleep every four hours, equals two hours sleep in a day.

What is the Da Vinci sleep?

This method is named after Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian legend has the reputation of a scientist, artist, inventor etc.

It is actually a Polyphasic sleep that separates the complete sleeping time. Many people hope to shorten their sleeping time through this method and use more time to study and work. Moreover, they can keep the same energy like people who have continuous 9 hours sleep. Especially for some of the drowsy postgraduate students and programmers, they want to try it and stay up late.

"If we persist in polyphasic sleep for 20 years, we will extend 11 years of life compared with the ordinary people who have eight hours of sleep every day," said many supporters. They also claimed that people would have the hardest adaptation period with nausea, dizziness and other problems. While life will return to normal situation after 10 to 14 days.

Is Da Vinci sleep efficient, effective and scientific?

It does not make sense in the eyes of experts. "In reality, it destroys people's natural sleep rhythms and will harm people's health,” said Li Qijun, the director of Medical Psychology Department in Nanjing Brain Hospital

"People sleep at night with a periodic mode, which is made up of four or five cycles, the alternately formed deep sleep and light sleep. People usually need 1 to 1.5 hours to get into deep sleep. But with polyphasic sleep, people have to wake up by the alarm clock only after 15 to 20 minutes sleep and this is indeed a kind of sleep deprivation," Li Qijun tells the reporter.

"In addition to physical and mental rest, the growth hormone will be secreted during people's sleep at night, which is very important for teenagers. And this process usually occurs in the first phase of deep sleep. So I advise the students not to experience the risk of using Da Vinci sleep, "said Li Qijun.