AP Research student Grant LoPresti has been performing a case study on himself for the past two months by sleeping for only four hours a day.
Students in AP Research are given one year to research any topic they want, and LoPresti chose to study the different types of sleep and their efficiency. LoPresti has been sleeping on an Everyman schedule, which consists of taking three 20 minute naps throughout the day and sleeping for three hours at night.
But conducting a study like this is not as easy as it looks. For the first two weeks LoPresti was sleep deprived and avoided driving or doing anything that could be potentially dangerous. LoPresti monitors his health using a smart watch and has been recording the effects of his study so he can determine whether it has actually been beneficial to him. After his body became adjusted to the Everyman way of sleeping, he says it was extremely important to stay on the schedule.
“You have to get your naps on time everyday, with no more than a 10 minute fluctuation , or else your’e ridiculously tired,”said LoPresti.
Even after his body became adjusted to the schedule, LoPresti says it was difficult to keep up with friends and to make plans for after school, especially because one of his naps is at 5:40 in the afternoon.
“You can never do anything longer than five hours,” LoPresti said, “if you go to the fair you can only be there for three to four hours because you have to be home in time for your nap.”
His other two naps take place immediately before school and during sixth period, with the additional three hours of sleep at night giving him the necessary amount of sleep to function properly.
While he is happy with the effects of his tested schedule, LoPresti is ready to return to a monophasic sleep schedule, as it will be easier to keep up with friends and family on a daily basis. Though society currently uses the monophasic schedule, Grant has discovered that there are ways to make Everyman sleep fit into a work or school schedule.
“There’s a lot more businesses like Google and Apple where naps are becoming more acceptable in the work place,” LoPresti said.
Though schools do not currently run on a schedule that follows Everyman sleep , Grant’s study shows that it is possible to thrive on just four hours of sleep when a schedule is set.
“If you think about it, time is the greatest resource we have.” LoPresti said, “It is a way to get more time out of your day and more time out of your life.”
Katelyn Payne // Copy Editor
