Would you like to be awake for 22 hours of your day, alert
and refreshed?
Yes? Then why not try polyphasic sleeping- the sleep cycle
endorsed by all serious solo offshore racers. The theory of polyphasic sleep is
that total sleep time in any given 24 hour period can be effectively reduced to
just 2-6 hours of slumber, in many 15-45 minute bursts. Why is this necessary
in solo, offshore racing? Well, the answer is obvious;
“Solo sailing is one
of the best models of 24/7 activity, and brains and muscles are required. If
you sleep too much, you don’t win. If you don’t sleep enough, you break!”
Dr. Claudio Stampi
(aka Dr. Sleep)
As the race updates will inform you, the skippers of the
current Vendee Globe are getting very little sleep, stealing 20 minute cat-naps
when they can. Managing sleep deprivation is critical skill in solo, offshore
racing, and I expect most, if not all, will have dedicated time to training
themselves to sleep in this irregular pattern.
A name that most often appears in relation to solo offshore
sailing is that of Dr. Stampi, who is ‘for
those sailors who are seriously competing…a necessity’ (Brad Van Lieu,
winner of his class in the 2002-2003 Around Alone). Over the years Dr. Stampi
has written over 100 research papers and the book, ‘Why we nap’, while also founding and directing the Chronobiology
Research institute which focuses on the study of biological rhythms.
Stampi first researched sleep patterns in offshore sailing
during the 1975 Clipper Round the World Race, where he recorded the sleep
patterns, body temperatures and cognitive performance of his crewmates every two
hours, building up a database of information.
In 1990 he furthered his study, getting three groups of people
to sleep for just 3 hours over a 24 hour period. These three groups of people
were split between those who slept for three hours all at once, those who had 1
½ hours sleep at night, then taking three naps during the day, and those who
took a 30 minute nap every four hours.
Through repeating a simple cognitive test with these three
groups of people, Stampi found that those who slept for the longest period in
one go had a 30% decline in performance, while those who had a little sleep at
night declined by 25%. Amazingly, the group that slept for the shortest period
at a time- taking 30 minute naps- suffered just 12% loss in performance.
Since 1990 the monitoring and analysis of sleep patterns as
improved dramatically, with subjects usually wearing a wrist monitor (which
records movement over time). It is now known that people go through two stages
of sleep- REM (rapid eye movement) and
Non-REM sleep. REM sleep is important for memory and learning, while non-REM
sleep restores energy and releases hormones for growth and development. Sleep
generally occurs in four stages; first, we fall into a light slumber, followed
by the onset of real sleep, and then later, slow brainwave sleep. We go through
these stages in roughly 90 minute cycles.
From Stampi’s studies, it appears that slow wave sleep is
the most critical- he had found that when the usual eight hours sleep is cut to
just four, 95% of slow wave sleep is retained while REM and the onset of sleep
is cut. It perhaps does not seem strange then that 85% of mammals are
polyphasic sleepers, allowing them to stay alert and aware of their
environment. We too slept like this until about 10,000 years ago, when we
became better at protecting ourselves from the dangers of the wild. Human
infants, one of the most vulnerable of all animals, remain polyphasic sleepers,
unable to shake the natural tendency to sleep in short bursts.
In relation to sailing, Stampi has found that sailors find
it difficult to sleep between 6-8pm, which he calls the ‘forbidden zone’. Typically
this is the time before dusk, a time years ago when humans would be seeking
shelter for the night and checking they were safe. Consequently Stampi
recommends staying awake during these hours, suggesting instead that naps
should be taken in the early hours of the morning and mid-afternoon- with the
afternoon reflecting the snooze our ancestors would have taken during times of
intense heat.
Stampi also encourages sailors to deduce whether they are a
‘lark’ or an ‘owl’,
in order to adapt effectively to sleep deprivation.
‘Larks’ like to take short naps, but are not as proficient
late at night. ‘Owls’ on the other hand cope well with irregular sleep
schedules, but prefer to take longer naps. Throughout the years Stampi has
worked with both Ellen MacArthur and Mike Golding, household names in the offshore
sailing world. Ellen is a lark, with 60% of her naps in the 2000-2001 Vendee
Globe lasting less than an hour, while Golding is an Owl; in the 1998 Around
Alone, only 23% of his total sleeping time was attributed to naps of less than
an hour. Interestingly, both skippers equalled 4.5 – 5.5 hours sleep per 24
hour period, which shows that knowing your own sleep cycle can help you to
adapt to polyphasic sleeping.
In this edition of the Vendee Globe, Francois Gabart has
been a truly outstanding skipper, currently in first place with a 263 mile
lead. Gabart has claimed to be well rested throughout the race- but as Elaine
Bunting puts it, ‘is he bluffing or not?’.
Clearly he knows how to manage himself well, with enough energy in reserve for
big manoeuvres or sorting repairs. It seems Gabart is untouchable; just a few
weeks ago Tanguy De Lamotte and le Cam admitted to unexpectedly falling into a
deep, sustained sleep; a mistake that could not only cost a place, but a life.
Much like Ellen and Mike,
Francois Gabart has taken a technical
approach to managing his sleep. Before the Vendee Globe, he attended a training
centre based in Port-La-Fore, where his sleep cycles were studied through
placing electrodes on his scalp as he slept. Gabart has been sleeping between
three and six hours per day, which is clearly working for him. It seems his
experiences in the Solitaire du Figaro have taught him to know his limits;
‘‘For me, the best indicator is when I start to annoy myself. In this
case, I take a deep breath, and as soon as possible I’ll take a nap’’.
Gabart takes a kip
In previous races other skippers have taken a less technical
approach, working with coaches to asses how tired they are. For example, in the
2008-2009 Vendee Globe, Yann Elies used a series of questions and actions to
help him learn when he had gone beyond an acceptable level of alertness to sail
his boat to the optimum. Michel Desjoyeaux, on the other hand, used Sudoku as
an indicator of his tiredness!
How alert are you feeling today? Perhaps it’s time for a
cat-nap.
Lizzy