The majority of my sleeps are about 90 minutes with an average of a bit less than once a day at four to six hours, the usual total for 24 hours being about 7-8 hours. About once every two weeks, I may not sleep any for up to 36 hours and then drop off for 8-12 hours straight.

I am now retired, but had been self-employed in business for 40 years where I made my own rules and own schedule. Work for the week was usually done in 2-3 days each week by working ’til tired, then sleeping for 2-4 hours, then working ’til tired again. This allowed me to have 4-5 days of free time each week, a real benefit of a loose sleep schedule triggered by actual need or tiredness, and not by routine, habit, or the necessity of accommodating oneself to the schedules of others.

Additionally another benefit accrued through my atypical behaviour. During those years, I was able at times to work for three days straight without a break for anything but food (this work was generally heavy physical labor necessitated by the exigencies of business, paperwork was always postponed until it was convenient). When the work session was ended, I would characteristically sleep in an apparent comatose condition for 24-36 hours.

In my opinion, this is probably close to the natural sleep pattern of ancient paleolithic humans who might have been “at the edge” both in procurement of foodstuffs and in avoidance of predators. Sleep would have been a necessity (for brain maintenance) but also something that could be done at almost any time especially with a full belly and a safe place to nod off.

Many other animals also use the same type of sleep patterns showing perhaps that this is necessary to survival in and to thriving in hostile environments.

This suggests that mice need to sleep for between one and two minutes straight, if they are to consolidate newly formed memories. It’s hard to say what the equivalent amount of time is for humans. Mice tend to have short sleep cycles of around 9 minutes, while the equivalent for a human is 90 minutes.

I suspect the experiment to test the reactiveness and retentiveness of humans on the scale done for mice borders on what might be considered cruel and inhuman … I’m sure it’s lots of fun, much like Venkman’s and Spengler’s experiments in the Ghostbusters movies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep