Experimenting with polyphasic sleep

Could this be the solution to my problems?

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

This week I have been researching and experimenting with polyphasic sleep. My intuition suggested it could be the solution to my energy overload problems, and waking up almost every night, feeling wide awake.

To begin, let’s define polyphasic sleep

Most of the population of this planet sleep monophasically. That is, they go to bed, sleep for around 7 to 9 hours, every 24 hours. In other words, they sleep once a day. Polyphasic sleep is where you have two or more periods of sleep every 24 hours. This could be a core sleep period and an afternoon nap, which is what happens a lot in Mediterranean countries, or it can be several naps, or it can be up to 6 short sleep periods every 24 hours.

There are a variety of permutations, and it can even be customised to what works for you, and can fit around your lifestyle, job, family, and more. If you ‘google’ polyphasic sleep you’ll find many different strategies, such as ‘everyman’, ‘uberman’, and more. The website, polyphasic.net has more detailed definitions and a community too.

You may wonder why anyone would want to change what seems to be our default way of sleeping — once a day — to something different. But is it that different? Babies usually sleep in a polyphasic…