Biphasic sleep vs. just sleeping less

It is now a month since I concluded my biphasic sleeping experiment by deciding that to really validate whether biphasic sleeping was an improved method, I needed to compare it to a single monophasic 6 hour core sleep.

And I believe the answer is that 6 hours sleep in a biphasic pattern is much more sustainable than 6 hours in a monophasic pattern.  While I can do a couple of 6 hour monophasic nights, I think I would really struggle to adapt to this long term as I do seem to get really tired, whereas with a 6 hour biphasic sleep I don't really feel tired at all.

But what does work brilliantly for me, is combining the two!  If I am tired, I take a nap at 10.00 p.m. and have a biphasic night.  If I am not tired or if a nap doesn't fit with my plans for the evening, I stay up late and take a monophasic night.  And if I feel really really tired, I let my body take as much sleep as it wants.  I know my body better than to ignore what it is asking for.

Two months in there are still two points of interest to note about biphasic sleeping.  Firstly, getting up from nap time really doesn't get any easier... I had kind of hoped it would!  Secondly, while I am fine on 6 hours sleep, it only takes one night of less sleep to really throw me off balance.  Literally half an hour less and the next day is exhausting.  I think this means that my body is much more on the edge of what it can cope with for sleeping, and I am not certain how healthy this is longer term.

But for now, my method works and I am oh so productive with it.  So for now, I am sticking with it.