Alternative Sleeping Patterns - Polyphasic and Biphasic

If normal (monophasic) sleeping doesn't work, you may be interested in trying an alternative sleeping pattern. In this article we will explain 2 common alternative sleeping patterns (Polyphasic and Biphasic), including the good, bad and how-tos.

Polyphasic Sleep

This system of sleeping (aka Da Vinci sleep or Uberman sleep) uses short naps to reduce total sleep time to 2-5 hours a day. This is achieved by implementing many 20-30 minute naps throughout the day. Advocates say that polyphasic sleep allows for more productive awake hours.

Though there are many variations of this form of sleep, a common schedule would be: 30 minute naps every fourth hour.

Biphasic Sleep

Biphasic is accomplished by splitting sleep into 2 sections. By doing this advocates claim you can function well on about 4.5 hours of sleep a day. Generally the Biphasic sleeping pattern is 3 hours (core sleep) at night and a 90 minute nap sometime during the day.

There are also hybrid sleep systems.

Pros and Cons

The reason many folks who attempt to follow one of these alternate sleeping patters, is to increase their total waking hours. By decreasing sleep to only a few hours a day, these schedules do achieve that goal. In a year a Poly or Biphasic sleeper could gain an extra 45 days!

The main cons to adapting an alternate sleep pattern includes: being out of sync with the rest of the world, and difficulties maintaining such a rigid schedule.

Further Reading

This article is intended to be a short primer into what Polyphasic and Biphasic sleep is about, to learn more please check out the following resources.

Steve Pavilna relates his personal experience using a Polyphasic sleep schedule in his blog.

Ted Pearlman's blog offers advice on Polyphasic sleep.

Last 10 comments

View all comments

By: erin - May 01st 2008   cool! i'll try it.... By: ben - March 30th 2008   ive never been asleep in my life, dont need to either, because.....IM A BANANA! By: Chris Michener - November 28th 2007   Polyphasic sleep is sweet! I'll be blogging my experiences with it at ****cmichener.blogspot*** * when I start sleeping uberman-style on December 20. By: Jon - October 05th 2007   I only sleep about 4 hours a day. Usually I fall asleep sometime at 4 AM and wake up around 8-9 AM and I'm good till 4 AM comes round again. I've been doing this since I graduated highschool. By: james brown - September 19th 2007   im not dead, im just alseep By: Insomniac - August 16th 2007   I like to sleep for 12 hours and then not at all the next night. If you are feeling drained try a 10 min. meditation but do not allow your self to sleep. By: Tdot - July 17th 2007   I switch up my sleep patterns a lot, but whether to do polyphasic sleep or something else, power naps are always helpful imo. By: Lee - May 15th 2007   I have a biphasic sleeping schedule and my family and friends thinks I've gone insane, but I'm much more productive this way. I recommend trying it. By: Dog Breath - April 22nd 2007   I think it's a v. good idea! Especially that bit about gaining 45 days! By: Moose Face - April 22nd 2007   When are we meant 2 take a 90 min nap in the middle of the day? Maybe in Maths!

Add Your Comment:

Name:   Comment:   Chars.Left   Count the pictures:

Back to Useless/Useful Info

return to top