What kind of sleep do you do? Monophasic, Biphasic and Polyphasic

[ichingcarpenter]

I've noticed that as the years go by they change. I haven't sleep a full 8 hours in years.

Sleep is a vital component of human health, and the amount of sleep a person needs changes with their age. And, as with other body functions, sleep has patterns.
Some sleep patterns mean a person will sleep once per day while others mean they sleep at intervals. However, the pattern that is most common in a population may or may not be the healthiest option for people.

This inconsistency means some individuals report that they are not getting enough sleep, irrespective of the number of hours they have per night.


Monophasic sleep

Monophasic sleep is what today's society would refer to as a "normal" sleeping pattern. There is, however, discussion that this has not always been the case.

This sleep pattern became "the norm" during the industrial revolution's longer-than-normal hours of working time.

Some argue that since the advent of electricity and increased exposure to bright light, melatonin levels are decreasing, as they would if a person were exposed to sunlight. This can interrupt a person's sleep-wake cycle and have a negative impact on their sleep durations.


Biphasic sleep

Those who practice biphasic sleep typically sleep for a long duration at night, for 5-6 hours, and have a shorter period of sleep or siesta during the day.

The shorter period of rest typically lasts 30 minutes and gives an energy boost to finish the day.

However, a siesta can last for longer, perhaps 90 minutes. An extended siesta of 90 minutes allows a person to have one complete cycle of sleep.

Some say that biphasic sleep is a healthier sleep pattern than a monophasic pattern, and some countries have adopted a biphasic sleep pattern as the normal one.

Another form of biphasic sleep is segmented sleep, which some may refer to as the most natural of all sleeping patterns.

Segmented sleep includes two sleep periods, both of which occur at night. A person experiencing segmented sleep will sleep for 6-8 hours but in two shifts during the night.

Naps may be beneficial and be a more natural way of sleeping.

The suggested benefits of naps include improved memory and learning ability, increased alertness, and an improved mood.


Polyphasic sleep

Polyphasic sleepers can rest 4 to 6 times during a day. These sleep combinations are broken down into categories including:

Everyman: A long sleep time of around 3 hours with approximately three 20-minute naps throughout the day.

Uberman: Only 3 hours of sleep per day in the form of six 30 minute naps throughout the day


.Dymaxion: Only 2 hours of sleep per day, in the form of 30 minute naps every 6 hours.



Throughout history, there have been numerous accounts of segmented sleep, from medical texts, to court records and diaries, and even in African and South American tribes, with a common reference to "first" and "second" sleep.

In Charles Dickens' Barnaby Rudge (1840), he writes:

"He knew this, even in the horror with which he started from his first sleep, and threw up the window to dispel it by the presence of some object, beyond the room, which had not been, as it were, the witness of his dream."

Anthropologists have found evidence that during preindustrial Europe, bi-modal sleeping was considered the norm. Sleep onset was determined not by a set bedtime, but by whether there were things to do.

Historian A. Roger Ekirch's book At Day's Close: Night in Times Past describes how households at this time retired a couple of hours after dusk, woke a few hours later for one to two hours, and then had a second sleep until dawn.

During this waking period, people would relax, ponder their dreams, or have sex. Some would engage in activities like sewing, chopping wood, or reading, relying on the light of the moon or oil lamps.

Ekirch found references to the first and second sleep started to disappear during the late 17th century. This is thought to have started in the upper classes in Northern Europe and filtered down to the rest of Western society over the next 200 years.







https://www.sciencealert.com/humans-...e-should-again

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319425.php


I'm a Biphasic sleeper and love my siestas but no longer than 40 mins or I don't feel rested and alert if it goes further than 40mins

[Sadieblue]

I think mine is Segmented sleep, and I never take
naps during the day, unless of course during illness, then a nap or two during the day.

[leavesoftrees]

I wake many times during the night. I'd get up around 4 am but this is not an easy thing to do in the middle of winter when it might be 2 deg C out of bed - If I were to do this I'd feel sleep deprived even if I have a nap during the day. Instead I take a 1/4 tablet of Melatonin and go back to sleep for a few more hours. Interesting dreams happen at that time of the night/morning

[Apulu]

I've found this type of stuff fascinating to think about over the years. The most inspired I've ever felt was when I was getting 4-6hours sleep a night, getting up between 5 and 6 in the morning, and going for a nap in the afternoon. It was life changing but I've struggled to get back into that routine.

I think the notion that the best we can do for our bodies is to get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night is yet another overly-rigid and ignorant concept developed by western medicine. The fact that this notion seems to be promoted widely in our society as the only really healthy way to be makes me deeply suspicious; it's as if we're encouraged to treat any alternative as unsafe and stupid. You only have to look at history, other cultures, and the patterns of many of our 'elites' to realise that there are many alternatives that can work just as well, if not significantly better, depending on the person or circumstance.

I've also heard it said that sleeping more than about 5 hours at any one time will shut down a person's natural creativity, and I seem to have experienced this myself many times, as in feeling more creative and alive on less sleep, and less creative and alive on more sleep. I'd like to go back to that (getting less sleep at night and napping when required) as a more normal way for me to be, rather than a phase I go through. I seem to gravitate to getting much less sleep at night if I do enough yoga... go figure...

[Antagenet]

bedtime is 6am and I get up at noon or 1pm. Works great for me!!!

[pabranno]

I have been experimenting with playing solfeggio tones, and also binaural beats to go to sleep. Will try Tibetan bowls next if I can find one without the musical background. That distracts me out of my meditation because I start listening to the music. Does anyone here have any thoughts or advice on listening to background frequencies to meditate and then sleep well?

Thank you,
Pamela Brannon

[Ernie Nemeth]

I like to sleep only once a night. If left to my own devices, in a quiet setting (doesn't have to be silence, birds chirping, children playing, people talking has no ill effect for me) without storms or nagging thoughts, I will sleep exactly 8 hours - every time.

So for me, work interferes with my sleep. There are not enough hours in a day, so it is the sleep cycle that suffers. Typically I will loose two hours of sleep a night during the week. Those ten hours each week of missed sleep slowly add up (the weekends are not enough time to recover unless I do nothing else but rest, which of course rarely happens). Within 6 - 18 months my mood begins to suffer and I always find a way to quit my job so I can catch up on my rest. If I continue working beyond 18 months I invariably get sick, often with mysterious illnesses. I have had three such mystery illnesses in my life. I have learned to quit before I get sick...

I have no choice in this dysfunctional lifestyle. It's quit or get sick.

[amor]

I am retired with the accent often on the tired. If I am not typing out things on Avalon into the wee hours, I may actually get to bed around one a.m. I may attempt sleep, tossing and turning until, totally fed-up and bored, I turn on Coast to Coast or the program that precedes it. My brain seems to require a constant stream of interesting, new information to rest. I may arrive at daylight without losing consciousness anywhere between six a.m. and 10 a.m. having experienced brief snatches of dreams. The last one was my mother giving me brief advice which I convert back to subconscious English to decode the dream. At first I thought I could not sleep because the Smart Meter was installed in my absence. This may still be the reason. I am worried that lack of sleep may injure my brain.

[leavesoftrees]

this sounds a bit tortuous - insomnia is no fun!. I am fortunate that even though I wake many times during the night I still sleep and wake rested. I sometimes wonder if the disturbed sleep is due to neighbours' wifi routers and mobile phones as I always sleep better when I am away on the coast or in the country

have you tried napping during the day? If not it might indicate that you are getting enough sleep in the brief intervals that you do have. Meditating for 20 mins a day might give your brain another way of being!

Posted by amor (here)
I am retired with the accent often on the tired. If I am not typing out things on Avalon into the wee hours, I may actually get to bed around one a.m. I may attempt sleep, tossing and turning until, totally fed-up and bored, I turn on Coast to Coast or the program that precedes it. My brain seems to require a constant stream of interesting, new information to rest. I may arrive at daylight without losing consciousness anywhere between six a.m. and 10 a.m. having experienced brief snatches of dreams. The last one was my mother giving me brief advice which I convert back to subconscious English to decode the dream. At first I thought I could not sleep because the Smart Meter was installed in my absence. This may still be the reason. I am worried that lack of sleep may injure my brain.

[amor]

Reply to Leavesoftrees: When the next day I am really exhausted, I will find I have fallen asleep in the chair and had quite a deep sleep.

[thepainterdoug]

I do very little

[Deux Corbeaux]

Posted by thepainterdoug (here)
I do very little

Yes, little but deep ...


** add

Miniphasic sleep?