11 Facts About Polyphasic sleep

Biphasic sleep is the practice of sleeping during two periods over the course of 24 hours, while polyphasic sleep refers to sleeping multiple times—usually more than two.

Polyphasic sleep is common in many animals, and is believed to be the ancestral sleep state for mammals, although simians are monophasic.

Polyphasic sleep can be caused by irregular sleep-wake syndrome, a rare circadian rhythm sleep disorder which is usually caused by neurological abnormality, head injury or dementia.

However, the comparative literature strongly suggests that shorter, polyphasically-placed sleep is the rule, rather than the exception, across the entire animal kingdom.

One classic cultural example of a biphasic Polyphasic sleep pattern is the practice of siesta, which is a nap taken in the early afternoon, often after the midday meal.

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Such a period of Polyphasic sleep is a common tradition in some countries, particularly those where the weather is warm.

Human circadian rhythm regulates the human Polyphasic sleep-wake cycle of wakefulness during the day and Polyphasic sleep at night.

Ekirch suggests that it is due to the modern use of electric lighting that most modern humans do not practice interrupted Polyphasic sleep, which is a concern for some writers.

Polyphasic sleep found that first and second sleep were the terms in the Romance languages, as well as in the language of the Tiv of Nigeria.

Polyphasic sleep found no common word in English for the period of wakefulness between, apart from paraphrases such as first waking or when one wakes from his first sleep and the generic watch in its old meaning of being awake.

Claudio Stampi, as a result of his interest in long-distance solo boat racing, has studied the systematic timing of short naps as a means of ensuring optimal performance in situations where extreme Polyphasic sleep deprivation is inevitable, but he does not advocate ultrashort napping as a lifestyle.