Q: What is Biphasic sleep?
A: Biphasic sleep is the routine of having sleep two times during the day rather than one. A common mix is usually a nap of 90 minutes and a main sleep of 270 minutes.
Q: Isn't that only 6 hours sleep? Shouldn't you be getting more than that?
A: Yes, that is 6 hours total. I don't quite know how it works, but enough of my research on other websites on Biphasic sleep indicates that this is usually enough per day with biphasic sleep. My own experiences (up to 9th March when I typed this out) seems to support this.
Q: Why the nap? Why 90 minues?
A: My research into biphasic and polyphasic sleep indicate that the standard sleep cycle, one that covers all parts of normal sleep, is somewhere around 70-90 minues, with most stating 90 minues. My own experince has started to show that the nap in the evening (currently I do from 8:30pm to 10:00pm) helps me get more alert and refreshed than if I was still awake and getting ready for a nights sleep. This means I can get a little more done late at night between the nap and the main sleep.
Q: Ah, what is Polyphasic sleep?
A: The idea of sleeping three or more times a day. One of the extreme ideas is napping 20-30 minutes every four hours.. while this might leave you scratching your heads as to why someone would obviously deprive themselves of sleep (Since this is a total of three hours a day), the theory I keep reading from supporters of this schedule say that the body adapts to the naps by getting to the beneficial stages of sleep much sooner. In theory this means that after adaption each 30 minute nap has the effect of a full (90 minute) sleep cycle. There are those whom claim that those doing polyphasic sleep are constantly sleep deprived or they must be 'mutants'. Having not tried adapting to polyphasic sleep I can't share any insight.
Q: How did you find out about biphasic sleep?
A: Funny thing, it was one of the negitive reviews on the polyphasic sleep that caught my attention. I started to research it to see what it was all about, and eventually came across references to biphasic sleep. I knew that I didn't have the schedule to try polyphasic sleep, but biphasic sleep was doable - so that is why I do it.