People are known to have an inherent circadian rhythm that is a routine of behavioral and biological processes that would be taking place every single day extending over the precisely 24-hour cycle. What is supposed to be the right time for an individual to sleep every night? We understand that there are three kinds of sleep patterns.
- A typical monophasic sleep pattern would be when a person sleeps just once every day, typically for almost 8 hours every night.
- A typical biphasic sleep pattern would be when a person sleeps twice every day. It is also, called the siesta sleeping pattern.
- A typical polyphasic sleep pattern would be when an individual sleeps for certain periods during the day. Polyphasic sleepers could be resting at least, four to six times every day.
Biphasic sleep patterns could be of two types:
Two Sessions during the Night
So what is biphasic sleep pattern?
- Some biphasic sleepers would be splitting their sleep basically into two separate sessions that would be occurring during the night itself.
- They could be sleeping for just a few hours on the first early evening or around night time.
- Then they would be waking up for about two hours that night.
- Then they would go back to sleep again for a few more hours of sleep until dawn.
- Such sleepers could enjoy around six to almost eight hours of sound sleep in two separate sessions during the night.
One Sleep Session at Night & another One Session during the Day
The most common and popular way of approaching biphasic sleep would be two take rest and consider splitting the entire sleep time into two separate sessions extending few hours each but one session taking place at night and the other taking place in the afternoon. This is popularly known as siesta sleep and seems to be prevalent in numerous European cultures including Greece and Spain. Let us examine this form of biphasic sleep.
- The exact amount of time an individual would be sleeping at night or during the afternoon would depend on that particular individual’s preference.
- Some biphasic sleepers have a preference for many hours of sleep approx. 8 hours every night and just about 15 or 20 minutes of nap every afternoon post-lunch.
- There are yet some other biphasic sleepers who would love to sleep for a shorter period at night and they prefer sleeping for almost 90 minutes or so in the afternoon.
- Determining what approach is best for you would be involving a lot of trial and error. Different biphasic sleepers would prefer different biphasic sleep patterns.
What Are Some of the Amazing Advantages of Biphasic Sleep?
As per https://sleepopolis.com, it may end up boosting cognitive function. It helps in reducing feelings of exhaustion and enhancing your capacity for concentration and focus. Biphasic sleep could help in boosting efficiency and productivity. This sort of a popular sleep pattern is regarded as an effective way of managing stress. Siesta sleepers enjoy all the health benefits of a power nap. They could boost your capacity for problem-solving, learning, memory formation along with recall, logical reasoning, and much better overall cognitive performance. Power naps are great for boosting mental alertness, reducing fatigue, decreasing the risk of committing mistakes on the job, enhancing your mood, and reducing drastically your stress. It could prove helpful in coping with insomnia issues.
Conclusion
Everyone cannot follow biphasic sleep patterns. However, biphasic sleepers stand to gain a lot right from a boost in alertness during the daytime to far more flexible scheduling. Adopting a biphasic sleep pattern isn’t for everyone. But for numerous people, biphasic sleep would be opening up opportunities for greater efficiency and productivity and certainly more flexible scheduling.
