Polyphasic sleep

Polyphasic sleep is sleep distributed in smaller portions over the course of 24 hours. In particular, it is used to popularly mean Uberman sleep or da Vinci sleep, in which a few hours of sleep are distributed in equal portions at equal intervals (e.g. 6 x 30 minutes). In this book, polyphasic sleep is used to exclusively mean an unhealthy form of sleep that became an internet fad in the early 2000s. In particular, it excludes biphasic sleep from the definition of polyphasic. The exclusion is due to the fact that biphasic sleep is the recommended, old, and tried practice of sleep in which nighttime sleep period is complemented with a well-timed siesta (as practiced in Mediterranean countries). Biphasic sleep is the most natural expression of free running sleep.

For detailed analysis see:

• Science of polyphasic sleep
• Biphasic nature of humans
• Power nap
• Polyphasic sleep: Facts and Myths (includes hilarious extracts from polyphasic sleep blogs)

This glossary entry is used to explain "Good sleep, good learning, good life" (2017) by Piotr Wozniak