Sleep for 20 minutes. Polyphasic sleep or the sleep of geniuses. How to get into a new sleep mode

Polyphasic sleep is sleep in several approaches. Its most common manifestation is biphasic sleep. Such sleep is most often divided into longer nighttime and shorter daytime. This type of sleep is especially popular in southern countries, where there is a tradition of siesta.

However, this is not the only option to split daily sleep into two approaches. Scientists historians claim that our ancestors used biphasic sleep at night. Their total rest time at night was approximately 12 hours, of which the person slept three to four hours in the first period, then stayed awake for a couple of hours, and then slept for the prescribed four to five hours until the morning.

Thus, the duration of sleep was approximately eight hours, but the person did not sleep like majority of us today - the entire period of this time, and with a break of a couple of hours in the middle of the night.

So, what do we know about the double sleep of our ancestors?

The phenomenon of “double sleep” was first discussed by a history teacher from the University of Virginia, Roger Ekirch.

He published a book in 2001, which was the result of his careful study of this topic for sixteen years. In his work “AtDay"sClose: NightinTimesPast” the author cites a huge number of historical facts, confirming the spread of the phenomenon of “double sleep” in ancient times among the inhabitants of Europe.

Erkirch refers to ancient diaries, medical records, court records, literature from antiquity to the present day and argues that the generally accepted norm among our ancestors was “two-section sleep.” The person went to bed about 1-2 hours after sunset, slept for about four hours, then woke up around midnight or a little later, stayed awake for 1-2 hours, and then slept until dawn. Roger Ekirch was surprised not by the phenomenon of such a dream itself, but by its ubiquity.

How did people use their nightly "break"?

One doctor from England wrote that the break between two periods of sleep was the optimal time for reading and studying.

Another famous 16th-century physician argued that working-class people had higher birth rates because they used the "break" in their night's sleep to have sex. It was this time that the doctor considered ideal and recommended it for couples to have sex. The doctor believed that after the first sleep, the partners would be already rested and would be able to get more pleasure.

While awake at night, people either stayed in bed to have sex, read or pray, or got up, smoked, had conversations, and there were cases where they went to visit people at this time.

In the 15th century, special prayers were even composed for this long period of time.

The end of the era of “double sleep”

Erkirch also traced the period when the practice of “double sleeping” began to gradually fade away, primarily among representatives of the upper class. Mention of this phenomenon became less and less common; over 200 years, uninterrupted eight-hour sleep became common in Europe. At the beginning of the 20th century, biphasic sleep had ceased to be a generally accepted norm; perhaps only certain individuals used it. Since then we have been sleeping for 8 hours at night.

How can we explain the appearance of biphasic sleep and then its disappearance?

In ancient times, as we know, there was no electricity, so when the sun set, it became dark on the city streets and in the houses. This is especially true in winter, when daylight hours were very short. Only wealthy citizens could afford to use a lot of candles; poor people saved and used candles only as a last resort. Therefore, most of the population went to bed in the next few hours after sunset. Such an early bedtime left them much more time for night rest than modern people have.

There is a version that before the era of electricity, the night was a time of active life for criminals, prostitutes and drunkards. When the streets began to be illuminated, people began to visit each other, electricity made it possible to extend the “daylight hours”, which were spent at work and other activities. This is what, for example, Craig Koslofsky, the author of the book “Evening Empire,” thinks so.

For the first time in the world, street lighting appeared in Paris - at the beginning of the 16th century, the authorities made it obligatory to install lamps on windows in order to illuminate the way for passers-by. Lighting was one of the first to appear on the streets of London and Amsterdam, and by the end of the 17th century, lanterns illuminated more than fifty cities in Europe. As a result of these changes, the night became a time when various social events were held, so lying in bed at 8-9 pm until 6-7 am was no longer pointless.

Is segmented (double) sleep good for your health?

Double sleep was caused by objective necessity. If a modern person is placed in conditions similar to Europe in the 14th century, then he, too, may have a need for such biphasic sleep.

This was proven by psychiatrist Thomas Wehr during his unusual experiment, which he conducted in the early 90s of the 20th century. Thomas Wehr studied the effects of light on humans - photoperiodicity and its effect on sleep.

During the experiment, a group of people were artificially immersed in darkness for fourteen hours every day for a month. Scientists were surprised by the result of their work - the subjects switched to biphasic sleep over time. Thus, the myth was refuted that our body has a built-in need for continuous eight-hour sleep.

Participants in the experiment had to stay awake not the generally accepted 16 hours, but only 10, and spend the remaining 14 hours in complete darkness. They did not have the opportunity to read or do anything like that. One could sleep, doze, dream, pray, think, etc. This period of darkness was similar in duration to a winter night.

At first, the subjects slept little. Probably the cause was anxiety, nervous tension and the habit of lack of sleep, which is very common in modern people. When the adaptation period ended, the experiment participants switched to double sleep.

Just like our ancestors, they slept for about 4-5 hours at the beginning of the “dark period”, then woke up and stayed awake for several hours, and then went back to sleep for 3-4 hours. Sleep duration, as a rule, did not exceed eight hours.

Moreover, they did not spend the interval between the two periods in the stress that most modern people experience when they unexpectedly wake up in the middle of the night and cannot sleep. The study participants experienced the opposite sensations during this period - incredible calm, similar to the state during the meditation process. Temporary “insomnia” did not cause any negative feelings; people were relaxed and calm.

Does it make sense for a modern person to use a double sleep system?

Today, many people experience anxiety or begin to panic when they suddenly wake up in the middle of the night and cannot immediately fall asleep. Oxford University neuroscience professor Russell Foster believes this is a return to the segmented, bimodal sleep structure of our ancestors.

Psychologist Greg Jacobs believes waking up at night is also normal, since this is how humans slept for most of their evolution.

Therefore, if you wake up in the middle of the night, do not be nervous or think that this is some kind of violation. You need to relax and make the most of this time to relax. This is only a temporary return to the established sleep pattern of our ancestors, and this is not insomnia, but normal sleep. In most cases, when doctors explain this to their patients, sleep problems go away on their own.

Scientists believe that about 30 percent of various diseases are somehow related to sleep problems. This is a very important part of our health, so it is worth treating it with special attention.

Are there benefits to sleeping twice?

Even though segmented sleep has been a common human phenomenon in ancient times, there is no evidence that it is more beneficial or healthier. If you follow the 13th century European sleep system, you are more likely to feel better. However, such changes are explained not by the “correctness” of double sleep, but by the fact that you simply give your body more rest, relaxation, and recuperation.

It is worth noting that double sleep is appropriate when long periods of darkness are naturally achieved (as happens in winter); in the summer months, a bimodal sleep system is difficult to implement, because the sun is already shining from 5 o'clock in the morning. This makes the restructuring of the body problematic.

The double dream was a reaction to circumstances. Now that these circumstances no longer exist, the need to split night sleep into two parts has also disappeared.

Getting eight hours of uninterrupted sleep may be just as effective for you. It is only important to take care of its quality. You can read a separate article about how to make your sleep better.

Lack of time is one of our main problems. Moreover, there is not enough of it not only for work, but also for rest, physical and moral. The temptation is great to “eat away” the hours we are missing from such an obscure pastime as sleep.

Accordingly, lack of sleep is the second big problem for modern people (and at the same time, which is typical, it usually does not solve the first). You often just don’t want to go to bed on time: there is such a bad feeling that then only sleep and work will remain in life.

On time - this means reserving at least 8 hours of sleep, as we were all taught. But in the end, in fact, most of us sleep for 6 hours, and then “break away” on the weekend. But although these 6 hours are not enough for sleep, there are still too many of them in the day: the desire (and tendencies!) to “cut back” sleep even more does not disappear. In my search for a magic pill “how to sleep little and get a great night’s sleep,” I, like probably many others, at one time came across the doctrine of polyphasic sleep.

What is this?

There is even an article on Wikipedia about this phenomenon. It is also called (completely unreasonably) “da Vinci’s dream” and “wolf’s dream.” According to the legend widespread among fans of the “polyphase”, Leonardo slept this way, due to which he managed to study, invent and create so many things. Alas, this is fake. The second name owes its appearance to the fact that the sleep pattern of many animals in the wild is close to polyphasic rather than monophasic. But it seems that no special research has been carried out on this matter.

Polyphasic sleep - sleep not in a single block, 8 hours a day, but little by little at regular intervals. In this case, its total time is reduced, down to only 2 hours during the day (depending on which mode specifically you chose). Several possible modes are described.

The habit of taking a nap after lunch, it turns out, allows its carriers to be classified as practicing polyphasic sleep - this is the “Siesta” mode, sleeping 5-6 hours at night and another 1-1.5 hours after lunch.

More unusual and tough modes:

“Everyman”: 1 time 1.5-3 hours at night and 3 times for 20 minutes. during the day.

"Dymaxion": 4 times for 30 minutes. during the day at regular intervals, i.e. every 6 hours

“Uberman”: 6 times for 20 minutes. during the day at regular intervals, i.e. every 4 hours

Finally, there is a story that Nikola Tesla adhered to a certain polyphasic sleep regime, named “Tesla” in his honor: 1 time 2 hours at night and 1 time 20 minutes. during the day. As with Leonardo, there is no reliable historical evidence for this.

If you don’t take the well-known “Siesta”, then in practice attempts are made mainly to use “Everyman”, “Dymaxion” and “Uberman” (judging by the reports of experimenters on the Internet).

I myself tried polyphasic sleep a year and a half ago. Being (I would like to believe) a reasonable and cautious person, I then tried to collect as much information as possible about this phenomenon in order to form a healthy attitude. This is what happened.

"Eyewitness Testimonies"

There are indeed relatively many reports on the Internet from people who have tried “polyphase” (and over the past year and a half there have been even more of them). You can easily find two or three dozen such reports in RuNet.

A number of them can be immediately discarded as not meeting the criteria of adequacy and reliability. For example, for reports with spelling and grammatical errors, “torn” texts; I didn’t pay attention to the articles posted on sites promoting personal effectiveness in a bad way (“Super method: stop sleeping to become a new person and start making money in five days!”).

On the contrary, a number of other reports appear to be reliable. For example, posted on blogs, where you can read other posts and form an opinion about the author in their context.

The overall final impression was: it works.

Most of the reports were positive: I tried it and it worked. A number of negative ones described failure rather than any dire consequences from the experiment. Then, a year and a half ago, I found only one report that said that the result of an attempt at polyphasic sleep was serious impairments in performance that persisted after the transition to the normal mode (by the way, this report was among the “reliable”).

And according to the majority of negative reports, it was clear that the authors were violating the main rule of the transition to polyphasic sleep: they did not maintain the new regime clearly, they got confused, so it turned out to be “neither fish nor fowl.” And, according to the guru of this topic, it is possible to successfully go through the difficult transition period only if there is a consistent approach and clarity, without allowing breakdowns in the new regime.

Main source

By the way, about the guru. Although ideas a la polyphasic sleep often gather around themselves a certain sect (or even a whole sect...), a circle of not quite adequate fans, this time I did not come across anything like that. And this is good.

The most detailed book on polyphasic sleep, summarizing personal and other experiences, was written by an American woman living in Michigan, known under the nickname PureDoxyk. This young lady also has a Twitter, and, probably, excavations on the Internet could reveal her name and biography, but I didn’t do that. The book claims that the author has a degree in philosophy, has been practicing polyphasic sleep for many years and feels great.

The book is well written, and this can be felt even in the Russian “over-the-brain” translation. The author is a personality with brains and charisma. The text is simply covered with disclaimers, urging the reader to treat polyphasic sleep responsibly, to carry out the transition clearly and not to make it an excuse for simply disordered and ineffective sleep. And then…

Here we actually move on to theory. Well, that is, to the “theory”.

The "theory" is this

Sleep, as we know, is divided into phases of slow sleep and fast sleep, and the lion's share of our rest is occupied by slow sleep. It is supposedly not as beneficial for the body as fast, and it is precisely this that the followers of the “polyphase” propose to neglect.

When transitioning to polyphasic sleep mode, the brain learns to “dive” immediately into REM sleep, bypassing the stage of slow sleep. When the transition is completely completed, the “zombie state” characteristic of this period passes. A person gets the opportunity to sleep for much less time during the day, while resting as fully as with an 8-hour sleep, and all due to “skipping” the “unnecessary” phase of slow-wave sleep. The complete transition, by the way, takes about a month, and the “zombie state” lasts about 10 days, subject to strict adherence to the new regime. If it is violated, it is delayed.

Polyphasic sleep is natural for humans as well as for animals (remember “wolf sleep”). This is how babies sleep. People often naturally come to this mode in extreme conditions: in war, for example.

Everything said above about the “theory” is not my personal point of view, but precisely the basis that the proponents of the “polyphase” provide for their experiments. It seems to me at least controversial and very general. However, the presence of positive reports on the Internet, the charm of the PureDoxyk book and the desire for a magic pill motivated me to try it.

For myself, I decided this: it is obvious that even if the theory is incorrect, “polyphase” takes place in practice. If the stars light up, it means someone needs it. Perhaps such a regime is intended for a person as extreme, and causes harm only in the long term.

I had just left my office job for freelancing and decided to give it a try. Like most whose reports I found on the Internet, I took the “Uberman” mode, developed, in fact, by PureDoxyk.

How it was

Let me tell you right away that I didn’t last long. I did not repeat the mistake of many experimenters and maintained periods of sleep and wakefulness very clearly. I have not encountered another problem that many people write about - the inability to wake up; I always heard the alarm clock and found the will to get up.

I did a number of tasks that I couldn’t get around to for six months (for example, I cleaned a kitchen cabinet covered in greasy soot), and I completed half of the game Call of Cthulhu - in those night hours when I simply could not do anything else because my head was not thinking at all. .

I stopped the experiment on the third day, having encountered a problem that not a single report had warned me about - my heart began to hurt. Not too much, but every time with very specific movements. I got cold feet, noted in the logbook: “the end” and went to sleep.

On the one hand, I never had such problems before or later, but on the other hand, the pain appeared before, in fact, the start of the sleep experiment - obviously, as a result of several days of a completely disordered regimen and an earlier lack of sleep unrelated to this experience . The new regime only made them regular and strengthened them.

Therefore, despite having experience, I never formed a final opinion about such a dream. It is obvious that if you try, you need to take this attempt extremely seriously and prepare even more carefully. Although the experiment lasted only a short time, I had a lot of unusual psychological sensations that were even worse than lack of sleep. Sleep began to feel like some kind of existential value, and the realization that you won’t be able to get enough sleep in the future, that this regime is here forever, is really scary.

Perhaps I'll try again in the future. But I would like to warn those who want to conduct such experiments once again: preparation is required. Well, and, probably, the approach itself, when you increase your effectiveness as such - the intensive approach - is more correct than the extensive one: an attempt to simply “stretch out time” without solving deep-seated organizational problems.

Reading time: 4 minutes

It is believed that polyphasic sleep techniques can increase the time spent awake and reduce the time spent sleeping to 4 or 6 hours a day, and perhaps even to 2.

Polyphasic sleep is the practice of sleeping multiple times in a 24-hour period, usually more than twice, as opposed to biphasic sleep (twice a day) or monophasic sleep (once a day).

There are currently no studies on polyphasic sleep. Only a few activists try these polyphasic sleep techniques on themselves.

The most common polyphasic sleep techniques, there are 5 of them:

1. "Dymaxion". Sleep only 2 hours a day. 30 minutes of sleep every 6 hours.

2. "Uberman". Sleep like in Dymaxion is only 2 hours a day, only here you need to sleep 20 minutes every 4 hours.

3. "Everyman". Here you are supposed to sleep 2-3 hours at night and 3 times during the day for 20 minutes.

4. "Siesta". A very common technique is to sleep for 1 hour at lunchtime and once at night for 5 hours.

5. "Tesla". Afternoon nap - 20 minutes and 2 hours of sleep at night.

Let's look at these polyphasic sleep techniques in more detail.

1. Dymaxion.

The term "Dymaxion" refers to the concept of using technology and resources to their maximum power while using minimal resources.

The Dymaxion sleep schedule involves sleeping 4 times a day for 30 minutes, every 6 hours, usually at or around the 6 o'clock mark.

So, sleep at 6 am, 12 pm, 6 pm and 12 am for about 30 minutes. Of course, this is consistent with the general concepts of polyphasic sleep.

Apparently this results in a total of 2 hours of quiet time, the same amount obtained with the Uberman polyphasic sleep technique. It turns out that the body simply needs an absolute minimum of 2 hours of sleep every day.

Scientists found that many had problems following this sleep schedule. It is believed that a break between sleeps of 6 hours is difficult to adapt to, and a 30-minute nap is more of an adjustment.

2. Uberman

Many believe that Leonardo da Vinci gained power over time during the day with the Uberman technique of polyphasic sleep. For at least part of his life he did not get a proper night's sleep. In general, the beliefs of some about how Da Vinci slept is the basis for the Uberman polyphasic sleep technique.

The Uberman sleep schedule consists of 6 naps of 20 minutes each in equal increments. Every 4 hours there is a 20-minute nap, we can say that during this time a person only has time to take a nap.

That's all. No other sleep at night.

It is extremely difficult to adapt to such a regime. If you or someone you know is about to try polyphasic sleep, it's worth considering other, simpler polyphasic sleep techniques first before moving on to the Uberman technique.

3. Everyman (everyman of sleep).

The term "Everyman" was coined by the same person who coined the term Uberman.

Most people work during the day. A relatively normal working day is 8 hours, although many people work a little longer.

Many polyphasic sleep techniques cause severe inconvenience. Everyman is designed to work around people's normal lives.

It consists of a period of sleep at night, when people are already accustomed to sleeping, and then a limited number of naps during the day, usually three.

In the “traditional” Everyman technique, the sleep schedule is a core period of 3 hours of sleep from 1 to 4 am, then 20 minutes at 9 am, 2 pm, and 9 pm.

But, for a working person, a sleep schedule from about 11 pm to 2 am, then 20 minutes at 7 am, 12 pm, and 6 pm is more suitable.

If you're interested or just want to experiment with polyphasic sleep but aren't sure you can do it, then the Everyman technique might be a good choice for you.

4. Siesta.

Siesta is the most common polyphasic sleep technique and involves taking two separate segments of sleep during the day—one at night, and one nap in the middle of the day.

There are three different two-phase schedules.

"Power Siesta" schedule involves sleeping 20 minutes in the middle of the day and 5-6 hours at night, and the more common "Long Siesta" involving 4.5-5.5 hours of sleep at night and 60-90 minutes of sleep during day, and of course segmented sleep (which we will not talk about in this article).

5. Tesla.

Tesla is one of the greatest inventors in the world, he claimed to sleep only 2-3 hours a day.

“I don't think there is a better feeling that goes through the human heart than the feeling of being an inventor, when you see a creation in the brain and everything turns to success... such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, All."
~ Nikola Tesla.

This method involves staying awake for almost 22 hours every day: sleeping 1.5 - 2 hours a day and taking a nap for 15 - 20 minutes every four hours of wakefulness. If Tesla claims to only sleep 2 or so hours a day, he may have tried this method too.

Tesla is often compared to another famous inventor, Thomas Edison, who claims to sleep only 4-5 hours a night.

So we have looked at the most common techniques for polyphasic sleep; before you start using these techniques, it is worth remembering that the side effects of polyphasic sleep have not yet been fully studied.

"site", thank you so much for successfully completing our project.
All our depression, lack of energy, mental breakdowns evaporated.
You allowed us to start getting the most out of life by taking the entire organization of the transition into your own hands.
We would like to wish you prosperity, many brilliant ideas and grateful clients.
Advice for beginners: The most difficult issue to overcome with this sleep schedule is the social aspect, since the working hours of modern occupations do not allow for the necessary periods of sleep at regular intervals. Osho (spiritual guru):

I have seen this in my practice:

• Without sleep for 3-5 days, the speed of mental reactions and performance decreases, disorientation in the environment occurs, fatigue occurs, fine motor skills are impaired, hallucinations are possible, sudden memory loss and slurred speech are sometimes observed, and the immune system is weakened.
• Without sleep for 6-8 days, psychopathy and other mental disorders occur.
• Without sleep for 2 weeks a person dies.

Thank you very much for helping to make all my dreams come true!
Thanks to you, my sleep schedule turned out exactly the way I wanted!
Sleep is a very important period in the life of every person.
Sleep is the main factor determining our health.
Unfortunately, many people have developed a disdainful attitude towards sleep.
This is a big mistake. We must always take care of our sleep and respect the sleep of others. Vladimir (former polyphasic sleep practitioner):

It turns out that persistent hibernate clutters up the memory of not only the computer.
No, no tragedies happened, everything was spinning and developing quite well, a lot of interesting and necessary things were done, but I simply cannot forgive myself for the fact that during such a huge gap of time I did not come up with anything new, my imagination and creative abilities weakened. I forgot a lot of what I came up with. I abandoned a lot of things that I simply should not have allowed myself to abandon.
And in more than three months, one after another, aikido training, regular trips to the pool, and jogging fell off - and in total I gained 10 kg in weight. For half a year.
Yes, maybe I just don’t know how to cook and this is the result of my mistakes
It's funny - it seemed like work was in full swing. In fact, in polyphasic sleep mode, work can be in full swing for a librarian, a tangerine sorter, or a boy picking up tennis balls at matches.
If someday (I really wouldn’t want to, of course) I do work for which imagination and creative abilities are not needed, I’ll think about it, maybe I’ll come back. Valera and Maria (supporters of monophasic sleep):

1. Adaptation: the first two weeks are very difficult, you walk around broken, sleep throws you off schedule and you need to adapt first.
2. Dependence on sleep: you need to sleep both day and night.
3. Sleep here and now: the ability to quickly fall asleep and wake up: standing in the subway, sitting behind the wheel on the side of the road, playing with a child.
4. Relatives: relevant for those who have a family, because staying awake without making sounds is not an easy task.
5. Experience: there is not a single experience where a person lived in a polyphasic regime for a sufficiently long period of time (at least several years), so the long-term consequences are, at a minimum, unclear.
6. Attention: it will be spent on fighting your own body, there is a danger of someone from outside manipulating you (temporary lack of attention).
7. Reality: the dreams were more vivid, but often they and reality were mixed up in my head. Time becomes almost tangible, very viscous. It seems like more than a month has passed, but in fact the first week is just ending.
8. Disclaimer: coffee, strong tea, alcohol, energy drinks, stimulants are prohibited.
9. Discipline: You have to be a very disciplined person to subordinate your body to your mind.

You yourself understand that with my work and position it is necessary to know about everything, but there is not enough time for everything.
I first became acquainted with the polyphasic sleep technique while at the university. Of course, the gingerbread cookies don’t fall from above right away. I had to learn.
But since then I regularly use polyphasic sleep.
This helps to be free from time pressure, avoid nervous breakdowns, emotional stress, and fatigue.
The only inconvenience arises when official events fall into the sleep stage, but during such periods sleep lasts no more than 10 minutes.
If I were giving advice to beginners, I would say: “Either learn or goodbye” and “Freedom is better than lack of freedom.”

The modern adult is interested not just in sleep patterns, but in effective sleep patterns. Unfortunately, many people think - how to reduce sleep time in order to get an increase in wakefulness? And in fact, if you reduce sleep every day by just 1 hour, you will have as many as 23 more days in the year. A very tempting offer - which is why sleep is the most common creditor of time.

The negative effect of accumulated sleep deficit is quite comparable to the harmful scourges of the modern lifestyle: smoking, sedentary lifestyle, poor diet. Sleep deficiency causes metabolic changes similar to the effects of aging. That is why it is important to know what sleep pattern is correct and whether you actually have the correct sleep pattern.

The vast majority of studies conducted in specially created sleep centers have found that a person needs to sleep 8 hours a day. Plus/minus 1 hour, taking into account the individual characteristics of the body. Under normal conditions, a person goes through 5 full cycles during sleep, each lasting 90-100 minutes: if 100 minutes are multiplied by 5 cycles and divided by 60 minutes, the optimal sleep time is about 8 hours.

What time do you need to go to bed to get enough sleep? The optimal time for sleep is the period of the day from 11 pm to 7 am. This routine was developed by nature itself:

• at 22:00 the human body begins to prepare for rest;
• from 23-00 to 1-00 the metabolic process in the body slows down, body temperature decreases, and pulse rate increases;
• from 2 to 3 am the body does not produce hormones, all chemical reactions are slowed down;
• at 4 am a new circadian rhythm begins. The stress hormone cortisol is released into the blood, which triggers awakening processes;
• from 5 to 6 am the body awakens, metabolism accelerates, the level of sugars and amino acids increases;
• 7 am is the ideal time to wake up - the body craves physical activity, the digestive system functions perfectly.

Of course, exceptions to this regime are possible. Until now, in villages you can find such an established way of life, when people go to bed early, around 20-00 - 21-00, and get up at 5 in the morning “with the roosters” to feed the cattle and perform other necessary work. And with this daily routine they feel great. This is a healthier sleep and rest regime, formed by biological rhythms, than violence against the body when a person goes to bed at 2-3 am and gets up at 10-11 am.

Non-standard mode: biphasic sleep

Another type of sleep that has formed at the biological level is a biphasic sleep-wake pattern. Since in the Middle Ages and earlier people spent up to 14 hours a day in the dark, especially in winter, the body developed the so-called biphasic sleep as a protective reaction. Many people still have a subconscious craving for biphasic sleep. These are people who, immediately after finishing the working day, regardless of whether they were engaged in physical or mental labor, feel irresistible drowsiness and go home, where they sleep for 3-4 hours. After that, they wake up and stay awake for about the same amount of time, doing housework, spending time reading, using the computer, and watching TV. And then they fall asleep again and sleep for the remaining required amount of time.

The remnants of biphasic sleep, which has developed over centuries, can be traced through Christian worship. In which, after the evening service, there was always a pause for rest and then at midnight a special night service, the Midnight Office, was read. This order of service is still observed in monasteries.

It should be noted that after the first part of sleep, people wake up immediately after REM sleep, when memory and attention are cleared, active and functional.

Routine that includes naps

In many cultures, napping is a major focus of a healthy sleep routine at the national level. Pros of napping:

• improving memory and other cognitive functions;
• daytime sleep helps to transfer accumulated information from short-term memory to long-term memory;
• daytime respite stimulates creativity and increases learning ability;
• helps to resist stress;
• improves mood.

How to restore sleep patterns

Normal, full sleep is one of the components of a healthy lifestyle for a person. Disruption of sleep patterns, even for a short time, is fraught with nervous pathologies and exacerbation of chronic diseases. The consequences of a disturbed sleep pattern are headaches, irritability, fatigue, drowsiness, deterioration of memory and concentration. How to restore sleep patterns and return to normal life.

If, for some reason, the daily routine has gone wrong, falling asleep has become more difficult, normalization of sleep is required. Usually in such a situation, in order to normalize sleep, it is necessary to gradually shift sleep time to normal. You need to go to bed each time 30 minutes closer to your desired time of falling asleep. If you can’t sleep, you can use some means to normalize sleep. You can also force yourself to fall asleep if your sleep is disrupted due to jet lag.

How to normalize sleep if it is disturbed as a result of some temporary important night work or session. How to force yourself to go to bed with a broken routine? Improving sleep needs to be rebuilt gradually. You can introduce a special ritual for sleep that will help you get into a routine, you can use psychopractices that will help you rearrange your irregular schedule. Aromatherapy, the sounds of a babbling stream, and soft soothing music will help you start getting enough sleep. All these recommendations are effective only in the absence of diseases leading to insomnia.

List of used literature:

• Zepelin H. Normal age related changes in sleep // Sleep Disorders: Basic and Clinical Research / ed. by M. Chase, E. D. Weitzman. - New York: SP Medical, 1983. - P. 431-434.
• Morrissey M., Duntley S., Anch A., Nonneman R. Active sleep and its role in the prevention of apoptosis in the developing brain. // Med Hypotheses: journal. - 2004. - Vol. 62, no. 6. - P. 876-9. - PMID 15142640.
• Marks G., Shaffery J., Oksenberg A., Speciale S., Roffwarg H. A functional role for REM sleep in brain maturation. // Behav Brain Res: journal. - 1995. - Vol. 69, no. 1-2. - P. 1-11. - PMID 7546299.