Insomnia, PL? Or life circumstances preventing sleep?
I know how you feel, BP. :/
I have sort of a semi-biphasic/siesta sleep schedule going on, and it kind of works for me.
It varies from day to day whether I follow that or the traditional "monophasic" schedule, but on biphasic days I have a core sleep period at night with a shorter nap--between 1-3 hours--around noon.
Thing is, I usually don't bother with a nap that's less than an hour long unless I'm incredibly exhausted. Mostly since it takes me a while to fall asleep. When it takes me at least 20 minutes to fall asleep, a 20 minute nap is pointless.
My daily schedule is different every day, with classes in the mornings 3 days a week, and work in the afternoon-evening 5 days a week. I have a few hours between school and work on two of those days, which is ideal for naps. On those days, I get maybe 4-6 hours of sleep the night before, so the nap really helps. On the other days I try to get about 7-8 hours, and if less, I just do without and try to catch up on other days or weekends.
I think this schedule works for me since I'm pretty sure I have some sort of
circadian rhythm disorder. I can force myself to be on a consistent sleep schedule for maybe a week or two, but after that it shifts to something totally bizarre, and it takes at least a few days before I can get it back on track. So being able to take naps is really helpful for me.
Man, I wish we lived in a society where siestas were commonplace. Also, I hate having to waste a third of my life just sleeping. But, unfortunately for the most part, anything other than a monophasic or possibly biphasic cycle is just impractical for holding a job. So yeah. :/