Between sanity & insomnia lies polyphasic sleep, sleeping in short bursts.

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All the talk about sleep and how much sleep is good sent me hunting for facts( yeah there is something called fact ) .. here is synopsis of what i found and concluded i am polyphasic.

Most of us are monophasic sleepers, sleeping in one long stretch at night.

Biologically, however, we are a biphasic species. EEGs reveal how the brain enters into a lengthy sleep mode a night and then has a midday dip in alertness. The rest of the body follows, with organs and various body functions, down to the cellular level, showing a biphasic activity cycle. Many societies cater to this need with a siesta.
Why we sleep

One leading theory of why we sleep, as opposed to merely needing to rest, is that sleep allows the brain to process information gathered during the day and place some of it into deep memory. Without question, cognitive skills diminish when the body is sleep deprived.

Human sleep comes in 90-minute cycles, comprising approximately 65 minutes of non-REM sleep, 20 minutes of REM, and another five minutes of a transitional non-REM. Most of us get four or five cycles each night. REM sleep is considered the most restful, and studies show that disruption of REM as opposed to the other cycles causes the worse sleep deprivation.

Memory-related theories (source wikipedia)

According to one theory, certain memories are consolidated during REM sleep. Numerous studies have suggested that REM sleep is important for consolidation of procedural memory and spatial memory. (Slow-wave sleep, part of non-REM sleep, appears to be important for declarative memory.) A recent study^[7] shows that artificial enhancement of the non-REM sleep improves the next-day recall of memorized pairs of words. Tucker et al.^[8] demo

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nstrated that a daytime nap containing solely non-REM sleep enhances declarative memory but not procedural memory. However, in people who have no REM sleep (because of brain damage), memory functions are not measurably affected.^[9]

The core theory behind polyphasic sleep is that, you can enter a phase in which napping takes you straight into REM. You eliminate the so-called unnecessary aspects of sleep.