[ilvez]

And it feels bad as well. I have polyphasic periods and I'm always relieved when they end. Not sure why I don't feel too good, because I have ways to cope now, but good monophasic sleep makes me wake up rested and without a headache.

[bemusedthrow75]

I think it feels bad because it inevitably messes up one's digestive clock (which is implicated in robustly configuring the sleep clock) and by implication, particularly with modern food, blood sugar levels.

(I suspect that the long cultural stability of the Spanish long siesta has a lot to do with the cultural stability of mealtimes -- and meal types/sizes -- that developed around it.)

The other day I felt queasy, suddenly, after lunch at a normal time -- so queasy I had to write off the day. I then proceeded to sleep for the best part of 24 hours, because all the phases seemed to merge. A literal 24 hour period, useless. Other people lived normal lives in that period; for me it just vanished.

I think blood sugar had a lot to do with that, as well as the time of year (winter in Britain) and it has definitely unnerved me.

I cope by just accepting it; trying to do things when awake. But there are things you can't really do in the middle of the night if you live in a close, quiet neighbourhood; hoovering, running laundry, shredding documents, even some printers are noisy.

[ilvez]

Yes, accepting is big part. I read mostly and recently trying to meditate as well. Doing nothing productive to not signal that we actually should wake up. Especially bad are the nights when sleep comes after more than 2h of wake time.

I'm trying to watch it from blood sugar perspective, I'm pretty good at extending periods between meals due to intermittent fasting, but there may be connections since Im not fasting all the time.

[boomboomsubban]

Feeling queasy then sleeping for a day sounds like more like the 24 hour flu than something blood sugar related.

[satvikpendem]

Because it takes time to adapt fully. Your polyphasic periods are more like stopping and restarting a routine that disallow your body from adaptation. Those who adapt fully over the course of a month feel as good as you do during monophasic sleep.