I wasn't subscribed during your polyphasic experiment, so this is my first introduction to the topic.
What a shocker for me - I didn't even *know* there were official technical terms for folks like me who sleep in 2 shifts. I have always been this way. I've tried, tried, tried to get out of it and sleep "like a normal person" (always due to the nagging of my parents both as a kid and even now when I'm mid-thirties and a wife and mom, and just general societal guilt) and my attempts at "normal" (monophasic) sleep NEVER last longer than 2 weeks. My body always forces me back into biphasic sleep.
I am much, much, MUCH more productive and at peace in the wee hours of the morning. There are far less distractions, everything is quiet and peaceful, and I can actually concentrate and get stuff DONE. Compared to the daylight hours when I'm awake, I'm at least 300% more productive at night.
I normally sleep 3-4 hours at "night" -for me this would be starting around 3 or 4 am- and another hour or two at the most in the evening -somewhere between either noon to 2pm or 5 and 7pm (according to what my body needs and when it needs it). A couple days per week I can go without the evening nap; but if I go 2 or 3 days straight without it, I end up crashing; sleeping for a straight 9 hours and feeling like I've been run over by a truck.
Sleeping this way is very flexible and runs according to my physical/mental needs - not some arbitrary schedule that I've set. My own body knows best, regardless of how organized I'd like to be. It is physically impossible for me to say "I will take my evening nap at 5pm every evening"... it just doesn't work like that. I lay down when I need to lay down.
Regarding dreaming: I've also always been a very vivid dreamer all of my life. Full color, in-depth dreams that I can break out of and enter back into at will. I can also take control of my dreams; change things, go back to a certain part, etc. (Quite useful when a dream starts turning uncomfortable.) As a kid I thought everyone could do this; it wasn't until I got into high school that I realized they couldn't.
Reading the other posts here from folks trying poly/bi/tri-phasic sleep (including the list of related discussions) and how many of them had trouble getting past the 2-week period FINALLY validated my own experiences trying to be a "normal" monophasic sleeper - in mirrored form. They're trying to be "weird", I was trying to be "normal". I'm definitely going to be hunting the net for more articles on biphasic sleep now that I know it's an actual VALID documented and even (dare I say it?) normal way of sleeping.
Probably the worst part of this is that my eldest son is also a natural "night owl" like me and that gets him into all kinds of trouble with my husband, who wants the kids in bed by a certain hour every night no matter what. (Funnily enough, he simply accepts MY weird sleep hours as one of my natural "quirks", but he doesn't accept it as "natural" in our son.)
Coming from a lifelong natural biphasic sleeper, let me list some of the cons you'll encounter once you become biphasic:
- Everyone, and I do mean everyone, will give you grief about not sleeping "normal" hours. You'll hear the outdated, based-on-farming-hours quote "early to bed, early to rise" far more than you'd ever thought possible. It will be hard to restrain yourself from simply smacking people when they look down their nose and quip this ancient outdated "wisdom" at you.
- You'll end up being asleep when your significant other (who is on monophasic sleep) is awake. This can cause some resentment from them; especially if you have children that they then have to handle alone for the evening nap. But hey, if you're a stay-at-home parent like I am (we also homeschool so the kids are here ALL day), it's only fair play, lol. Be aware that your *opportunity* for "quality time" with the family is reduced; but it doesn't have to be if you're creative. In my case, I get plenty of quality time with my kids all day long because they're not heading off to school for 10 hours a day. Plus I consider my hubby's time with the kids to be *his* daily "quality time".
- Running errands becomes a real pain in the butt. Luckily, more stores are switching over to a 24-hour format, but certainly not enough of them.
- Your electric bill will change since you're using more power to keep things lit up while it's dark out. On a good note, these are the hours when electricity is the cheapest, and if you remember to turn off the computers during "peak" hours and do something else such as household chores during that time, you'll actually see your bill decrease instead of rise.
I hope that more of you can make a real switch over to multiple sleep cycles. It would certainly help me, as the more of us there are, the more society itself will stop trying to dictate when we should sleep and they'll make operating hours of business more flexible.