Polyphasic sleep?

Does anybody here follow an alternative sleep schedule? I'm thinking of trying to adapt to one. I am a total and complete night owl, but I have to get up at 5 for work. I work for two hours, then have a 4 hour break, then work for another 4 hours and get home at 6 pm. I've been trying to sleep at 9 pm so I can wake up at 5 and stay awake all day. The problem is, the second the sun goes down my brain wakes up. I don't like taking sedatives to make myself sleep. I've been reading some articles about sleeping in two cycles and I'm considering getting about 5 hours of sleep at night and then taking a nap between my shifts during the day. Has anyone followed a similar schedule and made it work? I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

Hey rayne
Never tried that, no.
That's a pretty crazy schedule, you do that every day?

The sleep or the work? The work yes, every day, the sleep, no. I try to do 8 hours between 9 and 5 but don't always manage it. Then I get tired and end up napping erratically so my sleep schedule isn't really a schedule. It's stressful to me because I like to be a scheduled person. So I'm considering trying to adapt the napping thing into a schedule and stop trying to force myself to adhere to a 9-5 sleep thing. Apparently alternative sleep schedules are a thing, according to my research, but I'm trying to find a person who has actually done it rather than just writing about it in an article ^_^ or the take on it from regular people. Can't just trust something because it's in a catchy online article lol!

Hi,
I worked shifts for more than thirty years. Sometimes 12 hours on, 12 hours off, even 24 hours onand 48 off, mostly a three shift system of days afternoons and nights.
My biggest problem was that the digestion system never gets used to shiftwork and I ate very little or nothing on nightshifts or afternoon shifts, instead of eating I had a nap or just relaxed for ten/twenty minutes. That helped me to keep allert and rested.
Your idea of 5 hours sleep at night and a nap before the second work period sound very reasonable.
Also if you have a break in your 4 hours, relax for a few minutes and that will help you stay allert.

You might want to try getting a better work schedule. This one does not agree with you.

Lol ^.^ I really can't pick and choose with my work schedule, it just isn't an option at all. It took me months to find a job that paod halfway decent money. Everything else has to fall in place around it.

I tried the nap thing today with sleeping 6 hours last night and then taking a 1.5 hour nap between shifts and it's working pretty well so far. I feel really alert :-)