I think the article points out a useful fallacy: that polyphasic sleep means you can get away with less sleep. We should probably move away from trying to get less sleep, and move toward getting better sleep. This may reduce our waking hours, but would make those hours more productive. Having 18 hours a day available isn't much help if you're a tired confused angry mess.

> Polyphasic sleep purportedly had famous practitioners such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Napoleon, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Edison, but there is scant evidence to prove such claims. Buckminster Fuller appears to be one of the first documented polyphasic sleepers

Roger Ekirch did some work around historical accounts of sleep and found "the second sleep" referred to biphasic sleep, and that this was common and well known.

https://www.history.vt.edu/Ekirch/sleepcommentary.html

And some reporting of his work:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783

https://www.sciencealert.com/humans-used-to-sleep-in-two-shi...