For the past 2 months I’ve had the same problem.  I can’t get more than 4.5 hours of sleep a night.  I’ve tried everything.  Regulating my sleep and wake time.  Renouncing caffeine (something my ThinkGeek brothers would consider blasphemous).  Removing the TV from the bedroom.  No naps.  Relaxation CDs, etc.

So after 2 months of this and more and more Google searches, I am changing my approach.  I’m leaving the monophasic world and entering the polyphasic.  With polyphasic sleep, you sleep for short periods multiple times a day, rather than one long sleep a day with monophasic.

There are a couple of different ways of doing it, from six 20-25 minute naps to three or four 90 minute naps.  I am going to try the latter approach, which I have done in the past when I had looming deadlines on important projects.  Basically I would sleep when I was tired, and as soon as I would wake up I’d go straight back to work.  In other words I took a 3 hour nap at night and two 90 minute naps during the day.  I never remember being tired when I was on those regiments, but I do remember being highly productive. 

Once the project was over I would immediately revert back to my monophasic ways, happy to be done with whatever project I was working on.  I never knew it was a way of life for some people. 

From reading about it, polyphasic sleep does make sense.  Almost all animals in nature exhibit polyphasic sleeping patterns.  Newborns are born polyphasic sleepers and have to be taught not to take naps as they grow up.  There are also studies of people who are isolated from an external environment that develop polyphasic behaviors without the sun or a clock to reinforce their traditional sleeping patterns.

So I am going to try it.  I just woke up from a 90 minute nap and I’m feeling refreshed.  I’ll have one caffeine drink now and will sleep for another 90 minutes when I tire.  Hopefully this will help me feel more rested.  I’ll report back in a few weeks to let you know how it goes, after a doctor’s checkup.