Finally addressed the situation that led to pausing the adaptation attempts. What was funny is that in the interim I was rarely able to get a full night's sleep - I usually ended up with around 6 hours at night and had to nap at some point or crash after a few days of only 6 hours monosleep a night with my activity level and sleep interruption frequency. There were frequent wakes between 1am and 4am regardless of interruptions (unless I was very tired) so taking this into account now.
My current schedule doesn't really allow for a lot of nap rigidity nor for long stretches of monophasic sleep so it's either "something that flexes naps reasonably under my control" or eternal sleep deprivation.
I'm opting for a dual core schedule this time with a 4.5 hour long activity window at night (mostly work, but will benefit academic stuff later when my masters course starts in September if I can adapt). The first core is an early 20:30-01:00 and the second core is a short 05:30-07:00.
I'm also limiting the coffee intake to a small amount before 2am to last me the 4.5 hours and restricting the time I drink coffee to 07:00-12:00 during the day (the earlier the better, but may extend to two coffees and no naps potentially depending on how my schedule will be in a few months).
I've been naturally on a similar schedule for about a week since my work hours shifted. While testing different core lengths: "4.5h core + 1.5h core + 20min afternoon nap" is the longest set I have tried and I'm just after the first core. I'm just about my usual sleep-deprived self so this will be curious. I should be fine after another drop of coffee...
