Will this really work though? I've been taught that sleep cycles are very individual and you should measure your own by doing the following. Next evening, stay

Will this really work though? I've been taught that sleep cycles are very individual and you should measure your own by doing the following. Next evening, stay up late, when you start to get tired start a timer and force yourself to be up until you're a little less tired (sleep cycle), then use the timer somehow to calculate your sleep cycle. Sorry for trailing off there but I don't really remember the specifics but I remember I calculated my own sleep cycle to be 1.5 hours back then. So far all I've done with this information is that if my alarm is set to 06:10, and I wake up at 05:45, I get up instead of trying to go back to sleep. I'd only seriously try to go back to sleep if I woke up at around 04:30-04:45.