Autoflowers light hours

i have been growing my northen lights autoflower under 24/0 light hours.

my question is, if i was to reduce light hours to 18/6, would my yeild be reduced?
if so, would going 20/4 do the same thing?

another question is:

my plant has been growing diffrent amounts of leaves as it has been growing, it started out with 1, then went to 3, then 5, there is one odd one that has 6 lol, and the ones at the top are growing 7, is this normal? does it mean the plant is healthy / unhealthy?

many thanks

putting your light on to 18/6 will be fine a lot of growers on here use 18/6 for auto's as for the leaves can you post a pic

thank you for the reply,
i will be putting then on 18/6 instead of 24/0 now hopefully this may even help the plant show more preflowers.

i am not worried about the leaves, they look healthy, i was just asking if the plant has a reason to increase the amount of leaves on branches.
i can see a pattern of the 1, 3, 5, 7. but the one with 6 seems abit odd for me aha - this is my first grow so i am learning as i go along.

as long as the leaves are healthy and green with no burn marks on them you are doing a good job

the only reason to ever have plants on 24/0 is temperature. plants can not photosynthesize more than 18 hours of light per day, thus 18/6 is the most efficient lighting spectrum, for plants and electricity.

24/0 is mostly used in cloning to keep a constant temperature of 26 C.

Edit: its best to have the lights on 18/6 through the flowering phase any ways, as the lowered temperature when the lights are off can help with bud formation.