[Ati]

Welcome Andrew and Copla! I

t's great to have more folks here. I expect that we will see real commonalities in amongst the differences in our experiences.

Copla, if you have a quick run through of posts here over that last 3-4+++ weeks or so, you'll see that falling "off the wagon" is the norm, not the exception!

That may change as we come towards our 30 day marks or it may not. Maybe our perceptions of those variances will change as we find out how to make sense of them or deal with them in other ways.

One thing that is really impressive to me is that in spite of how many times I've either overslept or missed naps, the overall effect still seems to be real positive---
1. I have not seen the energy drain that I repeatedly saw before. This is a significant difference and reversal (so far ) of something I've had to live with for years, and have used all kinds of dietary, exercise and other strategies to overcome. Right there, that's enough to make this worthwhile
2. I can repeatedly get 6 hours total daytime sleep without feeling sleep deprived (now, I ask my self if oversleeping is a result of actually needing more sleep than 6/24 hours and I answer "good question, kiddo , but I don't have the same sort of immensely tired feeling....so something is different...that widens the possibilities that it's not an absolute sleep deprivation but rather something else.....good chance something modifiable )
3. For me, I can quite consistently get up at 345am and have a chunk of time to do things I want/need to do while still having plenty of time later in that day for work, family, other things. The nap doesn't seem to actually get in the way of anything, interestingly enough! This isn't physiological as much as logistical, but in this busy world, having time to oneself to do things alone can be a scarcity.
4. The 90 minute things is fascinating--automatically waking up and recognizing that slip of time that fully waking up with good energy is possible...

So please don't even think the word "fail" I don't think it's like that...We can take from our monophasic/freesleeping experiences and our monophasic/freesleeping buddies in the world, the realization that sometimes we get an hour or two extra sleep and sometimes we take a nap, etc.

I agree David that we do need a bit of extra discipline to do this....probably because we are not operating on the same social cues as the rest of the world..maybe because of something else. Maybe there is something physiological there as well, although with just a bit of discipline up front, it seems the physiological kicks in...like the automatic awakenings at or before 90 minutes..

Originally Posted by David Hausladen

.... I think the more consistency I apply to my biphasic sleep schedule, the more energy I'll get out of it for the time that I put into it.

I do still think that as well, but may need to wait til after the holidays to really see it, we'll see....

Originally Posted by David Hausladen

It isn't always immediately apparent that you need a given sleep period at the scheduled time. It's basically the same problem that's experienced by monophasic sleepers with staying up too late--just twice a day instead of once, and with the problem being more significant because consistency is more important to biphasic sleep.

In short: yup, it's definitely self-discipline in my case, and it sounds like in your case as well.

Yah, but also circumstances, sometimes we just have to be patient with ourselves. For example, I have a student working with me now...that's more to do, although really good all around. The holidays...Getting ready for some musical stuff early in January...Getting ready to go visit my parents next week....Getting our house and lives ready for holiday family company for a week....all that....Some time periods just have more in them and it's going to be more difficult to maintain a semblance of a non-socially-cued sleep pattern. What's going to be most interesting to me is just what part of this holds together--how little can I actually stay on track, while aiming for the top...and still reap the physiological rewards???? (No matter how much the schedule has been goofed up, I've felt incredibly good compared to prior for the past 21 days!) That's a good question to try to answer during this time period--It's only about 3 1/2 weeks after all.

Will be real interesting to then see both that and how things are during the next 3 weeks after all this hubadub is over, as good as it is!

Originally Posted by David Hausladen

Good question. My "rough draft" of an answer: 7 days in a row with core sleep and nap consistently on-schedule, no more than one 25-minute catnap on any particular day. (For me, the number of catnaps in the day is a good measure of how tired I was that day, so cutting it to zero or one for a given day would mean I had little or no tiredness that day.)

Really what it means for this to "work" depends on what you wanted from it in the first place: I wanted maximum energy with minimum sleep, so I think the test above would be a good way to confirm that. Also, if it takes me more than 30 days to get there, I'm okay with that since I'm close enough now that I know it's very possible to achieve that goal.

For me, 6 hours/24 with plenty energy and focus is OK. I did have a thought during a brief period of sleeping on track, that maybe I could back that up to 3 cycles, though....

Originally Posted by Wanderer

... I mean, I did have only 3 sleep cycles which is good, but If I dont start napping its never going to work... On the plus side I dont feel tierd so if I can do 3 a night and not feel tierd that would be ace!
I should definately get a nap tomorrow and thursday, then we shall see I guess. Any thoughts on improving it???

I think you'll fall asleep Wanderer, others have had very similar experience to what you're describing here!

Originally Posted by andrew

....So all in all, not really bad. It's really not a lot more sleep that I've been getting, but the 90 minut nap is nice

Great start, Andrew, it's fun to see others' starting. I'm leaving my days on the log for now just in case anyone wants to compare notes in regards to timing of things.

Originally Posted by copla

Wow, COMPLETELY fell apart today in my biphasic schedule. Woke up at 5 after 3 hours per my plan, but at about 1 I decided to take a 20 minute nap, which turned into another, and nother, then it was 4, and at 5 I decided to just take my 1.5 hour nap early. Yowza. I'll just go to bed in ten minutes and then get back on the horse tomorrow, but it's sobering just how quickly you can fail based on a momentary lack of discipline in taking an early nap.

Yah! It goes on....

---
Late evening working, no nap, longer sleep because of full day anticipated today, hope to get back to nap this evening.....

Day 22 12/6 Wed NO NAP//7:30/5Cycles
Day 21 12/5 Tues Nap 530-7P//1:30 +7:30=8:30hrs/5Cycles OVERSLEEP

Day 20 12/4 Mon Nap 5-630P//1:30 + 4.30=6:00hrs/4Cycles

Day 19 12/3 Sun NO NAP//7:30hrs/5Cycles NO NAP

Day 18 12/2 Sat Nap 8-930P//1:30 + 4:30 =6:00hrs/4Cycles

Day 17 12/1 Fri Nap 8:30-10P//1:30+6:00=7:30hrs/5Cycles OVERSLEEP

Day 16 11/30 Thurs Nap 1:30 + 4:30 =6:00hrs/4Cycles
Day 15 11/29 Wed Nap 1:30 + 4:30 = 6:00hrs/4Cycles

Day 14 11/28 Tues Nap 630-8P//1:30+6=7.30hrs/5CyclesOVERSLEEP?ETIO?

Day 13 11/27 Mon Nap 6-730P//1:30+4:30=6:00hrs/4Cycles

Day 12 11/26 Sun XXX

Day 11 11/25 Sat Nap 12N-130P//1:30 + 4:30 = 6:00hrs/ 4Cycles

Day 10 11/24 Fri Nap 530-700P// 1:30 + 8:00hrs = 9:30hrs(!!!)/570m/
6Cycles+30m OVERSLEEP ??TURKEY???

Day 9 11/23 Thurs Nap 330-500P//1:30 + 4:30h = 6hrs /4Cycles

Day 8,7 11/22,21 Wed, Tues XXX
Days 6 11/20 Mon Nap 5-630P//1:30+6:00=7:30 hrs OVERSLEEP
Day 7 11/19 Sun NO NAP//0 + 4:45 hrs (3~+ cycles)NO NAP
Day 6 11/18 Sat NO NAP//0 + 6.5 hrs NO NAP/OVERSLEEP
Day 5 11/17 Fri Nap4-450P//:50+7=7:50hrs/5Cyc/InterruptedNap,OVERSLP

Day 4 11/16 Thurs Nap 615-745P// 1:30 + 4:30 hrs=6hrs/4Cycles

Day 3 11/15 Wed Nap 800-1100PM// 3:00hrs + 4:15= 7:15hrs OVERSLEEP
Day 2 11/14 Tues Nap 730-1030P//3:00+4:30=7:30hrs/5Cycles OVERSLEEP

Day 1 11/13 Monday Nap 630-800PM---1:30+4:30=6hrs/4Cycles

90 min Cycles: 1=1:30hrs; 2=3:00hrs; 3=4:30hrs; 4=6:00hrs; 5=7:30hrs
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