Hi all Polyphasic Sleep loggers! This has really turned into a great thread, thanks David for "pressing on" yourself to get it going. The Switching to Biphasic Sleeping... thread is also great.
I'm going to be in and out the next week or so, due to the holidays but will post this below as a "start up" for what I'll plan to do after January 1. I've posted the same below in the "other thread
", then wanted to copy the essentials here as well.
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I decided this morning that once holidays are over (house full of company coming and I've no idea what I'll do til New Year's--probably free sleep like the rest of 'em
), I'll change the experiment......
Since I have gotten an amazing amount out of this whole thing in regards to energy level, focus while awake and actual sleep quality while I'm sleeping, I'm going to keep playing with it and see just what essential elements are most important for this particular individual (that would be me
) at this particular time (that would be now and the near future
). I've identified these elements after the last 30 odd days of experimentation posted mainly on the "post your polyphasic sleep logs here" thread.
-----I've found that planning for
90 minute cycles is real helpful and my sleep physiology quite easily takes to that pattern (e.g., this morning, with a long day and night ahead of me, I decided to add a cycle..so instead of getting up at 3:45am---alarm was set, but I woke up spontaneously at 3:36 to make that decision
)---I decided to get up in one more cycle, at 5:15. Sure enough, I fell back to sleep, awakened very briefly at 4:15 then back to sleep and woke up spot on at 5:15am, ready to go).
-----I've found that sleeping in
two shots per 24hrs allows me great waking time (focus and energy) and great sleeping time (sleep
), with for me, 6 hours per 24, while if I sleep monophasically, I seem to need 7.5 hours. Don't know why, just seems to be that way. I know that I come to feeling sleep deprived after about 4 straight days of only 6 hrs monophasic sleeping and if I cut that into two bites, it's fine.
-----For me, situationally, being able to
get up early with going to bed "normally" is a hoot. I get up at 3:45am much or most of the time (with variances as circumstances change, like now), and going to sleep at 11:15pm seems to work great. It allows me to participate in evening activities with family and friends and to get up early to play and practice music while getting an early start at my "day job"
, all in the same day.
-----Last, I think I've found that I can
engineer the time slots pretty well while at home and while traveling (across two time zones once or twice a month for a week or so at a time), so that even if the times of nap and night sleep change, I can pretty much approximate something similar to my home biphasic sleep pattern and its benefits. That's almost like
budgeting other things--I mainly have to
work out a 1.5hr slot and a 4.5hr slot during each 24 hour period. 1.5 hrs on a plane is superb, almost like a free lunch
.
So, come New Years, I think I will:
---- Aim at that 1.5 plus 4.4 hrs per 24
-----Generally aim at 11:15pm - 3:45 am night sleep and 1.5 hrs nap pretty soon after I get home at 5 or earlier, or later, depending upon the afternoon evening circumstances.
------If, due to circumstances (that's what it generally is), I need to alter those times, then keep to the 1.5 and 4.5 time slots.
-----Log the hours I actually do this and anything relevant about the effects (to see how my "engineering" works, stuff like how close to night can nap be, etc.)
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I'll be back to check in but less than before for the next week or so. '
Good luck, all and Happy Holidays!
Ati