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Originally Posted by Joe826  Hey guys,
Great work here. I started my biphasic sleeping a week ago today and it's been pretty cool. I'm now sleeping in 4.5 hour/90 minute chunks, but before that I would sleep 7-9 hours a day with no regard to the quality of sleep I was getting (eating right before bed, drinking coffee late, etc.)
Just a couple questions for those of you who've been at it for sometime:
- Every morning I have a period of atleast two hours were I'm so tired and groggy that I don't feel like getting anything done. I'm just without motivation at all, so I usually end up watching TV and trying not to fall back asleep. I usually hit my stride by 8:30 or 9:00 if I'm lucky. This might just be a result of my adaptation phase (today is only day 7), but can any of you comment on this? Is there anything you do in the morning to get yourself going earlier?
- At what point should I start tweaking stuff? Right now i'm sleeping from 1:30 AM to 6:00 AM, and then from 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM. I noticed that my nap is taken several hours earlier than most of you take yours. I don't struggle with being overly tired at night so I'm not sure that it's a problem, but if it's some how affecting my time in the morning then maybe I should adjust.
I just find that taking the 2:30 PM nap frees up my evening, and since I work at home, the rest of the world is still at work.
- What health habits have you found beneficial? I use to drink lots of coffee and soda throughout the day and even up until I went to sleep, so now I'm trying to cut back. I drink one or two cups of coffee in the morning (mostly to wake myself up), and then maybe a cup of green tea throughout the day. I think this might be interfering with my 2:30 nap.
- Any nap tips? I find that there's alot more noise to contend with during the day from neighbors and the street. I don't think I've had a really good nap yet.
Thanks for all the help so far, this thread has been a great resource. |
Hey Joe (I'll refrain from the usual song-related jokes, just this once).
Congrats on making it through the first week. That's the most difficult part, so it's just a matter of refining things from here.
I'm not about to be hypocritical enough to say 'give up coffee' or anything (I still have a couple of cups a week, and several cups of green tea a day); but it will affect your sleep. For me, it disrupts the nap even if I have it 7-8 hours beforehand.
This disruption generally means I can't get a full 80-90 minute nap, and instead I only have 15-20 minutes. I'll then try and get another 20 minute nap a few hours later, or simply add 90 minutes onto my core sleep. Either way, I'm fine the next day.
There are a few things you can do.
1) Carry on with your current routine for another few days and see if you're tired simply due to the transition phase (you will definitely be tired during this phase, and only you can tell how much this affects you).
2) Hold off on the coffee for a week or two, and see if that makes a difference. Have a couple of cups of green tea instead - it'll still have caffeine, but usually not as much.
3) Move the nap to later in the afternoon/evening. This will both increase the distance from the coffee, and reduce the time until the core sleep. Win-win.
As for nap tips, I've got (and heard from others on this site) plenty of them. Try the things above first though, so you can see which one works the best for you.
Healthwise, it's just the stuff your parents have probably been telling you for years. Less coffee, less alcohol, less sugar and more exercise. The usual suspects.