Hey all,
I recognize that some people don't regard polyphasic sleep as the same as biphasic sleep, but nevertheless, I haven't been able to find any thread for biphasic logs, and I think that it's still worthwhile to post our own experiences.
My own story is that I'm starting Law school in the Fall, and have a number of activities that I would like to be able to continue to pursue while I manage my time to study effectively.
While polyphasic sleep sounds very compelling and interesting, I'm not willing to sacrifice my ability to hang out with friends for longer than three hours (or for that matter, to do ANYTHING for longer than three hours). I know that Steve discovered that he could stretch one nap to about 6 hours, but this is still a stopgap at best.
In order to accommodate my desire for more time, but still be able to have a social life, I've decided to experiment with biphasic sleeping, taking a core sleep at night, and a 90 minute nap during the day. This effectively reduces the amount of time that I am sleeping from 8 hours to 6 hours. An additional 2 hours every day should be sufficient for my goals, while not forcing me to sacrifice too much of the things I enjoy in a "monophasic society".
I've been blogging the experience here:
Biphasic Sleep Journal - Week One - Adam's House o' Fun but am reproducing the first week's journal here for those that are interested. So far the experiment has been a success, and my body has very quickly adapted to the change in sleeping pattern; I suspect that this has to do with the fact that I am still making use of its natural 90 minute sleep cycles, rather than trying to train an entirely new way of approaching REM sleep (as is the case with polyphasic sleepers, training their body to hit all the phases of sleep in 20 minutes).
--Adam
Read on:
Bi-phasic Sleep Journal - Week One
Started: August 17
Day 1 (Monday)
Discussed options with Bay, and agreed that going to sleep together was something we wanted to maintain. Went to bed at 11:00 with Bay, and set my alarm for 3:30, aiming for 4.5 hours of sleep (three intervals of ninety minutes each). Woke up around 1:30ish, went to bathroom. Checked clock to make sure I'm on track, and fell back asleep. Woke up again at 3:20, checked alarm, went to bathroom and got up.
Took me a little bit of time to get into gear. Worked out, reviewed e-mail, completed a task off my TODO list and started on another, this time reviewing and learning about AppleScript.
8:00
Starting to get a little bit sleepy. Going to head out of the house to attempt to snap out of it. Yawning.
-Nap-
Fell asleep quite easily, and napped for the full time. Woke up at one point and realized I had been dreaming. This had occurred within less than 30 minutes, as my iPod was still playing and I'd set it to shut off in 30 minutes. This is the first time in my experiment that I've actually felt compelled to fall back asleep after getting up.
Day 2 (Tuesday)
Went to sleep with Bay at 11, and stayed up until around 11:20 talking. Set my alarm for 4 to give myself 10 minutes to fall asleep and then 4.5 hours from then until I needed to wake up. Alarm went off at 4 (I didn't wake up naturally before it this time), but it was quite easy to get up. I had obviously just finished a sleep cycle, as I was able to rise out of bed fairly quickly and didn't feel groggy. Brushed my teeth, worked out, and started on a few projects. It's now 6:00 and I still feel pretty on the ball.
Have not been yawning today, though it is now 12:30, and I can tell that my body is starting to prepare itself for a nap. My eyelids feel just slightly sandy.
-Nap-
Again fell asleep easily. I noted that I was partially aware of myself falling asleep, much like yesterday. Perhaps this is the doorway toward lucid dreaming.
I woke up briefly at 4:00 to check my alarm, out of fear that I was sleeping through it but this turned out to be baseless. Went back to sleep and woke up again at 4:23, and then got back to my routine. The most annoying part about sleeping is how greasy my face feels when I wake up - easily remedied by washing my face, still, annoying.
Otherwise I feel fully awake and refreshed. So far I'm enjoying biphasic.
Day 3 (Wednesday)
Again went to sleep at 11, aiming for consistency. This was probably the hardest time waking up yet. It wasn't really hard per se, it was just difficult to drag myself out of bed. I think I may have been in the final stages of REM sleep, as I was in the middle of some kind of imagery when my alarm went off. The biggest thing I miss is that feeling of waking up from 8 hours of sleep. However, I suspect that that may just be a mental thing, rather than an actual physiological thing. Based on my performance (physical and mental) I don't think I'm actually accumulating sleep debt, though that will remain to be seen toward the end of this week when I will feel most inclined to sleep in.
-Nap-
Falling into bed for the scheduled nap felt relaxing as always. I slept fairly soundly, waking up briefly before falling back asleep again, and woke up 10 minutes before my alarm went off - usually the indication of the end of my sleep cycle it seems.
Interestingly, when napping, I am usually much more aware of the process of me falling asleep, this time remaining conscious throughout the process of my limbs twitching a little bit prior to actually falling asleep. Again no trouble waking up, but I sure do hate the greasy feeling I have on my face whenever I take a nap. I've established the following routine upon waking up from a nap: brush mouthguard, brush teeth, wash face with cold water. This process is a familiar routine and helps get my mind back into the state of wakefulness. The cold water on my face feels great and refreshing.
--Continued on next Post--