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deathsushi · 08-25-2009, 03:35 PM

Day 4 (Thursday)

I got up easily, but am finding it fairly difficult to stay focused and awake an hour later (5:00AM). This is the first morning where I have started things off by working out. I've made tea and starting off with some cognitive tasks - we'll see how things go.

After the rough start for the first hour, I'm back on track. The tea may have helped, or it could have been sitting down and doing something that demanded interaction and attention (today that was playing Super Street Fighter 2 - the previous three days it was working out). One thing that I find really nice about sleeping biphasically is that I no longer need to stress out about getting to bed too late.

Typically the amount of sleep that I get would be tied to when I get to bed, as I would not be able to sleep in past my alarm, which I would set to go off to give me enough time to wake up, get ready, and head out the door for work or school. With biphasic sleeping, since I'm typically getting up four hours before I would need to leave for work or anything, I have tons of leeway to stay up a little later than I would normally, without it impacting my ability to get the 4.5 hours that I need for my core sleep.

Being up early has dramatically improved my ability to devote some time to things that I've wanted to accomplish previously, such as dancing - it's pretty easy to book an hour of practice when I don't have any other demands on my time, so that's what I've been doing from 6:00 - 7:00 in the morning.

Day 5 (Friday)

It's getting easier to wake up in the morning, but getting up from the nap can still be a little bit frustrating, as I'm not used to the usual feeling of 'restarting the engine' in the afternoon that comes from waking from a nap. This weekend will be a good test of the biphasic sleeping pattern, and seeing how it fits in with the rest of my life. I have a bit of a dualistic nature when it comes to activity. During the week, I'm very focused on tasks, exercise, and a well-timed schedule. On the weekends, I love hanging out with friends, socializing, partying, and letting things flow in a manner that is much less regimented. Probably most significantly, while I still aim to get the right amount of sleep (I truly believe that getting good rest, drinking lots of water, exercising, and stretching are the closest you can get to a fountain of youth), the times I go to sleep are completely contingent on whatever I end up doing on Friday and Saturday. If I'm going out to the bar (rare), or heading to a friend's place for drinks, it's quite likely that I may not actually get into bed until 2:00AM the next morning. In the past, as long as I made sure I woke up around 9 or 10, I would get enough rest, and not lose my entire day (is there anything worse than sleeping in to noon? I hate doing this).

I'm heading out to a hiphop show with Brooke, Jo, Piper, and Jesse tonight at Plan B (WTF), and suspect that this will lead to a late evening. My intention is to act no differently than I normally would. If biphasic sleeping does not allow me to do the things that I normally would, it isn't going to be a useful thing for me.

-Nap-

Nothing specific to report about my nap today, other than to state that the worst part of biphasic so far is definitely having to go through the waking process a second time every day. When I say waking process, I mean, opening my eyes, shutting off my alarm, getting out of bed, brushing my teeth, cleaning my mouthguard, washing my face, and having something to eat to get things rolling.

The good news is that this is really the only bad thing I can say about it, and I absolutely love the way I feel the rest of the time. My energy levels are more consistent, and I feel motivated and energized throughout the day, rather than experiencing surges of energy at specific points during the day, followed by periods completely lacking in energy. Getting up at 3:30, which sounds utterly disgusting without any context, is awesome when you consider that I wake up easily and feeling fully rested, and then have three hours within which I can work on whatever I like before I even need to start thinking about getting ready for work, school, etc.

Day 6 (Saturday)

So, I had a good night last night, and after Plan B, we went to The Mint to hang out for a bit and chat before finding our separate ways home. I would elaborate more on the night, but this is a journal related to biphasic sleeping, and not a blog or a Facebook status update, so I'll stay focused.

I got in at 2:00 AM this morning, and I usually need about a half hour to wind down prior to being ready for bed. Additionally, I had been drinking at the club, so I was a still a little tipsy when my head hit the pillow at 2:30 (I did, however, make a point of drinking two large bottles of water, as I always do, to ensure that I didn't wake up feeling de-hydrated). I set my alarm for 4.5 hours later, and at 7:00, got up out of bed, once again, feeling refreshed and ready for the day. Honestly, I was pretty amazed. I figured that being out and getting to sleep later would have a detrimental effect on the whole system and play havoc with my new sleeping pattern, but it integrated perfectly.

The thing that I find fascinating is that the only real requirement here is that I get 4.5 hours of core sleep at some point before the next day. With a monophasic sleeping pattern, the main requirement is that you get 7.5 hours of sleep before you get back up. If you go to bed later, that's acceptable, provided that you stay in bed long enough to meet this requirement. You can then reset your sleeping pattern by going to sleep at a reasonable hour the following night and getting 7.5 hours again. Biphasically, it's the same thing. I just need to make sure that I get 4.5 hours of sleep during my core sleep, and can then reset again by taking my nap at the usual time, and going from there.

So, remarkably, I was able to go out to the club, have some drinks with some friends, come home, go to sleep at 2:30, sleep for 4.5 hours, and then wake up ready to go about my day as normal at 7:30 the next day. Pretty incredible isn't it? There is one drawback to combining inebriation with biphasic sleeping, and this is that instead of having eight hours within which my liver can process and extract the alcohol from my blood, it only has 4.5 hours. If you're in the habit of large and frequent drinking binges, you'll be able to wake up fine, but you're probably going to get out of bed and walk straight in to a wall. Then again, if you're in the habit of frequent drinking binges, you're probably not the sort of person that is particularly keen on being productive and hacking your life and your sleeping patterns like I am.

-Nap-

I met up with Davin and Jay this morning for breakfast (after being up for 2.5 hours), and then hung out and played Magic with them. After they left, I took my nap at 5:00PM, and then woke up, got ready, and headed out with Dan and Kellie for some drinks and conversation (great day!). Fall asleep for my nap has consistently been easy so far, and once again I woke up just before my alarm went off. After finishing up at the Bent Mast, I came home, tidied things up, and then went to bed at 1:45AM.

Day 7 (Sunday)

The end of the first week of my experiment! My alarm woke me at 6:30, and I got straight up out of bed and started the day. One of the things that I absolutely love about this sleeping habit is that I no longer feel like a slave to my sleeping tendencies. I recognize how cheesy that sounds, so let me try to explain. Normally on the weekends, I would go to sleep whenever I was ready to, and then set some time that I wanted to get up. I would try to ensure that I was getting 7.5 hours of sleep, but if I went to bed at 2:30 (I really enjoy getting stuff done late at night on the weekends), I would usually aim to arise at 9:00 in the morning, which meant I would only get 6.5 hours. In these cases, one of two things would happen: I would hit the snooze button 6 or 7 times before I was finally able to tear myself out of bed, OR, I would groggily pull myself out of bed and spend most of the day with low energy levels and require caffeine to rev myself up (which would then lead to further spikes in my energy levels).

08-25-2009, 03:35 PM	#295 (permalink)
deathsushi Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 3	Biphasic sleeping (cont'd) Day 4 (Thursday) I got up easily, but am finding it fairly difficult to stay focused and awake an hour later (5:00AM). This is the first morning where I have started things off by working out. I've made tea and starting off with some cognitive tasks - we'll see how things go. After the rough start for the first hour, I'm back on track. The tea may have helped, or it could have been sitting down and doing something that demanded interaction and attention (today that was playing Super Street Fighter 2 - the previous three days it was working out). One thing that I find really nice about sleeping biphasically is that I no longer need to stress out about getting to bed too late. Typically the amount of sleep that I get would be tied to when I get to bed, as I would not be able to sleep in past my alarm, which I would set to go off to give me enough time to wake up, get ready, and head out the door for work or school. With biphasic sleeping, since I'm typically getting up four hours before I would need to leave for work or anything, I have tons of leeway to stay up a little later than I would normally, without it impacting my ability to get the 4.5 hours that I need for my core sleep. Being up early has dramatically improved my ability to devote some time to things that I've wanted to accomplish previously, such as dancing - it's pretty easy to book an hour of practice when I don't have any other demands on my time, so that's what I've been doing from 6:00 - 7:00 in the morning. Day 5 (Friday) It's getting easier to wake up in the morning, but getting up from the nap can still be a little bit frustrating, as I'm not used to the usual feeling of 'restarting the engine' in the afternoon that comes from waking from a nap. This weekend will be a good test of the biphasic sleeping pattern, and seeing how it fits in with the rest of my life. I have a bit of a dualistic nature when it comes to activity. During the week, I'm very focused on tasks, exercise, and a well-timed schedule. On the weekends, I love hanging out with friends, socializing, partying, and letting things flow in a manner that is much less regimented. Probably most significantly, while I still aim to get the right amount of sleep (I truly believe that getting good rest, drinking lots of water, exercising, and stretching are the closest you can get to a fountain of youth), the times I go to sleep are completely contingent on whatever I end up doing on Friday and Saturday. If I'm going out to the bar (rare), or heading to a friend's place for drinks, it's quite likely that I may not actually get into bed until 2:00AM the next morning. In the past, as long as I made sure I woke up around 9 or 10, I would get enough rest, and not lose my entire day (is there anything worse than sleeping in to noon? I hate doing this). I'm heading out to a hiphop show with Brooke, Jo, Piper, and Jesse tonight at Plan B (WTF), and suspect that this will lead to a late evening. My intention is to act no differently than I normally would. If biphasic sleeping does not allow me to do the things that I normally would, it isn't going to be a useful thing for me. -Nap- Nothing specific to report about my nap today, other than to state that the worst part of biphasic so far is definitely having to go through the waking process a second time every day. When I say waking process, I mean, opening my eyes, shutting off my alarm, getting out of bed, brushing my teeth, cleaning my mouthguard, washing my face, and having something to eat to get things rolling. The good news is that this is really the only bad thing I can say about it, and I absolutely love the way I feel the rest of the time. My energy levels are more consistent, and I feel motivated and energized throughout the day, rather than experiencing surges of energy at specific points during the day, followed by periods completely lacking in energy. Getting up at 3:30, which sounds utterly disgusting without any context, is awesome when you consider that I wake up easily and feeling fully rested, and then have three hours within which I can work on whatever I like before I even need to start thinking about getting ready for work, school, etc. Day 6 (Saturday) So, I had a good night last night, and after Plan B, we went to The Mint to hang out for a bit and chat before finding our separate ways home. I would elaborate more on the night, but this is a journal related to biphasic sleeping, and not a blog or a Facebook status update, so I'll stay focused. I got in at 2:00 AM this morning, and I usually need about a half hour to wind down prior to being ready for bed. Additionally, I had been drinking at the club, so I was a still a little tipsy when my head hit the pillow at 2:30 (I did, however, make a point of drinking two large bottles of water, as I always do, to ensure that I didn't wake up feeling de-hydrated). I set my alarm for 4.5 hours later, and at 7:00, got up out of bed, once again, feeling refreshed and ready for the day. Honestly, I was pretty amazed. I figured that being out and getting to sleep later would have a detrimental effect on the whole system and play havoc with my new sleeping pattern, but it integrated perfectly. The thing that I find fascinating is that the only real requirement here is that I get 4.5 hours of core sleep at some point before the next day. With a monophasic sleeping pattern, the main requirement is that you get 7.5 hours of sleep before you get back up. If you go to bed later, that's acceptable, provided that you stay in bed long enough to meet this requirement. You can then reset your sleeping pattern by going to sleep at a reasonable hour the following night and getting 7.5 hours again. Biphasically, it's the same thing. I just need to make sure that I get 4.5 hours of sleep during my core sleep, and can then reset again by taking my nap at the usual time, and going from there. So, remarkably, I was able to go out to the club, have some drinks with some friends, come home, go to sleep at 2:30, sleep for 4.5 hours, and then wake up ready to go about my day as normal at 7:30 the next day. Pretty incredible isn't it? There is one drawback to combining inebriation with biphasic sleeping, and this is that instead of having eight hours within which my liver can process and extract the alcohol from my blood, it only has 4.5 hours. If you're in the habit of large and frequent drinking binges, you'll be able to wake up fine, but you're probably going to get out of bed and walk straight in to a wall. Then again, if you're in the habit of frequent drinking binges, you're probably not the sort of person that is particularly keen on being productive and hacking your life and your sleeping patterns like I am. -Nap- I met up with Davin and Jay this morning for breakfast (after being up for 2.5 hours), and then hung out and played Magic with them. After they left, I took my nap at 5:00PM, and then woke up, got ready, and headed out with Dan and Kellie for some drinks and conversation (great day!). Fall asleep for my nap has consistently been easy so far, and once again I woke up just before my alarm went off. After finishing up at the Bent Mast, I came home, tidied things up, and then went to bed at 1:45AM. Day 7 (Sunday) The end of the first week of my experiment! My alarm woke me at 6:30, and I got straight up out of bed and started the day. One of the things that I absolutely love about this sleeping habit is that I no longer feel like a slave to my sleeping tendencies. I recognize how cheesy that sounds, so let me try to explain. Normally on the weekends, I would go to sleep whenever I was ready to, and then set some time that I wanted to get up. I would try to ensure that I was getting 7.5 hours of sleep, but if I went to bed at 2:30 (I really enjoy getting stuff done late at night on the weekends), I would usually aim to arise at 9:00 in the morning, which meant I would only get 6.5 hours. In these cases, one of two things would happen: I would hit the snooze button 6 or 7 times before I was finally able to tear myself out of bed, OR, I would groggily pull myself out of bed and spend most of the day with low energy levels and require caffeine to rev myself up (which would then lead to further spikes in my energy levels).