Polyphasic, biphasic sleep questions help!

[Devon8822]

Hey, I am currently experiementing with biphasic sleep and I may try polyphasic soon as well. I have some basic questions about them I hope someone can answer.
First of all, I'm not entirely sure how it works... I have heard 2 ways. first way is that when you take short naps (after about 2 weeks), all of your sleep stages eventually become shorter so all the stages fit within say 20 minutes of sleep. the other way I heard is that taking short naps are bad, and you must take a full sleep cycle which is always 90 minutes. Which one of these is correct?

Now, I know it takes time to settle into a polyphasic sleep schedule but I have been having trouble settling into my biphasic schedule, I have done it for a week so far (not perfectly). Is biphasic like polyphasic where u need to do it for 2 weeks before it acctually helps? or can you see results immediately with biphasic? Because when I wake from my 90 minute nap ( I add 15 - 20 minutes, for the time it takes me to fall asleep int he middle of the day) I am feeling groggy, and not refreshed. Should force myself to follow the schedule for another week and see if my body will settle in or is that not required for biphasic sleep? thanks!

[silicon toad2000]

I found it easy to fall, into a biphasic sleep schedule. Maybe think about moving your nap time later. I nap 8:30pm till 10pm and then core sleep from 2:30am-7.

Polyphasic seems to be 4 half hour naps equally spaced. This takes time to adjust to. Your body needs to change its sleeping cycle from 90 minutes to 30 minutes.

Biphasic sleeping works on the principal that as you sleep progresses, each sleep cycle contains less delta sleep and more REM sleep. (I hope that’s right). By having a nap you are completing a sleep cycle with the greatest percentage of delta sleep, enough to cover the amount of delta sleep in two sleep cycles at the end of a normal sleep. By having a nap for one sleep cycle you can remove two sleep cycles from the end of your core sleep.

Delta sleep is the sleep the body needs to recover, there seems to be a consensus on this. The only consensus on REM sleep seems to be that it is essential for developing brains but no one seems to have a definitive
Explanation for what use it serves the fully developed brain of an adult.

I did find myself groggy after the nap sometimes, but you need to experiment with the length of your naps, start with 100 minutes and work backwards to 90 minutes, 85, 80... You will eventually find a time which will leave you much less groggy.

I found following a biphasic sleep schedule that I was much more productive and alert, also that the mid afternoon low disappeared.

[Devon8822]

Ok, so is it overlseeping or undersleeping past the end of the sleep cycle that is making me groggy? Knowning this will allow me to experement by adding or taking away the proper amount of time. I guess all I can tell you is that I use a timer thing and I set it for 110 (20 minutes extra to fall asleep). thanks

[Brutha]

The power of a sleep shedule lies in doing things every day the same way.
If you oversleep sometimes and undersleep at other times, you lose the advantages of a sleep shedule.

[YazKMan]

Are these sleep routines more than fads? You're altering a basic function of your body that has evolved over time. I'm wondering what the long term health effects are from these routines. I'm guessing there have been no clinical studies so far?

Is everybody here really so short on time that they need to alter their basic sleeping cycle ? Isn't there something else you can cut out before going with an untested regime?

[Trustme]

Originally Posted by YazKMan

Are these sleep routines more than fads? You're altering a basic function of your body that has evolved over time. I'm wondering what the long term health effects are from these routines. I'm guessing there have been no clinical studies so far?

Don't you think it's the other way around? That society forces you to follow a sleeping pattern that's unnatural? I think it feels a lot more natural to have at least one nap during the day, probably more.