Triphasic Sleep

[Wanderer]

Triphasic Sleep

Hi all, though I dont post often in the health and fitness forum, I have been reading all the posts on sleep and find them very interesting, I would like to sleep triphasically (90mins evrery 8 hours or so)

Currently I sleep 8 hours or so a night, but would love to get this down to get my nights back, I just had a few questions before I start sleeping this way...

1) Ive got exams in January, will I be sorted sleepwise by this time do people know? How hard is the adaption, I suspect it will be more similar to biphasic than polyphasic so if anyone has any thoughts Id love to hear them
2) I am a carnivore not 100% through choice (4 brothers and sisters and mum won't cook me vegitarian food, very difficult to cook my own (I know this is a poor excuse but please don't laugh - I dont eat at KFC because of the chickens so Im not all bad)), will this have a major effect on the transition?

If all goes well Ill start tonight, no time like the present, am particularly interested in David's and Ati's views as you have real experience so if you could help that would be great

Many Thanks
W

[Scott Bird]

Originally Posted by Wanderer

Triphasic Sleep

Hi all, though I dont post often in the health and fitness forum, I have been reading all the posts on sleep and find them very interesting, I would like to sleep triphasically (90mins evrery 8 hours or so)

Currently I sleep 8 hours or so a night, but would love to get this down to get my nights back, I just had a few questions before I start sleeping this way...

1) Ive got exams in January, will I be sorted sleepwise by this time do people know? How hard is the adaption, I suspect it will be more similar to biphasic than polyphasic so if anyone has any thoughts Id love to hear them
2) I am a carnivore not 100% through choice (4 brothers and sisters and mum won't cook me vegitarian food, very difficult to cook my own (I know this is a poor excuse but please don't laugh - I dont eat at KFC because of the chickens so Im not all bad)), will this have a major effect on the transition?

If all goes well Ill start tonight, no time like the present, am particularly interested in David's and Ati's views as you have real experience so if you could help that would be great

Many Thanks
W

Wanderer, I'm biphasic, so obviously a bit of experimentation will be required on your part. I do occasionally split the nap into a 20 minute and a 60 minute version (I did that today in fact); but generally it's roughly a 1.5/4.5 hour split. I've never tried the 3x90 minute thing.

In my case, it took about a week to adapt. After that I felt refreshed on most days, and the 'most' gradually became 'almost all' (there are still days of oversleeping, increased stress, illness etc).

On the diet thing, are you really a carnivore? You don't eat fruit or vegetables at all? Or are you simply omnivorous (this is the most common situation, and is a traditional meat + veg + fruit combination). If that's the case, you're in the same category as me. You'll be fine.

[David Hausladen]

Wanderer: I haven't ever seriously tried triphasic sleep, but the schedule you suggest sounds promising and I'm very interested in seeing how it turns out. If you're starting now, then you'll almost certainly have adapted by January assuming the schedule is feasible to begin with (a good rule-of-thumb is that the body adapts to new conditions and/or habits in 21 days, and certainly in no more than 30 days).

The reason I question whether it's feasible is because it only gives you three sleep cycles in the day. Then again, they're closely enough spaced that it may not be a problem once your body is well-adapted to the schedule. Still, if you find after 21 days or so that you're still not feeling rested (i.e. your body's adapted, but you're still having trouble), you might extend one nap to 3 hours so you get four sleep cycles a day.

I can't speak from personal experience (being a vegan), but I suspect meat-eating will not be a big problem for you as long as you get a good balance of foods overall.

I'm happy to hear that the "research" on sleep on this forum has been helpful to you! If you get time, please share your experiences in the polyphasic sleep logs thread for others to learn from. Good luck!

[Wanderer]

Your quite right, Im an omnivore not a carnivore my bad

I will post my things in the forum, starting tonight I guess

Thanks for all the replys guys

[Radek Pilich]

I am currently thinking whether this might work. My sleep sucks now. I had greatest time a year ago when I was sleeping biphasically with 4.5 + 1.5h split.

What am I thinking about now is to do a 4.5 + 0.5 + 0.5h split, however I am a bit skeptical about it. It would be great from a practical standpoint, 2x 30 minutes naps would fit my life better than 90 minutes one, however I am not sure to whether degree will that such a short "sleep" restorative for me.

Have anyone tried this?

[Kaspian]

A 3 hour core and three to four 25-minute naps seems to work for people, PureDoxyK being one of the most vocal. Add 90 minutes to the core, and you should be able to subtract a nap, which would put you on a 4.5-hour core and 2-3 naps.

The real answer is: try it for 3-6 weeks and find out if it works for you. If you like it, keep it; adjust if necessary.