Switching to Biphasic Sleeping? Start here.

[september]

Haven't been doing too badly, but haven't been sticking to a strict schedule as I should be, either. Didn't sleep much last night, probably about 3-7, and took a 1.5 hour nap around 4. I'm going to try and do 2-6:30 outright tonight.

[Calculusaurus]

Originally Posted by Thomas H

I'm having such great success w/ biphasic sleep that I'm considering going all out polyphasic. Has anyone completed the transition from Biphasic to Polyphasic?? If you have, post your experience and advice!!

I'm currently in the adaptation period for the Uberman schedule. The week prior to this adaptation was finals week where I had a quite haphazardous sleep schedule--it wasn't monophasic by any means--but the 2-3 months before finals week were biphasic. So I'm essentially making the biphasic to Uberman transition now.

So far so good. My energy levels went to a 8 or 9 out of 10 as early as day 3. In fact, I'm beginning to think all this mumbo jumbo talk over Uberman adaptation being difficult is a big fat lie. Which is unfortunate: my life experience as a zombie lasted a disappointingly short amount of time. Bummer.

[SnitchyCat]

Originally Posted by Thomas H

I'm having such great success w/ biphasic sleep that I'm considering going all out polyphasic. Has anyone completed the transition from Biphasic to Polyphasic?? If you have, post your experience and advice!!

Haven't tried to go from biphasic to poly, but I'm in the process of trying to go from mono to poly. Haven't completed it yet. I was going so well for the first 4 days, but then all of the sudden instead of adapting to sleeping less I adapted to sleep through my alarm clock. No big deal since I normally waked myself up before the alarm went off This persisted for the next 2 days where I did okay, but the next two I overslept for a few hours, and yesterday and today I accidently slept about 6 hours!!!! Today I got a new alarm clock to try out which is much noisier! Now, the question, because I essentially got a full nights sleep the last two nights, I wonder if I'm going to have to essentially restart my transition state. Another problem with my previous method was that I set my alarm for 20 minutes, but it probably took me ten minutes to fall asleep each time, so I might not have been getting full 20 min naps. I'm going to keep trying for a while with my alarm clock set for 30 mins, and using this clock I doubt I can sleep through. If I succeed I'll slowly lower the amount of time to 20 mins as I get better at falling asleep.

[Calculusaurus]

Polyphasic sleep is starting to click. From this adaptation experience, I can say with a fair level of certainty that being biphasic prior to polyphasic had little benefit to the adaptation process. Uberman sleep is entirely different from biphasic sleep. It requires its own set of rules. You need a whole new set of tricks to learn it.

Biphasic sleep probably helped quite a bit indirectly -- I felt like sleep experimentation was familiar territory; waking up to alarms was a familiar thing (though you really test your limits with Uberman); and psychologically I was already used to staying awake at night, which is an area many people experience trouble.

But I don't think there was much in terms of direct benefit. Biphasic sleep didn't get me "half way there" or anything.

[SnitchyCat]

My new alarm clock works wonders. Haven't overslept a nap yet after getting it. Actually, I'm using a free alarm program for my PC I found online. I set it to play tetris music quite loudly, and I put on headphones when I go to sleep. It wakes me up, and keeps everyone else asleep. I was sleeping on a phuton thingy under my desk just now when it went off and i shot up so fast I hit my head on the desk.

[Calculusaurus]

Originally Posted by SnitchyCat

My new alarm clock works wonders. Haven't overslept a nap yet after getting it. Actually, I'm using a free alarm program for my PC I found online. I set it to play tetris music quite loudly, and I put on headphones when I go to sleep. It wakes me up, and keeps everyone else asleep. I was sleeping on a phuton thingy under my desk just now when it went off and i shot up so fast I hit my head on the desk.

wozniak was right -- polyphasic sleep can be hazardous to your health.

[Scott Bird]

Originally Posted by Thomas H

I'm having such great success w/ biphasic sleep that I'm considering going all out polyphasic. Has anyone completed the transition from Biphasic to Polyphasic?? If you have, post your experience and advice!!

Originally Posted by Calculusaurus

I'm making the transition from biphasic to uberman in 2 weeks. I'll be sure to publicize it somehow.

Just curious - what prompted you guys to switch to a polyphasic routine? I'm very interested to see how things work out long term (say, after a few months).

[september]

I'm not doing too badly, but am facing another problem - hating myself for the first hour after I get up. It just puts me in an awful mood. I think to myself, "why did you do this? you obviously haven't slept enough." "now you won't be productive at all today."

Any tips on improving mood?

[Scott Bird]

Originally Posted by september

I'm not doing too badly, but am facing another problem - hating myself for the first hour after I get up. It just puts me in an awful mood. I think to myself, "why did you do this? you obviously haven't slept enough." "now you won't be productive at all today."

Any tips on improving mood?

Hi September,

I get that way if I don't get quite enough sleep, but not if I have a fraction too much. 10 minutes can make a world of difference.

When you set the alarm, how much time do you allow for yourself to fall asleep? In my case, I set the alarm for 2 hours (for the nap), fall asleep within 10 minutes or so, then wake naturally before it goes off. The alarm is only there 'just in case'

[september]

Oh, this is more a complaint about my core. (4.5/1.5 for me) When I go 2-6:30, even when I fall asleep at the right time, I'll always reset my alarm for 7... but, of course, the result becomes that I'm not saving much time. :\ I've practiced, you know? Practiced getting up, like Steve suggested in his blog, and tried letting myself get tired and always waking up at the same time too... I probably just need to be more optimistic about it. But that's just never the first thing on my mind instinctively in the morning.

[Sam988]

Results of my "30 day Biphasic Trial" (the " " are because i didnt really finish the 30 days trial):


For the first 10 days i was making it alright. Would sleep for 4.5 hours core sleep (mostly from 00:30am to 5am) nap at various different times in the afternoon.. sometimes i would nap ar 1pm and other times i'd nap at 5pm....


Then after around the 10th day i started developing the BAD BAD habit of once waking up after my core sleep, deciding to take just a little nap of some minutes more. It ruined the entire biphasic schedule. At the beggining, once i woke up from core sleep, it was kinda difficult to fall asleep again so i was just laying in bed because it was so cold outside (its winter here where i live). Eventually i would fall asleep, and wake up only some 4 hours later (instead of just some minutes)

After a few days, i was back to my old sleeping schedule; going to sleep at 2-4am and waking up at mid day. Even though i tried going back to the schedule, i would unconsciously turn the alarm off and go back to sleep.


Conclusion: Getting used to biphasic sleep schedule is very hard and takes a lot of discipline, and it's gotta be constant, meaning that even after i'm at a month or more of biphasic sleep, even one week of a different sleeping schedule can screw it all up (at least in my case). It takes a LOT of discipline, even two or three days of oversleeping put all the schedule to risk. So lazy people won't get much far on biphasic sleeping (probably thats why i didnt succeed in the long term )


Right now i'm trying to go back to biphasic sleeping because indeed sleeping just 6 hours a day is much better than sleeping for 8-10 hours a day; much more time available. I'm on the 3rd day of it.

In the first day it was easy waking up, i didn't take a nap so i would sleep more easily for the second day, in which i also woke up easily after the 4.5 hours of core sleep. In the second day i didnt take a 90 minute nap, but rather a 20 minute nap (damn noises all around the house, i feel like killing some people ). Now its 00:50am and soon i'll go to sleep as soon as i feel really tired. Hope i manage to wake up after 4.5 hours of sleep only.

[Scott Bird]

Originally Posted by september

Oh, this is more a complaint about my core. (4.5/1.5 for me) When I go 2-6:30, even when I fall asleep at the right time, I'll always reset my alarm for 7... but, of course, the result becomes that I'm not saving much time. :\ I've practiced, you know? Practiced getting up, like Steve suggested in his blog, and tried letting myself get tired and always waking up at the same time too... I probably just need to be more optimistic about it. But that's just never the first thing on my mind instinctively in the morning.

To me, the time-saving things is just a nice bonus (although it's about 90 minutes a day, so it's noticeable). The main benefit is the improved quality of sleep.

I'm generally a pretty positive person, and I find that the last thought of the day carries through to the first thought of the following morning. If you go to bed thinking about springing out of bed wide awake at 6:30, chances are that you will.

[Scott Bird]

Originally Posted by Sam988

Results of my "30 day Biphasic Trial" (the " " are because i didnt really finish the 30 days trial):


For the first 10 days i was making it alright. Would sleep for 4.5 hours core sleep (mostly from 00:30am to 5am) nap at various different times in the afternoon.. sometimes i would nap ar 1pm and other times i'd nap at 5pm....


Then after around the 10th day i started developing the BAD BAD habit of once waking up after my core sleep, deciding to take just a little nap of some minutes more. It ruined the entire biphasic schedule. At the beggining, once i woke up from core sleep, it was kinda difficult to fall asleep again so i was just laying in bed because it was so cold outside (its winter here where i live). Eventually i would fall asleep, and wake up only some 4 hours later (instead of just some minutes)

After a few days, i was back to my old sleeping schedule; going to sleep at 2-4am and waking up at mid day. Even though i tried going back to the schedule, i would unconsciously turn the alarm off and go back to sleep.


Conclusion: Getting used to biphasic sleep schedule is very hard and takes a lot of discipline, and it's gotta be constant, meaning that even after i'm at a month or more of biphasic sleep, even one week of a different sleeping schedule can screw it all up (at least in my case). It takes a LOT of discipline, even two or three days of oversleeping put all the schedule to risk. So lazy people won't get much far on biphasic sleeping (probably thats why i didnt succeed in the long term )


Right now i'm trying to go back to biphasic sleeping because indeed sleeping just 6 hours a day is much better than sleeping for 8-10 hours a day; much more time available. I'm on the 3rd day of it.

In the first day it was easy waking up, i didn't take a nap so i would sleep more easily for the second day, in which i also woke up easily after the 4.5 hours of core sleep. In the second day i didnt take a 90 minute nap, but rather a 20 minute nap (damn noises all around the house, i feel like killing some people ). Now its 00:50am and soon i'll go to sleep as soon as i feel really tired. Hope i manage to wake up after 4.5 hours of sleep only.

Hi Sam,

Stick with it - it's worth the effort. Once you've been doing it for a while, it won't make anywhere near as much difference if you vary the routine a bit. I occasionally switch back to monophasic for a day (if there's no chance to take the nap), and it's easy to switch back to biphasic the following day.

[Erock]

Originally Posted by Thomas H

I'm having such great success w/ biphasic sleep that I'm considering going all out polyphasic. Has anyone completed the transition from Biphasic to Polyphasic?? If you have, post your experience and advice!!

This is my third day in a row on a semi-polyphasic sleep schedule, but before I was normal, not biphasic. I was biphasic a short while ago though. Basically, since I don't have a job this summer, I asked myself what the best possible sleep schedule for college would be, and I came up with a 3 hour core sleep from 2:30 to 5:30 and then 3 or 4 twenty minute naps throughout the day.

My game plan is to not have these naps be at any certain times specifically, but rather be able to flow with whatever activities college throws at me. Part of this sleeping pattern is also to conquer a problem I have of taking 20-30 minutes to fall asleep every time. I figure if I keep setting my alarm for shorter and shorter periods (like instead of 45 minutes for a 20 minute nap, but 40) eventually I will be forced to fall asleep faster.

I'll let you guys know how it goes, and by posting it here, it will help me stay true to my word.

Erock

[hatsoff2halford]

Biphasic Sleeping Schedule

Hey everyone, that's a link to a blog I've been keeping since the first of this month. It's documenting my transfer to Biphasic sleeping.

[stephencp]

Does meditation have an impact on Biphasic Sleeping?

Stephen
The Internet Largest Free Give Away Ever - ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

[pippibennink]

hi everyone, i am new and completely fascinated by the topic. i heard that between 11pm and 1am the liver gets its maintenance work done while we sleep. also i heard that the sleep we have before midnight is worth 2x of that after midnight. if this is true, we should be doing the core sleep during those hours. has anyone had the experience?

[zeloc]

I've looked at a lot of the links provided in the first post, and everyone seems to set up biphasic sleeping as one nap and then a core period. If someone is aiming for 6 hours sleep/day, why not just do two 3-hour periods?

People mention having no problems with alertness or concentration, but I'm wondering if people have noticed a difference in higher intellectual functioning, for example someone who does nuclear physics or a similar field, are there any noticeable differences?

[elastigirl]

I am trying this for the first time today

[SnitchyCat]

BTW, just as an update to what was said before, I basically just fell into biphasic which I've been in since late august. Varying 3-6 hours (4.5 usually) at night at usually 1.5 in the day. Works well so far. My attempts at hexaphasic haven't worked well so far. I only really had enough time to seriously try it one time and made one or two half attempts later, and it didn't work out. I'm considering a 4 phase sleep pattern in the future but I don't anticipate having time to do that anytime soon.

[Bdavis]

from what i have seen, most biphasic schedules require 6 hours of sleep, 4.5 core and one 1.5 nap, whereas tri you can do 3 1.5 hour naps and poly you can take tons of naps and get like 2-3 hours of sleep, does this mean more naps = less sleep? My aim in beginning this project is to sleep as little as possible.

[Scott Bird]

Originally Posted by Bdavis

from what i have seen, most biphasic schedules require 6 hours of sleep, 4.5 core and one 1.5 nap, whereas tri you can do 3 1.5 hour naps and poly you can take tons of naps and get like 2-3 hours of sleep, does this mean more naps = less sleep? My aim in beginning this project is to sleep as little as possible.

Hi Bdavis,

I'm still on the 4.5 + 1.5 schedule (started in September 2006) - works well. The other approach you mentioned (taking several short naps) didn't work as well for me personally.

It's certainly worth trying though; no doubt everyone responds differently.

One quick thing on the goal 'to sleep as little as possible' - the quality of sleep will play a large role here. After all, you're presumably trying to save time here so you can spend more time in other areas of your life.

If you're well-rested, more alert and focused, thinking clearer; you may well get more out of those other areas.

[Bdavis]

Since im going to be switching to biphasic soon, can any1 provide a general list of supplies that will make it easier? You know, alarm clocks, lamps, vitamin pills(for the immune deficiency resulting from sleep deprevation), a nice computer alarm program, ect ect

[tag]

Hey everyone, first post here. I came across some info on biphasic sleeping a few days ago and have been doing tons of reading since. I'm thinking I'd like to give it a try.

I have a few questions I'm hoping some of you more experienced people could help with. First I'll give a little background... Three years ago I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. For those that don't know, it's characterized by poor deep sleep and rem sleep cycles which in turn contributes to fatigue, stiffness and pain. After I was diagnosed I worked from home. A couple of months ago I discovered that with a more alkaline diet and watching my pH resolved many of the problems with the exception of poor sleep.

Between feeling better and recent changes in my life I'll be returning to work next week. I've been doing a lot of reading about sleep and rest since I think it's vital to my success and came across biphasic sleep. I was really interested in the reports of more energy, better sleep quality and dreaming.

Starting Monday I'll be working 8-5 for a week of training then 5-2 each day. I don't exactly care for the idea of going to bed at 7-8 each evening, and probably wouldn't do it much.

I was thinking I could either do 4.5 hours and a 90 minute nap, extending it to 6 hours if needed on occasion or I could start with 6 hours plus a 90 minute nap and reduce it if needed. I currently sleep 7-7.5 hours a night. Which is a better way to go?

Also, would you recommend starting once I start work at 5 or get started now so I adapt before then? If I start now, should I start getting up at 3:30 now or get up later for a week and a half, then adjust the time earlier?

I'd really appreciate your opinions and thoughts.
Thanks,
Tami

[tag]

Just giving a bit of an update, sorry about the long post above. After talking to family about my plans they suggested going with 6 hours and 90 minutes since I'll be working outside the home for the first time in a while. I also decided to get up at 6 and the end of next week move the time earlier in increments each day.

I'm now on day 4. The first two days I couldn't fall asleep for a nap but rested for a little while and had more energy after. I also slept better at night than I have been. Yesterday I had a short 20 minute nap and had a rough time sleeping last night. I'm thinking 6 hours might be a bit long currently. I should have a better idea after working Monday.

Tami

[ericwmontgomery]

Hey Tami,

I am only in my second week of biphasic sleep, and I haven't read up on it much myself, but here's what I've found so far. With the exception of one night, I have been able to fall asleep within about 20 minutes of going to bed. Not great, but better than my average when doing monophasic...

The thing that I think makes this work is getting little enough sleep that the next time you go to bed, you're tired enough to get to sleep without too much trouble. I'm doing a 5 hour sleep and 90 minute nap, and that seems to ensure that I'm somewhat tired each time. So far so good anyway.

Anyone else want to pitch in some tweaks we could try?
- Eric

[Radek Pilich]

Hi, I will be going back to biphasic sleeping, as it was working very well for me last year when I tried this. Currently I am sleeping just 6 hours monophasically and it's not good enough for me.

I want to ask you a question about meals around the nap time. I eat every 3.5 hours, so I would like to know how to best fit the nap in between the meals. Currently I am eating diet similar to Tim Ferriss - low GI diet generally.

Any suggestions?

[SomeRandomGuy]

Hi everyone. I have been lurking on these forums for the past few weeks, but this is my first post. I have been doing quite a bit of reading on biphasic sleep and have decided to give it a try. I am on day 2 now, and it is going well. My schedule is a nap from 20:30 until 22:00 then a core sleep period from 2:00 until 6:30.

I really appreciate all of the great information provided in these forums. This seems like a great community for discussing ideas and getting support for trying new things.

[lonelygarcon06]

hey,

first of all this is an amazing thread/forum..greatly appreciate the input from everyone

secondly, iv just started this biphasic leep of the same 4.5/1.5 split. The problem is that i start on monday and it goes alrite for awhile till about wednesday. I start to feel to the benefits of the biphasic..but then on thursday i end up sleeping in and this also occurs on friday. Its happened two weeks in a row and i dont know what to do. Is it better to have two/3 alarms present?

Thirdly, im also a student and therefore am doing this routine to have maximum time as possible. Are there any student biphasic guys out there? Well anyway, i dont think its effective to study the whole time, so is it better to wake up before school(if it starts at 9am) to goto bed at 3am and wake up at 7.30am to study? or would it be beter to study through the whole night and wake up at 8.30am?

cheers guys

[zdomerr]

I haven't gone through these posts entirely, but I was wondering what any of you biphasic sleepers do when you have something planned that severely disrupts your sleep schedule.

I attend college and could form a well-developed sleep schedule, but there is a great risk that it could be disrupted.

Any help with that?

Thanks