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11-29-2006, 03:31 AM
| #1 (permalink) |
| Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Sydney
Posts: 189
 |  Switching to Biphasic Sleeping? Start here.
If you're considering a switch from a monophasic to biphasic sleep routine, there are a few things you should know. This brief guide should answer most of the basic questions you might be asking yourself, as well as pointing you in the direction of several resources which cover this information in greater depth. What is Biphasic Sleeping? Firstly, a definition. Biphasic sleep is nothing more complicated than sleeping twice each day. Typically this revolves around the belief that the length of an average sleep cycle is approximately 90 minutes (although this has been seen to reduce to as little as 75 minutes in long-term biphasic sleepers), and involves a 90 minute nap and 3/4.5 hours of core sleep. As an example, my own routine consists of : 75-80 minutes beginning at 19:30 4-4.5 hours beginning at 01:00 Whilst the length of the nap is usually maintained at a single cycle, both the separation (between nap and core sleep) and length of core sleep (always a multiple of the cycle length) should be adjusted to suit the individual. What are the benefits of Biphasic Sleeping? The main drawcard to both biphasic and polyphasic sleeping patterns often seems to be the time saving (and yes, a lot of time can be saved using either technique); though there are many other benefits. Biphasic sleeping can : reduce the total number of hours you spend asleep (as noted above) increase the quality of sleep during these periods improve both clarity and frequency of dream recall in addition to : having a neutral impact on recovery from weight training What are the downsides of Biphasic Sleeping? The main negative aspect with both biphasic and polyphasic routines is simply that they are uncommon. It may become difficult to interract with monophasic sleepers in a timely manner (although a polyphasic routine emphasises this distinction much more than a biphasic one does). In my case, taking a nap in the evening greatly reduces this negative aspect, as my dealing with the monophasic world can be carried out during standard business hours without concern. Other than that, there is little that can be said against biphasic sleeping. As with any transition in your life, the first week or so will be a little more difficult than the rest - but only slightly. It is no worse than the jetlag you might experience following a long flight. Making the transition As stated above, the first week will be the most difficult. You are likely to feel more tired than usual, so clear your plate as much as possible before you start. If you are coming into your exam period, it's coming up to the busiest time at work or there are other major changes in your life taking place; better to wait until things are back to normal. Once you are ready to make the switch, set aside a time for you to try things out. 21 and 30 days are common, although any period over two weeks or so will do. During this time, make a concerted effort to stick to the routine. Of course, if there's a major change in your life during this period, don't feel bad about stopping. You can start again later. During this trial period, try not to be too harsh on yourself. You WILL oversleep (I still do occasionally, after holding the routine for a couple of months), alter your starting times when there's something good on TV, have busy days at work during which you drink too much coffee or smoke too many cigarettes etc. The routine gradually gets easier, so don't punish yourself for sliding off the rails occasionally. Where can I go for help? Keep in mind that several people have done this (many of whom seem to be on these forums) and that they always seem to be happy to answer questions on their experiences. A few resources are : Threads on this forum Biphasic long-term sleepers Eliminating sleep is closer than you think X-phasic sleep experiments: where do you sleep? Sleep learning? Post your polyphasic sleep logs here Polyphasic sleep How to get rid of sleep-o-holism Anyone successfully reduced sleep hours per night Remove the clock, sleep less Hybrid sleeping schedule Midday nap Biphasic sleep resources Getting back into a regular sleep schedule Anybody have this sleeping problem? Weird sleeping schedule Bodybuilding and polyphasic sleep Speak while sleep Pzizz Free running sleep How to sleep early Biphasic sleep - need help Elsewhere I maintain a list of biphasic sleep resources on my site (at Straight to the Bar: Biphasic sleep resources). Contributions to this list are more than welcome. If you have anything to add to this list, please let me know. The same applies to any comments or suggestions on the above material. |
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11-29-2006, 03:52 AM
| #4 (permalink) |
| Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 201
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Definitely! (As long as it's as "David" and not "Dave"--no offense taken or given, but "Dave" has just never sounded right to my ear). You may want to note which of us are still adapting to biphasic (still in the first 30 days) and which of us are successfully adapted (past 30 days). I'm obviously still in the former category, though I fully expect success.
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11-30-2006, 01:50 AM
| #6 (permalink) |
| Member Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 39
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Should we use this thread for general biphasic discussion? If not I'll delete this post and post it wherever is more applicable. Anyways, I decided to go biphasic a week ago, did it for two days, went to my parent's place for Thanksgiving, got sick, and broke it. However, I'm starting it back up again starting yesterday. The schedule I'm going for is a 90 minute nap from 7-8:30, and 3 hours of core sleep from 2-5 (two cycles), reducing my sleep to 4.5 hours. I haven't had any trouble with tiredness, aside from 15-30 minutes before my nap (like right now!). I've found that my naps seem to work freakishly well- yesterday, I just couldn't get to sleep, I'm currently living in the dorms so it was pretty loud. I decided to go over and put one of my favorite CDs to fall asleep to (Sigur Ros' Takk, brilliant album, brilliant band), went back, and I can't remember hearing the second song on the album. Next thing I know, my alarm song is going off on my computer. Look at the clock, hour and a half has passed and I'm completely awake, refreshed, and ready to go- though I didn't feel like I slept at all. It seems that as long as you nail the 90 minutes you wake up completely refreshed- just watch out if you go two hours. Not all is perfect, though, my alarm didn't go off this morning so I slept in an extra 3 hours  I'm pretty sure I just didn't set it right, so that shouldn't be a problem from now on. It all seems to be working great so far though, I'd love to hear other peoples' experiences.
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12-31-2006, 03:30 PM
| #7 (permalink) |
| Member Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 66
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Hey guys, Great work here. I started my biphasic sleeping a week ago today and it's been pretty cool. I'm now sleeping in 4.5 hour/90 minute chunks, but before that I would sleep 7-9 hours a day with no regard to the quality of sleep I was getting (eating right before bed, drinking coffee late, etc.) Just a couple questions for those of you who've been at it for sometime: - Every morning I have a period of atleast two hours were I'm so tired and groggy that I don't feel like getting anything done. I'm just without motivation at all, so I usually end up watching TV and trying not to fall back asleep. I usually hit my stride by 8:30 or 9:00 if I'm lucky. This might just be a result of my adaptation phase (today is only day 7), but can any of you comment on this? Is there anything you do in the morning to get yourself going earlier? - At what point should I start tweaking stuff? Right now i'm sleeping from 1:30 AM to 6:00 AM, and then from 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM. I noticed that my nap is taken several hours earlier than most of you take yours. I don't struggle with being overly tired at night so I'm not sure that it's a problem, but if it's some how affecting my time in the morning then maybe I should adjust. I just find that taking the 2:30 PM nap frees up my evening, and since I work at home, the rest of the world is still at work. - What health habits have you found beneficial? I use to drink lots of coffee and soda throughout the day and even up until I went to sleep, so now I'm trying to cut back. I drink one or two cups of coffee in the morning (mostly to wake myself up), and then maybe a cup of green tea throughout the day. I think this might be interfering with my 2:30 nap. - Any nap tips? I find that there's alot more noise to contend with during the day from neighbors and the street. I don't think I've had a really good nap yet. Thanks for all the help so far, this thread has been a great resource. Last edited by Joe826; 12-31-2006 at 03:33 PM. |
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01-01-2007, 12:49 AM
| #8 (permalink) | |
| Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Sydney
Posts: 189
| Quote:
Congrats on making it through the first week. That's the most difficult part, so it's just a matter of refining things from here. I'm not about to be hypocritical enough to say 'give up coffee' or anything (I still have a couple of cups a week, and several cups of green tea a day); but it will affect your sleep. For me, it disrupts the nap even if I have it 7-8 hours beforehand. This disruption generally means I can't get a full 80-90 minute nap, and instead I only have 15-20 minutes. I'll then try and get another 20 minute nap a few hours later, or simply add 90 minutes onto my core sleep. Either way, I'm fine the next day. There are a few things you can do. 1) Carry on with your current routine for another few days and see if you're tired simply due to the transition phase (you will definitely be tired during this phase, and only you can tell how much this affects you). 2) Hold off on the coffee for a week or two, and see if that makes a difference. Have a couple of cups of green tea instead - it'll still have caffeine, but usually not as much. 3) Move the nap to later in the afternoon/evening. This will both increase the distance from the coffee, and reduce the time until the core sleep. Win-win. As for nap tips, I've got (and heard from others on this site) plenty of them. Try the things above first though, so you can see which one works the best for you. Healthwise, it's just the stuff your parents have probably been telling you for years. Less coffee, less alcohol, less sugar and more exercise. The usual suspects. | |
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01-01-2007, 02:19 PM
| #9 (permalink) |
| Member Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 66
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Thanks for the reply Scott. I'm a bit frustrated this morning because it was my hardest morning yet, but I'm going to stick with it for another couple of weeks atleast. One thing I noticed is that I haven't remembered my dreams since my first and second day doing this. Not sure if that means anything, but I thought it was odd. How long does it take you to get going in the morning? How long do you lay in bed after you wake up, and then how long does it take for you to kick that groggy feeling? |
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01-01-2007, 02:40 PM
| #10 (permalink) | |
| Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Sydney
Posts: 189
| Quote:
it usually only takes 5-10 minutes to really wake up in the mornings. Sometimes it's almost instant (that 'leap out of bed' feeling), and occasionally it's a little longer than the 10. There are two main times during the day when I always feel tired: shortly before the nap and shortly before core sleep. I usually nap at 19:30 and I start getting really tired about 19:20. My body's definitely adjusted to the new sleep times. As for dream recall, it's about the same now as it has been for a couple of months. I often remember dreams when I'm in that first 10 minutes after waking; but unless I write them down I can't recall them after that. Quick question : how are you setting the alarm (determining the time)? I usually allow 15 minutes or so to fall asleep (depending on how tired I feel), and set the alarm for 80 minutes (or 4.5 hours) + 15 minutes. I often wake up just before it sounds, and these are the days on which I have the clearest dream recall. | |
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01-04-2007, 03:12 AM
| #11 (permalink) | |
| Member Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 66
| Quote:
Do you have any tips for getting a better grasp on your REM cycle times? I was a little baffled today, because I took my nap, and woke up 70 minutes later feeling refreshed and alert. Instead of getting up, I decided to sleep the extra 20 minutes, and when I woke up I think I was in the middle of my REM sleep because I had that ultra groggy/tired feeling. Is it possible that my cycle is really only 70 minutes long? How can I get a better handle on this? | |
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01-16-2007, 02:07 PM
| #12 (permalink) | |
| Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Montana
Posts: 232
| Quote:
1. It's real important to me to make the decision the night before when I'm going to get up in the morning then stick to it. Rarely a good idea to get into that debate in the morning  2. That means I need to be realistic the night before. As I mentioned, I count out what I plan to sleep in cycle lengths, figuring 90 minutes, but I generally wake up at about 70 to 80, so there's the buffer. If I generally woke up in 90, I'd set the alarm for 100 or 110 minutes. 3. Now, the wake up. When I first wake up* and see by the clock that it is time to get up (not just the end of a different cycle or some noise in the house or my cat), I OPEN MY EYES even if it's dark. Then check in--am I awake?--and yes most often I am at that part of the cycle which is awake--REM before going back into stage 1-2-3. Then over just a minute or two, I stretch an KEEP MY EYES OPEN. Then out of bed and into the bath for face wash etc. with the lights up as high as they go. Then quick regular routine and into our front room where I TURN ON ALL THE LIGHTS. Weird? maybe but boy am I awake by then. From the time I first wake up*, if it is indeed time to get up, til the time I'm in the living room with the lights all on is maybe 10 minutes, but with progressively increasing feeling of alertness. We have track lights in the living room and kitchen plus a light at the table where my computer is. I'm not blasting myself with flourescent or other harsh light. It's warm, but plenty of light. If I didn't already have a lighting arrangement that feels good to me, I'd research the type of lights that are being sold for winter blues, etc. Those work well, too for depression and sleep disturbances so probably would work for this. Scott, Dave, others do you know of anything having to do with SAD lights in regards to bi or polyphasic sleeping? Hope this helps...  | |
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01-17-2007, 02:58 AM
| #13 (permalink) | ||
| Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Sydney
Posts: 189
| Quote:
Quote:
As for lighting, I'm pretty lucky here - the days are long and the sun's usually nice and clear. I was monophasic when I lived in other countries, so I'd only be guessing; but I wouldn't be surprised if lighting plays a big role in polyphasic routines. It'd be great to hear from Scandinavian biphasic sleepers on the role of natural vs artificial lights. | ||
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01-04-2007, 02:01 PM
| #14 (permalink) |
| Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 4
| my own version...
Thanks for posting all this info. I think I'm going to give biphasic a try. Poly I found a little off-putting because of my busy work schedule, but this could be more doable. I already tried something a little different last night: Went to bed at midnight, then woke at 4 AM, turned on the light next to the bed and read for a good half hour. Also used the bathroom and rinced mouth with mouthwash. Went back to sleep and woke around 8AM. By reading a little, this helped elevate my dream content, and also had a more restful sleep because of the bathroom break. Anyway, it's good to be back on the forums after a long break, and I look forward to posting a few more notes on how this experiment goes (probably in the morning hours  ).
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01-04-2007, 09:02 PM
| #15 (permalink) | |
| Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Sydney
Posts: 189
| Quote:
Breaking up the sleep a bit (into two chunks, that is) certainly helps, and I suspect the biphasic's a bit easier than a typical polyphasic schedule. Hope all goes well. | |
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01-13-2007, 01:25 PM
| #16 (permalink) |
| Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 5
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Hi! I've recently switched to biphasic sleep. My schedule is 1,5h from 20:30 to 22:00 and 3h from 3.00 to 6.00. It is my 8th day on this schedule and I was wondering how long does it take to get adjusted to 4,5h of sleep. I feel great after my 1,5h hours nap, but I'm quite tired during the day. Does it take longer to get used to 4,5h of sleep than to 6h of sleep? Another thing is that I've overslept a couple of times from 3.00 to 7.30. I've first woke up at 6.00 but somehow turned off the alarm and woken up automatically at 7.30. It felt pretty good, but I'd much rather sleep 4,5h. It's great to do all my work from 12.00 to 3.00 when everyone is asleep and wake up at 6 to read all the newspapers before they wake up. So should I switch my schedule to 6h instead of 4,5h or just wait to get adjusted? |
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01-13-2007, 08:49 PM
| #17 (permalink) | |
| Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Sydney
Posts: 189
| Quote:
No doubt it varies from person to person, but in my case I didn't get used to the 4.5 hours in a week or so and switched to 6 hours per day. That feels right to me, and there's never any feeling of having a sleep deficit. As to the question of switching from 4.5 to 6, I'd say you may as well. 6 hours' quality sleep is a lot better than 4.5 that leaves you tired. There won't be any transition time involved, the 6 will just feel like you've slept in. Try it and see. | |
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01-14-2007, 05:38 AM
| #18 (permalink) |
| Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Montana
Posts: 232
| back in the saddle
Hello all... How nice to see what a nice group of people have joined up here in this discussion! I've had a lot of situational things and have pretty much free sleeping after my 30 day trial, documented earlier. Most interesting is that the chronic fatigue that I had before this is still gone! I can't really believe it and I can't ascribe this change to anything else. 30 days of trying (not always successfully) to split up my sleep 1.5 and 4.5 seems to have turned things around on an incredible fatigue factor that I just pushed my way through (few people ever thought of me as anything but high energy but the effort was incredibly taxing on me) Anyway good luck to everyone... I usually start up again with a 1.5 nap and I did that today, bedtime now and hope to be up in 4.5, that'll be about 4:30 am since I'll read a bit before I fall off to sleep tonight... all best, ati |
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01-26-2007, 06:55 PM
| #19 (permalink) | |
| Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 5
| Quote:
 .My only problem is that on Fridays I'm going to miss my nap because I'm busy from 16:00-03:00. So my question is how much affect does missing your nap have and how can I make up for the lost sleep time? Should I take a nap at some other time or sleep 6 hours or more at 03:00? | |
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04-06-2007, 03:20 AM
| #20 (permalink) |
| Member Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 53
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I was going to read this whole thread, but after reading 1 1/2 pages, I realized how long that would take, so... Next year I'm starting high school, and I'm thinking about becoming biphasic. Basically the only time my schedule allows for is to have the nap after I get home at 1:15 PM. If I'm planning on having the core sleep from 2AM to 6:30am, would this schedule work? Would I end up feeling tired before my core sleep? Thanks in advance. |
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09-09-2011, 06:18 AM
| #22 (permalink) |
| Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 1
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Hello everyone, I am very new to the whole idea of polyphasic/biphasic sleeping, but I think that it is something that could really help me a lot. See, generally I have a problem with getting enough sleep. Not through lack of sleep, exactly, but I either get too little, or too much, even when I've slept for (up to) 36 straight hours. I only have two times of day that I'm really awake, (the few hours before during and after dusk, and the hours before during and after dawn) and my husband is an extreme insomniac who runs on a 36 hour sleeping schedule. (He's awake for 22 hours, then asleep for 14.) The two of us were talking about it, and he suggested that I try polyphasic sleeping, but I looked into it, and it seems like biphasic sleeping would suit me better, so that I could sleep during the night, then again during the day, and be awake at the two points in time that I have the most energy naturally. Any ideas how I should go about dividing up my schedule? |
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10-10-2011, 07:35 AM
| #23 (permalink) |
| Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 6
| Are these timings suitable.
I read only first and last page of this thread, so didn't notice if some one has already discussed this before or not? Any suggestions / guidance are welcome. I want to start biphasic sleep ( 6 Hrs. in total) with following timinings (flexible and not rigid). 1. Core sleep Around 4.5 Hrs..... 1 am to 5:30 am 2. Nap / Short Sleep 90 min...... 6:45 pm to 8:15 pm |
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02-24-2007, 08:59 AM
| #24 (permalink) | |
| Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Singapore
Posts: 437
|  Biphasic Sleeping Quote:
Hi there good work, but such behavior can affect time management. But i have found something here for any paths that you have in mind..read Beneficial Learning for Outstanding Generation i called it MP.. regards gazzali Last edited by Gazzali; 02-24-2007 at 09:02 AM. Reason: error | |
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02-24-2007, 07:48 PM
| #25 (permalink) |
| Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 5
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Hi! Would it be possible to have a schedule where you take a 90-minute nap at 4:30 pm - 5:00pm and a 4,5 hour sleep at 1:30am - 6:00 am or are the hours between your nap and longer sleep too long?
Last edited by Cactus; 02-24-2007 at 07:57 PM. |
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03-07-2007, 09:36 PM
| #26 (permalink) |
| Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: New Zealand
Posts: 4
| Been trying out Biphasic Sleep
I am new to the forum, this being my first post and all. It is been just over a week now, doing a 1.5/4.5 hour split and I feel fine so far. I am starting to find that I can concentrate better in the evening after the nap - something I didn't think about until a couple of days ago late at night.. Marc. |
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03-07-2007, 09:40 PM
| #27 (permalink) | |
| Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Sydney
Posts: 189
| Quote:
That's great to hear. If you're taking notes as you're going, I - and a lot of people on these forums - would love to read them. cheers, Scott | |
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03-08-2007, 12:30 AM
| #28 (permalink) | |
| Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: New Zealand
Posts: 4
|  Biphasic logs Quote:
At this time my log is just on a free web host, and this is good enough for now. The log is here: Biphasic sleep journal | |
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03-23-2007, 07:14 PM
| #29 (permalink) | |
| Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 2
| Quote:
Cheers, Romain PS: new here, but have been a biphasic sleeper since December '06 | |
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03-27-2007, 03:19 PM
| #30 (permalink) |
| Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 27
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I'm wondering could this one program help you in polyphasic adaptation. It's called brainwave generator and i used it for meditation. Cool program, lots of presets and you can make your own costum presets. Here is the link: BrainWave Generator There is also an explanation of how this works. You can use it to bring your brain frequency on any frequency brain operates on just using earphones. What do you think, would this help?
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