Thursday, March 22, 2007

Biphaic Sleep - Day 11, 12, 13, 14 - End of journal

Ok, I think I can stop posting about my biphasic sleep experience, unless something special happens. It's my 14th day as a biphasic sleeper, and I think I'm done with the adaptation phase so I'll just relate how it changed my life.

Today, as opposed to my monophasic sleep period, I feel much more refreshed, and have no problems waking up in the mornings. I used to have 3 different alarms to wake me up, and felt tired all day long. Now, I may be groggy for 10 minutes if I gave myself too much or not enough time to fall asleep (and the alarm wakes me up during a sleep cycle), but I'm in an excellent shape the rest of the day; the only times when I'm tired means it's time for me to go to bed.

I now clearly remember dreaming, usually after my core sleep (even though I sometime have weird dreams :). And I'm often hungry when I wake up (?).

My biphasic sleep's schedule is relatively flexible, and I don't have to fall asleep and wake up at the same time everyday (even though I try to be regular for practical reasons). One of the rare penalzing aspects of biphasic sleep is that I'll be really tired if I miss a nap (maybe it'll be different in a few weeks, I'll let you know), but it's just like if you don't get enough sleep when you're monophasic.

I have a lot of extra-free time I can use, since I'm alert all night long: I can work until 2:00 AM without being tired; biphasic sleep also increases your productivity, and I'm often inspired when I write an essay, or during a math test, etc... (better grades).

The only real negative aspect I can think of is that it may mess up your social life. But if it doesn't, give it a shot; it's worth trying, trust me :). Try to keep a regular sleep schedule, at least the first 2 weeks so that your body adapts fully and easily. Here's a great site if you want to try biphasic sleep.
Good luck!

Cactus

7 comments:

Romain B. said...

good job and i admire you for keeping a detailed log of your experience. I was just plain too lazy lol. Now if only the parents could be convinced *rolls eyes*...

Anonymous said...

I'm really happy it works for you. Congratulations.

Cactus said...

Thanks Tim, your site inspired me a lot though :)

Romain, same, you're the one who told me about this in the first place. For my parents, they first thought I wasn't having enough sleep, but now that I'm not tired, I'm a lot less grumpy (better mood) and so they just let it be...

Anonymous said...

well soundspurdy cool ^^

EroSan said...

Hey thank you so much! Your experience gives me a lot of information. atm im trying to go biphasic (day 3) but i picked some ideas from your experience on what to do and what not to do. so my adaptation process will be easier hopefully.

Im going to keep a journal too (mostly to keep me interested on the porject long enough to make the change a routine) but i will do so in spanish since i could barely find information like yours on spanish.

I would like to ask you some questions now that you are a full fledged biphasic sleeper...

1) is skipping or postponing a nap as bad as they tell? have you found a way of dealing with this issue?

2) everyone talks about how sleeping less affects you when you are biphasic. how about sleeping more? like an extra nap if you are on vacations, or sleeping a lot on saturday?

if you want to, answear me to my mail erosan.blog AT gmail.com

Cactus said...

Hi erosan, thanks for your posts :)
to answer your questions, skipping a nap really affects me.. I usually take a nap at around 6:30PM, and if I miss it I'll really be tired around midnight. But if I miss my nap, I usually get a 4.5 or 3 hour core sleep at 10 PM, wake up, and take a 1.5 hour nap at 5 AM. It’s another biphasic schedule, and I feel perfectly fine all day long ( actually, romain told me about this in the first place). You can also try to add an extra cycle to your core sleep, but I usually am more refreshed if I stay biphasic.
To answer your second question, sleeping a lot for most biphasic sleepers means having a 7.5 or 9 hour core sleep. On week ends, I usually wake up by myself after a 7.5 hour core sleep. But you can of course add extra cycles. My only advice is that you should try to not oversleep during the first two weeks so that your body adapts (don’t exceed 9 hours of sleep per day).
Good luck!
Cactus

Cactus said...
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