Because I’m just a bit of a masochist I thought I might screw around with my sleep patterns some more. This time; however, it’s a little less drastic and I have more scientific data on my side. I’m going to try biphasic sleep.
This time around I’m going to ease myself into it. Cut an hour off nightly sleep, take a midday nap; cut a bit more off the nightly, take a longer midday nap etc. Eventually I’m going to try a 50/50 approach.
There is some good reasoning to this: Firstly, circadian rhythms show that humans are naturally biphasic, secondly I can get alot more done at night when there are fewer distractions, but my third ‘its better for study’ theory is my favorite.
Think of it this way. We’re told all the time that ‘sleeping on it’ can help you learn. So I go to uni, get home at 4ish, sleep until 7ish then prepare dinner, eat etc and study until 4am. I then Sleep until 7am get ready for uni and repeat. Good for the brain, good for the lifestyle, not to mention its middayitis killing potential.
The advantages of this technique over others is I believe I can still get by on less sleep than if its all in one lump, its far more flexible and less drastic than polyphasic sleeping and it fits natural sleep cycles. Each full cycle is 90min so I get two full cycles per 3hr sleep, theoretically meaning I should easily get used to waking up at that point and will feel refreshed and relaxed.
I’m not starting this today because I have to head off for a volunteer induction at uni this afternoon but I’ll keep you all posted.
Imported from my old blog
Tags: Experiment, Sleep, Biphasic, Polyphasic
Miriam Parkinson 
This is actually my natural sleep pattern (although I tend to have a 2-3 hour sleep starting from around 5 or 6pm)… I don’t think it works to well and I’m trying to go for that 8 hours at night sleep thing… but I can’t seem to do it
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My advice would be not to sleep with your sleeping pattern. After years of having not had steady sleep patterns, if i even mess with my regular bedtime in the slightest such as going out on the piss etc, it takes the 3 following nights of taking sleeping pills to be able to sleep normally again.
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Sorry my post above was meant to read ‘My advice would be not to mess with your sleeping pattern’.
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I don’t really have a set sleeping pattern. I never get jet lag and I can do an all-nighter without any issues so I can mess about with it a bit without any issues. I’m pretty sure I get too much sleep because when I go to bed at 12 and get up at 5.30 I feel great and when I get up at 9 I feel like shit. btw sleeping pills will make it take longer to sleep normally. They stuff up your sleep cycle and minimise REM
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Actually, I was just reading up on polyphasic sleep and decided to try biphasic. I googled it for a little bit more information and discovered that you are trying the same thing at roughly the same time! :oI would love to hear about your progress :>
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