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Friday, February 11, 2011

Biphasic sleep log - Day 21 - 10th Feb - Tweaking


I had a plan to change things a bit today. I know it's soon as the habit is just forming, seeing how it's my 21st day on biphasic.

The reasons for this tweaking/messing come from two sides - one, my own experience and reflections, and two, from the blogs that I have read on biphasic/polyphasic and one that I read today on triphasic.

The major facts are:
1. The best period to nap is 20 minutes, not longer.
2. If you sleep more than 2 hours at a stretch you are not really traning your body to enter REM sleep quickly.

Add to this my need for more time, the proximity to the weekend etc. etc. and I thought this would be the right time to tweak things up a bit.

How did it turn out? Read on!

Evening 10th Feb:
I was home by 1741 and in bed by 1800 but I set the alarm for 1830 this time. I woke up at 1832 by the alarm and felt really fresh. I have never woken up this easy from the 90 minute nap and never felt this refreshed after it.
 I did the usual things like cooking and eating but also, I played a little guitar today. Just a few minutes, I admit, but I was refreshed enough and in the mood enough that I played. I was happy about that.
I felt my lower back aching later like I was tired, even though I felt fresh mentally and otherwise. So far, I am convinced that the 20 minute nap works better but I will continue to use it and observe further effects.


Morning 11th:
I was planning to break last night's sleep into 2 parts, making them both 90 minutes so they'd be under 2 hours. To that end, I went to bed at midnight instead of following my 0100 to 0545 schedule.
I was able to sleep quickly at midnight, but waking up at 0145 (by the alarm) was very hard. I went to the bathroom to see if walking about and washing my face would help but I felt like shit, heavy sleep dep, back ache and hard to keep my eyes open.
Even if it was Friday, I didn't want to go to work feeling like that. So, I decided to do my normal (biphasic) 4.5 hours instead.
Having gone to bed at midnight I woke up at 0430. Difficulty in waking up was the same and I felt the same as I do on biphasic mornings.
I think not having caffeine in the morning is extra hard on the body and I take longer to start feeling very alert and awake.

I did play some guitar in the morning also, and loved it! Both the fact that I was practicing and the actual playing. Enjoyed it very much!

By the time I left home I was quite alert though. Having stayed awake since 0430 was much better than getting up around 0600, getting ready in a hurry and going to work.
So, to recap this is one schedule that I think will work:
Nap: 1800-1830 (20 minute nap)
Core sleep: Midnight to 0445. (4.5 hours sleep)

I will of course try variations to see if I can make it triphasic and feel better or squeeze more waking time out of it, but even at a total of 5 hours spent in sleeping daily is quite a good deal over my usual monophasic.
I do understand the challenge in trying to devise a triphasic routine that avoids the workday and commute completely but I am going to try anyway. I figure I have 12 hours between 6 PM and 6 AM that I can play around with. During that I need to grab one short nap and two relatively longer periods of sleep. Total of these cannot exceed 5 hours or it'd be useless.
If I could devise a schedule that worked, it would be a "giant leap for mankind!"
I have no idea what I'd do this weekend as I have a LOT to do and need all the waking hours I can grab.

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