Biphasic sleep log - Day 100 - 30th April

It's ironic how this the 100th day of my biphasic sleep pattern wasn't really biphasic except that I slept ttwice.

Because of the whole tiredness, shoulders aching thing I decided to take an early and long nap. So I went to bed at 1430 and didn't set an alarm. So, woke up 1623 on my own. And felt very, very rested. It was amazing. Like 100%+ energy levels.

This reminded me that even on biphasic, I should do a reset once in a while when I take unlimited sleep with no alarm. Once in a while it's good, and despite the idea people get from my biphasic experiments and all this, I do love sleep. It's great! I just want better sleep and more waking time also. I guess, I am just greedy!

In the afternoon and evening I felt quite energetic, but took it easy for the shoulders. And that was fine too. But at about 2330 started feeling sleepy quite suddenly. I think it was more my schedule than any actual tiredness.

Went to bed at 0015 with alarm set for 0500, but also with the understanding that I might sleep longer. Felt asleep quite quickly. Woke up at 0500 and turned the alarm off. Then thought about the shoulders and the fact that even after I woke up I would probably just rest to let my recover from overwork. So why not use sleep for that? So, went back to sleep.

Woke up at 0716. Again, very, very rested, body felt fine including the shoulders.

And that's the 100th day done.

I am sure going to miss writing this log, but as I have said before it serves no purpose any more and the time I save maybe used in other things like a proper blog post.

I'll probably do a summary a few days later and I might add some periodic logs but not more than once a week, just to keep the experiment updated and provide data for the future generations. :)

There's one variation of polyphasic that I haven't tried yet and that's 6hours naps, each one 30 minutes. I think it's called Dymaxion pattern. I might try that soon. :D

Since I am closing this log today, I will reiterate the conclusion once for easy access.
Conclusion: Biphasic sleep pattern works like magic. It delivers on all its promises, more efficient sleeping, better quality of sleep, more energy in the waking hours, short falling asleep time, quick entry into REM, long vivid dreams, good health, good appetite, no effect on weight, abundance of creative energy, increase in productivity.
I have no intention of going back to monphasic sleep in the foreseeable future.

End of Captain's Log, Stardate 30th April 2011.

Biphasic sleep log - Day 99 - 29th April

Because of the whole summer day drowsiness and free-time phenomenon I have been thinking about adding a nap to my day, in early afternoon or even late morning. If I get up at 0500 and take my only nap at 1800, that's a 13 hours long during which I am constantly mentally and physically active. Another nap may not be a bad idea, though it might make my sleep pattern triphasic rather than biphasic. Oh well.

Didn't take an extra nap today but did feel tired towards the late afternoon, so much so that I could not focus on anything after 1700. So, just lay down and watched TV until nap time.

Nap: 1800-1900. Yes, I had set the alarm for 1830 and I did wake up and turn it off, but went to sleep again without making a conscious decision and woke up naturally at 1900. But didn't feel panic when I woke up. It was only half an hour extra.

I felt more refreshed, perhaps I needed that. I had done some Wii fitness today. Since I finished both beginner and advanced level of Obstacle Course, broke my record in advanced Snowball Fight, almost broke my record in beginner Snowball Fight, did some Yoga, achieved an all-time high score in Hula Hoop all in 21 minutes, I decided to go for a jog on Wii. I find Wii jogging much harder than real running for some reason. Apparently, I ran over 3 kms. in 10 minutes. And I did feel tired after that, almost as much as after my real run which takes about 30 minutes for 2.6 miles.

In this 31 session though, I burnt about 162 Kcal and my Wii age was 12 years younger than my real. Not to mention that I was tired and sweating like a pig who has been running cross-country marathon!

After the long nap though, I felt fine, no tiredness. And had more energy today at night. So much so that I slept late at 0030, and could have stayed up even longer but I didn't want to disrupt my schedule.

Woke up at 0515 by alarm and stayed up. Took a few minutes for the eyes come completely awake but didn't have any other trouble.

I am feeling tired in the arms and shoulders, and I know it comes from working on the laptop almost non-stop. I know the solution as well. I will take a break from working so hard on my SL magazine and work on my backlog of movies and TV shows.

Energy levels: 100%
Body: Shoulders and neck tired and tense.
Health: Great.
Mood: Productive+Creative

99 done, 1 more to go!

Biphasic sleep log - Day 98 - 28th April

Considering that these are summer days and I am at  home, I do feel sleepy in the day, but usually I try not sleep other than my one nap, though I have been thinking of adding another scheduled nap in the day then either reducing core time or just keeping it as it is.

Nap at normal time, 1800 to 1817, woke up, did 1 minute of something on the laptop then went back to sleep. I love now how easily I can go back to sleep. Then slept till the alarm rang and woke up at 1830 by the alarm.

Felt refreshed and instantly active as I woke up, no issues there.

At night, felt sleepy about midnight. Therefore, slept at 0050. Alarm set for 0430. I was about to wake up with a little bit of effort but again wasn't careful and feel back to sleep. Till 0510. At that time, I just woke up naturally and this time stayed up.

Again, I had a very vivid dreams in the extra sleep like yesterday, but not as beautiful as yesterday.

Still loving biphasic. 

Biphasic sleep log - Day 97 - 27th April

Just when I was thinking that this log was getting monotonous.

The nap was quite good. Went to nap at 1800, fell asleep in 5 minutes and woke up naturally at 1825. Felt fully awake and alert so turned of the alarm 5 minutes in advance and stayed up.

Then at night felt sleep right on schedule. I should mention that now when I feel sleep it's not the normal kind of sleepy which is like a suggestion from the body that perhaps it's a good time to sleep. No, it's more like a complete system shutdown, "The application could not be started because this workstation is shutting down" kind of sleepiness.

But still went to bed at 0030 with alarm for 0510. Woke up at 0510 and felt confident that I could stay up but wasn't careful enough and slid back into sleep very easily. Next thing I knew it was 0647.

Even though I had wasted more time in sleep than I intended, I wasn't sorry about it today. I had had a long, vivid, very beautiful dream! So that was time well-spent.

As for energy levels everything was great.

Energy levels: 100%
Body: Fine
Health: Good
Mood: Relaxed and happy

Three more days to go but having second thoughts about discontinuing the log.

Biphasic sleep log - Day 96 - 26th April

Had the nap from 1805 to 1830. Went quite well. But that's normal now.

At night, I was late, courtesy of SL, but I think it was unavoidable. Went to bed at 0100, with alarm for 0530.

Did wake up at 0530 and with a little effort got up as well.

Energy levels: 98% but got better
Health: Good
Body: Only slightly tired from doing too much laptop.
Mood: Active

I am going to discontinue this log after it completes 100 days. There seems to be no point to it any more. I have successfully adapted to biphasic to the point that I never plan to go back to monophasic permanently. I have demonstrated that biphasic works and is flexible enough to be continued in view of social demands.

In the meantime, I have tried both Everyman and Uberman and found that none of them work for me at this point in my life.

The only thing I don't like about this log is that it kind of takes over the archive section of my blog since there are way too many log posts and not enough other posts. :) So, in 4 days I plan to stop this.

Biphasic sleep log - Day 95 - 25th April

I should start with the day. I went for a run again. And performed even better than Friday's run. More running, faster speed, personal best for pace. And yet, it was not as good as Friday's run. Today I had to make an effort. On Friday my body was in control, I felt I was in a good enough shape to run. Today, even though I achieved the same targets, hitting the same checkpoints, I had to make an effort for each. Today I had to exercise my willpower to not give up before each checkpoint. I could do this because I knew (from Friday) that I could do it.

Thinking about it later, I tried to find what the reason could be, since I should be even better than Friday simply because of Friday's work out. The time was almost exactly the same, the distance from last meal was about the same. I was not hungry yet, not at all. My diet had been the same.The weather was same, sunny and warm. The only difference I could think of was that Friday's run was after several nights of biphasic sleep, and today's run was off the back of two consecutive nights of monophasic sleep. It's not a true scientific test, but that's the only difference I could think of.

Also felt more tired after the run. In the afternoon I felt very sleepy. So much so that I took my evening nap in the afternoon. From 1545 to 1610. Just 5 minutes to fall asleep since I was almost falling asleep already.

The nap was good. I did wake up with a headache but it went away after a while. And still had the energy to stay up till midnight.

Actually past midnight. Slept at 0030 with alarm for 0510.

Woke up 0510. Took some effort but woke up.

Energy levels: 98%
Body: Fine, no tiredness from yesterday's run
Health: Fine
Mood: Active

Biphasic sleep log - Day 94 - 24th April

Strictly a monophasic day. Was busy in so many things, SL, phone, housework etc. that realized the time at 1845. And I was hungry and had more appointments. So, no nap.

Yesterday's monophasic and today's no-nap day told on me by night. Started feeling sleepy about 2200. So finally slept at 2315. With alarm set for almost 6 hours of sleep till 0500.

Woke up at 0500 and slept again till 0618. Didn't feel too bad as it was after all a monophasic night, rest was more important since there was schedule.

Energy Levels: 95%
Body: Fine
Health: Fine
Mood: Active

Biphasic sleep log - Day 93 - 23rd April

Quite a simple day but not biphasic.

Was out all afternoon so didn't get any chance for a nap. I had a couple of glasses of Diet Coke, which was not good but there were so few real alternatives and I was in the mood. Anyway, I didn't feel any extraordinary caffeine high or withdrawal. But I didn't feel sleepy either.

Felt a bit of tiredness in the legs from yesterday's run.

At home, I did my usual SL stuff and went to bed at midnight with an alarm for 0445 even though I had had no nap.

Woke up at 0445. Took a lot of will power to wake up.

Energy levels: 90% reduced to 80% later.
Health: Fine
Body: Fine
Mood: Productive

Biphasic sleep log - Day 92 - 22nd April

The energy levels today were great. I even went for a run. I'll write about the run more in detail later, but it was great.

Nap at 1740. Alarm for 1805. Yes, I am feeling cocky about that short fall-asleep time these days. It was good nap. Up by the alarm. No struggle. Full energy from getting up.

Then went to bed slightly late because of SL business. It was at 0020 that I finally turned off the TV also and the alarm was set for 0445. And I did wake up and turned the alarm off, but then wasn't careful and next I woke up at 0615. It wasn't a huge waste, but I missed an appointment that was at 0500. Oh, well!

Energy levels: 100%
Health: Great
Body: Slightly tired
Mood: Excited

Biphasic sleep log - Day 91 - 21st April

Quite a simple day again, biphasic day.

Evening nap from 1739 to 1800. Yes, I left only one minute to fall asleep. And it did work almost perfectly. If not in one minute, I was asleep in a couple of minutes. Waking up when the alarm rang was quite easy too.

The evening was good, didn't feel any dip in the energy levels until even until midnight.

Core sleep from 0030 with alarm set for 0500. It was hard to get up at 0500 but I managed it because  I had an SL appointment for exactly that time, no room to hit the snooze. And once I woke up energy levels were great and no signs of tiredness.

Energy levels: 100%
Body: Great
Health: Great
Mood: Productive/Creative

Biphasic sleep log - Day 90 - 20th April

Having a clear plan is important. Without a plan things go kind of random.

For today I had a sort of plan but at night I messed it up.

Nap1: 0730-0800. By the book and worked well.

Didn't have time for an afternoon nap as I had an appointment outside. But didn't feel like I needed the afternoon nap either. I was home by 1500 and feeling fine.

Nap 2: 1830-1900. By this time I needed the nap and delayed it half an hour only because of SL. This one worked fine as well.

By midnight I was feeling fine, sleepy but not like everyday when I can't keep my eyes open.

Went to bed at 0000 and set 2 alarms, one for 0300 so I could wake up by E3 routine if I felt like it, and second for 0430 to use biphasic core time if I felt I needed more sleep.

Well that's where I lost the plot. Both alarms rang, and I turned them off (apparently) but kept on sleeping...until 0740!

A Chinese proverb comes to mind, "A man with a watch knows what time it is, a man with two watches is never sure."

Plan must be concrete if I expect it to be followed. Lesson learnt.

Energy levels: 100%
Health: Fine
Body: Fine
Mood: Resentful

Even though body and energy levels were all good, waking up late starts me off in a bad, almost panicky mood. I feel like it has put me behind the clock. It's merely psychological as I do have lots of hours to do what I want.

The reason I considered Biphasic instead of Everyman last night was the time-saving vs. the effort.

Everyman:
Total Sleeping Time: 3 hours core + 3 x 30 minutes for naps = 4.5 hours
Pros: Waking up at 0300 gives me time for SL appointments.
Cons: Shorter waking time slots, more times goes in preparing for sleeping and coming awake. Complicated sleep log entries.

Biphasic:
Total Sleeping Time: 4.5 hours core + 30 minute nap = 5 hours
Pros: Longer waking slots, flexible nap time, much less sleep inertia.
Cons: Wasting 30 minutes in extra sleep, can't do 3 am SL appointments.

So, you see, even once Everyman started working, it'd still give me maximum of one hour more at the cost of flexibility and shorter waking slots. I am leaning towards Biphasic again.

Biphasic sleep log - Day 89 - 19th April

Another day on E3, but not as good as yesterday.

Nap 1: I wanted to delay the first nap a little bit so did it from 0730 to 0800. It was good and refreshing.
Nap 2: Second nap was same as yesterday from 1400-1430 but it wasn't good. Even though I fell asleep very quickly, for no reason at all I had a coughing bout which woke me and I had to take a sip of water before I could go back to sleep. Which I did. But had coughing again in a few minutes, with the same process repeating. So, I don't know how much actual sleep I got.

Because of the second nap not going well, I decided to take the evening nap early. I was feeling the need for it.

Nap 3: 1800-1830. Good nap. Felt quite refreshed and was able to do all that I wanted to do.

Somehow with 3 naps, it's harder to map the food to nap to exercise timing and I couldn't do my Wii fitness today. Will do tomorrow.

Core: Was able to stay up till midnight easily and went to bed at 0010. I had a choice to leave the alarm at 0300 or make it 0330 as I don't really need the lead-in time for sleep. Pretty much any time I touch my head to the pillow I can sleep quickly. That was one of the thing I had set out to fix when I tried biphasic so I am quite pleased that it worked.

Set the alarm to 0330 still which left 20 minutes to fall asleep. It was way too much.

Woke up at 0340 and it was still a struggle to get up. Took a lot of willpower for that one.

With this current routine of E3 - 3 hours core and 3 naps, I am finding that the total sleep time is 4.5 hours, plus any inertia time whereas in biphasic total sleep time is 5 hours. Inertia time is cut in half for biphasic as I go to bed twice as opposed to 4 times.

Hence, in longterm I might not maintain E3 as it is now unless I can reduce sleeping time further. But for now, getting up at 0300 helps me get ahead with my SL magazine project so I am going to continue it for now.

Biphasic sleep log - Day 88 - 18th April

I could successfully do Everyman 3 today. Success in the way that I took 3 naps and stayed awake rest of the time. But all the awake time was not full-energy, so I do need some more time to adjust to it.

The first nap that I have already mentioned in the previous log was from 0630 to 0716.

Nap 2: 1405-1430. Why from 1405? Because I was doing something and took me 5 minutes to wrap it up but I set the alarm for 1430, confident that I would be able to fall  asleep in 5 minutes. And did I? You bet I did! I fell asleep in 4 minutes. How do I know? Well, I woke up at 1409 from a sleep or hypnogogic stage, looked at the time and immediately fell back into sleep.

Woke up at 1430. Felt fresh and recharged.

I don't know what energy levels to report, but I still felt sleep dep. Still when I did Wii fitness, I could easily cross30 minutes. And today I broke my Obstacle Course record, finishing the Advanced level for the first time. Also figured out how to do Hula Hoop properly and almost broke my all time record there. Also broke my record in both Basic and Advanced levels of Snowball fight. Got 4 stars in Obstacle Course, and both levels of Snowball fight.

Nap 3: 2000-2030. Good nap again. Sticking to schedule as well.

Then started feeling sleepy about 2300. Went to bed at 0000 with alarm for 0300. No room for falling asleep time as I thought that could be absorbed in the unevenness of the sleep cycles.

Woke up at 0330, somehow. Very sleep dep but stayed up and started the computer. 

Biphasic sleep log - Day 87 - 17th April

Had an active day. Towards the evening the exercise from yesterday and today started to catch up with me and felt a little tired, not too much, just a little.

Nap: Got home about 1700, but wasn't so tired that I had to sleep right away. Went for nap at 1800. Woke up before the alarm, felt fully awake so just woke up, without looking at the time. The 1830 alarm rang at least 10 minutes later.

Felt sleepy about 2300 and went to bed precisely at midnight with the alarm set for 0300. You see, it seems like I might have this week to myself and I have, as usual, too many projects demanding immediate attention that I have tried to give Everyman a serious try.

I woke up once about 0100 and then once more, then finally just before 0300. This time I just stayed up. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't difficult in view of my resolution.

I was able to play around on the computer easily and was fully awake but still feeling sleep dep. Then around 0600 started feeling more sleepy and decided to take a nap. I think I might need 3 naps in the beginning which I can later move around and reduce to 2.

So, first nap today was from 0630 to 0700. But I felt still sleepy so snoozed till 0716. Still have sleep dep but able to function fine.

Energy levels: 90%
Body: Sleep deprived
Health: Fine, will exercise today
Mood: Creative

Biphasic sleep log - Day 86

16th: Even though I woke up early in the morning and felt like doing the fitness stuff on Wii, I didn't because I expected to be active rest of the day.

And that's what happened. I was on a treasure hunt later and spent over 2 hours walking, running, jogging, both uphill and downhill, constantly on meet, exercising both mind and body. The weather was quite nice for it.

The point is, even with a limited amount of sleep and following the Wii fitness regime, I didn't feel tired during the hunt. Once I sat down and had lunch, and then started walking again then I felt tired.

I got home at 1717, tired and with a headache.

Took the nap at 1800. Got up at 1830. It wasn't hard to get up but my headache was still there. I felt good though, well-recharged, not tired.

Energy levels: 99%
Mood: Active

17th: I was easily able to last past the midnight and went to bed finally at 0015 with the alarm set for 0500. Woke up at 0500 by the alarm, pressed snooze confident in the knowledge that I am getting up, but of course I fell back into sleep. Woke up by the snoozed alarm at 0508 and easily got up.

Energy levels: 100%
Body: Good
Mood: Creative

Didn't feel the tiredness from yesterday. Felt like working out but didn't as I planned to go out today and I'd decide in the evening if I still needed/wanted more exercise.

Biphasic sleep log - Day 85 - 15th April

This one will be boring as this was biphasic by the book. I wasn't feeling tired so I did half an hour of Wii in the afternoon. It was good and didn't tire me.

Nap: 1800-1830. Fell asleep fast and had a great nap. Got up refreshed and did SL mostly.

Core: Went to bed at 0100. Woke up by the alarm at 0545. Considered sleeping more but decided that I better stick to the schedule.

See? Boring.

Energy levels: 100%
Health: Good
Body: Good
Mood: Happy

Biphasic sleep log - Day 84 - 14th April

Felt a bit tired in the afternoon so didn't do Wii fitness today.

Nap from 1630 to 1700. I was tired so I used that time. Should have done earlier actually. Fell asleep quickly and had a very good nap. Woke up by the alarm and got up easily. Had good energy levels as I was still in bed when my friend called two minutes later and didn't know that I had just woken up. :)

Late at night, again felt the same tiredness. Went to bed at 0045, with alarm set for 0530, even though I know I don't need 15 minutes for falling asleep. I was asleep within about 5 minutes. Woke up by the 0530 alarm, but decided to sleep more. Woke up in-between at 6 and 7 but finally got up at 0742. Seemed like I made the right decision as there's no tiredness today. We will see how the day progresses.

I have a busy weekend planned with possibly no naps, so I am not going to try E3 at all tonight, just biphasic with 4.5 hours core.

Biphasic sleep log - Day 83 - 13th April

Nap: Since I didn't get a chance to do a morning nap, I kept the evening nap on time. From 1800 to 1830. I did sleep during that but it was not one big chunk of sleep, it was more like several chunks of good sleep. I can't count how many chunks. But I enjoyed it and felt great afterwards.

Core sleep: Because of SL went to bed at 0115. Alarm set for 4.5 hours - 0600. But I forgot about the guitar alarm on my laptop for 0530. It did go off on time, the volume was loud and it woke me up. It took me two minutes to remember the time for today was 0600 but by then I was awake so I just stayed awake.

Energy levels: 100%
Body: Fine
Health: Fine, no cold.
Mood: Active

Biphasic sleep log - Day 82 - 12th April

This day wasn't really good for biphasic sleep. I was too busy in the morning to catch a nap for E3 pattern of 2 naps a day. Then in the afternoon I felt quite sleepy so decided to take a nap from 1430 to 1500. Only I ended up sleeping till 1540. Didn't like it but it felt like I needed the rest.

Even after the nap felt a lack of energy and motivation. I always have a thousand and one things to do but didn't feel like doing anything today, not even playing Second Life which is always good for wasting a few hours. Thought about playing Wii but didn't do that either.

At night, felt sleep around midnight so went to bed at 0015 with alarm set for 4.5 hours of sleep, 0500. Woke up at 0500 and turned the alarm off. I could have woken up then, but since I woke up coughing bad I realized what was wrong with me.

I have been coughing a bit since last 2 days and it wasn't getting better. That explained the lethargy and lack of motivation. AND the oversleeping. So I decided that I do need the rest and went back to sleep without setting another alarm. Woke up at 0742 naturally.

Now that I know what's wrong I can try and fix it. Had ginger tea in breakfast, and a liberal dose of black pepper. As usual I will attack it with everything I have but it still irks me that I keep catching this stupid common cold. One of the reasons why I hate the London Underground. You share a compartment full of germs every time you set foot on it. 

Biphasic sleep log - Day 81 - 11th April

Quite an irregular day sleep wise.

Nap: Took it when I could manage since I knew I would not get it in the evening. So went down for nap at 1400 with the alarm set for 1430. Did sleep within a few minutes and then woke up at 1429 naturally. But for some reason I decided sleep another half an hour and that was the mistake. I could wake up when the alarm rang at 1500, but I woke up with low energy levels. The body was fine, but the mood was kinda sombre for no reason at all. It could have had something to do with the calm-before-the-storm kind of close and grey weather we had but I think it was more to do with the extra sleep. It wasn't good to sleep more than 20 minutes. Not going to do that again.

Core sleep:
The evening turned out to be longer than expected and I got home about half past midnight which is a good title for a story or a movie. Went to bed at 0045, with alarm set for 0600. Woke up at 0530 by another alarm on laptop that I forgot to change. Then slept again till 0600 when the normal alarm went off.

Energy level: 100%
Body: Fine
Mood: Productive

Will try 2 naps today and 3 hours core at night.