I recently switched to a biphasic sleep schedule. The transition went VERY smoothly, and I have had a lot of success.
Every day I take a 1.5 hour nap in the afternoon, as early as 13:00 and as late as 19:30. Then, I sleep from 0:00-5:00 during the night.
When I switched to this schedule I felt just a little bit tired during the morning hours, but it was completely manageable. It just felt like I had stayed up late the previous night. However, after just a few days I started feeling AMAZING. Even better than when on a monophasic schedule.
I suggest this for students (I am in high school), because it does not conflict with school, and lets you get by with only about 6 hours a sleep a night. When my friends stay up late doing homework they feel like shit the next day, however I feel awesome on the same amount of sleep.
I HIGHLY SUGGEST BIPHASIC SLEEP!!
P.S. I am thinking about giving Uberman a try in the upcoming months, however I am dubious. It seems too restrictive on my schedule, even though I would love the extra time.
I recently switched to a biphasic sleep schedule. The transition went VERY smoothly, and I have had a lot of success.
Every day I take a 1.5 hour nap in the afternoon, as early as 13:00 and as late as 19:30. Then, I sleep from 0:00-5:00 during the night.
When I switched to this schedule I felt just a little bit tired during the morning hours, but it was completely manageable. It just felt like I had stayed up late the previous night. However, after just a few days I started feeling AMAZING. Even better than when on a monophasic schedule.
I suggest this for students (I am in high school), because it does not conflict with school, and lets you get by with only about 6 hours a sleep a night. When my friends stay up late doing homework they feel like shit the next day, however I feel awesome on the same amount of sleep.
I HIGHLY SUGGEST BIPHASIC SLEEP!!
P.S. I am thinking about giving Uberman a try in the upcoming months, however I am dubious. It seems too restrictive on my schedule, even though I would love the extra time for reading and hobbies
I’m a big fan of naps and when I worked from home I took one nearly every day. Now I work for “the man” and no doubt it will be frowned upon if I am caught napping at my desk.
In the past I have had extensive sleep deprivation for for long periods, even now I can go straight into a half hour R.E.M. sleep and wake up by habit regaining alertness very quickly.
I don’t think that you can give a blanket requirment (no pun intended) for sleep for all people.
Apart from age, fitness and metabolism, you have to factor in how you spend your day.
Is your job physically demanding?
Is it boring ?
Is it outside in the fresh air and natural light ?
Is it stressful ?
Intellectually demanding ?
Do you get frightened or get adrenalin kicks while you’re working ?
There also seems to be a cult of machismo about functioning on little sleep, I’ve known people in ordinary lifestyles who have bragged about how little sleep they need every night.
Allowing for their exaggerations, I’ve noticed that these people walk round like zombies, have a poor attention span and keep making errors.
I’ve no point to make, just sharing some of my observations.
I know this is a zombie thread, but I’ve been involuntarily doing this for months, due to a baby that won’t sleep more than 2-3 hours at a time.
Let me tell you, it righteously sucks ass. it’s horrible.
I sooooooo know how you feel! Celtling never slept more than 4 hours in a row for 13 months. It was absolute hell. I stretched it from 3 to 4 by giving her a bottle of soy formula once per day as she was falling asleep around 10:00pm. The formula keeps them full a little bit longer than breast milk. You haven’t known true despair until you’ve raised a “sleep optional” child. LOL!
It will get better, I promise!
During the Bosnia/Herzegovina action I went on a 15-4 schedule for days at a time. That’s 15 minutes every four hours. At about day 2-3 (seriously had no idea what time/day it was) I would crash for four hours straight, then wake up feeling like I’d been to a spa.
Given the very limited task I was performing, it worked like a charm. But I didn’t have to think about anything else. I suspect if there had been mutiple variables like feeding myself, and driving, and being nice to loved ones, the experiment would have failed miserably. As it was my concentration was excellent, and I never lost track of what I’d done before I slept (a major problem after going home for 8-9 hours.)
My work schedule is kind of freaky, so I sleep when I can. Generally, I sleep 11p-3a. Deliver papers, get the kids off to school (sometimes I can fit in a 20 minute nap before the first one has to be up), then a quick nap (less than an hour) before I have to get up and head to the 2nd job. If possible, I’ll get another nap in the afternoon, for an hour or so.
It sucks most of the time. If I really get in a groove, it’ll work for a while, then bam! I’m exhausted and miserable and have to find a day when I can manage a 3 or 4 hour nap.
I have learned about myself, though. I know I can work 4 hours if I have at least 4 hours of sleep. I can manage 3 hours if I have a 30 minute nap. If I get overtired I can figure out exactly how much sleep I need in order to get through the Next Thing I Have to Do.
I generally sleep in the morning a few hours after work, then a 2 hour nap in the evening, and sleep during my half hour lunch at work. It works out to about 5 - 7 hours of sleep a day, it works alright for me. I’ve been doing it for years, I’m not any more insane than I was before, I think.
Well, it might get better. My dad likes to talk about how I didn’t sleep through the night until I was three. This isn’t actually true: when I was three I learned not to come out of my room when I woke up. The only time I sleep through the night is when I’m sick.
I find cmyk’s idea of only sleeping when you’re tired fascinating because I have no problem whatsoever getting up at 6:30am Friday morning and not going to bed until 3-4am Saturday and even then I often only go to bed because I need to do things the next day that can’t happen if I sleep later than 11. If I only went to bed when I was tired, I’d often be up 20+ hours in a row which isn’t really compatable with working.