Biphasic Sleep

Introduction: For my first lifehack experiment I thought I’d try something that is controversial as far as research shows.  Many researchers disagree on whether polyphasic sleep is effective, or for that matter even safe.  But I’m the kind of guy that is willing to try anything in order to further my effectiveness and enhance my lifestyle.  Thus the idea for my biphasic experiment.

I first came across polyphasic sleep from Steve Pavlina and LifeHack.org.  It seemed like a really cool idea, but my schedule didn’t seem to coincide well with the restrictions of the polyphasic lifestyle.  I still love the idea, but at this phase in my life I think it would be too difficult to perfect and make effective.

Biphasic sleep on the other hand seems a little easier, schedule-wise, and I think it is something that I could stick to.  I still have a couple of efffects that I can foresee happening, but overall I think it will be a great experience.

The Plan: The main reason I have for breaking up my sleep pattern is to sleep less and still be highly conscious throughout the day.  With those two things in mind I’ve designed a simple plan, which allows for more sleep when needed, but generally limits sleep to 4.5 hours per day, leaving me with 19.5 hours per day awake.  Since the average person sleeps between 7-8 hours per day, this will save me an average of 3 hours per day, which equates to an extra 91.25 hours per month, 1095 hours per year, or a full 45 extra days per year.

The purpose is to have more time to devote to waking life.  I realize that most of my world is asleep between 11 pm and 6 am, which means that I’ll have plenty of time to read more, learn more, and do more.  Plus I’ll still have all of my day to interact with the world, so I won’t feel a zombie, separate from society.  I’ll just be super productive!

Chart:

This is my plan for right now.  The exact time that each part of the cycle starts is still in the works, but the general idea is that my main block of sleep will be 3 hours long (2 full 90 minute sleep cycles) followed by a long 13 hour stretch of being awake.  After the 13 hour awake session I will take a shorter 1.5 hour (1 90 minute sleep cycle) nap which will be followed by 6.5 hours of awake.  This plan totals 24 hours.

Of course there will always be times when we need more sleep.  I can’t imagine that if I play sports for 3-4 hours on a given day that I will still be able to maintain without a little extra sleep right?  Well the plan is that if I feel the need for more sleep I will add an extra 90 minute sleep cycle to my large sleep session, making it 4.5 hours instead of 3.  This will still only total 6 hours, which is still at least 1.5 hours less than average, and will allow me to maintain for the day until the next day comes, when I can revert  back to my normal schedule.

I imagine the transition from a monophasic lifestyle to biphasic won’t be a smooth one.  Still I am excited about the experience, and if all goes well I will have added much time to my waking life, which equates to more great experiences.  I plan on documenting the first 15 days daily, and then I’ll probably switch to keeping a record every 2 days until the first 30 days of the experiment ends.  On the 31 day I will decide if the biphasic lifestyle is one that I want to continue or I will revert back to the traditional and widely accepted monophasic lifestyle.

Day 1 will be May 30.  Stay Tuned!