I'm not a big fan of sleep. Nothing exciting or productive happens when you're sleeping. Nobody looks back on their life and says "I wish I got more sleep." ... There are no fond memories of "that time I was sleeping." Life happens when you're awake! I sleep 6 hours a day - and I would sleep even less than that if I could figure out a way to maintain it...
I have been on a loose biphasic schedule for about 45 days now. I'll try to run through the perceived advantages and limitations as far as I see them.
ADVANTAGES:
For me, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. I am a big fan of biphasic sleep - thus far it has been a tremendous experience.
Flexibility
As opposed to biphasic sleep, when somebody adopts a polyphasic schedule (many 15 minute naps throughout the day/night), the major no-no is to deviate from the planned sleeping periods. Also, it takes a couple of weeks of major pain for your body to adopt to the new schedule. If you don't stick to the schedule your body will revolt and make up the lost time with a marathon sleep session. And you lose all the work you did to train your body for less sleep...
My experience with a biphasic schedule shows that there is no "adaptation period". Plus, I am able to move between biphasic sleep and traditional sleep. More about this in the "drawbacks" section below.
Productivity
A biphasic schedule allows me to get 6 hours of sleep instead of the 8 hours normally required - and still feel real good.
The two fewer hours does make a difference. But the biggest difference may be the many hours of productive time I have before anyone else in America is awake for the day. This means: no phone calls, little email, no external interruptions - just productive time spent on the day's most important tasks.
Time to Excercise
I have grown extremely fond of my early morning workouts. I mean, I look forward to it eagerly.
Many mornings I'll get up, work for an hour or two and go for a workout. I'll get bundled up with a hat and gloves and a windbreaker and be on the road logging miles by 4:30 am. Two hours later I'll have run 10 miles, get back to the house, take a warm shower, and get my son out of bed. I spend a couple hours with him every single morning - all before getting to work for the day!
There is some kind of a perverse pleasure in having gotten something done and run nearly a half marathon before the rest of the world is awake.
I LOVE to watch the sun come up over the mountains. When I start my run it is pitch black out. All I can see is my breath in the cold air and the ground immediately in front of me. So the beginning of my run gives me time to ponder the greater questions of life, like what I'm going to have for breakfast later on (ha!). But once I get all the fleeting thoughts out of my mind and settle into the run, the sun starts to come up over the horizon. It bounces off the lake surface, or canyon walls, and filters through the pine trees. Amazing. Beautiful! The beauty of my life is revealed and I am suddenly appreciative of all I have.
DRAWBACKS AND LIMITATIONS:
There are a few things that will keep me from a biphasic schedule:
Scheduling Conflicts
I've come to realize that my schedule is not completely controllable - but it is predictable. I almost always know what's coming up the next day - can't always control when my event(s) will occur. But, this is perhaps the best thing about a biphasic sleeping schedule - it is quite flexible.
If I have a series of important meetings in the middle of the day, or if I am planning to spend the entire day with family, I will sleep for a whole session the night before and go without a nap.
Occasionally, something unforseen comes up and I'm forced to move my nap around. I might have to take an early or late nap. This is a difficulty - but not a showstopper. I've moved my nap forward and backward by several hours with only minor consequences (harder to sleep, more tired than usual in the evening as a result).
Hard Workouts
My long run is up to 9-10 miles per day. Or, sometimes, I actually (try to) run up the mountain behind my house. When I really exert myself and push past my current limits, my body reacts by sleeping! Makes perfect sense - it needs to repair, needs to recover. But I didn't know this in advance and tried to fight through a couple days of little sleep after a hard workout. It wasn't very successful... I now know full well that when I do a super-hard workout I need a little extra sleep to recover from it.
Illness
A bout of the head cold came and went through my house a few weeks ago and everybody was sleeping longer than normal. Same thing as above - when the body calls for more sleep there is a good reason for it - and I'm not fighting that natural reaction.
Alchohol
A couple of drinks is all I need to sleep in. If I go out for a couple of drinks with buddies, there is no way I'm getting up at my normal time. If I DO force myself to get up at my normal time, I'm much more tired than usual the next day.
Alarm Clock Issues
One annoyance that can't be ignored is the alarm clock issue. As in - and annoyance to my wife and newborn son... When the alarm clock goes off at 2:30am and the baby (who sleeps in his bassinet or in our bed with us) is awoken, he doesn't go back to sleep! That's a no good!
I now set the alarm on my cell phone in vibrate mode and put it under my pillow. I'm looking for a good vibrating alarm clock, but haven't had much luck yet.
All in all...
I've gotten a few bewildered looks and responses when somebody learns of my sleeping schedule. It's definitely not for everyone. But then again, not everyone is as driven or persistent as me. If I perceive something that helps me get to the finish line, and is not destructive - I'm going to take advantage of it.
The bottom line is this: Sleeping less at night and taking a nap in the afternoon allows me to have more productive time to do what is important to me. Spending more time on the things that ARE important to me (family, entrepreneurial ventures, running, etc...) is a very rewarding thing to do.
Labels: life hack, sleep