New Plan

Hey, Anna, this blog is starting to look like the notebook... Who has that, anyway??


Here is my new biphasic sleep schedule:
I go to bed around 9:30ish. I sleep for three hours. I get up for awhile. Then I go back to bed and sleep for either one and a half or three hours (probably the latter, with how I've been feeling...). Night's bedtime has been moved back an hour to 10:00, so I go to bed earlier. Since I am going to bed earlier, I can sleep longer and still get up and do stuff, leaving plenty of time to sleep afterwards. I think it'll be good. The thought of waking up just an hour and a half after going to bed has seemed daunting lately. The 3 hour time period seemed to help last night.
I have done this schedule for 2 nights now. It has seemed to work pretty well. Boy have I had some crazy dreams, though! I dreamt that I was flying. I dreamt that I was in a snowstorm (not likely here in Nashville-even when it does snow, it hardly ever sticks on the ground). I can't remember my other dreams now, but they were dooseys! It was like a series of unrelated dreams, all in one long sequence.
I feel pretty rested today too, which is a bonus.

Need to get back on it

I have been really bad at prioritising having a nap, and I've noticed that the old feelings of reluctance to get out of bed have started to creep back in. I've become less disiplined about sleeping on the 90 minute cycle, and find that I am pretty lethargic in the mornings again. My eating isn't as disciplined, and neither is my productivity/organisation, my moods are up and down again too.

So I need to get myself back in a routine and sort myself out.

Okay, today is day one!

One on, one off

I seem to be averaging one night of biphasic, one night of monophasic and I'm feeling good about it. It seems to fit with my lifestyle better and as it turns out, when I monophasically sleep, I only need about 6 hours.

I've also discovered an answer to falling asleep in my nap, I have to use earplugs. I guess that the 6.30-8.30 time slot is quite busy with people getting home, making dinner etc and there is just a lot of background noise. I still have to allocate myself between 15mins and 1/2 an hour to fall asleep, but I do get there eventually.

I really can't believe after all these years I've managed to find a way of not feeling exhausted!

I Did It!

I FINALLY slept according to my biphasic schedule! I didn't have a problem getting up from my nap because Josh was driving home from Indiana, so I called him. As far as getting up in the morning, same thing! I guess I just needed motivation to get out of bed-what's new?! I feel refreshed today and ready to stick to my schedule again. Of course, I won't stick to it because we are starting our road trip tonight, but I feel confident I can get back to it soon!

Wow-We Could Have the Same Title!

Anna and I are having the same problems: sleeping on a schedule and GETTING OUT OF BED! I think we have both observed that you have to be mentally focussed in order for biphasic sleep to work properly. It worked sooo well for me when I first started. I felt energetic and on top of things. Then, my schedule was a little off, which threw me a bit but made me miss biphasic sleeping. Then, my mental focus was a little off, which threw me a lot and I can't make myself get back to the schedule!
I've had the opportunity to take my nap for three nights now. I ended up sleeping until morning all three times! Last night, I was alone in the house, and I did notice that I kept waking up in 90 minute cycles. What is my problem? I can't sleep because the kids are there and are loud. Then I can't sleep because the kids aren't there and are quiet. Even though I would wake up, I wouldn't get out of bed. I didn't want to!
If I recall, it was difficult to get started the first night of biphasic sleeping, so to go back to it will be hard too. I definitely think that it is a great lifestyle, if I can get back into the swing of things! Tonights the night!!

I need to get back in focus

Hi have been a bit all over the place recently, both with my sleeping and mentally, I'm pretty sure it's connected to.

I've had a lot going on personally, my uncle died a week ago, my friend would have been 30 on Friday, but she died earlier this year, which made me realise I hadn't entirely dealt with her death, work has been busy and I'm just exhausted. You know when you are so tired that your words don't come out in the right order when you speak.

This makes sleeping on a routine hard, once I'm in bed, I don't want to get back up again. I am trying really hard to only sleep on 90 cycles, and to biphasically sleep, but I just can't get up.

I napped tonight - from 6.50-8.40 but I felt like I could have slept through until morning.

I planned to nap last night, but we were painting the lounge room an it took us sooooo much longer than intended.

I need to check my diary (how pretentious does that sound?) but I'm going to try really hard to nap every night that I'm home this week, and really get my routine established again.

Trying to Get Back into the Swing of Things!

I've been having problems staying awake lately. Yesterday was my day off, and I decided that I would sleep a lot-get it over with so to speak then start all over with my biphasic sleeping schedule on Thursday night. Well, I slept about 11 hours! Then, I went to bed again at 9:30pm, woke up a little after 11:00pm (my alarm was set for am instead of pm!). I didn't do anything other than sit on the couch with Josh, but that was very nice!
I went back to bed around 1 because I couldn't keep my eyes open! I had intended on waking up at 5:30 and exercising, ironing, cleaning, etc. Well, I didn't get up until the last possible second at 7:10 this morning. I slept HARD.
I don't think my problem waking up has anything to do with the biphasic sleep schedule, and I feel SOOO much better when I follow it. Although, I do agree with Anna that it is tough if you do anything in the evenings. Since I usually don't...I'm fine! I'm going to give it a go again tonight. I really need to make myself active after the nap; I think that makes a big difference. We'll see how it goes!!

Catch-up

It's been a while since I wrote, it's been a bit frantic for the last week, plus I've been out of the office for the last two days so not really able to blog.

I've decided biphasic is not 100% practical unless you do not do things in the evenings. So I've developed a kind of dual sleeping pattern which seems to be working for me.

If I can, I head to bed as soon as I get home from work, for about 1hr 45mins, I normally don't fall into a deep sleep during this nap, but still feel refreshed and relaxed. Once up, I make dinner and do stuff until about 12.30 when I head back to bed until my alarm at 7. I'd like to cut back the second sleep to 4.5hrs, but I've been really busy and am scared to be tired at work, I'll try this weekend.

If I can't fit in a nap, I usually sleep for 6hrs only, being in bed for about 6.5 hrs to allow time to fall asleep.

Either way, I'm waking up much better and am not as tired which is brilliant.

I still think it's weird that Tino seems to be more reluctant to get out of bed now, he's not sleeping, he's just not getting up. Which makes it hard, because I then want to get back in with him!

On another note, I was telling a supplier of mine about biphasic, and instead of looking at me like I'm suggesting growing a second head, he's really interested and is going to give it a go. He has a 2 year old and will go to sleep at the same time as him for a nap, then have better quality time with his wife. Pretty cool!

I slept for 7 1/2 hours!

I took my normal nap at 10pm; I was a little tired before 10, but I stuck it out till my bed time. I woke up okay at 11:30, and I was kind of tired-not too bad. Around 1:00, Josh commented on how red my eyes were-I was tired!
I went back to bed and slept hard. I didn't get up when my alarm went off at 5:30. I actually reset it to get up at 7. It is weird because I feel like I slept SOOOO much, but then when I look back, it is a normal amount, if not less than a normal amount! I am fine today-I still didn't want to get up, but I was really pushing it by getting up at 7:00-good thing I ironed my clothes after my nap!
At first, I kind of felt like a failure because I slept longer than I was supposed to, but I kept it at a sleep cycle (as best I could--Keira woke up again!) and I was awake alone with Josh. I don't feel too groggy today, so I met all of my expectations for Biphasic Sleeping. I really would like to get my body used to sleeping just 4 1/2 or 6 hours a day. It seems to be taking awhile to adjust, though. I have not been eating right (hello-Halloween!!) or exercising (couldn't wake up!!), or drinking my water (I usually don't-I like coffee and diet coke oh so much better), so I think that might have something to do with it. I'm going to try to be better.

I've yawned twice during this entry. Maybe biphasic sleeping isn't working-but I don't feel tooooo tired. We'll see.

Trying to Wake Up

It is almost 7am. I didn't take a nap again last night. I set the alarm for 6 hours, figuring I'd be fine since it was for 4 sleep cycles. I think it would've worked if Keira wouldn't have gotten up-what is her problem, anyway? She used to sleep straight through the night...
Anyway, getting up when Keira did interrupted my sleep cycle but I didn't have enough time to get in a full one before work, so we'll see how the day goes. I feel exhausted right now-and I've already had my shower, so usually I'd be fine right now.

No Nap For Me Either

Last night I didn't get my nap in. Josh was out working on his movie, and Night's bedtime is 11:00 (whereas mine is 10:00). I didn't think it'd be a problem-I'd just take my nap and wake up later. Well, Night is working on giving up his pacifier, and last night was a tough one for him. So, he not only cried for 1 1/2 hours straight, but he woke up his sister.
I left him in bed and let Keira get up to play in the den until Josh came home. Around 11:45pm (about when I would've been waking up from my nap), I COULDN'T KEEP MY EYES OPEN! Not being able to keep your eyes open with a baby who is just learning to walk is quite dangerous!!
Josh came home and saved us. I don't know when she went to sleep, but she decided to wake up around 5:00 in the morning. Josh had fallen asleep on the couch in the den and didn't hear her, so I woke him up! I reset my alarm for 1 1/2 hours later, testing the sleep cycle theory of 90 minutes. Well, I woke up (and felt refreshed) 2 minutes before my alarm went off!
Not bad.
So I guess when I get woke up mid-cycle, I just need to reset the clock for a full cycle. The problem is whether or not I have that long to sleep before work! Of course, that is just a guess, and maybe I would've felt the same way if I wouldn't have reset the clock (which would have given me about 45 minutes of sleep after being woken by Keira).

Night one at 4.5 hrs

Well last night was my first night with a 90 min nap, and 4.5 hrs of proper sleep.

I feel good. I was really unhappy getting up this morning, and have to admit, I stayed in bed for an extra 30 mins, but I tried to stay awake - the duvet was just too warm.

I had not done biphasic for 2 days, and I was soooooo tired by the end of the day yesterday, I've got a late night out tonight, so wont be able to nap, I hope I don't get tired later.

Sleeping increments

Interesting question about waking up. I've been thinking about a similar thing. If I want to nap for 1.5 hrs, do I go to bed for 1.5hrs or for 2, knowing that it will take me some time to fall asleep. Is the sleep cycle the actual sleeping amount or the sleeping amount plus the falling asleep time?

Wavering...

It seems like my biphasic sleeping was going so well--now it's not so much... I took about 4 days off because our schedule was a little bit wonky and I couldn't stick to the sleeping times very well. Also, when I did sleep, my baby (almost toddler-she has been taking a few steps!!) would end up waking up, therefore waking me up.
Anyway, my first day back to normal was Monday-I stuck to my sleep schedule and had lots of energy. I even slept one less sleep cycle, which I had been wanting to try out. Tuesday, I noticed that I got really tired about an hour before my scheduled naptime. I'm thinking this is due to the daylight savings time change. Then, I woke up from my nap and didn't stay up too long-maybe an hour. Then I had a hard time getting up after 3 hours like I had wanted, so I got up after 4 1/2 (one more sleep cycle). It wasn't too bad, but I wasn't very energetic and didn't get much done before work.
Last night, I again got really sleepy early. I went to bed a little before my naptime, but not too early. I got up from my nap and started watching a movie with Josh. I should've known that I couldn't be sedentary right away-I don't know how far into the movie we were when Josh looked at me and told me I should go to bed...
Josh then convinced me that I had lost a lot of sleep when my houseguests were here, and I just needed to catch up. He offered a SHOCKING solution-sleep for 6 hours straight rather than 3 or 4 1/2. At the time, I didn't need much convincing!!
So, I got back into bed and set the alarm for 6:30, giving me 6 hours of sleep. Keira woke up not much later (I don't know the time-I was sleeping!) and I gave her a bottle. This made me wonder-how does it affect my sleep cycle when I am awakened during it? Do I start over with another increment of 30? Or do I just pretend I didn't wake up? Hmm...
Today, I feel a little groggy-not too bad, but not as energetic as I had been previously during biphasic sleeping. I would like to get back on track and be productive during my awake times. That's the goal. It worked before, so it should work again. It kind of feels like a plateau or something...

Role reversals

I've noticed something strange with sleeping like this, Tino and I have changed rolls. He is now having trouble waking up, is dopey in the mornings and get's sleepy earlier in the evening.

It's wierd because he's always been the other way.

I think he might have jumped into sleeping 4.5hrs in the second phase too quickly.

Last night we didn't get to sleep biphasically (or tonight) we slept 6 hours straight instead, which I seemed to be okay with.

I wonder how much of this might be psychosomatic?