This is a progress report for my Biphasic Sleep 30 day experiment

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Sleeping Times

First 3 Hour Nap: 2:45 AM – 6 AM Second 3 Hour Nap: 6 PM – 9 PM

Biphasic Sleep Variables

• Mental Alertness.  Noticed I was a bit slower in the morning.  This is probably because I was up for almost 21 hours.  I woke up at 6 AM the day before and I went to bed at 2:45 AM the following day to start my first biphasic sleeping nap.
• Physical Energy. Felt a bit of fatigue throughout the day.  The fatigue should decrease as my body gets used to this new sleeping schedule.  I was able to get my 30 minute jog done at a 4.5 miles per hour speed.  This is a bit slower than I usually jog.  I noticed I ran out of breath very quickly.
• Emotional State. Was a bit cranky and easily irritable. Additionally my home computer crashed.  Had to reinstall windows and everything else.  I did not lose any documents of media files since I had backups.
• Productivity. Had no Problem going through the day and getting everything done.  I noticed I was slower with certain tasks.  I also tried to always keep busy, otherwise I’d start feeling sleepy.
• Hunger. I did not have any major changes in my appetite.  I was a bit more hungry in the morning and craved donuts which is something I usually would not eat.  I did fall for the craving and had one glazed donut.  Yummy – I can still taste that processed food goodness, and all that extra sugar
• Eye Redness/Irritation. My eyes were a bit red and irritable.  I couldn’t put on my contacts in the morning since I had them on the night before until 2 AM.  The contacts didn’t have enough time to disinfect.  Also my eyes were very sensitive, and a bit dry.  So I put on my 3 year old super duper cool x-ray vision glasses.  I wish they are just a good old pair of eye glasses that I never really wore much.  Luckily the prescription isn’t too out of date.  I have to admit it felt a bit weird going out with my eye glasses on.  I’m not sure if I look better or worse, I think I just have to get used to seeing myself in the mirror with eye glasses.
• Social Life Impact.  I was supposed to hang out with a friend after work that night.  However I couldn’t meet my friend right away since I had to take my 6 PM TO 9 PM nap.  My friend was very understanding (and she was already used to my craziness) so we met at 9:30 PM and stayed up late.

Other Biphasic Sleep Observations

• Dry Skin. I noticed my skin was a bit drier throughout the day.  I’m not sure if this is due to my new sleeping times or whether I just didn’t drink enough water the day before.
• Energetic Night. After my 6 PM -9 PM nap I felt very energized.  Most of my fatigue was gone, and I even felt my mind was a bit more focused.  I was also able to fix my computer

I have started my biphasic sleep experiment on May 22, 2008. I plan on trying out biphasic sleep for 30 days.

Introducing Biphasic Sleep

Biphasic Sleep is sleeping twice in a 24-hour period. There are different variations of it. A very common biphasic sleep schedule is sleeping 4.5 hours at night and then taking another 1.5 hour nap sometime during the day. While biphasic sleep isn’t very common in America, it is practiced in many countries around the world.

My Biphasic Sleep Schedule

I will be taking two 3 hour naps each day. I will be going to sleep from 3 AM – 6 AM and from 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM. This schedule works great with my current day job and my other daily activities. I will be trying my best to follow the sleeping schedule. One of the advantages of biphasic sleep is flexibility. Biphasic sleep is much more flexible than polyphasic sleep. Going to bed half an hour, or an hour late shouldn’t be a big deal.  Occasionally skipping a nap is also fine.  I will focus on waking up the same time everyday. If I’m late taking one of my naps, I will still wake up at the same time, and take the following nap a bit earlier. I will also make sure that the length of each nap is an increment of 90 minutes

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Advantages of Biphasic Sleep

From reading about biphasic sleep I have discovered the following potential advantages. I will certainly report on the accurateness of these advantages throughout my experiment.

• A More Stable Energy Level Throughout the Day.  On a regular sleeping schedule you usually get tired towards the end of the day, and aren’t very productive.  Biphasic sleep eliminates that since your sleeping twice a day.  As a result you should experience a more stable energy level throughout the day.
• More Free Time. Many who have tried biphasic sleeping have reported that they feel as much energy sleeping 6 hours per day (or less) as they did when they slept 7-8 hours a night. This creates a potential 7-14 hours of free time every week, or 30-60 hours of free time per month. What will I do with all the free time
• Schedule Flexibility. With biphasic sleep, you get a lot of flexibility on the kinds of activities you can do during the day. For example I have a day job, however my biphasic sleep schedule will allow me to be out late on weeknights (since I don’t have to sleep until 3 AM) and still make it to work energized the next morning (waking up at 6 AM).

Maybe their will be other potential advantages that I will discover.  Subscribe to to receive updates through my RSS Feed or you can receive updates through email

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Disadvantages of Biphasic Sleep

The following are potential disadvantages of biphasic sleep reported by others. I will asses the accuracy of these disadvantages as I provide status updates on this site.

• First 7-10 Days are tough on your body. Whenever you are switching your sleeping patters, you will usually be a bit tired and experience some fatigue the first 7-10 days. You also might have to juggle some things around in your schedule to accommodate the new sleeping times.
• Social Life Impact. In order to maintain a somewhat steady sleep schedule, you might have to skip certain events, show up late, leave early etc. Biphasic sleep is flexible and allows for such small changes, however some who have tried it have reported a negative impact on their social life. This is one of those factors that might vary greatly from one person to the next depending on an individual’s responsibilities and commitments.

Variables I Will Monitor

I will be monitoring and reporting on the following variables during my 30 day experiment:

• Mental Alertness. Hopefully biphasic sleeping wont decrease my IQ smarts
• Physical Energy. Overall physical energy and abilities. It will be interesting to see how biphasic sleep impacts to my cardiovascular exercise or weightlifting workouts.
• Emotional State. It will be interesting to see if the change in my sleeping habits will increase my anxiousness, or impact my temper or mood in general. Be on the watch out for some cranky posts in the next 30 days
• Productivity. Will I be able to get more done with the extra 1-2 hours per day? or will the change in my sleeping habits get the best of me?
• Hunger. How is biphasic sleep going to affect my appetite?
• Water Intake. How is biphasic sleep going to affect my water intake level?
• Eye Redness/Irritation. In the past when I don’t get my usual 7 hours of sleep I’ve often had some eye redness and irritation in the morning. If there was a night where I got only 4 hours of sleep, I had a hard time putting on my contact lenses the following morning. This is usually because of two reasons: contacts weren’t in their cleaning solution long enough to disinfect, and my eyes were red and a bit irritated because of the lack of sleep. This is why I got my eye glasses ready on hand.  I’m also working on my smart cool nerdy look
• Social Life Impact. I’m Curious to see how biphasic sleep will impact my social life.  Will I have to skip certain events that occur during my sleeping times?  Or will it be okay to skip a nap once in a while?  How will my friends and family take it?

Possible Future Biphasic Sleep Plans

If I have success with the two 3 hour naps per day schedule, I might attempt a more extreme biphasic sleep schedule. A schedule where I’m taking a 3 hour nap at night and a 1.5 hour nap sometime during the day.

Others who Have Tried It

• Scott Bird

Other Biphasic Sleep Resources

• Biphasic Sleep FAQ
• A lot more Biphasic Sleep Resources

Interested in Trying Biphasic Sleep?

Contact me so I can link to your biphasic sleep experiment or progress to share with everyone else

Are you an honest blogger? I have a confession to make, I’m not. Since I started this blog (6 months ago) I’ve blogged only under my first name. Why? Fear. Fear of what? That’s a good question. In America (where I currently reside) we have the freedom of speech yeh right. While by law we have the freedom of speech, there are so many social constraints that the term freedom of speech almost sounds like a joke to most people.

If you have freedom of speech then how can you get fired for blogging? Why do so many blogs sound the same, hashing the same old techniques, advice, guidelines and theories? You mean to tell me that everyone thinks the same way? Are bloggers writing honestly and genuinely? Or are they copying each other? Are bloggers honestly writing, or are they trying to keep it safe censoring and watering-down their thoughts?

As a blogger it’s very tempting to re-hash ideas, re-write lists, and share tips that are widely spread over the internet through my blog. Don’t believe me? Here are common tips found on most personal development blogs:

1. Have clear goals
2. Have clear personal values
3. Think Long Term instead of settling for Short Term gratification
4. Have an abundance mentality
5. Manage your time wisely
6. Discover and follow your life’s purpose
7. Abide by the Law of attraction
8. Stop caring about what others think of you

Is there anything wrong with these tips? No, they are all great. I have used many of them on this blog myself The big deal is honesty. While I’m sure many personal development bloggers care about these kinda of tips, they probably have a bag of their own original advice and tips that they are hiding. Many of those tips might not be mainstream or socially acceptable.

Here is a quick tip, personal development is really tough. It’s a great subject, a passion of mine, but let’s admit it’s not EASY. Not Caring what everyone thinks for example…Do you really understand what that means? What it entails? The possible consequences?

Not caring about what others think is something I’ve been working on for a couple of years now. And I still can’t say I’m great at it. Sure I’ve made progress, however it’s more like that of a turtle This is why I decided to start blogging under my real name. I figured I’d be a hypocrite not to. I started feeling like I’m developing too many different identities and it was starting to become a headache.

There is me the personal development blogging guy. Then there is me at my job as serious worker guy. Then there is me out with my friends, going crazy off the walls at times Then there is my around my parents who I really admire and respect yet tend to disagree with often. While I do believe in respecting different roles because life is a stage I’m also trying to be more authentic. And being more authentic means decreasing the gap between my different identities. There is no easy way to do this, it’s just a balance. For example at my job I’m being paid to perform certain tasks, and I respect that. However that doesn’t mean that I should suppress my own creativity and just become a zombie.

Back to the real question, are you an honest blogger? While working on that myself I realized it comes with the following risks:

• Receiving criticism from others including family, friends, co-workers for honestly stating your views and opinions.
• Being wrong. Let’s face it, a blogger isn’t perfect, and makes mistakes. However it’s one thing to say something wrong, and another to write it down for everyone to see.
• Getting Kicked in your Ego. Whether it’s rude comments, meaningful helpful criticism, if you are an honest blogger who tells it like it is you will get a kicked in your ego

What are the advantages of Honest Blogging? Why did I decide to blog under my real name? While my mind came up with all kinds of great reasons not to use my real name, I realized that all of those reasons are a result of fears and insecurities. Blogging under my real name wouldn’t really harm my physical well-being in any way, unless I start posting death threats muahahahaha.

Another advantage of honest blogging is authenticity. Being more authentic is a very important factor for creating original unique content. One of the biggest inhibitors of creativity in writing is fear of exposing your real self. No one wants to be criticized. While we know on one level it’s good for us, we usually try to avoid it. We try not to make too much noise, not to get too much attention. It’s always easier to stay in our little dinky winky comfort zone of doom And people alway ask how they can work on their creativity? Well here is the biggest inhibitor of creativity: FEAR. Be authentic, expose your true self, and your creativity will start flowing like a river.