Can you sleep less and achieve more with a biphasic schedule?
The standard 8 hours sleep in a single nocturnal session becomes more and more challenged nowadays, while approaches like biphasic or polyphasic sleep are gaining popularity. They became particularly interesting for people who are forced by the nature of their profession to fully or partially self-organize their workday: freelancers, researchers, company owners and others. Segmenting your sleep into two or more sessions has a growing fan-base, which consider it the ultimate solution for increased brain performance, alertness, and physical energy.
Some argue that biphasic or polyphasic sleep is not a 21st century hack, but the natural way people slept for many centuries before the industrial era. Others are pointing towards the advantages the afternoon nap has for children, despite their discontent to be forced to sleep instead of playing. And finally, there are the Mediterranean lifestyle enthusiasts, who believe that the siesta is not only a culturally exotic habit, but a practice which can be imported and used in order to have a healthier, more relaxed and better organized life.
READ ALSO: Biohacking age – Will high tech nutrition make you live forever?
If you are flirting with the idea of segmenting that one block of night sleep, the biphasic approach is the easiest way to do it. Having a biphasic sleeping routine implies organizing your awake period around two session of sleep in 24 hours. But, how long those sessions should be or when during the 24 hours day is totally up to you. The best way you can figure it out is through the only method with guaranteed results, trial and error.
Biphasic sleep takes many forms depending on the schedules of people, their personal preferences and their body rhythms. Yet, some choices are standing out as being more common and are more positively assessed by a greater number of people.
1. Night sleep and a long afternoon nap
The idea behind sleeping during both during the night and day is to reduce the amount of time you are not awake but still insure an increased functioning. So, instead of going to bed at midnight and waking up at 8am, you could wake up at 6am and take a 90minutes nap in the early afternoon.
No matter when you schedule your night sleep, the period of it usually varies between 5 and 6 hours. But if you need more than that, don’t be discouraged. It is well known that Einstein needed as much as 10 hours every night and he still took an afternoon nap!
2. Night sleep and a short afternoon nap
This approach is very similar to the previous one, the only difference refers to how much time you allocate for sleep during the day. A short nap is around 20 minutes long, but despite the fact that it might seem insufficient, it is considered to be just the right amount of time to refresh yourself and restart your day. And unlike the first options, this power nap can be even taken at work if you are lucky enough to find a proper place inside your company.
3. Two sessions of night sleep
This last approach to biphasic sleep sounds like the most unnatural. We all know about naps but waking up at midnight every day and staying like this for a few hours seems like a weird choice to make. Still, historians found out that this was very common for people living in pre-modern times and that their awake-time during the night was put to great use.
Two hours of break from sleep will give you the opportunity to have some quality time with yourself or with your significant other. You have a fully rested mind, which you don’t have to feel guilty about if you do not use it for work, given the context. You can read something you really enjoy, pray or meditate, or you can share intimate moments with your partner.
Unfortunately though, like this you will miss all the parties!
Some consequences for splitting your sleep
In terms of how we sleep and how this affects us, we are all very different. We already know about the early birds and the night owls, about people who jump straight out of bed and start full of energy and about those who snooze their alarms for as long as they can. We know about insomniacs and over sleepers and even if these two conditions are categorised as sleeping disorders, having some characteristics of one or the other is just part of somebody’s sleeping personality.
Biphasic sleep might do magic for some people but further complicate the lives of others. Let’s see some of the benefits and disadvantages most commonly reported by those who tried this sleeping routine.
The nap lovers
- Sleeping twice enhances your brain performance (focus, memory, learning ability) for all the time you are awake;-
- Sleep functions as a reset button when your energy is low, so if before a nap you are drained, afterwards you will feel alert and agile;
- You will sleep less and achieve more;
- Your mood will improve
The nap sceptics
- Instead of once, you will face the ordeal of getting up twice per day;
- Our bodies and brains need a period to accommodate before and after sleep and the process is painful;
- Business hours are not friendly with biphasic sleepers;
- Daytime naps are complicated because of the logistics, while segmenting your night in two sessions will affect your social life;
If you are convinced that changing your sleeping habits could improve your general well-being and you are ready to give biphasic sleep a try, keep in mind that it can be very tough at the beginning. Our bodies prefer habits instead of changes and they will always fight against our revolutionary ideas. Arm yourself with patience, some will-power, a powerful alarm clock and you will reap the benefits sooner than you’d think.
Some argue that biphasic or polyphasic sleep is not a 21st century hack, but the natural way people slept for many centuries before the industrial era. Others are pointing towards the advantages the afternoon nap has for children, despite their discontent to be forced to sleep instead of playing. And finally, there are the Mediterranean lifestyle enthusiasts, who believe that the siesta is not only a culturally exotic habit, but a practice which can be imported and used in order to have a healthier, more relaxed and better organized life.
READ ALSO: Biohacking age – Will high tech nutrition make you live forever?
If you are flirting with the idea of segmenting that one block of night sleep, the biphasic approach is the easiest way to do it. Having a biphasic sleeping routine implies organizing your awake period around two session of sleep in 24 hours. But, how long those sessions should be or when during the 24 hours day is totally up to you. The best way you can figure it out is through the only method with guaranteed results, trial and error.
About biphasic sleep
Biphasic sleep takes many forms depending on the schedules of people, their personal preferences and their body rhythms. Yet, some choices are standing out as being more common and are more positively assessed by a greater number of people.
1. Night sleep and a long afternoon nap
The idea behind sleeping during both during the night and day is to reduce the amount of time you are not awake but still insure an increased functioning. So, instead of going to bed at midnight and waking up at 8am, you could wake up at 6am and take a 90minutes nap in the early afternoon.
No matter when you schedule your night sleep, the period of it usually varies between 5 and 6 hours. But if you need more than that, don’t be discouraged. It is well known that Einstein needed as much as 10 hours every night and he still took an afternoon nap!
2. Night sleep and a short afternoon nap
This approach is very similar to the previous one, the only difference refers to how much time you allocate for sleep during the day. A short nap is around 20 minutes long, but despite the fact that it might seem insufficient, it is considered to be just the right amount of time to refresh yourself and restart your day. And unlike the first options, this power nap can be even taken at work if you are lucky enough to find a proper place inside your company.
3. Two sessions of night sleep
This last approach to biphasic sleep sounds like the most unnatural. We all know about naps but waking up at midnight every day and staying like this for a few hours seems like a weird choice to make. Still, historians found out that this was very common for people living in pre-modern times and that their awake-time during the night was put to great use.
Two hours of break from sleep will give you the opportunity to have some quality time with yourself or with your significant other. You have a fully rested mind, which you don’t have to feel guilty about if you do not use it for work, given the context. You can read something you really enjoy, pray or meditate, or you can share intimate moments with your partner.
Unfortunately though, like this you will miss all the parties!
Some consequences for splitting your sleep
In terms of how we sleep and how this affects us, we are all very different. We already know about the early birds and the night owls, about people who jump straight out of bed and start full of energy and about those who snooze their alarms for as long as they can. We know about insomniacs and over sleepers and even if these two conditions are categorised as sleeping disorders, having some characteristics of one or the other is just part of somebody’s sleeping personality.
Biphasic sleep might do magic for some people but further complicate the lives of others. Let’s see some of the benefits and disadvantages most commonly reported by those who tried this sleeping routine.
The nap lovers
- Sleeping twice enhances your brain performance (focus, memory, learning ability) for all the time you are awake;-
- Sleep functions as a reset button when your energy is low, so if before a nap you are drained, afterwards you will feel alert and agile;
- You will sleep less and achieve more;
- Your mood will improve
The nap sceptics
- Instead of once, you will face the ordeal of getting up twice per day;
- Our bodies and brains need a period to accommodate before and after sleep and the process is painful;
- Business hours are not friendly with biphasic sleepers;
- Daytime naps are complicated because of the logistics, while segmenting your night in two sessions will affect your social life;
If you are convinced that changing your sleeping habits could improve your general well-being and you are ready to give biphasic sleep a try, keep in mind that it can be very tough at the beginning. Our bodies prefer habits instead of changes and they will always fight against our revolutionary ideas. Arm yourself with patience, some will-power, a powerful alarm clock and you will reap the benefits sooner than you’d think.
Author: Carol J. Robertson
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