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Biphasic / Polyphasic Sleep

Sgt Girth said:
I have suffered from insomnia to varying degrees for years and have tried many different approaches to the problem including splitting my sleep periods into two 4 hour blocks with a couple of hours in between.......it didn’t really work for me though......in retrospect I was on a hiding to nothing as the rest of the household (including 2 young kids) weren’t working to the same schedule! The noisy little buggers! What did work (but only as a short term fix) was Zopiclone (other sleeping tablets are available!) but it did have a slight side effect during the day where I felt as though I was floating/gliding along the workspace rather than walking......not an unpleasant experience by any means but I knew that it wasn’t quite right either!
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Zopiclone has very distinctive side-effects as you described and often a metallic taste in your mouth too. Also, it's now only prescribed as short term as people can suffer major withdrawal symptoms and even addiction.

Best avoided.
 
mikfez said:
... Not having an alarm clock helps immensely. ...
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That's a key point. Much of the sleep / fatigue woes I endured at various jobs had one thing in common - force-fitting or subordinating my sleep patterns to a fixed work schedule.

I consider an alarm clock ringing one awake at an arbitrary time to be a form of psychological rape.

The working life extending from my undergraduate graduation to my nominal retirement covered 45 years. I was privileged to have been enslaved to a fixed daily schedule prescribed by someone else for only circa 17.5 of those years. The remainder - including the entire 18-year-long final stretch - was spent working just as much, but on my own very fluid schedule.

IMHO this went a long way toward preserving my health and sanity.
 
There must be something wrong with my eyes.
As I started reading through this thread I had a bit of confusion, cos I expected to see a load of posts about lambs which seemed to pop into, and out of, existence, etc.
It wasn't until I re-read the thread title that I realised it was about sleep, not sheep....which would've been a totally different thing altogether.
 
I have tried biphasic sleep when studying, and it was not positive.
I slept about 1am - 7am then again 3pm - 6pm.
Felt rough and brain was foggy most of the time.

My most productive way is an 8.5 hour sleep at night, then a short nap about half an hour after lunch.
 
Naughty_Felid said:
Zopiclone has very distinctive side-effects as you described and often a metallic taste in your mouth too. Also, it's now only prescribed as short term as people can suffer major withdrawal symptoms and even addiction.

Best avoided.
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Very very occasionally I suffer from suddenly becoming wide awake at stupid o'clock in the a.m. Can last for several days . Not related to stress or anything and I have been examined and tested by the sleep clinic at the local hospital. What works for me is Nytol which seems to break the cycle very efficiently. Only for short term use though. I understand it's an antihistamine so some GP's don't like the idea. Pharmacist will advise whether suitable or not.
 
Hahahaha 'Nytol'.....
My late mother had (last summer) mentioned that she was having long-term difficulty sleeping and could I get her some sleeping pills?
I said I couldn't get her any prescription stuff, she would have to speak to a doctor, but we could try an 'over the counter' treatment, so I suggested 'Nytol'.
So, long story short, she tried it, following the dosage instructions, then when I next saw her she related the story to me of how she went to sleep at 10pm, then didn't wake up until 10am the following morning when one of the carers went in her room with her morning cuppa, and she was groggy most of that day.
 
This was being widely discussed a few years ago, with R4 programmes and New Scientist articles on it.
 
feinman said:
I've been doing this for years -naturally, and get much more done and feel better too, but now that I live in an apartment with neighbors, I shouldn't make a lot of noise when I'm up at very early hours, so that is somewhat limiting.

https://www.sciencealert.com/humans-used-to-sleep-in-two-shifts-maybe-we-should-again
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I’ve been doing this since I started working as a postman 35 years ago. I’ve got so used to doing it that I can’t function without a daytime sleep.
 
I think there is already another thread on this?

I know that some people will have two sleeps during the night, and that sometimes I fall asleep during the afternoon or early evening through heavy tiredness, but I generally feel best having eight hours sleep at night in one go.
 
MrRING said:
I have heard that Biphasic sleep was a common phenomenon in the European Middle Ages, where people would wake up in the middle of the night and be active for a few hours, then go back to sleep. I was curious, so I set out to learn a little bit more.

What it is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biphasic_and_polyphasic_sleep


Here's some of the historical work from the same article:


And I did come across this site where somebody experimented with a biphasic pattern with mixed results:
http://renaissancehumans.com/what-two-weeks-of-biphasic-sleep-did-to-me-polyphasic-sleep/

Does anybody here have any long-term experience with trying it?
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This type of sleep is not now considered true biphasic sleep but an anomaly that faded out over time. Biphasic sleep such as Siesta
cultures are much more true to form and are much healthier. Apparently, when siestas started going out of fashion in Greece there was a marked increase in heart disease.
 
I don't know if it just me and I'm knackered from work. But whenever we have been to Greece on holiday we do get up early and go about our business, but come around 3pm it feels really natural and necessary for me to have a grandad nap.
 
I read somewhere that the human bodies circadian rhythms are irregular so that, after a period of going to bed at a certain time, falling asleep then waking refreshed, the body will get out of synch. One goes to bed at the normal time but cannot sleep, eventually dropping off until waking up feeling like shit.

It was also explained to me by an Alexander Technique practitioner that even if one doesn't sleep, getting the body horizontal for at least 20 minutes at some point during the waking hours is very beneficial.

EnolaGaia said:
I consider an alarm clock ringing one awake at an arbitrary time to be a form of psychological rape.
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I very much agree. Isn't that something to do with being woken during R.E.M. sleep? I was given one of those alarm clocks that slowly floods the room with light before the alarm goes off (set to birdsong, much, much gentler) Generally I wake because of the light, but not always.
 
With not being at work for so long, my sleeping pattern is all over the place, when i worked it could be two or three times i would wake up maybe do some cleaning or grab a bit to eat or a drink, then go back to bed
 
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