Oh, I forgot to mention, the use of alcohol extends my 90 minute cycles to a maximum of about 120 minutes. I typically adjust my schedule to this if I am capable of doing so at the time. (I drink 3+ nights a week)

So you have gone to the trouble of employing an extremely rigid sleep structure that requires a lot of self-control to maintain in order to gain back some productive time, but you reduce it's efficiency by 1.5 to 2 hours each week so that you can drink 3-4 nights a week? :)

You'd better believe it!

I feel I should mention that the time I am awake with this schedule I typically am 'rested' and very alert. I had issues adjusting to the 8-5 life because my body demands so much sleep natively. When I was getting 8-9 hours of continued sleep in one night I was waking up groggy and not really getting started until 1-2 in the afternoon. This cycle corrected it.

It's also not as rigid as you'd expect. I can move the start and end times of the nap/bedtime around approximately +/- 2 hours and still feel alright. Altho a nap starting at >7pm just feels 'weird.' It's the full skippage of a nap that wrecks shop.

I wonder if being mindful of proper hydration would allow you to drink and still sleep in the shorter cycles? Hmm.

I found last summer that changing my diet to mostly raw foods allowed me to sleep much less and still feel awake.

Anyway, it's nice to see somebody who has made this sleep schedule work for them and still maintains some flexibility. That's the chief complaint I have read is how rigid you have to be with it to make it work.

I have more or less that exact problem. I get "8-9 hours" of sleep every night but I tend to wake up several times. I'm pretty much always tired no matter what I do before bed. I've tried tea, milk, no computer, reading, exercise, no dice. That's until the weekend though when I sleep bizarrely, sometimes skipping the first night of sleep entirely, sleeping a big chunk of the next days and radically correcting on Sunday night. It makes Mondays suck but at least I'm not tired all weekend like during a big chunk of the week.

I'll try your way, maybe it'll help. Thanks!

Even short of polyphasic sleep, try getting between 6 and 7 hours of sleep, make yourself get up and see how that does. Often we get "sleep inertia" where your body keeps just pumping the melatonin into your system when it really doesn't need the rest. I know that aside from a polyphasic schedule, I can sleep for 8-10 hours, but anytime I do it I feel groggy all day - melatonin in the bloodstream - this has nothing to do with having enough sleep or sleep debt.

Have you had yourself tested for some common causes of excessive sleeping: - sleep apnea ? - vitamin B deficiency ? - um ... ?

Nope, I'm just very aware of it. I greatly enjoy sleeping for 14 hours on days I let myself - so it's not really something I want to cure. I adopted the schedule because it's very difficult to lead an active and social life alongside a full time employment appointment all the while sleeping that much.

I don't want to pry, but could you describe your general level of fitness to us?

One day I'm going to try a polyphasic schedule "just because" but I wonder how it would be when getting lots of exercise.

Actually I'm in good shape for an office dweller. I'm 6'2", vary between 145 and 150lbs, have low cholesterol, low blood pressure and am generally on the cusp of skinny-muscular. I walk about 2 miles on the average weekday (commute by foot.) I don't explicitly exercise otherwise, but I routinely play football and paintball with friends and never become short of breath.

I do have a combination of both allergies (hayfever) and asthma (standard nerd from the 80s!) but I control both with occasional rescue style prescriptions instead of a daily pill regiment.

The sleep cycle itself feels alot more natural to me. My partner constantly mentions envy in the speed at which I fall asleep each night. That's why I think I've stuck with it. Gives me more awake time away from work (bonus) and feels right.