One topic that has constantly been on my mind since I started college is sleep. Being in college I feel like I am always sleep deprived. I am able to reboot my sleep clock over the weekend, but once Monday rolls around I fall into my cycle of “all-nighters.” It clearly is not healthy to go 36 hours without sleep twice a week like I have been doing, so I knew I needed to find a solution to my sleeping habits. After some research I discovered that there are actually multiple types of sleeping cycles. I discovered this on a blogpost by Steve Pavlina. Although the uberman cycle requires only 2 hours of sleep a day, the scheduling requirements are too strict. One must sleep 20 minutes every four hours. The cycle that caught my eye was the biphasic sleep cycle. This required 6 hours of sleep total, one four and a half hour segment and a shorter hour and a half nap. I researched this topic in greater depth and found Steve Pavlina’s blog-log of his biphasic sleep experiment and a YouTube video by Kelly Granite Enck explaining the sleep cycle as well. The two sources are incredibly different, one shows greater professionalism, the other is much more playful.
Steve Pavlina’s blogs are very thorough. He dedicates much of his life to his posts about alternate ways of living such as his polyphasic sleep cycle blogs. Most people fall under the monophasic sleep cycle because our social structure requires bulk hour workdays from us. Steve Pavlina was able to integrate this cycle into his work schedule by sleeping after work and then at midnight. He gears this blog to other individuals like him, working people who want to discover alternate ways of living. Steve Pavlina even has posts geared specifically to college students. The biphasic sleep cycle segment of his website includes a thorough breakdown of the sleeping cycle as well as a continuous log of experience on the new cycle. His posts are incredibly informative and provide a great perspective on the various adjustments to life he suggests. I would recommend to all college students and even adults to checkout his website, and I intend to read many of his other blogs.
Kelly Granite Enck’s YouTube channel seems very informal. Her posts are all about living a healthy life. Many of her videos are about diet changes such as a raw food diet, and many other aspects of her personal health experiences such as her biphasic sleep regimen. She does not include many sources and stutters frequently in her videos. In comparison to Steve Pavlina’s breakdown of biphasic sleeping, Kelly Enck’s is rudimentary. If one wants a simple introduction to a new sleeping regimen by a Floridian health enthusiast, then Kelly is the person to watch. She is full of energy and attempts at attracting viewers with her constant happiness and an oceanic backdrop, but her lack of formalism does not help with fully understanding the sleeping regimen.
I personally want to alter my life to this biphasic sleep cycle. I believe that I will find it incredibly beneficial and hopefully will notice greater productivity in my life. The cycle allows me to shift my bulk sleep to either later in the night, since I enjoy working in the studio very late; or earlier so that I can begin my day much more efficiently. I continue to struggle with waking up in the morning and starting my day, hopefully with a stricter regimen I will find ease, peace and energy in my mornings. Steeve Pavlina’s website is a great source on primary experience with polyphasic sleep cycles.
