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Hello,
Firstly, I hope this is the right forum. I know there is a forum for sleeping cycles, but this topic has to do with the effect on lucid dreaming so I imagine it goes here.
My question is, does anyone here use BiPhasic sleep, and if so, what has been your findings with it relating to lucid dreaming. I am going to start Biphasic sleeping soon, and am wondering if you guys have had great success with lucid dreams during the 1.5 hour nap?
Thanks,
Brandon
From a REM perspective, I would say unless the sleep phases are within short succession of each other, you will see no marked increase in lucid dreams. If anything, you will experience a lower number of dreams, or dreams with less continuity and vividness.
REM sleeping is the prime period of sleep in which vivid dreams occur. REM sleep itself is mainly found in the later stages of a monophasic sleep cycle (7 hours or more), primarily following the first 3-5 hours of sleep. After this initial period of time, the REM cycles become longer and more pronounced, while the n-REM stages become shorter and less pronounced.
If you were to look at biphasic sleep cycles, which are generally shorter (below 3-4 hours), you will not be able to attain longer, more pronounced periods of REM sleep. However, it's possible that the second sleep cycle in the 24 hour period is more filled with REM sleep than the initial, due to the banking of n-REM sleep in the first sleep period. I'm not entirely sure, but I can see no marked advantages.
Thank you for your reply. :)
The reason that I believe I would have an increase in chances for success of lucid dreams, is for the following reason. The main 'belief' behind the success of Polyphasic or Biphasic sleep cycles is that it puts you into the deeper, restorative sleep you need (REM) much more quickly. That's why schedules like Uberman or what have you work. They allow you to fall directly into REM without having to go through the other cycles. Whether this is a good thing, I do not know. What I do know, however, is that people sleeping on biphasic cycles report being no less tired, but more often much more awake or alert during the day, than on a monophasic cycle.
As far as Biphasic sleep, I and many others that I have seen, seem to believe that the same thing happens. During the latter nap of 1.5 hours, you enter another 90 minute REM cycle immediately which WOULD allow you to successfully lucid dream, and also give you restorative sleep. As a back up of that belief, many Biphasic sleepers report remembering dreams MORE often than when they slept monophasically. Furthermore, they reported waking up slightly before the alarm, when their exact cycle ended.
Now, I have no scientific knowledge nor experiments to back up my beliefs. However, from talking with other biphasic sleepers, or reading their logs, it all seems to make sense to me. Perhaps I'm just missing something though. ;)
Edit - Also, the sleep cycles won't be too near. A core sleep of 4.5 hours from 2:00am - 6:30am and a nap of 1.5 hours from EITHER 7:00pm - 8:30pm OR 7:30pm - 9:00pm depending on how I'm feeling.
I see, I misunderstood and was under the impression the two phases were of equal lengths. But the ciesta-type of model you present does seem to pose some interesting benefits.
I would assume, as you pointed out, that the latter phase would indeed fall more rapidly into REM sleep due to the restorative n-REM sleep being acquired already in the core sleep period.
Because of this, I would imagine that WILD's could be acquired right off the bat during the nap.
Though, I'm not sure if this would prove to produce any more lucids than the conventional wake-back-to-bed method of a monophasic sleep cycle. I suppose the only way to know would be to try it out for a go. Tell us how it goes =]
Ah, ok, well glad that got sorted out! :) I think I agree with you in the sense that it won't prove any more effective than a normal WBTB, but only time will tell. Besides, I'm NOT doing this for lucid dreaming. If it helps, great, if it doesn't, that's fine too. I'm doing this to get more awake hours during the day while maintaining a heightened sense of awareness and "awakeness." I do think, however, that it will be nice not having to perform a WBTB and being able to do it right of the bat.
I plan on starting this either Monday or Tuesday of this week and I will keep a log of it in the Alternative Sleep Patterns forum. I will probably provide a link to it in this thread.
Thanks for all the help!
Brandon
Actually I had this idea along time ago, it was more like a wake back to bed I stayed awake for like 45 min and I went back to sleep and had 6 lds, and my last record was also because of a long awakening which was 4 lds in one night, so I think two indivisual sleep periods would be extremely effective for me, I just hate having to fall asleep after that long, plus I'm into other techniques such as WILD right now.
There is no reason why you can't WILD immediately into that 1.5 hour nap (or even possibly the 4.5 hour core sleep). Also, after only 4.5 hours of core sleep, I don't think you'll mind taking that nap "after such a long time." ;)
Edit - Here is the link to my journal for Biphasic Sleep. Link