Diet and polyphasic sleeping

I was recently asked about my diet and how that affects my sleep schedule. I do think that food - good food - is important, and I can quickly tell when I am not eating well. It becomes MUCH harder to maintain my triphasic schedule. I have come to believe that polyphasic sleeping does, inherently, put some stress on the body, and that can be somewhat mitigated by a good diet and reasonable exercise. 

I have tracked my foods periodically for years, so I know that I typically eat 40/40/20 as far as carbs/fats/protein. However, those are not targets; the only macronutrient that I target is protein. I try to get at least 55g a day. I am a flexitarian, and do not eat much meat AND I do a calorie restriction diet for longevity, I have to be conscious of getting enough protein, without a disproportionate number of calories.

I do a CRON diet (Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition). I also kept a journal on my diet for a short while, so you can see specifically what I tend to eat. I track my diet about twice a year with nutrition-tracking software, to make sure that what I am eating at least gives me the known nutrients. This is important because with fewer calories, nutrition packing becomes more problematic, and like most people, I get into habits with food, making things that are quick and easy. So I check periodically, and adjust my diet when needed.

An important part of a complete breakfast.

Of course, I avoid caffeine after the first hour that I am awake, although I have a cup of coffee just about every time I get up.

I avoid overly processed food. I don't think that would have any direct effect on my sleep, but I believe that it has a direct effect on my health. I tend to agree with Michael Pollan's basic rules of health eating: "Eat food, mostly plants, not too much". I believe that my health has a direct effect on my ability to do triphasic sleeping.

I avoid alcohol. I find that more than one serving of alcohol will interfere with my schedule. I fall asleep easily enough, but do not wake even if I set an alarm. I also try to avoid foods with a high insulin index, except right before cardio-type exercise. I find that they make me tired about 40 minutes after I have them. It takes me longer to fall asleep if I just had some, and I tend to "oversleep" by about 20-30 minutes. 

Determining your optimal nap length.

If you are doing any sort of polyphasic sleep, or for that matter, even monophasic sleep, it is beneficial to wake at the end of a full sleep cycle, rather than have your alarm interrupt a cycle. Waking at the end of a cycle means that your mind comes easily out of REM and into consciousness. There is reason to think that you get only minimal, if any, benefit from cycles that are interrupted and that interrupted cycles contribute to sleep deprivation.

There are a couple of ways make sure that you are waking at the end of a full cycle. Probably the best available method is to purchase a Zeo. This device not only monitors the depth of your sleep and will awaken you during your lightest sleep, it also maps your sleep cycle and creates a hypnogram. Since the Zeo determines your sleep depth directly from your brainwaves, it is by the far most accurate method of tracking your sleep outside of a sleep laboratory.

Kitten don't need no Zeo.

A second option is a new app for the iphone. Sleep Cycle uses your movements to determine which sleep phase you are in and then wake you at an appropriate time. At $.99 it is much more affordable than the Zeo, if you already own the iphone. 

Which I don't, because I live in the boondocks and I only get cell service through US Cellular. I also have not sprung for a Zeo, so I came up with a frugal, low-tech method of determining my optimal nap length. I found an alarm setting that would wake me up, but ONLY when I was already in a very light sleep. My alarm is my cell phone (an old clunky one) set on Vibe Dot Dot and tucked under my pillow. When I was first trying this schedule, I would set 4 alarms spaced 2 minutes apiece. Each alarm will ring three times, 9 minutes apart, so I would get a vibrating alarm every 2 minutes over the course of 35 minutes. When I woke up, I would note the time, hone my sleep schedule that way. I started out with 3x90 since 90 minutes is a typical sleep cycle. After measuring for a few days, it turns out that my evening and morning sleep schedules are 80 and my afternoon nap is 55 minutes. These are still just averages, and not as good as using the Sleep Cycle app or the Zeo. My actual nap needs seem to fluctuate a bit depending on exactly when I got up from my last nap and the time that I went to sleep for my current nap. So, sometimes, I will be a bit off from my schedule. That inevitably seems to mean that I will not wake naturally and will need my alarm. On the occasions that I do use my alarm, I am often a bit groggy, but if I get up, have my coffee and move around a bit, I can shake it off. I think the only way to not have an occasional groggy "morning" is to either be very consistant on your schedule, or to use a Zeo.

Day 60(ish) update.

Over the last month, I have had some mixed results. During the beginning of the month, I was observing my nap times pretty strictly, falling asleep faster and had dropped my schedule from 3x90 a day to 3x80 a day, and then occasionally 2x80 + a 45 minute nap for the afternoon nap. I had plenty of energy, mental alertness, and physically felt great.

Then on May 20th, I badly injured my shoulder in a fall.

Reenactment of my injury.

I immediately started sleeping more. This was not a conscious decision, but an immediate bodily response to the pain. I still stayed polyphasic, and I was still waking easily at roughly the regular times, but I was basically laid up on the couch and spent my time reading and drowsing. On a related note, last month I received a note from Piotr Wozniak, who told me that my post on sleep not being needed for muscle is untrue, and that while they are able to repair themselves during any sort of low-activity/rest phase, the catabolic and anabolic cycles are hooked onto the undisrupted circadian cycle. Breaking one's night's sleep disrupts those hormonal changes and results in a slower recovery from exercise and injury. I have not looked into the science of this yet, but experientially, it seems to be true.

During this period of recovery, I did intentionally do some standard triphasic 3x90 days. For example, I have been driving up to see my Grandmother every other Tuesday, and it works well to drive up during the night, take a nap, visit, nap, and then drive back. But my priority has been on healing my shoulder.

While it is not yet better, it is now (mostly) not in pain, and I have moved back to my triphasic sleeping pattern. One of the things that I enjoy about this pattern, as I have said before, is how easy it is to slide back and forth between circadian triphasic and the more typical monophasic pattern. The triphasic does seem to get more efficient the longer that I (rigorously) on it, but the immediate gain of only sleeping 4.5 hrs is very nice.