Today is day 57 of my biphasic sleep pattern, so I have been sleeping like this for nearly 2 months! During this time, I have only slept for 7 consecutive hours twice, and I have napped all but 5 days. This sleeping pattern is definitely something that I would like to continue, and I am definitely getting used to it, but I am still hesitant to say that I am 100% adapted.

During most of this time, the thing that has really surprised me has been that I have found it easier to get to sleep for my naps than I have for my core (night) sleep. Most days I think I have fallen asleep within 5-10 minutes for my naps, but it often takes me half an hour to drift off at night.

The worst part of this period in regards to my sleep has definitely been the period between the 2nd and 12th October, due to some problems that I had falling asleep at night. Throughout this period, every time that I went to bed I would hear a very low pitched noise that sounded like it could have been a subwoofer playing a very deep bass line in the next house. The noise was not very loud, and Yu Lee couldn't even hear it, but I think this was because it was at the lower end of the range of frequencies that people can hear, and I think she can't detect these frequencies.

It wasn't the volume of the noise that bothered me, but the pitch, and for some reason it would aggravate me and prevent me from sleeping. Sometimes I would find myself getting angry which makes it nearly impossible to sleep, and sometimes I would even find myself holding my breath to 'try' to hear it!

Eventually I went round to my neighbour's to talk to him about it, and he told me that he comes in from work late and goes straight up to bed, sometimes using a small tv in his bedroom up against the wall on the other side of the house. From what he was saying I don't think it could have been music or television noise from his house, and by this time I didn't have a clue what it was. Two days later the noise mysteriously stopped and hasn't returned since!

The first few times that I heard it, it didn't bother me too much as it is acceptable to hear your neighbours from time to time. As the weeks went on I became more and more upset by it, and after 10 days of having my sleep disrupted every single night I was becoming miserable. Luckily it's over now so I just have to hope that it won't come back.

This week has also seen another slight change in my sleep - I am beginning to find it more difficult to fall asleep for my naps. This has really only been happening for the past week or so, but I'm hoping it is just a temporary thing as I am having to dedicate a bit more time to falling asleep at the moment.

When I am napping, I have found that all of the tricks I used to use on Everyman don't work anymore (things like counting my breaths), and that I actually find it so much effort to 'clear my mind' that it normally prevents me from sleeping. Instead, I find that I normally drift off to sleep best when I just let my mind wander. Normally I will be thinking lots of thoughts that lead into one another, and they get more and more nonsensical until I eventually drift off to sleep. It's very hard to force my brain into doing this unless it does it by itself, and the best I can normally do is to try and steer my train of thought away from anything stressful.

Apart from these minor issues, everything else has been great! I would say that on this sleeping pattern I feel slightly tired a bit more often than on monophasic, but I have a lot less times where I feel really tired.

Before I would often completely ruin my sleeping pattern at the weekend, and Monday and Tuesday mornings I would be like a zombie. With the new sleeping pattern every day is pretty much the same, and I only feel tired briefly before and after each sleep. I often find that I come over sleepy around 2:00pm (the same as on monophasic), but I can easily stay awake until 1:00am and the night is not really a struggle.

The hardest thing overall would probably be the fact that I really have to watch my levels of tea consumption! I always said it would be harder to give up tea than beer, and I think this has proved me right as I really miss being able to drink 5 or 6 cups of tea each day. I now limit myself to 2 cups in the morning and 1 cup straight after my nap, but I often wish I could have a couple more.

Finally, the things that have surprised me most have been that I have not minded cutting back on my alcohol intake (I think it is about a third what is was before) and that I absolutely love the period between 6:00am and 7:30am, which is equally good for playing video games or working on my own programming projects before work. I have also been drinking a lot more milk than before, mainly on my cereal but also sometimes when I get in from work.

That's it for now! I'll try and write another update in a month or so...