Since 2018, I have experimented with tens of polyphasic sleep schedules. These are three common things among them:
- They ARE DIFFICULT to adapt to.
- My energy and focus were low.
- Hard to maintain because of the naps that you MUST take EVERY DAY at the same time.
So, it seemed way too challenging to keep them, and they had no interesting ROI.
I thought it was time to stick to sleeping just once per day, starting with seven hours to test if it’s the minimum required sleep time to function properly.
And as always, I am going to use the ZEST mode.
The last time I used the ZEST mode was for the six-hour sleep and 20-minute nap (biphasic sleep). It didn’t work, and I didn’t get good results, so I quit.
Now, I am going to try seven hours of monophasic sleep (sleeping once per day).
Let’s explore the five elements of ZEST mode for this challenge.
Note: if you want to check the ZEST mode framework in depth, then read the blogpost Boost your habits with ZEST MODE or listen to episode 4 from plannedroutine podcast.
The 5 Elements of The Zest Mode
The Plan
Getting to a specific place requires a plan, so to have that, we need a starting date and ending date.
The challenge would take 4 months this time.
Why 4 months instead of having 3 months like the previous Zest Mode, you might ask?
Well, on one hand, I want this challenge to be long so that I have more room to adapt to it.
and on the other hand, I would combat the urge of restarting the schedule.
Starting date → Tuesday, April 1, 2025
End date → Thursday, July 31, 2025
Sleep schedule → 9:50 PM – 4:50 AM
In the last change despite putting considerations regarding the dark mode, and eating time, I didn’t follow through.
Here is how I am going to implement those sleep-aid tools plus 3 TOOLS:
1.DARK Mode→ Since I have a habit called dark mode, I WOULD just follow it by closing my eyes 5-15 minutes before sleep, and the duration will gradually increase over the following months.
2.Eating Restriction → avoid eating 2.5-3 hours before sleep.
3.Staying up toolkit → having a handy flash card filled with different activities I must use rather tan crawling back to bed.
4.Blue filter glasses → Using my blue light-filtering glasses to prevent my eyes from picking the blue lights and avoid sleeping late.
5.Using sleep mask and earplugs → train my body to learn that once the mask and earplugs are on, Sleep is welcomed.
Writing the Habits Statement
Like I mentioned before, I have a habit statement related to sleep schedule habit but this I won’t use the same habit statement for this challenge, rather I want the habit statement to be complimentary to the other one but more specific to this challenge.
It’s one charging block session of rest and empowerment which you should not miss if you want to rock the next day.
this should emphasis the importance of the monophasic sleep, and how important it can be to my life being.
What’s different this time is that I am letting go of the need to have two sleep sessions to live the day, here there is just an emphasis that ONE is enough.
7-hour of Monophasic sleep is the ultimate POWER BOOST that I am going to use everyday because my life as a container for all the things I want to achieve depends on it.
Incorporating the Role Model Spirit
I could have picked any role model for the monophasic sleep I am starting by 1st of April, it’s not necessarily that they are advocates for sleep. But the message that comes from someone who not only priorities sleep but actively invite other people to do the same hits different.
It’s like we are engaging in a collective form of sleeping together. we prioritize sleep because it matters.
Because our health SHOULD be number one!
It’s the first Pillar that everything I am doing depends on.
from wanting to be efficiently productive, to mastering the art of meditating.
to having enough recovery power for any physical training I go through.
With Sleep, everything beings and without it, everything collapses.
Therefore, I chose a role model.
This time, it’s going to be the Author of Sleep Solution: Dr. Christopher Winter.
I am reading this book and I can tell you the author inspired me to take my sleep seriously but more importantly strategically.
His mission of helping people to sleep better, re-energized me with the vision of me Sleeping in way that helps not endanger my health.
AND MORE than that? having successful experiences can help you my reader in a way to optimize your sleep as well.
Signing the commitment contract
The contract is the written statement that shows your commitment and seriousness about sticking to the Zest mode for the duration of the challenge.
it helps to provide some form of punishment if you fail to adhere to the sleep challenge.
Also, what I am doing different this time, is that I will be printing the commitment contract and sign it with pen, rather than doing it digitally.
not only that I will add what the opposite of punishment, which is having a reward : playing the next installment of Assassin’s creed in the series (where I stopped)
you might wonder why gaming? isn’t it waste of time, on its own it can be.
But mastering the habit sleep deserves such a reward in my opinion.
Here below you find my commitment contract:
Dear self,
I know you have been struggling with sleep a lot lately, you even kept telling yourself that you are going to stick it it but nothing great came of it, I am giving you another chance to better my sleep. The sleep is going to be just one time kind of sleep (monophasic) and because having less than 7 hours didn’t work in the past, let’s stick with 7 hours this time.
If I successfully manage to complete the challenge the reward would be playing Assassin’s creed IV from start to finish.
If however I fail the challenge : I will help someone in need.
Best luck.
Execute, Document and repeat (EDR for short)
The process of execution matters. You can jump into action directly but it’s not a good idea, if you want to train your muscle, the common sense is to do the warm up first, similarly if you want to make sure you are doing the Sleep schedule properly, you should go with these steps:
- reading the habit plan (30 sec)
- Read the habit statement (30 sec)
- Picturing myself being the role model and live it with all the emotion (1 min)
- Reading the commitment contract (1 min)
- Execute the sleep habit, check the habit off on a journal or a habit tracker, document the experience then wait for the next day to repeat the steps 1-5 till I complete the Zest Mode.
Closing up
The challenge is adapting to the monophasic sleep schedule (7 hours of sleep) for a period of 4 months, using 5 tools and the zest mode framework to accomplish the goal of sleeping efficiently and have enough energy to tackle my habits, tasks and whatever life throws at me.
If you are doing any sleep routine challenge or habit, I would like to know about it!
how many hours do you sleep per night? and what is the goals you try to achieve?
