Bimaxion

Default Bimaxion sleep

Bimaxion is a polyphasic schedule that combines Dual Core and Dymaxion sleep. The design intent for Bimaxion is a transitional schedule for a gradual adaptation route to Dymaxion; it is also a fallback schedule after Dymaxion no longer becomes sustainable. At 4 hours sleep total, it is considered to be the single most difficult schedule that is still achievable by an average person.

Content

  1. History
  2. Mechanism
  3. Difficulty
  4. Adaptation
  5. Alternate Variants
  6. Lifestyle Considerations

History

The schedule used to be called “Quadphasic”; The original idea was to have 4 sleeps of 1h each per day. However, it would place more focus on nocturnal sleep and less daytime sleep. GeneralNguyen, who invented the schedule, changed it to Bimaxion to clarify naming. It has 2 core sleeps of only 1 full cycle each, and 2 30m naps. This results in the name change (2 naps = “bi”).

Bimaxion is the schedule that gives a highest amount of sleep each day in the “-maxion” family of schedules (4h). It reflects on the idea of an “intense lifestyle with little sleep” from Buckminster Fuller, who created Dymaxion.

Mechanism

Because Bimaxion possesses 2 core sleeps that concentrate around the night hours, it sparks the traits of Dual Core sleep. One core is always before midnight to take advantage of the SWS peak; the other core is around sunrise hours for REM sleep. At face value, Bimaxion coincidentally looks like a shortened DC2 schedule where the core sleeps only have 1 full cycle.

However, at its heart, Bimaxion is an “easier Dymaxion“, just like how E3 is to Uberman. Bimaxion’s distribution of sleeps closely resembles Dymaxion’s; one sleep around midnight, another around dawn, a late morning/noon and mid/late-afternoon hours. Bimaxion, therefore, is one of the two “-maxion” schedules that theoretically can pave the way for a transition to a Dymaxion adaptation.

  • The first core sleep now has to be in the SWS peak to get as much quality SWS as possible.
  • The second core will be dedicated to REM sleep, and the naps provide different types of sleep.
  • The first nap, being early in the day, is bound to give a lot of REM sleep
  • The second nap can give only NREM2, or potentially some more SWS. The SWS core alone does not provide enough SWS for a regular 90m SWS requirements each day.

Difficulty

Minimum Sleep Threshold Polyphasic Schedules
E3DC3Bimaxion
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Alongside DC3 and E3 (3h core), Bimaxion is a polyphasic schedule whose total sleep borderlines on the minimum sleep threshold. However, Bimaxion is often likely far more difficult, because of the SWS wakes near the end of the naps. The single-cycle core sleeps promote SWS and REM deprivation symptoms until there is an equilibrium of SWS and REM in all the given sleep blocks.

While Bimaxion’s sleep distribution looks very similar to that of E3, adaptations are very rare.

  • The 20m naps on E3 at least can delay the oversleeps from the rising sleep pressure over the course of even several days; meanwhile, an awakening from Bimaxion’s naps can be utterly devastating with long-lasting sleep inertia in Stage 3.
  • Staying awake during the graveyard hours between each core can become overwhelming with SWS wakes from the first core as part of the core sleep segmentation.

Adaptation 

Cold Turkey

So far, all successes reported on this schedule are from cold turkey. However, most of the successful adaptations are from sleep mutants (~5-6h monophasic) or heavy insomniacs. These individuals have a consistently low amount of vital sleep stage requirements.

Gradual Adaptation

Gradual adaptation from Segmented

A gradual adaptation method to a polyphasic schedule with a 30m nap (e.g, DC1 with a 30m nap) may be possible. Yet, it has not been an effective way to adapt to Bimaxion so far.

Alternatively, starting from Segmented sleep is also possible, but this has not been in practice either. To ease the gradual transition process, set the same sleep times for both schedules (e.g, 10 PM for first core). 

Alternate Variants

Up to date, only the default version is adaptable. Any other possible variants, including swapping the second nap and the first core’s positions, or slightly shortening one or both cores down to ~70-80m to squeeze in a bit more wake time will only increase the hostility of the adaptation process.

Bimaxion-extended

Bimaxion can have an extended version, with an extra cycle in the SWS core.

  • However, its higher total sleep causes it to lose the niche of the hefty sleep reduction amount.
  • Additionally, the extended version is still much harder than DC2.
  • No one has succeeded with Bimaxion-extended, either. At this point, it is simply better to adapt to DC2 or E3-extended instead.

Lifestyle Considerations

Because Bimaxion contains 2 core sleeps, it is more flexible than Dymaxion after adaptation. However, the flexibility is limited. The naps may be somewhat flexible, but the cores will be unlikely as much.

So far, only one sleep mutant has been able to make Bimaxion highly flexible as a pathway to adapt to DUCAMAYL. This sleeper also stayed on Bimaxion for several months comfortably without any health issues.

This proves that Bimaxion may be sustainable for an extended period of time. Thus, only individuals with low sleep requirements would be able to enjoy a flexible Bimaxion.

  • Bimaxion can actually fit into a consistent lifestyle with 9-to-5 work hours as long as a nap around noon is permissible.
  • The short daytime naps are usually not too long for daytime events to interrupt.
  • Compared to DC2, it offers an even more impressive amount of sleep reduction, at the cost of a grueling adaptation and potential inflexibility.
  • Light exercises are also forgiving on this schedule thanks to both deep core sleeps; however, the body can doubtfully recover from a hard workout quickly enough.
  • The low total sleep can also deliver a lot of benefits for intense dreaming.
  • Days on Bimaxion reportedly last twice as long as a normal day because of the highly condensed sleep blocks. 

Despite all the promising sleep reduction and the scheduling viability, the SWS core is still early for a lot of people. This can effectively nullify evening social time. After adaptation, any events that interrupt or force sleepers to skip any of the cores will likely wreak havoc on the schedule.

One of the biggest motivations to adapt to this schedule would be to experiment with 30m naps or love the distribution of sleeps in a Dymaxion style.

Main author: GeneralNguyen

Page last updated: 8 April 2021