Whenever I’ve stopped has been for work-schedule related reasons and I always find myself craving those naps that seem to go on forever (you feel like you rest a whole night’s rest in 1.5 hours) and the boost in my energy levels that comes with it.

All things considered, I’ve been a biphasic sleeper for somewhere around 2 years now…

Now, I decided on the non-extreme schedule (total of 6 hours sleep a day) but I tested the schedule a lot as part of my first experiment, and once you get used to it, I’m happy to report that you can skip a nap, go to bed late or take the nap at a different time once in a while without real consequence.

And I’ll let you in a secret: its an integral part of my ‘survive the first days of parenthood’ plan. Mommy will take care of the kid while I take the nap and then I can take care of the baby until I go to bed at 3am. I think that’ll save us some of the ‘headaches’ of having to wake up through the night to see why the baby is crying.

@ Laura Louise – Avocado is an excellent cheese sub!

@ Meghan – Yeah, honestly I don’t know a ton about specific strains, but I do know that people swear ‘different bugs for different needs’, so it may be worth checking into. As for brands there’s a ton of options but most importantly I’d just make sure whatever you get is refrigerated and enteric coated. And yeah, food is best. Yogurt is great in smoothies . . . coconut kefir is better! Kombucha is great for rebalancing gut flora. And of course kraut, kimchi, pickles, etc. You need to start fermenting lady!

@ Rebecca – Did you see this??

@ erosan – Ooh I want to hear more about biophasic sleeping! I’ve been interested in this for quite some time. How long have you been doing it? I know Steve Pavlina didn’t keep it up after his trial, so I wonder how sustainable it really is. But I work from home so I have the flexibility . . .

@ Cary M – Fashion coming soon! Fall always brings more fashion. =)

And yes, more Waits!

I’d like to see more fashion inspiration please and more pics of Waits.

Be more productive/efficient to do more things, or get more time.

Organizing yourself better could help… I swear by David Allen’s ‘Getting things done’(GTD). Exceptional method and not very hard to learn by surfing the web (although you could give the book a try). With his method, the first thing you do is dump all your projects and tasks into a list. Having it on writing will clean your mind. Believe me. Knowing that somewhere there is a list of the things you need to do gives you ease of mind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GTD

Or, if you want to have more time, you could do biphasic sleep. Basically instead of sleeping in one block at night, you do 2 smaller blocks of sleep throughout the day. You sleep 1.5 hours in the afternoon, and 3 or 4.5 hours at night (1.5 hours is the average duration of a sleep cycle, so you are trying to maximize the amount of rest you get). It may sound weird to sleep like that little at night, but it is AWESOME. I’m a biphasic sleeper and if your work schedule lets you get away with it, it’ll give you extra time and a boost to your energy levels (at least it did for me).
Steve Pavlina is probably the most famous english speaking blogger to do it:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/forums/health-fitness/1638-switching-biphasic-sleeping-start-here.html
You could read my experience with biphasic sleeping here, but its in spanish:
http://sites.google.com/site/dormirbifasico/
and the blog:
http://dormirbifasico.blogspot.com/

If you are feeling radical, you could also try my utopia (i’d love to do this, but I just can’t see it happening soon :D):
http://dbeat.com/28/
The 6 days week (28 hour day)!

First, something that really got my goat: While in Whole Foods the other day there was a rep from a company sampling their product. They said it was vegan and then began listing off ingredients including honey (!). When I pointed out that honey is not vegan the lady argued with me saying that honey was a “product”. I proceeded to write the company to inform them of their rep giving out misinformation. Geesh! Although it makes no difference to me personally, as I do not abstain from honey, it really got under my skin knowing how many vegans/vegetarians and those with food allergies have to go through this kind of stuff on a daily basis!

Next, trying to instill at least a like for the area I moved to (I have become quite the hermit) I took a fairly lengthy drive up to Colorado’s Elk Fest. Basically for a week or two in October the elk make an annual rutting trek THROUGH the town. Setting up camp on streets, golf courses, football fields and the like. Crazy! Not sure how much the elk enjoy throngs of people gawking at them but, hey, they keep coming back year after year. Very interesting indeed.

Lastly, I thought I’d throw this out to all you enlightened and oh-so-helpful lil’ bonzais. I am having a really difficult time finding balance and peace in my life. Although it is just me (no significant other, kids, and friends have basically gone by the wayside as they are all getting married and going AWOL one-by-one) I just never feel relaxed and as if there are enough hours in the day. Even if it is the weekend I still feel as if I have too much to do. Granted, some of this is that I juggle 3 different jobs, 2 of which are freelance so the hours are not conventional–both a blessing and a curse. But I just feel stressed out 24-7. I’m sure a lot of it has to do with me living in a semi-new place and having ‘friends’ on the other side of the country who never even bother to call me back. I am probably just trying to “busy” myself from thinking about that stuff too much (which I do). But still, can anyone relate? suggestions?

As for 3 things I am looking forward to:
1. crisp, but not too cold weather
2. trying out my brand-new Health Master blender that I scored for $50 instead of $200—woot!
3. sleep…always sleep! oh yes..and finally doing a dog yoga cd I ordered with my number one pupster!