Interesting... I just started a biphasic sleep schedule (4.5 hours of sleep from 1:00 to 5:30, and then 1.5 hours of sleep from 19:00 to 20:30) but now I'm wondering if the cost will outweigh the benefits.
I've done a 6 and 2 biphasic schedule (or sometimes 7 and 3), and I felt better than I ever had before. It's difficult to fit the nap in with work though.
I think in many ways the "Italian" sleep schedule (up at 7, awake till 2, sleep till 5, awake till 2) is very natural. It's no less sleep, but it feels more refreshing somehow.
Depending on where you live, the hottest hours of the day are usually between 12 - 5. Maybe it's instinctual for predators to not want to do stuff during those hours?
Biphasic sleep schedules are arguably the default setting for non-industral society humans - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segmented_sleep - and while it appears to have benefits in terms of mood and alertness, it may not be entirely healthy as a way to reduce the total amount of sleep if you need more.
Biphasic is fine, sleep deprivation is problematic. You've got a grand total of 6 hours, when most humans do best on 7-8, so you might be running a bit low.
Seriously? Thank you for letting me know; I was going to get an Evo on the 4th but not after learning this. I'm glad I didn't find this out after purchasing.
I've been feeling the same way about my startup, which has almost 17,000 users but only a small amount of them are paying customers (launched a paid plan a few months ago). I keep wanting to ask myself how much longer I should give it to see if it reaches profitability, or should I just shut it down? Anyway, right now I'm creating a survey for the paying users to be able to tell what they like/don't like about the paid plan. I also plan on doing a referral program that benefits both parties (I did get both of those ideas from a slideshow about a startup and their freemium model, forgot which). Keep those ideas in mind if you ever plan on introducing any paid plans and good luck.
Thanks. I really appreciate the feedback and advice (from everyone on HN). The whole "wondering how much longer I should give it" phase lasted from about February until early April.
One of the first things that made me realize it might be time to cut my losses and focus my attention on other projects was when we launched this website in mid Feb - http://toeflnow.com
We sell a TOEFL Tips and Strategies guide eBook, and while it certainly isn't earning enough to pay all the bills it is making substantially more money than Lenguajero. In fact, in its first week it made more money than Lenguajero did the entire month of Feb.
That was a real turning point. It was like "Hmmm...hundreds of hours spent on Lenguajero vs. ~40hrs spent on an ebook. Maybe I should be doing something else right now..."
Good luck! I really hope it works out for you. What's the website if you don't mind me asking?
I highly recommend http://spreedly.com. Has a great API and recurring billing is built-in so you don't need to pay extra for it on PayPal or Authorize.
Spreedly has a per-transaction percentage charge on top of all the other per-transaction fees you pay to the gateway/bank/etc. Not a great option long-term. http://cheddargetter.com and http://chargify.com are much better options. CheddarGetter is a very robust service with usage tracking, branded email communication and microbilling features. Chargify includes a drop-in generic interface like Spreedly.
