jmc

A day has $86,400$ seconds. $86,400=2^7\cdot 3^3\cdot 5^2$, so 86,400 has $(7+1)(3+1)(2+1)=96$ positive factors. Thus there are $96/2=48$ (unordered) pairs of factors each of whose product is $86,400.$ Since ``$n$ periods of $m$ seconds'' is different from ``$m$ periods of $n$ seconds,'' we need to multiply $48$ by $2$ to get our final answer of $\boxed{96}$ ways.