I read the discussion on this topic a couple of months ago and decided to try the polyphasic sleep schedule.
At first I was taking the bulk 5-6 hour sleep and 2 naps and it was working out great for me. The usual affects: increased creativity and energy. Until trying the polyphasic sleep schedule, it had been some time since I've felt fuly rested after sleeping. I always had black bags under my eyes - no matter if I got 9 hours, 12 hours, or any amount of sleep. Then after 4 to 6 days of taking just two 20 minute naps and reducing my bulk sleep time from 8-9 hours to 5-6, the bags almost entirely disappeared.
The problem started when I got a bad cold. I couldn't continue the sleep schedule without getting a longer bulk sleep time. I tried three and four 20 minute naps with the 5-6 hour bulk sleep, but to no avail. So I took a couple days in a row of 8-9 bulk hour sleep on top of two 20 minute naps. That worked. I had to do that every 3 to 4 days while this really bad cold lasted two weeks.
I'm sure the sleep schedule had nothing to do with my difficulty of getting over the cold as many other people in my office had the cold and had a problem getting over it.
The problem with getting my sleep down again is forcing myself to get up after 5-6 hours. If I don't make sure to get up and get the muscles awake then I will go back to sleep and mess up my schedule.
I plan on reducing my bulk sleep to 1.5 to 2.5 at the most and taking three or four 20 minute naps at unevenly spaced out nap times (i.e. 7a.m., 10a.m., 2p.m., around 9p.m., and bulk sleep around 1a.m.). You have to make a conscious willed choice to get up. I had three alarms going at one time but sometimes wouldn't get up for 5 minutes after they started going off (particularly after my 5-6 bulk sleep time). That is, if I got up at all. When I made a conscious choice to get up 90% of the time I did get up.
Until I got sick my schedule was great and I was going to reduce my bulk sleep time. To address why it seems nobody has been successful on this board may be because of the times we allow ourselves to fail and hit the snooze or sleep right threw the alarm.
I'm sorry if this long post is a bit lengthy for some, but I just didn't want to see everybody get discouraged on the polyphasic sleep schedule because of a personal failure with it or others failures with it (like how I failed). Hey, I'm sure it wasn't even easy for all the great men in the past to stick to the schedule. I'm sure they were busy or occasionally weak willed and failed the schedule every once in a while. How much you want to bet they pushed themselves to stick to the schedule though.
[This message has been edited by jackassking (edited April 11, 2003).]
