Polyphasic Sleep

I tried a polyphasic sleep schedule a while ago with poor results, however, it was over a a few days and I attempted to jump straight to uberman. I think it may be possible to work my way up by moving to bi-phasic, then tri and so forth until I reach hexaphasic sleep. On of the other advantages to this approach is that even if the 120 minute schedule cannot be sustained, I should be able to find the optimal schedule that I can maintain.

Classic Progression

1. 480
2. 270 + 90 = 360
3. 270 + 2x20 = 312
4. 180 + 3x20 = 240
5. 120 + 4x20 = 200
6. 6x20 = 120

Linear (Mine) Progression

1. 480
2. 230 + 78 = 408
3. 240 + 2x48 = 336
4. 150 + 3x38 = 264
5. 60 + 4x33 = 192
6. 6x20 = 120

Notes

The classic schedules seem to focus on 20 minute naps. There may be something to this as I tend to wake up groggy if I sleep longer than 30 minutes. However, this may be a hidden correlation - I'm more likely to nap for more than 30 minutes when I'm already tired. I'm not sure if this applies to biphasic sleep because there is sufficient evidence of the effectiveness of a 90 minute sleep cycle in the middle of the day. Should it prove that 20-30 minute naps are more effective but I don't like the progression of the classic cycles, I may be able to recalculate on the basis of liner progression from 480 to 120 minutes as well as from 30 minute cycles down to 20 minute cycles. Don't lose sight of the goal, finding a sleep schedule that optimizes for both the number of hours awake and the effectiveness of those hours, in short, productivity.

My research into the subject also seems to indicate that sustaining these schedules is possible but at the cost of learning ability and creativity. If this proves true, I may be able to leverage it and spend a few weeks in a "creative" mode, getting more sleep then a few weeks in a "productive" mode where I trade creativity for more productive hours. I should find a way to track these details so that I can find acceptable balances.

I've tried drinking a cup of coffee then immediately taking a 20 minute nap. The effect is that you wake up right as the caffeine is hitting giving a double boost in energy. Green tea has about 25 mg of caffeine per serving (coffee has 130mg, white tea only 15mg) and may be a great choice to do this long term. My life would be arranged in 4 hour blocks with the last 40 minutes of each block being make tea, drink tea while planning next block, sleep for 20 minutes and then start the cycle over.

I could make bi-phasic sleep work because it has two 9-hour awake phases. If I were to get home from work and go straight to sleep for 90 minutes, I should be able to stay awake until about 2:30 and still get up around 7. Of course in the winter this would be pretty terrible because I would basically never see the sun. Lauren may not be such a big fan because this would cut into the time that I see her. I could offset this by going into work a little early.

Tests

Some critical of PS raise some interesting issues and I would be interested in testing them. For the record, I am skeptical of PS, my expectation is that I could maintain a sleep cycle of 3 or 4 phases, possibly 5 or 6, but anything beyond bi-phasic will come at a cost (most likely creativity, focus and some cognitive function).

• Can I read without falling asleep?
• Can I watch a movie?
• How is my learning effected?
  • History
  • Coursera
  • Language
• How is memorization (using spaced repetition) effected?

I should be able to establish baselines for all these.