Polyphasic Sleep

I remember trying this some year ago when a lot of bloggers were trying it out and blogging about their experiences. I tried the Uberman Sleep Cycle (4x15min) but inevitably it wore me down to the point of being completely nonfunctional.

I tried it for about 3 months in 2005. Things I noticed:

- I gave up caffeine the month before the trial. I had pretty significant withdrawal effects (migraines) for that month.

- I was pretty much completely non-functional for about half an hour before the scheduled nap times

- I didn't think I was impacted very much, but friends commented after that I definitely seemed less bright than normal. I hope that it was for the half an hour mentioned above, but if you want to try it you should definitely try and get some objective measurement of performance.

- I still notice effects to this day. I can nap pretty much wherever & whenever I want, and fall asleep within minutes of my head hitting the pillow. Before the trial, it used to take me hours to fall asleep.

I've tried this for a few months, and cannot recommend it. One of the only things I really enjoyed was how vivid the dreams were. However even after the experiment, I found it difficult to stay awake during important parts of the day, and felt like I could easily slip back into the polyphasic cycle.

You can practice taking naps without going to such extremes.

Not completely connected, but I'd be very interested to hear if anyone's experienced something similar. Or, even better, can point to some science that can explain my experience:

I find my concentration improves tremendously after I've been awake for 20-24 hours, and I can continue being more productive than usual for up to about 40 hours, at which point the negative effects start to outweigh the positives.

Anyone experienced anything similar? I should note that I've not done this repeatedly/for extended periods and I only allow myself to do it if I'm sufficiently well-rested. (Otherwise I just figure it really isn't going to be worth it and I'm better getting myself to bed and getting an early start.)

I'm afraid I have no data to support my claims. In the absence of data I do have an anecdote though(!) - I remember when I was maybe 8-12 years old travelling long-haul and had been up for 45+ hours absolutely SMASHING a puzzle game (slide the blocks type thing) on my Gameboy - previously I'd struggled to get past the initial few levels. I'd not thought about it much until recently when I noticed this effect (end of Master's degree... you know the score).