This is the last you’ll hear from me on this subject, promise!

So I feel I may have been too hasty in summing up the polyphasic sleep experiment experience.  Now that I’ve had a few days back on "normal" sleep, I can make a much better comparisson.

First of all – in conclusion I believe that this sleep pattern is NOT something anyone can make into a lifestyle.  It is, however, useful for brief periods of time where one needs to be awake almost constantly.

On the topic of exercise and muscle recovery…  I figured the uberman sleep would not be sufficient to regenerate muscle tissue, and that I would be constantly sore.  To test this, I worked out twice per day (sometimes thrice).  My shoulders would get sore, but I would recover.  And that recovery seemed fairly quick.  Additionally I felt I was more flexible.  However, looking back now, I can see that my starting flexibility was indeed greater, but my elasticity suffered.  So I was like an old rubber band – stretched out to the max, but unable to go farther.  I felt I needed less time to warm up and that I had more energy, but this was an illusion created by the fact that my muscles never "unstretched", and the extra energy was from the frequent naps.  The same kind of energy and alertness can be gained by napping with a regular sleep schedule (though I admit you need less time if you nap regularly).

Now on a biphasic sleep schedule (I have also eliminated my alarm clock – since that’s the worst thing for you!) I have noticed that my flexibility is not that great to start, but I can stretch it easier.

My back pain, however, is significantly worse.  But it was worse as I changed back, so I’m guessing a similar situation to flexibility, where it wasn’t hurting, but it was not in a healthy state and now that it has the time to heal at night, I feel it.  I have decided to go back to other methods of fixing the pain, such as core strengthening and stretching (I was doing these during uberman, too).

The Uberman schedule constantly recharges you with naps, however, considering the "Clock and Hourglass" model (Explained at supermemo’s website, along with a strong arguement against this type of sleep pattern, you can see how this is only a temporary fix.  The body eventually forces you to sleep (thus my increasing oversleeping)

It is said that you will suffer creative and memory… reduction.  However, I noticed neither.  Of course, when I was intensely sleepy, I wasn’t remembering or creating anything.  Oftentimes my only thoughts were that next nap.  But that would be due to preoccupation, not some physical change.  But aside from continuing my Polish lessons, I did not test this.  My Polish did not suffer as a result, though this was hardly a quantitative test.

The added freetime was also a bit of an illusion.  Technically, I had created a 21 hour day (I slept 30 minutes every 4 hours, which is a total of 3 hours asleep).  However, this day was broken into very small chunks, often too small to be useful.  My schedule worked very well, however, in that I was doing things in roughly 3-4 hour blocks.  So I would finish and rush back for that nap.  But sometimes I spent the 30 minutes before and after in a daze, and sometimes an entire block was rendered useless.  Other times, I was severely limited in what I could do during my block of time.

So, though I had created more hours, they were less productive and less useful.  I was only able to do slightly more, instead of the mountains of time I had believed I would create.  In conclusion, it would be better to be on a monophasic or biphasic sleep schedule, and just spend my time more productively.  I figure if I have the willpower to try uberman, I can make myself do my chores in a timely manner, and pay attention to work better.

From all of the research I read, and my own experimentation, I would say that Uberman is a great temporary fix.  But it is like walking the edge of a knife.  It’s a delicate balance, that can have disasterous consequences.  Instead, it would be better to sleep on a biphasic schedule (sleep a large chunk at night, then have a brief nap the next afternoon), since this lines up with human physiology better. 

I’m not sure what the long-term effects of a polyphasic schedule would be.  The effects of sleep deprivation in the short term (5 weeks for me) were nearly eliminated, so there is some merit to it.

Being a dreamer, and a martial artist, I firmly believe in the power of the body to adapt, and the mind to overcome.  I have seen people do things that others would say are impossible.  So I still maintain that it might be possible to adapt so something like this.  However, it would take the right alignment of personal physiology, discipline, and environment, though.  And even then, who knows.