Thanks, there's some good technical knowledge here, and also some FUD.

I dug into the subject of polyphasic sleep and read a couple very personal accounts of people who made it work for them for extended periods (several months or more). I never tried it myself, but I don't believe they were any less "creative" or functional during this time, or that they were doing long-term damage. So until better evidence comes along, I believe that maintaining schedules like Uberman is possible for the right person in the right place and time, and not trivially a bad idea. For all I know there are good reasons for most people not to bother with it -- like some gene you need to have to succeed -- but we don't know yet.

As drx points out, the author strays into arguments like "abnormal means unhealthy". Another bizarre argument is "it's not optimal because you're less creative etc". Putting aside my own anecdotal evidence that sleep dep makes you more "creative", look -- if Uberman is actually sustainable and gives you X more waking hours per day, I'll decide for myself if that's outweighed by hypothetical cognitive deficits! Arguments like "lots of people have tried and failed" are also sloppy.

I have no opinion either way, since the field seems to be dominated by empirical "evidence" and cranks, but this guy's entire argument rests on this sentence:

"One of the myths of "Uberman sleep schedule" is that it makes it possible to enter REM sleep and skip non-REM sleep stages entirely. That myth is derived from another false claim that implies a non-essential role of deep sleep. I will ignore these claims as standing in total disagreement with laboratory findings and models of sleep. Instead, let us focus on a more plausible claim of the possibility of compressing sleep stages.".

I.e. "I will ignore one of my opponent's arguments and instead focus on another. Since I can rebuff the other argument, my original viewpoint is true". It's a logical fallacy.

He also tends to say "X is unnatural/abnormal" => "X is unhealthy".

I wish someone did serious research into the topic without prejudice.

Here is a very good reply to the arcitle from Puredoxyk:

http://www.puredoxyk.com/index.php/2006/11/01/an-attack-on-p...

Puredoxyk is one of the two (back then) college girls, who lived on the Uberman Sleep Schedule (and gave it its name) back in 2000. She is also author of the original E2 node about Uberman SS. http://everything2.com/node/892542

There is great discussion on the Google Polyphasic Group about this [Dr. Wozniak's] article: http://groups.google.com/group/polyphasic/browse_thread/thre...

Here is my quick summary:

1. There is not enough scientific data to backup either side (for/against polyphasic);

2. Dr. Wozniak has his own agenda - he advocates so called "free-running sleep";

3. Some of the "facts" [mentioned in Dr. Wonziak's article] are in contradiction with experiences of people who tried polyphasic sleep, like Puredoxyk ( http://www.puredoxyk.com ) or Steve Pavlina ( http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/ )

When looking into this, I've found a lot of people blogging about trying to do this. Usually they talk about how great it and then quietly drop it.

Wow, I like this site. Some of the author's analysis seem slightly off to me, but there's a heck of lot of anecdotes and data and quotes. A heck of a lot of anecdotes, data, and quotes makes for good reading.

I particularly liked the part about the sleep habits about the various genius creative people. Cntrl+F "da vinci" to start on that section of the article.

Personally, my best sleeping pattern so far has been a 1-4 hour nap and 4-7 hours of sleep at night. I want to see how low I can go while getting at least a few hours of high level performance and able to function the rest of the day. I don't actually need full speed productivity all of the day and I even prefer cleaning and organizing while I'm a little tired, I get into sort of a zen of it. Anyone else have thoughts on how low you can go while functioning?

Ever since high school stop forever, I been sleeping whenever I want, without the use of an alarm clock.

I find that I naturally wake up at 9 PM on a normal day. Sometime, I only sleep 3 or 4 hours a night. However, that is compensated by another 3 or 4 hours of sleep.

But the best thing is that I am no longer sleep tortured by the school system.

Wasnt there a thing on here a few months ago about a "guy and a girl" who were going to attempt polyphasic and blog as they do it? Would like to find that and see how it went.

The best part is the Comic Relief section. Read that, and you'll know what to expect every time you read a blogger experimenting with polyphasic sleep.

The phrase "Facts and Myths" needs to die a messy painful death. It's the fodder of sex education brochures and corporate training camps.

Any topic away from the main stream should avoid the nasty tactic of labeling different opinions "myths". Wait till your stupid idea is endorse by every sheep-like general practitioner in North America - then you can get away with taring your opponents that way.

"Facts and Myths concerning why 'supermemo.com' is a font of mis-information..." See?