Personal Development for Smart People^TM

I’ve lasted 3 weeks now on the polyphasic sleep experiment. It’s been quite an amazing experience, and unless some unforeseen roadblocks occur in the weeks ahead, I’ve decided to stick with it.
Things I Haven’t Tried. I’ve received several questions about things I haven’t tried, like napping at my desk or eating different foods [...]

I’ve had some further developments regarding my polyphasic sleep experiment, so I figured an update would be in order.
Lucid Dreaming. On Monday night I had another lucid dream during a nap I took just after midnight. This one wasn’t as vivid or as long as the first, but I consider it a significant development because [...]

I had made a note on my calendar to write a polyphasic sleep experiment update this morning, so here goes…
Today I’m beginning my 18th day on polyphasic sleep. I’ve been able to do a lot more testing and tweaking over the past week, and overall I’ve been very pleased with my progress.
Flexibility. I’ve [...]

Since my polyphasic sleep experiment seemed to be going so well, I decided to give it a more difficult test the past few days to get a better sense of its boundaries and limits. This might have been a bit premature, given that I’ve only been at it for a week, but the opportunity [...]

I just finished my first week on polyphasic sleep. It’s been over 175 hours since my last full night of sleep.
Everything is continuing to go well. Today was even better than yesterday. No more brain fog. No more reduced reflexes. I drove the car today for the first time in [...]

My wife, Erin, has a unique perspective on my polyphasic sleep experiment that she wanted to share, so the rest of this post is from her.
You might be wondering what it’s been like to live with Steve while he’s trying his polyphasic sleep experiment. Let me tell you…
When he first came to me with [...]

Now to address some questions/issues that readers raised with respect to my polyphasic sleep experiment.
More Details on Naps: On my polyphasic schedule, I spend about 15-20 minutes asleep during each nap. I set my countdown timer alarm for 30 minutes right when I lie down. It usually takes me 5-10 minutes to fall asleep, and [...]

Today was the best by far. My energy and alertness levels have taken a big leap forward. Right now I’d say I feel at least as good as I did when sleeping monophasically (a 10 on a scale of 1-10). It’s almost unbelievable that I can feel so wide awake, alert, and [...]

My polyphasic sleeping experience of the last 24 hours wasn’t quite as good as that of Day 4. My naps weren’t as restorative, and I spent much of last night feeling drowsy. I added a couple extra naps to make it through the night. That seemed to help, as I did finally have some dreams [...]

If there’s a hump, I’m probably past it. The past 24 hours of polyphasic sleep have been my best so far. Last night was the first night where I felt fairly alert and awake without too much drowsiness. I still grabbed an extra 20-minute nap at 3am (between my scheduled 1am and 5am naps), but [...]