For the last couple of days I've been interested and reading up on the theory of polyphasic sleep. The main idea here is that rather than sleeping for 8 hours at night, you just take 20-30 minute naps every 4 hours. The rational behind this is that the important cycle of sleep that humans need is the deep REM sleep. That portion of sleep only lasts 2-3 hours at night. The rest of the time is just spent lying there resting and recovering.

So for those who have polyphasic sleep cycles, rather than sleeping for 8 hours, you are only asleep for 2 hours in a 24 hour period. The rest of the time you are free to do whatever you need to do (with extra time to boot). It's been recorded that scientists and inventors such as Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison and Da Vinci were polyphasic sleepers. Makes sense since these guys were geniuses in their own time, and probably used the extra time to progress in their work.

There are present-day people who have tried this before and been successful in keeping this sleep schedule for months at a time. The downside of course is finding the time to take these strict 20 minute naps every 4 hours. Furthermore, the info on the internet also goes on to say that non-REM sleep is important because it allows your body to recover and rejuvenate, which means that polyphasic sleep is only for those who are healthy and not prone to illness since you won't be getting that extra rest time for your body.

I'm actually very interested in trying this out, as an experiment, but also for the benefit of having more time. I mean, what would you do with an extra 6 hours in the day? Of course, if your answer is that you would sleep then this is not for you.