The "Uberman" Sleep Cycle

I was working my way through the Wired.com website this weekend and came across this article regarding something called a polyphasic sleep cycle. The polyphasic sleep cycle, sometimes referred to as the Uberman sleep cycle (one denomination that originated in Germany), is a sleep cycle that attempts to replace normal sleeping patterns (8 hours at a stretch at night) with short, intermittent gaps. The goal is to reduce the time sleeping by taking short 20 min+ naps in intervals ranging from 4 to 6 hours. Optimal napping should result in adequate sleep time while increasing the amount of awake time by a great amount, thereby increasing productivity.

Several bloggers have recounted their experiences with the Uberman sleep cycle. The one that I find the most interesting is the blog of Steve Pavlina. He gives pretty much a day by day of how he is being affected by the polyphasic sleep cycle. Though, the interesting thing that happens to most of these people is that they almost always return to monophasic, or normal, sleep cycles. Some do it for health reasons, others for their family, but many of them agree that the world is a monophasic place, and taking time out of your day to catch a cat nap isn't always the most normal thing to people.

I'm actually kind of interested in trying this sleep cycle out, since I have trouble sleeping normally anyways. I definitely would wait till the summer, though, as trying to Uberman my way through finals might be considered an exercise in futility.