A swedish student, Thomas Jönsson, performed a similar "polyphasic sleep" experiment 2 years ago. He slept 2.5 hours per day; 25 minutes every 4th hour. His aim was to improve his potential and performance on a wide front, and he increased results in several contexts (learning, and physical exercise being the most notable ones). He kept his experiment going for about 6 months. He was 23 years old at the time.
Interesting he was able to improve physically. I've always been tempted to try an extreme sleep schedule, but one thing has kept me from doing so -- I go to the gym regularly, and evidence has shown that sleep is an essential part of muscle growth.
I've wondered about this as well. I've been exercising, and I'm curious as to how sleep will effect that. I'd be intrigued to see research on the topic.
