Having tried doing a polyphasic sleep cycle around four years ago, the one thing that I really missed was the clear delineation between days. On a normal sleep schedule, you wrap up your day with an evening routine and begin the next day with another routine. Each day is a single discrete unit you can look back on and remember easily. On a polyphasic schedule each day blends into the next. It’s like one long neverending day. You can’t really do most normal social activities because you need to adhere to a strict napping schedule. At first it’s cool to be awake at 3am when the rest of your world is asleep. But eventually it’s just a pain to not be able to go to stores or the gym or whatever until after your next nap. Looking back, it’s harder to remember any specific details about the experience. I know I did it to get a ton of work done on a project I was deep into at the time, but outside of the late nights and extreme tiredness from the beginning of it, I can’t remember much. The value of a long night’s rest for solidifying memories, at least anecdotally for me, can’t be understated. Other things like scheduling meals, managing sunlight and your obligations to others when you need to sleep, require a bit of forethought. Life’s just much easier on a “normal” sleep schedule. Polyphasic will drive you nuts.