Project 1 - Polyphasic sleep

Starting Jan. 1, 2012 - barring the world ending, I will start trying out a polyphasic sleep cycle according to this schedule (which I just spent the last hour or so devising):

0-3: WAKE
3-6: SLEEP
6-9: WAKE
9-10: NAP
10-18: WAKE
18-19: NAP
19-23: WAKE
23-24: NAP

Total sleep time (assuming only 20min is used per 1H of nap slot): 4H (3H + 3x20min)


Total wake time: 20H
Reasons I want to try this:

1. Curiosity about sleep, why it's needed and how to optimize it
2. If I can't achieve immortality, I can at least extend my wake time in life by sleeping less?
3. For science! (this is a filler)

Note:This works out well assuming I save more time than I lose (i.e. if I die earlier by the same amount of time I spent awake, then this is pointless). Since I plan to sleep on average 4H less than the normal human being, this means I get 4H more out of the normal 16H wakeful daytime, which is a 25% increase in wakeful lifespan. I'm too lazy now to do more math to figure out the break even point and all that, but suffice to say that I'm willing to experiment and assume for now that I won't take a hit on my life span by sleeping less if I do it well.