Polyphasic Sleep Everyman - Advice Needed

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So, I've decided to adopt a Polyphasic sleep pattern, specifically the Everyman (http://www.polyphasicsociety.com/polyph ... /everyman/).

I have some questions. For anyone who knows about this, or is able to read the pie charts on that page and make sense of them, I need some advice.

I started it yesterday. I'm feeling ok. Not sleep deprived, just tiered. I slept from 4am to 7:30am. Woke up alert. Tried to do the 20 minutes nap at 11am but couldn't sleep. I got up. I waited for the next 20 minute nap at 3:10pm. I fell asleep on this one and got up 20 minutes later. Again feeling alert and normal. I tried my 9:40pm nap, and that one failed. So I've now got a 6 hour wait for my core nap again at 4am.

Now, the questions:

1) If I miss a nap, do I skip it? Obviously this is my first day, and I'm learning to nap at will. It's expected to take a week or so to get over this. According to those pie charts there's some mention on "adaption", which is what I think I'm going through. But I can't make sense of it.

2) I am a nocturnal human. My sleep pattern is always work through the night and sleep in the day on a monophasic sleep cycle (the normal sleep cycle). So, I'm not entirely sure when my BRACS and REM stages are, and when SWS pressure is at it's highest. Because I don't sleep at what society calls "normal times" I don't fit those examples. Although, I have worked out my cycle according to the examples, just changing the times.

My cycle is:

(core 3.5h) 4:00am - 7:30am
(20 min. nap) 11:00am - 11:30am
(20 min. nap) 3:10pm - 3:30pm
(20 min. nap) 9:40pm - 10:00pm

In total it's 4.5h sleep. Which on a whole isn't too bad considering a lot of people do this on a normal monophasic cycle.

I had no night terrors during sleep today, and I had no daytime narcoleptic type sleep attacks (see my last post). So, it's doing something positive for me. I am feeling alert, just a little tiered (again this is expected for first week or so).

Anyone shed some light on those questions please?

the tiredness is not a good sign at any time, especially upon waking. just saying, just because Winston Churchill [an exceptional person] got by on an hour and a half of interrupted sleep during WW2 doesn't mean that is wise to imitate even at twice the length, most folk do best long-term, with between 6 and 8 uninterrupted hours. this said, I wish you luck. for me, getting up after only a 20 minute nap is worse than never having had the nap in the first place.

Churchill was odd, I couldn't do those times. There is a polyphasic cycle called Uberman which is only 2.5 hours sleep a day. Not for me, but people do report success with it. But, from what I've researched it's normal to feel some ill effects in the first week or two until the body adjusts. I hacked it out last night till 4am. Done my 3.5h and only just got up. I overslept and hour because my alarm didn't go off, but my partner woke me up when she got up for the school run. Didn't wake up alert this morning at all.

I'll stick it out for a week or two and see if things improve. If they don't I won't be continuing with it.

my body is very stubborn about when it wants to sleep and wake. it loves an afternoon nap of about 2 hours, and it won't fall asleep until about 3 in the morning, gets up once [per bladder] at between 5 and 7, then twilight sleeps until 9 or 10. any deviation from this results in me being dangerously fatigued.

If I attempted that, I wouldn't be responsible for my actions

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJK-dMlATmM[/youtube]
one more reason to get plenty of sleep. your brain needs it to stay functional. without a functional brain nothing else matters.