How should polyphasic sleep effect dreaming and LD’ing?
That is actually a very interesting question. This is an extremely intriguing subject and I think it deserves some attention.
According to Steve Pavlina, in his article on the “Long-Term Consequences” of polyphasic sleep:
He states that he often falls asleep in a few seconds to be startled awake a few seconds later “clearly remembering the details of my dream.” He even says he would “re-enter the same dream and continue where I left off”. To me this resembles the brief awakening we all experience after each dream cycle.
I think this could make WILD extremely easy and Lucid dreaming in general can become much easier, even after you have returned to a normal monophasic sleep cycle.
I am going to try polyphasic sleep (either Uberman or Dymaxion) this December vacation.
p.s. You can read his full article here
Maybe polyphasic sleep practice is the key to the most effective WILD method. Although you have to train to fall asleep quickly and be sleep deprived for some time until your body adapats to it but I think it is worth it. Because a skill of falling asleep fast is extremely useful for people who travel much. I know a very famous musician who can fall asleep in less then one minute using very simple breathing exercieses (just deep breathing).
I’ve heard of using this as an assist to WILD, and have actually considered trying the Uberman version since my schedule is so much more flexible now that I’m in college.
To my understanding, the ridiculous amount of sleep deprivation caused by Polyphasic methods results in you dropping into REM sleep everytime immediately upon going to sleep. This is because your schedule is so shortened.
Immediate REM means little to no nREM. This means, WILD can be much more effective as you don’t have to remain aware through the initial period of dreamless sleep. Thus, in theory, polyphasic sleep cycles can help you LD more often by improving your success rate with WILD. (And overall giving you more dreams.)
PS: Polyphasic, hmm… Never heard the word before, but I like it. I always referred to it as Uberman (only method I knew). Now that I’ve read up on it some more, I’d actually prefer the Dymaxion method.
EDIT: Wow. Did some more reading and found this. Read the Uberman cycle description. 
It even mentions LDing! Sourced!
EDIT 2: Hmm… I really wanna try this now. Seriously… even if it’ll Zombify me for a week or two. The reading’s made me pumped! Must set up schedule… If anyone wants to try this “as a team” and start at the same time, send me a PM. I’m getting hyped!
This is a very interesting subject. I think this deserves an article on its own.
*wink wink Mr. Scribe
Hmm… I shall do it then! (I’ve been looking for a Scribe article or the such that I could really throw my full support behind, thanks Nevermore!)
I’ve actually never heard of polyphasic sleep until I read this xD
But a quick question. I generally take a very long time falling asleep, about an hour or even more, unless I’m very tired. And whenever I nap it takes, once again, an hour to get to sleep, and then I have an hour of sleep. Will I be able to learn to fall asleep quickly or would trying it just doom myself?
Yes you will. Because when you don’t sleep much for a while (for example when practicing polyphasic sleep) your body must fall asleep much quicker then it would while sleeping normaly because when you sleep just a little it is very important to get every minute of sleep. Falling asleep quickly should come naturally (I did not tried this myself but I think that would be).
MagkKatte: For me, it generally takes fifteen to twenty minute before I fall asleep, but like Samick said, when you practice Polyphasic sleep your body will adjust accordingly.
After it is denied long periods of sleep, just the act of attempting to rest would cause it to leap at the opportunity and drop you straight into REM sleep. So, you would not be dooming yourself to try this. It might be difficult the first couple weeks until your body adjusts, but eventually it will become easier than your current monophasic (or biphasic) cycle.
Sadly this is a giant problem for me. I have school and I’m sure my parents wouldn’t appreciate me staying up all night, (sort of). I would LOVE to try this, but at the same time I can’t 
While I’ve never tried uberman (though I have gotten close in some ways), through college I slept 5 hours and took 2 naps. I don’t have any personal experience to say whether or not it makes going to sleep easier as I already learned how to fall asleep fast a long time ago. So rather, I took naps because I could already fall asleep fast.
If you’re looking for that skill, meditation may be a useful tool.
If you’re looking into uberman for the gained time, I do have to point out that the nRem sleep is also important. It plays a role in repairing the body. It would probably not be wise to use if you are a very physically active person as you need that sleep to recover.
skullgunner1: Sorry to hear that. I guess you’ll just have to wait Till Summer Comes Around to try it.
Wyvern: I’d be interested in hearing about your experience in more detail. I am going to compose and article for the article space on this very topic. I will PM you with a request as soon as I can.
In other news…
As one means of obtaining information for the article (read above), I have started a call for volunteers for an experiment in the Lucid Labs forum. It can be located here.