I have been trying out polyphasic schedules for the past 2 weeks. The way I see it is that these schedules are really just organized WBTB techniques. The more times you get to nap, the more opportunity for WILD there should be. Right?

I'm not really sure yet, that is the point of this post. If you've tried it before, please feel free to share your results. I will be posting periodically to share mine. I will try to edit this post as time goes on to consolidate the most useful information on this. Realistically, that might not happen.

There is a lot of scattered information out there on polyphasic sleep. I've been reading this stuff since I started and find that it is mostly incomplete. A good start for learning about this would be at polyphasicsociety.com. Also, there are bloggers (puredoxyk and steve pavlina to name the two most cited) who have shared their success stories. It is difficult to find someone who successfully used this for LDing. Many report increased vivid dreams and LDs but none really document it that well. I hope to do just that.

My LD history is not impressive. I've had about 20 since my first one that was 8 years ago. Recently, I managed to get better...but then lost it. Since starting polyphasic I have had 3 LDs. But they have been the kind where I cannot move or just wake up from the excitement. Still, 3 in 16 days is better than 3 every 16 months. This is how it went:

4 days on the "siesta" schedule.
Core: 1am-5:30am
Siesta: 2pm-3:30pm

4 days on "E4.5" - This is Everyman with a 4.5 hour core. The only difference from above was that the 90 minute nap was split into 2 - 20 minute sections.
Core: 1am-5:30am
Nap: 11am-11:20
Nap2: 3pm-3:20

8 days on E3
Core: 12:30am-4am
N1: 8am-8:20
N2: 12pm-12:20
N3: 5:40pm-6pm

These are just rough estimates. The nap times are flexible for these plans, unlike the uberman schedule that shouldn't really be moved. On the second day of Siesta, I had a lucid dream during a horrible 90 minute nap where I kept waking up. Then during E3, I began to have lucid dreams during the first nap of the day. According to Polyphasic Society's ("PS") site, this is because dawn is when there is the most pressure for REM. And of course, REM periods are longer in the later portion of sleep (that I had deprived myself of). This is how anyone does WBTB in the first place.

I was told by someone on the PS forum that if you move the core sleep up earlier (closer to post dawn), it will contain better SWS which will somehow result in a more solid REM sleep in the early morning. I will try to shift the whole schedule up by about 2 hours to see if that advice works.

More later.