Polyphasic Sleep - Day 2

48 hours completed of my polyphasic sleep experiment and I am feeling great. My day went like this:

8:30 pm - 1:30 am: sleep
5:35 - 5:55 am: nap. Cold again so didn't sleep well, but I did dream.
10:00 - 10:20 am: great nap. Had a great dream.
2:00 - 2:20 pm: didn't sleep, just dozed.
10:00 pm - 2:15 am: sleep

I missed my 6 pm nap because of a social engagement. Normally this shouldn't cause an issue with everyman sleep (it will with uberman sleep), especially if my body was adapted to this new schedule. But when I didn't sleep for my 2 pm nap as well, I was tired for the first time at 10 pm.

With each of my naps, I have my alarm set for 20 minutes but most of the time I am awake or almost awake when it goes off. For the core sleep each night, I am allowing my body to wake when it wants and last night has shown a clear improvement from the previous night, 4 instead of 6 hours. I awake refreshed and clear headed each time, a far cry from what I used to call normal sleep!

I have been thinking about the conditioning one usually needs to experience when transitioning into polyphasic sleep. For most, the "aha" moment when it all starts to work and the fatigue leaves is when the sleeper experiences REM sleep during the 20 minute naps. This is usually between day 4 and 7. However I have one thing, I feel, that gives me an advantage going into this experiment. I have experienced REM sleep during 20 minute naps for years. Why?

The reason is, I have four children. Children sleep polyphasically from birth and thought we usually 'adapt' them to a monophasic sleep schedule by the age of five, there were a lot of years of sleep deprivation for this mom! I was a single married, meaning although I was married, my husband had very little to do with our children or the daily duties of running the household, including traditional male roles like mowing the lawn. I adapted by running a business from my home so I could take care of our kids and our home while still having an income. Also, my third son didn't sleep more than two hours for four years, which in essence meant I didn't either. I believe when a mother is chronically sleep deprived, her brain learns to enter REM quickly upon going to sleep. Or at least that is what happened to me. A question for parents, have you found the same experience? If not, what experiences have you had that caused you entering REM sleep rapidly?