Life without an alarm is working out just fine. Not as radical as polyphasic sleep, but an interesting lifestyle alteration nonetheless. I have operated without an alarm clock for just over a month and not overslept even once. In the first couple of weeks, I tended to wake quite early and on occassion very early, but now I am waking within 10 minutes of my target time.
The only time I set an alarm is if I need to get up early to go to a customer meeting, such as 5:30am this Monday past for a trip to Scotland. But even then, I woke up a few minutes before the alarm was due to sound.
So, how does it benefit me? Well, I think I am more rested by waking up naturally rather than to a loud and shocking noise. I am not getting as tired in the evening as I was, and I am waking up ready to go with no stuffy head or glued together eyes!
Polyphasic sleep sounds very interesting, and I can well believe that it could work well. Unfortunately, the regular world of office work doesn’t look easy to fit around the need to have regular naps with a fairly strict regime. Also, the transition period seems a bit on the rough side, which again sounds like it should be done during a period when your restricted capabilities wouldn’t matter.