How about switching from a dynamic late-binding brain to a much faster static typed compiled one?

(Or would that just render us faster, but much less flexible and adaptable?)

In software, optimizing this type of garbage collection for low pauses usually results in reduced application throughput. Evolution in general clearly does not favor "low pause" sleep patterns.

However, there are anecdotes of rare people that subsist on "low pause" sleeping. Allegedly, Thomas Edison had a 24 word day and frequently cat-napped. Contrast that with Einstein who allegedly slept 10 hrs a night.

For modern garbage collection systems (e.g. the JVM), there is no single setting that is best (or even acceptable) for all applications. The same is probably true for sleep patterns.

I get memory leaks even with nightly garbage collection, or maybe I have bugs that collect the good stuff and leave the garbage.

One man's experience: http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/category/polyphasi...

I tried a 28-hour day for about a week: http://www.dbeat.com/28/

I'm glad I did solely because I know that if I hadn't I'd be wondering about both the 28-hour day and polyphasic sleep until I tried it, and I'd probably have more at stake if I tried it later.

It was not good. I tried it in the middle of working on my PhD. I could still write code, but the quality dipped a little. My theory work stopped - the whole abstract complex thought part of my brain shut off - and it took me a while to notice. There was some digestive confusion for a while as well - the body is a pretty complex thing, and it turns out that (at least mine) really likes it's cycles.

I made it through a week and a half - at least I think it was - it really throws your idea of what a day is. The abstract complex thought bit took a while to come back. It took about a month and a half to recover properly. Would not try again.