To add my own anecdotal evidence: Yes, it works, but not in the way most would want it to work. And hell yes, it's a serious strain on your connection to reality and community (family, friends etc.).

A couple of points from my own blog post on this ("Cheating the brother of death" http://sk.or.at/p6YBXf ):

- This is mostly about mental strength and perseverance, not so much about just following plan X and having more free time.

- Having more free time is not as simple as you'd like it to be. You do have to have something to fill that time. And it has to something actually meaningful that you care about.

- It is a good idea to have something to wake up to so you don't have to search for an answer to the "why do I have to get up now?" question when you're in it.

- The hardest part is setting the right boundaries and anticipating how bad your mental situation will be - so you can deal with it appropriately even if your experiment means that you might not be in the right state of mind at that moment. Because you were before, when you started it and that's when you need to make the right plans.