Sure if you don't have a family to provide for. It turns out that it becomes a lot harder to take a gap year when you've still got a spouse and little people depending on you.
What I find much more intersting about this is that this is the centeral thesis of Scott Adam's "The Dilbert Principle" that was published 2 decades ago. I'll also put out there that it was probably one of the most informative business books I ever read.
I am fascinated by this, when I was younger I was obsessed with cutting out sleep, experimenting with polyphasic sleep, energy drinks etc.
I'll add one other anecdote that I don't know what it means, but I had a project I was working on that was tight deadline, as a result I was only able to get two hours a sleep a night for about a week. For some reason once I got past the third day my tiredness and desire to sleep seemed to dip considerably, and I found that staying awake when engaged in any activity or discussion was easier. If I was just sitting in a meeting or presentation that I wasn't very interested in I would doze off, but as long as I was engaged I felt like I didn't need to sleep at all.