Decreasing sleeping hours

[Tatsumaru]

Hello,

Has anyone achieved this (and used a sleep log to document it)?

 

I've gone about two months sleeping 10h a night, but that's ridiculous.

 

I've heard there are ways to be full of energy but sleep no more than 4-5 hours a night. Maybe involving herbs or meditation ? Some say Leonadro Da Vinci slept for 15 mins every two hours thus decreasing his total sleeping hours to 3 but remaining energetic and capable ?

 

I see sleep a lot like food. We probably get 20% too much for optimal health/time management... but your body will always fight to keep you in homeostasis. Every time I think I've managed to sleep less than 8h a night, I always end up catching up that sleep mid-day.

 

So what are your experiences?

[Protector]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep

 

Horse stance and sleeping on the back helps me sleep for less

Sleeping on the back is just so weird for me that I wake up earlier

And around the end and after horse stance I forcefully go into a weird meditative state,

Right before bed it helps me get a better sleep

[C T]

Sleep time for me is around 5 - 6 hours each night.

 

Very seldom feel a need to take naps during the day, maybe once every couple of months may experience a dip in energy, feel lethargic for about half a day, which means body hinting to get an early night (bed by 10, up at 5).

 

Work involves a lot of mental and physical output, which actually boost my alertness during the day.

 

99 percent abstinence from alcohol, which helps (in my case). Maybe one beer, or a liqueur, once a blue moon, that kind of way.

 

Diet-wise, plenty of fruits and greens. Most meat consumed will have been 'softened' by hours of stewing, which my system finds very agreeable indeed.

 

Once a week workout at the local spa, where i swim, have a sauna, and relax in the bubbly pool some call jacuzzi.

 

Every day do at least a hundred prostrations in the mornings.

 

Always wanted to live close to the sea, and realized this dream only this year, so this body is very happy to chill by the ocean's fringes.

 

Loves fast cars... recently rewarded myself with a BMW coupe to cruise the wind/rain-swept country roads on days off. Its red, btw. Like these ones...

http://www.google.ie/search?q=red+bmw+e46&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=OfMRUN_rEYqWhQfDpIHYDg&ved=0CFgQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=599

 

I'm 52, and loving it.

 

Edited July 27, 2012 by C T

[kundakiss]

Meditation definitely plays a huge role. It is a pretty known fact that as one progresses in consciousness, one begins to sleep less each day. There is also a saying that it is not the body that goes to rest, but the soul ("it needs to stretch out its legs from being confined to that body" kind of thing). It's too simply put, but yes, I find this accurate in my experience. If your consciousness is always expanded on the other hand, and you do all activities effortlessly, then you never waste much energy. Fully realized beings are able to never sleep, or very little. Since one trait of enlightenment is basically a conscious deep sleep state. So their body just "lies down" if needed =).

 

Other reasons do not separate from meditation but fall underneath it. Example: The amount of sleep you get depends on your daily mental attitude. If you have a lot of will power, and are basically a go-getter all the time, then you probably sleep much less than people who are more passive in life. Tweaking your mental attitude and forcing yourself to become more of a winner in life would decrease sleep. Cause mind affects body. But such things are natural occurrences through meditation. So my personal suggestion is to just start there. Everything else will follow!

 

Hope this helps at all!

 

Peace,

 

Eugene

[Diamond Spectrum]

When I was first taught by another person how to meditate the first things I noticed was a decrease in mental chatter accompanied by an increase of observational blind witness awareness in all stages of sleep. Going to sleep was no longer just 'drifting into la la land' every phase of sleep was accompanied by a lucidity cultivated in meditative state. My teacher would suggest that I practice single mindedness or no mindedness first thing in the morning or before sleep. Thought mind concept, no mind no thing no concept. By focusing on abdominal breathing while in wuji stance for instance activates the entire energetic under carriage in a very subtle way, so subtle in fact that after you get the working class kinks worked out, the meridians light up and a much larger view of reality forms through previously hidden un accessed esoteric pathways of human experience. Sleep is a state of altered consciousness most people spend over a third of their life doing, meditation (both active and passive) increases depth of rest and rejuvenation, while also reducing sleep time. There are a variety of windows of opportunity for the mystic who is exposed to levels of illumination, or pitfalls to and for the folly. The coolest thing abour the hidden 90% of human potential is we are the medium and the artist in this wonderful journey.

[Tatsumaru]

Very interesting thank you.

[mike 134]

Before I had kundalini problems I easily slept 10 hours a night if not more. I love sleep. But after k for a couple of months I slept only 3 or 4 and was hooked on sleeping pills. it was miserable. Now I'm getting 7-8 but i still want more.

 

Traditionally 8 hours is recommended but mortality studies usually demonstrate that around 7 is optimal for longevity. Sleeping more than 9 hours or less than 5 is associated with higher mortality rates. See this meta analysis

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2864873/?tool=pmcentrez

 

Currently, there is no evidence that sleeping habitually between 6 and 8h per day in an adult is associated with harm and long term health consequences. In terms of prevention, consistently sleeping 6 to 8 h per night may therefore be optimal for health. However, sleeping 9 h or more per night may represent a useful diagnostic tool for detecting subclinical or undiagnosed co-morbidity. People reporting consistently sleeping 5 hours or less per night should be regarded as a higher risk group for all-cause mortality

 

Sleeping only three hours is hazardous and can directly trigger psychological problems like bipolar mania in succeptable people.

[idquest]

IME, meditation makes sleep deeper and more restful; and it doesn't reduce sleep hours.

 

Intentially reducing sleep hours can be harmful. In young age lack of sleep will affect one's brain only, but for older people lack of sleep negatively directly affects their muscles, tendons, and bones condition. This is my direct personal experiense. I also think that internal organs could be affected as well.

 

THere are some reports on people who slept/sleep few hours. It is not clear though how this kind of regiment affects their health long term. I've come accross at least two reports on how people initially reported excellent health sleeping 2-5 hours a day, but after a while they would run into serious problems.

 

Best is to listen to your body without any preconceptions, IMO.

[Diamond Spectrum]

Sometimes when you are very properly exhausted your mind drops very quickly Into delta and theta states reducing the time your body needs to rejuvenate. It is a fundamental change to the state of consciousness either through the minds dependence on the body, or the minds governance of body, either way, sleep can be easily regulated with subtle states of consciousness with a physically grounding routine.

[Diamond Spectrum]

There is such a thing as power sleeping, where through auto suggestion and positive reinforcement you drop into delta and theta (particular to theta is super rejuvenator dreamless state) this may also induce side effects of oobe's or other spiritual awareness that physical grounding is a must.

[mike 134]

Oh and I'd like to add that 7 hours is only a good AVERAGE, but there is no "one size fits all". Some people are naturally short sleepers, while others are long.

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15600221

 

So you should sleep according to how much time YOUR body needs. If you are naturally a long sleeper, then you NEED 9+ hours a night; getting "only" 7 might be bad for you, like in my own personal case.

 

Also, while extremes of sleep duration have been associated with increased mortality, this may be due to confounding variables and not necessarily direct cause and effect. For instance, many chronic diseases cause tiredness and fatigue and thus increase sleep time. Since chronic diseases have a high prevalence in the general population, and they generally reduce life expectancy, we can expect to find an association between mortality and increased sleep duration. But the latter in this case does not directly cause the former; if you take normal people without chronic disease and force them to oversleep, I highly doubt this will directly decrease their longevity.

 

"Power" sleep is stage 1 alpha sleep only. It is light sleep best used to recharge during the day and is not a substitute for deep, slow wave, delta sleep. This is when the body and mind really rest.

Edited July 27, 2012 by mike 134

[Diamond Spectrum]

A physical routine which places a proportional load on your entire being will regulate your sleep cycles very naturally. Daily Tai Chi Chuan practice is a good example of a dynamic psycho spiritual practice that engages multidimensional facets of the human being. Chi Gung is another example, although for someone having a lot of nervous energy I would recommend tai chi as it is an art of doing and has two person practice. These arts when practiced correctly are arts which balance, not just open spiritual windows, through balance you can open and close the windows to your house as needed! Also find people around you that you can fall into rhythm with, onservance of natural flow of biology is a strong guide to the mind.

[Diamond Spectrum]

<<<"Power" sleep is stage 1 alpha sleep only. It is light sleep best used to recharge during the day and is not a substitute for deep, slow wave, delta sleep. This is when the body and mind really rest. >>>

 

This is different than what I was taught, 'possibly' a westrrnization of the restful alpha visualization state, ive heard it elsewhere commonly associated with the "power" nap, but is specifically a differnt experience than what I was taught as "power sleeping". Power sleeping is an auto suggested induction into theta state, the deepest most rejuvative state of sleep.

[gendao]

I've gone about two months sleeping 10h a night, but that's ridiculous.

Don't focus on fixing the symptom, but rather on what's actually causing you to need so much sleep..

 

If you have a lot of energy that can run freely through clear pathways...you probably wouldn't need that much. Your real problem may then be that you have a lot of stagnated blockages..

 

I know for me, I felt much more energetic and needed less sleep after I got blood-cupped. I still have a lot more stagnation to clear out, but it's definitely improved already. Remember, nighttime is when your body performs a lot of repair, recovery and detoxing. If you need excessive sleep, it may mean your body has a lot of damage to fix.

[skydog]

1) Dont masturbate before sleep or very often in general

2) Sleep from 9/10pm- 6am or something instead of 3am to 11am or whatever it is

3) Increase your oxygen through good breathing in nature

[mike 134]

This is different than what I was taught, 'possibly' a westrrnization of the restful alpha visualization state, ive heard it elsewhere commonly associated with the "power" nap, but is specifically a differnt experience than what I was taught as "power sleeping". Power sleeping is an auto suggested induction into theta state, the deepest most rejuvative state of sleep.

 

I am assuming by "power sleeping" you are referring to power napping, which is the common term for stage 1 sleep. The deepest sleep (formerly called stage 4) is slow wave sleep which is associated with delta waves on EEG.

[Diamond Spectrum]

I am assuming by "power sleeping" you are referring to power napping, which is the common term for stage 1 sleep. The deepest sleep (formerly called stage 4) is slow wave sleep which is associated with delta waves on EEG.

 

Yes, and it is entirely true that delta is slow wave and a lower frequency and this seems 'deeper', but from what I understand this is also where REM originates, whereas Theta is just "above" REM state but produces the deepest levels of rest for the body. Theta is also the most prominent brainwaves in small children, where as babies are in delta state. It's all very fascinating reflections upon our meditative experiences.

[Cookie Monster]

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Edited May 5, 2021 by Ocean Form

[mike 134]

EEG morphology during REM is similar to being awake, it is high in frequency. It's actually kind of similar to light stage 1 sleep if anything, you see alpha waves in both. Heck you can even have primitive dreams (hypnagogic imagery) during light sleep. Interestingly, both stage 1 sleep and REM sleep are associated with spiritual states.

[Diamond Spectrum]

What I find in my own practices is as lucidity is expanded in meditative or hynogogic states, the ability (and I do mean a skill set) to guide the state of sleep as an altered state into consciousness not readily or ordinarily experienced. One of the key experiences I had related to this is lucidity in rem dream state, repeatedly gives me experiences in two or three directions. 1. I begin to wake up, but through meditation practice I release the my inhibitor control on the experience and I'm paused from awakening in a variety of in between states of which are identical to meditative states but highly enhanced because of sleep paralysis it seems. Everything is inside out or outside in. 2. I stay in REM state and have a very face value symbolic communicative mastery of the rem environment asking questions, receiving instant answers, traveling, soul searching, hearing music, seeing possible timelines play out, lights, tunnels, sliding or shifting planes, and the abs solute peace of rejuvative spiritual energy experienced in sleep. 3. I fall "in deeper" or "up" and am snap shot awakened. Oobe's are definitely a different experience than lucidity. Light meditative dream imagery states are distinctly different for me than the relaxed clarity of sitting or standing meditation. A quiet mind definitely enhanced ones awareness to the natural spiritual doorways we open and close each and every day.