The thing which has been
harmed the most in the development of human civilization is sleep. From the day
man discovered artificial light, his sleep has become very troubled. And as
more and more gadgets started falling into man’s hands, he started feeling that
sleep is an unnecessary thing, too much time is wasted in it. The time when we
are asleep is a complete waste. So the less sleep we can do with the better. It
does not occur to people that sleep has any kind of contribution to the deeper
processes of life. They think that the time spent sleeping is time gone to
waste, so the less they sleep the better; the more quickly they reduce the
amount of sleep, the better.
We have not even noticed
that the cause behind all the illnesses, all the disorders that have entered
man’s life is lack of sleep. The person who cannot sleep rightly cannot live
rightly. Sleep is not a waste of time. The eight hours of sleep are not being
wasted; rather, because of those eight hours, you are able to stay awake for
sixteen hours. Otherwise you would not be able to stay awake all that time.
During those eight hours
life-energy is accumulated, your life gets revitalized, the centers of your
brain and heart calm down and your life functions from your navel center. For
those eight hours of sleep you have again become one with nature and with existence.
That is why you become revitalized.
Sleep needs to come back
into man’s life. Really, there is no alternative, no other step, for the
psychological health of humanity than that sleep should be made compulsory by
law for the next one or two hundred years.
It is very important for a
meditator to see to it that he sleeps properly and enough. And one more thing
needs to be understood — right sleep will be different for everybody. It will
not be equal because the body has needs which are different for everyone…according
to age and to many other elements.
Perhaps you may not be
aware that the latest research says that there cannot be one fixed time for
everyone to wake up. It is always said that to wake up at five o’clock in the
morning is good for everyone. This is absolutely wrong and unscientific. It is
not good for everyone; it may be good for some people but it may be harmful for
other people. Within twenty-four hours, for about three hours, the body
temperature of each person goes down. And those three hours are the hours of
deepest sleep. If the person is woken up during those three hours, his whole
day will be spoiled and his whole energy will be disturbed.
Generally these three hours
are between two to five in the morning. For most people these three hours are
between two to five in the morning, but it is not the case with everyone. For
some people their body temperature is low until six o’clock, for some it is low
until seven. For some their temperature starts becoming normal at four in the
morning. So if someone wakes up within these hours of low temperature, all
twenty-four hours of his day will be spoiled and there will be harmful effects.
Only when a person’s temperature starts rising to a normal level is it time for
him to wake up.
Normally it is alright for
everybody to wake up with the rising sun, because as the sun rises everyone’s
temperature starts rising. But this is not a rule, there are some exceptions.
For some people it may be necessary to sleep a little later than sunrise,
because each individual’s body temperature rises at a different time, at a
different pace. So each person should find out how many hours of sleep he needs
and what is a healthy time for him to get up, and that is the rule for
him…whatever the scriptures may say, whatever the gurus may say. There is no
need to listen to them at all.
For right sleep, the deeper
and the longer you are able to sleep, the better. But I am telling you to
sleep, not to keep on lying on the bed! Lying down on your bed is not sleep!
To wake up when you feel it
is healthy for you to wake up should be the rule for you. Usually it happens
along with the sunrise but it is possible that this does not happen to you.
There is no need to be afraid or worried or to think that you are a sinner and
to be afraid of going to hell. Many people who get up early in the morning go
to hell and many people who get up late are living in heaven. None of this has
any relation whatsoever to being spiritual or unspiritual. But right sleep
certainly does have a relationship with it.
So each person should
discover what is the best arrangement for him. For three months each person
should experiment with his work, with his sleep and with his diet, and should
find out what are the most healthy, most peaceful and most blissful rules for
him.
And everyone should make
his own rules. No two persons are alike, so no common rule is ever applicable
to anybody. Whenever someone tries to apply a common rule, it has a bad effect.
Each person is an individual. Each person is unique and incomparable. Only he
is like himself, there is no other person like him anywhere on the earth. So no
rule can be a rule for him until he finds out what the rules for his own
life-processes are.
Source: Osho, The Inner Journey
Follow the link: “The
Science of Sleep” a video by Dr. Deepak Chopra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q9vSvd1Wa4
