How much sleep do you need

[Seetaram]

Less is more: Do you need eight hours of sleep to maintain good health? Scientists are not too sure. It\'s possible that sleeping too much, like eating too much, is bad for you. An American study on 1.1 million people shows that those who sleep for eight hours a day are 4-5 per cent more likely to die than those sleeping 5-6 hours. And those sleeping 9-10 hours a day have the highest mortality.

93% of Indians are sleep deprived.

Pay a sleep debt: It takes more than a night of extra sleep to pay off a sleep debt, especially if you slept only three to five hours--scientists say. But you recover faster from a week of poor sleep when it\'s preceded by nights with 10 hours of shuteye. So if you know you have a week of little sleep ahead, try loading up on sleep beforehand, not later.

Bedtime tales: Lack of sleep hits a woman harder and raises her risk of heart disease more than it does for a man, reports the journal Sleep. The study suggests that women require more sleep than men, but generally their sleep is of a higher quality, and less fragmented. Women also seem to use sleep medication more than men. For men, use of alcohol is more common, which shortens their sleeping time, though. Men tend to start losing deep, slow wave sleep much younger than women, which can make sleep lighter and more easily disturbed.

Dreams interpreted: To Freud, dreaming was a playground for the unconscious mind.To others, it helps the brain sort through emotional memories or current problems. Nowa report in Nature Neuroscience argues that dreams tune the mind for conscious awareness.We dream when the brain warms its circuits, anticipating the sights and sounds and emotions of waking. It explains why people forget so many dreams.

Should you nap?: We\'ve heard that grabbing an hour\'s sleep during the day is as beneficial as a whole night in bed. But now experts from Harvard University, US, say, powernaps work only if the sleep is of the right quality. And a full night\'s sleep is still necessary for many vital body functions, even though a short sleep may boost learning and memory.

[pallavi]

i\'ve read and seen many people who do yoga actually eat less and sleep less too
but they\'re more healthier than others

people who assume that they shud sleep more actually are killing themselves
esp. those who sleep after 11PM and never wake up before sunrise

[pravin kumar]

Text

Dear Friends,

One cycle of sleep is of 90 minutes. It is like 2 Cs one facing downwards and another facing upwards with both the end touching each other. When you wake up at the end of this cycle you are always fresh. It is therefore a person who sleeps either 90 minutes or 180 minutes or 270 minutes or 360 minutes or 450 minutes or 540 minutes etc. etc. wakes up fresh. We know that even if a person sleeps 11 to 12 hours he may wake up feeling as if he has not had a good nights sleep and a person who wakes up even after 90 minutes is fresh. By meditation you can control your sleep and reduce it to whatever level you want.

Supposing you sleeep at 10 in the night and want to catch a flight early in the morning and hence want to wake up at 3 a.m. It does not fit in with the cycle but through meditation while going to sleep at 10 a.m. just go to Alpha Level, imagine a huge wall clock in front of you and see the figure 3 o\'clock very very carefully so that the time gets imprinted in your subconscious mind. Right nearabout 3 a.m. you will find either the telephone ringing or you may have to go to the toilet or some noise outside or the dog barking or whatever unusual happens at that time. Just wake up and check it will be 3 a.m. If your practise is perfect you will wake up at the right time or nearbout that time.

How do you think people travelling in trains wake up in the middle of the night when the destination arrives? I have done it successfully on all occasions excepting 2 times. Once while travelling from Raigarh to Rourkela (both departure from Raigarh was 12.30 mightnight and arrival in Rourkela was 6 a.m. morning) I got up at 5.30 a.m. The timing of the train arrival at destination was changed to 5 a.m. and I missed the station. My body is programmed to wake up 30 minutes before the station arrives.

In another occasion from Mughalsarai to Patna the train was already 1 hour late in the night. The journey is of 3 hours nonstop. Train arrival at Patna was 1.20 a.m. and I woke up at 1.40 a.m. almost 30 minutes before the new scheduled time of 2.20 a.m. ( Train being 1 hour late) . The driver of the train got all clearance of signals and covered the destination in just 2 hours. So again I missed the station not because of my fault but because of the train being almost on right time.

So it is simple programming of your subconscious mind.

Pravin Kumar

P.S. There are states where you can be awake 24 hours and still feel happy and fresh but yogis do it and very few normal men do it. I knew one advocate who slept only 2 hours and was awake 22 hours.

[JayTee]

people who do meditation and yoga will sleep for exact time their body and mind needs

[Ranjana]

sometimes why does body not give us signals about how much we need to sleep?
we feel a need to rest more but we wake up early due to noises, bad dreams etc

[sonipravin]

Text

Ranjanaji,

A person who works very hard throughout the day will get a sound sleep in the night. I know my mother who used to work extremely hard from 6 in the morning to 10 in the night. At 10 in the night she would simply drop dead on the cot and not wake up even when children cried in the night. Our Father tended to us. She has the best of health and is now living 86 running.

If you meditate regularly the mind is less confused and is clear and also the heart. Because mind and heart is clear we can meditate and we get a light sleep. When I said a light sleep I mean a sleep where we are just lying down and know what is happening. We feel our body is totally relaxed and we lie down only because at night we have to sleep. We actually do not get sleep but much better than that for our body is relaxed.

Now the state you decribe is between both the above.  When you do not work hard and do not meditate one gets a sleep and dreams of what one has in mind and that could be anything for dreams indicate what is coming to you.

Sleep cycle consists of 90 minutes and when we wake up right at the end of that cycle our sleep is refreshing but when we wake up at any other point then even after 10/12 hours of sleep we feel as we have not slept well. Through meditation we can reduce or increase this cycle from 90 minutes to anytime of our choice.

I hope you get the answer to your question. It is not the body which will send you signals but it is your mind which dictates to the body to relax.

Pravin Kumar

[livinginNA]

Any recommendations to help sleep better? It is so hard at times to ignore stress...

[Anoo]

in a recent survey on men and women between 18-31 yrs of age, it is discovered that they needed atleast 8 hrs of sleep.
anything less, resulted in fatigue, dark circles below eyes, and frustration at day.

people who sleep well, look attractive