|
|
| I am curious about how much sleep you guys normally get on a week day?
Do experienced yogis find that their practice increases their need to sleep or reduce it?
If you do meditation, do you feel you sleep more afterwards, or less?
I read that the optimum was 7 hours?
Do you reckon you can train your body to get on happily with less than you are used to?
So how many hours a night do you sleep on average?
Some famous people allegedly did well on 4 hours a night: Napoleon, Thatcher.... then again, maybe they could have done with an afternoon nap once in a while 
Edited by frog71_uk 2005-01-11 10:29 AM
|
|
| |
|
| I would love to get 8 - 10 hours a night, but it seldom happens. I usually get 6 hours. I sleep better when I practice regularly. |
|
| |
|
| I really can't tell, since I never sleep when I'm supposed to. I'm just too nervous and excited and don't want to sleep. So I just take little naps here and there, whenever my body is too tired to keep my head up and crashes down. That's so not healthy, I know I know 
|
|
| |
|
Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
  
Location: A Blue State |
Sleep --- more than 8 hours doesn't work for me, but I can only survive about
five days on six hours. The result is that I get ground down during the week,
when 6.5 hours is a good night, and that I make it up on weekends, usually
by napping on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Not ideal, but that's my life,
you know? |
|
| |
|
|
Lately I slept Every day more than 9 hours  in Addition if I’m at home, every time I go to bed with a book I sleep., Sleeping becomes my favorite if exam days are closer.. Ah.. in Shavasana pose.. in that pose also I feel sleepy most of the times.
 |
|
| |
|
| I try to get at least 7 hours or more of sleep a night. It really all depends on my schedule. During finals I sometimes don't get any sleep. When things are slow for me and I don't have to worry about much, I sometimes sleep 10 hours. |
|
| |
|
| This is an interesting question. And, since it is asked in the context of Yoga. This is my response:
The question is kind of wrong. Because, in reality, you can NOT sleep. Sleep comes automatically when the system needs it. One can only break the sleep, meaning try to keep awake, or wake up when the sleep is not over by breaking it with alarm, friend, and such measures. In the non human animal kingdom, they do not do this.
The amount of sleep need is as follows: One should not keep awake when the sleep comes. And, one should not break it by any means, let it get over on its own. That is the correct amount of sleep needed.
Any deviation is a personal choice based on the situation.
If one is sleeping it too much, one can optimize the exercise, mental activity, diet, etc. to make the sleep requirements less. For example, by eating light diet one needs less sleep than while eating heavy diet. ETC.
Neel Kulkarni
www.authenticyoga.org |
|
| |
|
| On the topic of sleep, have you changed sleep positions because of your yoga practice? I'm curious becuase I've been told that it is bad for your back to sleep on your stomach (my favorite way to sleep) but since starting yoga, I can now fall asleep on my back as well. Is there a best sleep position for alignment, etc.?
As far as the original question, I used to get about 8 hours of sleep per night, but now (new baby) I'm getting about 5-6. At first, I felt horrible, but now I feel better with less sleep.
|
|
| |
|
| Went to bed at 5 am, couldn't sleep, got up again at 7 am
At least I can make it to morning class today 
Edited by afroyogi 2005-01-14 12:41 AM
|
|
| |
|
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 517
Location: New Jersey | I get at least 7 hours of sleep every night. I usually try for 8. I don't function well on less, and I loooove to sleep If I don't get enough, I don't feel like I'm getting as much out of my yoga session as I could. I feel groggy and slow. Lately I've started to meditate right before I go to sleep, and shortly after I wake up. Just 5 or 10 minutes at a time. It seems to himprove the quality of my sleep, and also it's a nice way to start the day in the morning.
Edited by samantha77 2005-01-25 11:04 PM
|
|
| |
|
| Sue;
|On the topic of sleep, have you changed sleep positions because of your yoga practice? I'm curious becuase I've been told that it is bad for your back to sleep on your stomach (my favorite way to sleep) but since starting yoga, I can now fall asleep on my back as well. Is there a best sleep position for alignment, etc.?|
I have had EXACTLY the same experience. Historically, it was impossible for me to find sleep if I was lying on my back. Due to some strange chicken/egg combination of neck surgery/ yoga/ hip arthritis, withing the past 7 months I have naturally found myself sleeping on my back (and I can quite comfortably still sleep on my stomach).
|
|
| |
|
| I guess this is as good a spot as anywhere to make my first post - sleep is a favorite topic of mine! I've been brousing in the forum for a little while now, and your comments and postings have been extremely helpful, informative and encouraging. Thank you all!
I'm new to yoga and don't want to scare anyone, but think it can just about save my life. I sleep about 10 hours a day, which I know is way too much, but I think I'm depressed and don't want to wake up and go to work - I'm a research scientist and my job is extremely complex and mentally draining. The yoga that I've done so far (Bikram last year for about 10 weeks, then I stopped going and then the studio shut down all of a sudden) was very good for my energy level, and made me much more mentally alert and I slept a lot less and had more physical energy. So right now I'm battling some inertia and trying to get back into it. I went to Bikram again for the first time last week, and planning to go again tomorrow, hoping to get back into it long enough to help snap me out of the doldrums.
Thanks for all you do and say to encourage new people. It really helps.
Michael
|
|
| |
|
| Dear Michael,
Welcome to the boards! I am glad you decided to introduce yourself. I wish I had more time at this exact moment to respond to your post in more detail. It sounds like you are working up the plan to fire against inertia. A good plan helps!
I too am a research scientist and I am learning (sometimes less stubbornly than others) that the more I 'let go' of the science and my attachment to the deadlines and the results the better my work. I also find that even when I feel guilty to leave the lab b/c my science is stuck, if I make myself take time for me (meaning yoga and meaning really setting the work aside) I have better insight, creativity and perspective on my projects. The most frustrating part is that you cannot incorporate into your science that which you do not yet know and that which you have not yet thought of. When I wrap myself in worry and frustration, I do not sleep and I tend to stay stuck. Best of luck to you and keep us posted.
Amy |
|
| |
|
| Amy,
Thanks for your kind welcome. A scientist too?! That's neat. From what I can tell so far, the yoga restores some balance since I'm so mentally engaged all the time at work- and pretty much everywhere. It helps to just dig into the yoga session and unwind. My problem is just summoning the effort to actually Go There and do it, rather than just 'theorize' it. Not to mention surviving the thing! I'm so out of shape. It's astonishing, but the yoga actually seems to bring out every single iota of damage I've done to myself all my life. The instructor was saying how, if we can only get into a posture 5% or even 1%, then we should do that as best we can and feel good about getting to there. Since that's about what I'm doing, I can tell I have a longgggg way to go, and that's looking at the bright side! The other side is that I've pretty much shot 95% of my capacity by self-destruction and sedentry. I guess the miraculous thing is we can recover and restore, if we stay on that path. Really really really interesting, this yoga thing.
I'll let you know how I survive the hot room tomorrow...
|
|
| |
|
| |From what I can tell so far, the yoga restores some balance since I'm so mentally engaged all the time at work- and pretty much everywhere. It helps to just dig into the yoga session and unwind. |
Sounds like valid logic to me! I think there is something very restorative to the brain when you "turn the mind off for a while" like you do during a deeply focused yoga session. It is like a brain reboot.
As for your other comments about being out of shape, well, I could just crawl on a soap box about that, but, comrade, I will spare you. Actually your teacher sounds great. That is great advice in my opinion. You are very lucky though because if you are struggling so hard from being sedentary, then you will see the progress and benefit more than the average Joe. Sometimes seeing a little progress is such a powerful force that inertia doesn't stand a chance.
(I don't know what kind of research you do but in the event you are a physics buff) Sometimes I like to taunt myself (whilst teetering precariously in some balance pose of the day) that gravity is the 'weakest' of the physical forces....ugh Side note: curiously that is usually the last thing I remember pondering before my posterior finds the floor.
Now stop reading and go to class!
|
|
| |
|
| Class was good! I'm so glad I went, and I didn't ever feel like I was going to pass out, and I could do both sets of each pose, relatively speaking of course. One annoying thing was a student came and set up right in front of me, while I was lying down in savasana before class. Class started and there was this person right in front of me, so I could hardly see myself in the mirror. But I just tried to concentrate best I could.
I have a million miles to go, I can tell that.
|
|
| |
How much do you sleep?
