I came across this interesting article on the Washington Post Social Reader on facebook,
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Lifestyle/Wellness/Why-even-4-hours-of-sleep-is-enough/Article1-774229.aspx
( If you’re already logged into facebook here’s the social plugin url, http://bit.ly/vjDIe0 )
I found this comment by one of the readers to be very true in my experience....."Our body sleeps in multiples of 1.5....if u will sleep as in like, 1.5 hrs, 3 hrs, 4.5 hrs, 6 hrs, etc you will feel fresh after waking up and will not have post sleep syndrome..those who are intelligent and observant can try this and will agree with me..".
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' A fragile tension keeps us going it may not last forever but you’ll know when it’s flowing ' ~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan |
I understand that there's always been a mixed response of surprise, disbelief and prejudice in some cases.
Introducing You to the Sleepless Elite
Here is another very interesting, well researched, more detailed and factual article by The Wall Street Journal I had read and responded to earlier this year. Of all the sleep related articles and research findings a scanty sleeper can possibly read, this has to be among the more relatable and accurate genetic study to date that has been carried out in recent years,
http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703712504576242701752957910.html?mg=reno-wsj
“For a small group of people—perhaps just 1% to 3% of the population—sleep is a waste of time.
Natural "short sleepers," as they're officially known, are night owls and early birds simultaneously. They typically turn in well after midnight, then get up just a few hours later and barrel through the day without needing to take naps or load up on caffeine.
They are also energetic, outgoing, optimistic and ambitious, according to the few researchers who have studied them. The pattern sometimes starts in childhood and often runs in families. While it's unclear if all short sleepers are high achievers, they do have more time in the day to do things, and keep finding more interesting things to do than sleep, often doing several things at once.”
I was particularly interested and intrigued by this. To be absolutely honest it made me feel more normal and less guilty about my lifestyle choices and sleep habits. All a person has to quiet simply do is to get tested and come to accept the fact that he has the genetic marker and will probably pass it on to his offspring as well. Perhaps some may choose otherwise if they’d rather just fit into the crowd and be just another social replica created by an uninformed choice. If you come from a martial race or an aristocratic background and if that's been your genetic lineage and breeding the chances are very high that you may be able to relate and find concurrencies among the things mentioned here. If you were to research and investigate the historic demographics of populations from across the more antiquated parts of Eurasia that have actively fielded or constituted martial occupations from generation to generation, you’ll find a rough congruence in the numbers that are the sleepless elite that is about 1-3% and the slightly larger 4-12 % that have historically fielded military careers regardless of rank and status. In times of war, to sleep is perhaps the most unsafe thing that you can do, it clearly and unambiguously factors in and determines who is most active and engaging and ultimately who stays alive and who wins in the larger game of survival. These seemingly unnatural habits and superhuman limits are actually very natural and understandable if you care enough to have an open and respectful attitude towards others and our collective and undeniable wealth of history.
Do the people who work so hard, sleep different and display heightened energy levels get labeled, stereotyped, criticized and called names? Yes, it happens all the time, but nature has her own array of mechanisms to surpass and override the problems that social creatures often tend to encounter as they progress and evolve both as individuals and as a collective."
"The one thing that matters is the effort. It continues, whereas the end to be attained is but an illusion of the climber, as he fares on and on from crest to crest; and once the goal is reached it has no meaning. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Wisdom of the Sands, translated from French by Stuart Gilbert"
Find Meaning in Sleep and I promise You, You will find Meaning in Life
Now, why is this so important today, if you grew up and you found that there are times when your father or your mother or other members of your family can go without sleep for days together or if there are people related to you who put not 40 but somewhere around 80-100 work hours on average per week and did what 10 people would normally get done and top it all of with an extra 20-40 hours on other projects outside of work, then it makes you stop and wonder how can you possibly stay true to yourself and the gifts of stamina and the unique innateness of your flesh. Remaining competitive and comparable in a family or environment like that is a whole another story filled with tales of rivalry and the ultimate drama that normally would conclude with a bout of justice, reconciliation, acceptance and some good old common sense. Survival of the fittest isn’t that what natural selection is all about? Especially, when you have to live through it and plan on being or becoming a winner. For example someday, God willing, when it does happen and I have children of my own then I shouldn’t find myself trying to regulate or discipline them to stay in bed much more than they naturally need to, all thanks to being better informed and educated. In many cases and in my own case the sleep habits never kicked in fully until my late teenage years or around the time when I was more or less fully grown.
My personal experience in my efforts in trying to get people to be more understanding and less prejudiced has often been a pointless exercise where a person no matter what his level of education or experience can and will only relate to the world outside of his bubble with theories, ideas and facts that have been preprogrammed, time-tested and taught to him in a classroom in some university, thus making seemingly natural possibilities of progress shameful impossibilities that leave a man such as myself baffled. Nevertheless a breakthrough is a break through; it enhances our understanding of how our genes work and how they evolve. We did not create them or the laws of nature, but the stubborn stagnation, fixations, bias and arrogance of our knowledge may make it seem like this self proclaimed smoke clad illusion that is clearly to the contrary is an artificial yet seemingly worthy and believable truth. I guess it is only fair to say that in this place, culture and time, our tendency to dominate is far greater than our inclination, need and desire to improve, evolve or grow. This, to the best of my knowledge, experience and that of my close friends and family who share with me, has always been a massive road block in trying to make people in general progress in their quest and pursuit of knowledge and the Truth about things as they truly and factually are.
A Regulated Lifestyle is more about Respect, Knowledge and Choice Rather than Greed and Exploitation of Facts and Circumstance
“There is currently no way people can teach themselves to be short sleepers. Still, scientists hope that by studying short sleepers, they can better understand how the body regulates sleep and why sleep needs to vary so much in humans.”
~ Translates as: MORE, MORE, MORE……!!! : )
Can you respect your body? Can you respect nature? Or can you respect people who sleep in a self regulated and natural way albeit a bit different and unusual like this. If so then why the need to or the unethical attitude of trying to manipulate and exploit the delicate balance and intricacies of nature when the secrets of science, natural laws and knowledge clearly are self sustaining, regulated and the continuity of this beautiful balance is ever growing in a sensible, sustainable and justified way. Why should need become greed, waiting to be boxed and sold at your nearest pharmacy. It makes me laugh and understand why progress is impermissible in the case of people who are inclined to be so disrespectful to both themselves, others and nature. Are we trying to improve the quality and the experience that people endure through life, or is our propensity more towards setting up unnatural, unrealistic and unsafe expectations. Many of the newest findings are a lot like the products that some pharmacies and chemical manufacturers sell, most of them have not been time tested for long term side effects what so ever because short term profits often tend to out weigh and over shadow common sense, quality and the common good of mankind as a whole.
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. ~Thomas Edison
At the end of the day I respect the habits, the levels of productivity and the choices that people make as it comes naturally to them based on years of evolution and genetic mutation. But it is important to understand that we also truly are vested with the moral responsibility and the free will to choose a sensible direction and the reasonable and much needed steps as we actively participate in our own evolution. Much has changed since those antiquated times of war, violence and turbulence, those sleepless warriors face new challenges and play other roles that will make peace and justice a more common and prevalent theme in our future. Off course we do still have wars, albeit unnatural, needless, manipulated and artificially manufactured wars that serve no higher good, reason or cause but the deplorable Greed in Men and the irrational need to dominate, prevail, thieve from and exploit that which is another’s. Many of us no longer live in the places where are ancestors once evolved; nomadic as they were we continue to carry on in that tradition as we explore new frontiers and colonize new environments. Things like biological miscegenation are nothing but irrational concoctions of the prejudiced and stubbornly close minded personalities that slow down our progress and evolution. Today Ad mixture and inter ethnic breeding makes a lot of sense when you think that given a new non native environment it is only natural for us to try to assimilate and pass on the best of our genes to ensure the survival of our progeny. We live in an increasingly small world, we are one Human race and this world is truly what defines my concept of home, identity and belonging. It is essential for a man to discard irrelevant labels and ideas and embrace diversity as a beautiful blessing that enables and contributes exponentially to humanity, all life and nature as a whole. It is my hope that studies and findings such as these can take us a step closer in our understanding of others and our sense of mutual respect and acceptance towards humanity and all of nature.
Blessings, Best Wishes, Blissful Rest and Sweet Dreams to you All
P.S ~ Sleep as much as your nature requires you to. A few hours more or a few hours less, trust in nature, for her seasons and her changing tides affect us from within and without : )