Early Rising for a Polyphasic Day March 3, 2006
Posted by alwaqt in Sleep.2 comments
I have been reading How to Become an Early Riser (Part 1 and Part 2) on Steve Pavlina’s blog and I have benefited from it greatly, as is the case with all of his motivation material.
I consider myself to be a morning person and someone who can be an early riser, but I’m just not doing so on a consistant basis. Every single day I wake up at 5 am in the morning to pray Fajr. The days where I do stay awake after praying Fajr, and begin to do absolutely any type of activity I truly feel great the entire day. On those precious days I almost always take a siesta (in Arabic it is called al-qayloolah), as is encouraged in Islam. In fact, I have a theory that the current tradition of siesta came to Spain from the influence of Muslims living and ruling the land at that time known as al-Andalus for more that 900 years. What is interesting is that knowledge and science was flourishing in al-Andalus at a time when Europe was in the “Dark Ages”.. I’m thinking maybe the naps played a role!
Anyways, once I take this nap I never feel tired until later on in the night. I predict that on this schedule of taking a 20-30 minute nap in the middle of the day I could probably sleep only 4-5 hours max at night and still be very productive. So.. that’s about 4:20-5:30 hours of sleeping max. Close to a polyphasic 2-3 hours of sleep a day? Well, if I do this schedule correctly then I would have 2 more hours in the day. To be this is an achievement and at least a step closer to implementing Polyphasic sleeping if I choose to one day. This schedule is only 1-2 hours less sleep than Polyphasic, so can 1-2 hours really matter in my productivity level? Hmm… so right now I’m thinking that I should focus on scheduling my life for early rising, which eventually may lead to polyphasic sleeping once I manage my time better and I’m prepared to take it to the next level.
Two Polyphasic Inspirations March 3, 2006
Posted by alwaqt in Inspiration, Sleep.add a comment
‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab (d. 644 CE – radiyallahu ‘anhu) (Link 1)
I first read about Polyphasic sleeping from an Islamic message board that was talking about how ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab used to sleep this way, and this is when he was the ruler of the entire Muslim world. He is paraphrased as saying, “If I sleep in the morning, I’ll lose the entire Muslim world (given the fact that he was busy being the leader of a nation which was in the process of conquering half the world), and if I sleep at night I’ll lose myself (as in that sleeping at night will cause him to not worship Allah as much as needed).”
Imaam an-Nawawi (d. 1278 CE – rahimahullah) (Link 1, Link 2)
Another example of a dynamic and beneficial person in Islamic history is Imaam an-Nawawi. His pursuit of knowledge dominated his entire life. He would put all of his time into studying, learning, and teaching. It is even stated that he would not sleep except when sleep would overtake him. He would rest on his book and sleep for a little, then he would act startled upon awakening and continues studying. He once said about himself, “I spent two years without lying on the ground [to sleep] on my side.” That is, he would always study and write until sleep overtook while in a sitting position. Al-Qutb al-Yauneeni said about him, “He would not waste any moment of the day or night but he would spend it busy with attaining knowledge. Even when he walking and in the streets he will be busy going over what he had remembered and reviewing his notes. He continued gaining knowledge in that way for a period of six years.”
It seems – and only Allah knows the reality – that Allah truly blessed his time. Perhaps this was due to a sincere intention to please Allah. As mentioned above, he would attend up to twelve classes a day. Commenting on that fact, al-Diqr wrote,
He used to have twelve study sessions a day with his teachers. These included explanations, verifications, commentaries, explaining the different aspects and expressions as well as exacting the correct wordings. This would take, at a least approximation, twelve hours a day. Then he would need to review what he had learned and memorise what need to be memorised. The very least approximation is that this would also take twelve hours a day. This is twenty-four hours in a day! When would he sleep? When would he eat? When would he perform the acts of worship? When would he perform the voluntary late night prayers? It is well-known that he performed those types of acts of obedience and worship. When would all of that take place? He was in need of studying and reviewing for all the twenty fours in a day and night. This shows how Allah blessed and graced this man. Allah blessed him in his time. He gave him the ability to complete in one day what it takes everyone else two years to accomplish. This is the only way we can explain this tremendous undertaking that made him one of the greatest scholars of his time in about ten years. In fact, it made him the leader (Imaam) of his time. This is also the only way we can explain all of his wonderful, detailed and radiant writings in a span of time that lasted no more than fifteen years. He spent all of his lifetime and living hours in learning, teaching and writing.
And Imaam an-Nawawi died at 45 years old!
Reflections on My Monophasic Life March 3, 2006
Posted by alwaqt in Sleep.add a comment
Monophasic vs. Polyphasic aside, I am contemplating on how I even spend my time with my current Monophasic lifestyle. I am faced with the second issue that I mentioned in the this post.
- Based on my current Monophasic lifestyle, after my sleep and work I have a total of 9 hours to spend on whatever tasks and goals I want to accomplish. So why am I not having much success in accomplishing these tasks and goals? I think it is due to having a poor system for accomplishing these goals and managing how I spend these 9 hours, if having any system at all!
- If I attain 4 more hours daily (1,440 more hours annually) from a Polyphasic lifestyle, will I know how to spend those 12 hours of extra “free” time? My problem isn’t that I don’t know what to do within that time.. I have plenty of goals that I want to accomplish in my life. Rather my problem is that I am not making correct use of the “free” time I already am in possession of so won’t a Polyphasic lifestyle give me more of a feeling of being lost with my time? Realistically how will this new method of sleeping really benefit me if I don’t know how to manage and correctly spend the time I already have? I surely don’t want to end up being a huge couch potato (even though I don’t even watch any TV so I’m not sure if that is the correct term for myself), and I don’t want to start Polyphasic sleeping and quit it in the middle only due to the fact that I didn’t solve this problem.
So now I am being thinking that perhaps I should plan out how I will use my current time, and my extra time if I go Polyphasic, before I adopt this new method of sleeping. Or am I just being chicken?
Another Day In My Monophasic Life March 3, 2006
Posted by alwaqt in Sleep.add a comment
نِعْمَتَانِ مَغْبُونٌ فِيهِمَا كَثِيرٌ مِنْ النَّاسِ الصِّحَّةُ وَالْفَرَاغُ
“There are two blessings which many people do not make the most of and thus lose out on benefitting from: good health and free time.” – Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)
Well, I didn’t begin my Polyphasic transition experiment today. That’s okay though, I didn’t really make an intention to begin yet anyways. I want to read just a little bit more about the experiences of other people who have been successful as well as those who failed so I can make notes as to what to avoid. No need to fail myself when I can learn from other people’s mistakes, right?
Anyways, so I have slept 6 hours today. Yes I am well rested right now and I do feel alert, but who wouldn’t be after all of that sleep? I am sure I will feel drowsy around late afternoon.
If you’re a Polyphasic mutant, I know you’re probably thinking, “Why don’t you just move and live in your bed if you’re going to spend all that time in there??” Cut me some slack I’m in the learning period still! As my Monophasic and Polyhpasic sides are wrestling with eachother within, I have to try to find some time to read up some more so I can begin my Polyphasic experiment. Although had I been sleeping Polyphasic I would have plenty of time (4 more hours a day, 28 more hours a week, 120 more hours a month, 1,440 more hours a year, 28,800 more hours in 20 years.. this is soooo attractive)!
