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Chapter 1
The Necessity of Sleep
Words of the Mother
Mother, what is sleep? Is it only the need of the body to rest or is it something else?
Sleep can be a very active means of concentration and inner knowledge. Sleep is the school one has to go through, if one knows how to learn his lesson there, so that the inner being may be independent of the physical form, conscious in itself and master of its own life. There are entire parts of the being which need this immobility and semi-consciousness of the outer being, of the body, in order to be able to live their own life, independently.
Only, people don’t know, they sleep because they sleep, as they eat, as they live – by a kind of instinct, a semi-conscious impulse. They don’t even ask themselves the question. You are asking the question now: Why does one sleep? But there are millions and millions of beings who sleep without ever having asked themselves the question why one sleeps. They sleep because they feel sleepy, they eat because they are hungry, and they do foolish things because their instincts push them, without thinking, without reasoning; but for those who know, sleep is a school, an excellent school for something other than the school of waking hours.
It is another school for another purpose, but it is a school. If one wants to make the maximum progress possible, one must know how to use one’s nights as one uses one’s days; only, usually, people don’t at all know what to do, and they try to remain awake and all that they create is a physical and vital imbalance – and sometimes a mental one also – as a result.
The physical and all material physical parts should be absolutely at rest, but a repose which is not a fall into the inconscient – this is one of the conditions. And the vital must be in a repose of silence. Then if you have these three things at rest, the inner being which is rarely in relation with the outer life, because the outer life is too noisy and too unconscious for it to be able to manifest itself, can become aware of itself and awaken, become active and act upon the lower parts, establish a conscious contact. This is the real reason for sleep, apart from the necessity that, in the present conditions of life, activity and rest, rest and activity must alternate.
The body needs rest but there are very few people, as I said, who know how to sleep. They sleep in such conditions that they don’t wake up refreshed or are hardly rested at all. But this is an entire science to learn.
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Words of Sri Aurobindo
Sleep is necessary for the body just as food is. Sufficient sleep must be taken, but not excessive sleep. What sufficient sleep is depends on the need of the body.
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Words of Sri Aurobindo
It is a great mistake not to take sufficient sleep. Seven hours is the minimum needed. When one has a very strong nervous system, one can reduce it to six, sometimes even five – but it is rare and ought not to be attempted without necessity.
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Words of Sri Aurobindo
The normal allowance of sleep is said to be 7 to 8 hours except in advanced age when it is said to be less. If one takes less (5 to 6 for instance) the body accommodates itself somehow, but if the control is taken off it immediately wants to make up for its lost arrears of the normal 8 hours. So often when one has tried to live on too little food, if one relaxes, the body becomes enormously rapacious for food until it has set right the credit and loss account. At least it often happens like that.
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Words of Sri Aurobindo
Both for fevers and for mental trouble sleep is a great help and its absence very undesirable – it is the loss of a curative agency.
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Words of Sri Aurobindo
It is not a right method to try to keep awake at night; the suppression of the needed sleep makes the body tamasic and unfit for the necessary concentration during the waking hours. The right way is to transform the sleep and not suppress it, and especially to learn how to become more and more conscious in sleep itself. If that is done, sleep changes into an inner mode of consciousness in which the sadhana can continue as much as in the waking state, and at the same time one is able to enter into other planes of consciousness than the physical and command an immense range of informative and utilisable experience.
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Words of the Mother
To begin with, we should remember that more than one third of our existence is spent in sleeping and that, consequently, the time devoted to physical sleep well deserves our attention.
I say physical sleep, for it would be wrong to think that our whole being sleeps when our bodies are asleep.
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Chapter 2
How to Sleep
Words of the Mother
Mother, how is it better to go to bed early and to get up early?
When the sun sets, a kind of peace descends upon the earth and this peace is helpful for sleep.
When the sun rises, a vigorous energy descends upon the earth and this energy is helpful for work.
When you go to bed late and get up late, you contradict the forces of Nature and that is not very wise.
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Words of the Mother
Mother, why are the hours before midnight better for sleep than the later hours?
Because, symbolically, during the hours till midnight, the sun is setting, while from the very first hour after midnight the sun begins to rise.
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Words of the Mother
The quality of sleep is much more important than its quantity. In order to have a truly effective rest and relaxation during sleep, it is good as a rule to drink something before going to bed, a cup of milk or soup or fruit-juice, for instance. Light food brings a quiet sleep. One should, however, abstain from all copious meals, for then the sleep becomes agitated and is disturbed by nightmares, or else is dense, heavy and dulling. But the most important thing of all is to make the mind clear, to quieten the emotions and calm the effervescence of desires and the preoccupations which accompany them. If before retiring to bed one has talked a lot or had a lively discussion, if one has read an exciting or intensely interesting book, one should rest a little without sleeping in order to quieten the mental activity, so that the brain does not engage in disorderly movements while the other parts of the body alone are asleep. Those who practise meditation will do well to concentrate for a few minutes on a lofty and restful idea, in an aspiration towards a higher and vaster consciousness. Their sleep will benefit greatly from this and they will largely be spared the risk of falling into unconsciousness while they sleep.
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Words of the
