Is Sleep For Quitters?

Last night I went to bed around 3:45am, and woke up at 5:50am in order to get to minyan on time. The night before I slept even less. And for me at least, this is completely normal. I’ve always been something of a night owl, but I recognize that I’m most productive in the morning, so I’m always trying to get the best of both worlds. I stay up late working on various projects, and then get up after two or three hours of sleep to have another go at them. In the very early mornings I usually either go to minyan or go to a 6:00 am yoga class, come home for a shower and try to be out of the house getting work done by 8am. It is perhaps not the healthiest of my lifestyle choices, this complete lack of sleep. The only thing I can honestly say that I love about it is that on Shabbat, when I go to bed early, sleep until 9 or 9:30 and then take a significant nap in the afternoon I feel like I’m experiencing the deepest kind of luxury. I’m always taking flack for my lack of sleep from my family and friends. When I do go to bed before 2 in the morning people ask if I’m sick, and toss off comments like, “One day you’re going to drop dead from fatigue.” Gee, thanks. I’ve been thinking a lot about sleep and spirituality because I know that this semester is going to be really busy for me, and I’m worried about getting everything done even with my current average of twelve hours of sleep between Monday and Friday. So how important is it to get up for minyan or yoga? If I cut out some of my Jewish learning then I have more time for writing. Or I could stop working at the hospice, and learn more. It’s a sticky thing, scheduling, and with all of the pro-sleep literature out there I kind of figured Jewish spirituality would have jumped on board the pro-sleep movement. I figured I’d find some Sleep Rabbi extolling the virtues of 9 hours a night, and talking about how snoozing made him uber-frum. But actually, what I found was the opposite. There are people who consider sleep to be a spiritual practice, but they tend to be new age types not associated with any major religion. The one Jewish site about sleep that I could find was by an Aish rabbi (actually, the original Aish rabbi) whose policy is sleep as little as possible:

Never treat sleep as an end unto itself. Don't look at sleep as the reward for a hard day's work. Look at sleep as a way to recharge your batteries for a new day of growth.

Don't sleep longer than necessary, and don't "love sleep." If you love sleep, you'll yearn to get more of it and wind up sleeping your life away.

The best way to take advantage of sleep's recuperative powers is by napping. When you find yourself stymied, take a 20-minute nap. Any longer than that and it's a struggle to regain momentum.

So this guy is clearly an extremist, but what he actually says—that we should be active and engaged people, and not lazy slugabeds–is a reasonable Jewish idea. The only thing I can think of that’s Jewish and pro-sleep is that there are a lot of Biblical stories about people having important dreams containing messages from God. If you don’t sleep, you don’t dream, and if you don’t dream you may be cutting off some communication with God. I don’t really believe that, but I do sometimes wish I could come up with a really great reason to get in bed. Besides, you know, the obvious ones…