Should I Sacrifice Sleep To Continue With My Morning Routine?

[Mondsee]

This year I started with a pretty healthy and solid morning routine. It includes about half an hour of yoga and around 25 minutes of meditation.

Next week I start with some courses that begin early in the morning and end late at night, I've done the math, and if I want to keep sleeping 8 hours, there's no time left for yoga & meditation.

I feel very sleepy when I sleep less than 8 hours, but on the other hand, I simply can't imagine now my day without yoga and meditation, plus, I also feel unfit and lacking energy when I don't do that. Do you think I should sacrifice some sleep to continue with my practice? In total I'd be sleeping around 6 and a half hours, I don't know if in the long run I'll be able to keep up with this pace...

[How to be wise]

For me, sleeping for 6 and a half hours is a lot. Most days, I sleep less than 5 hours. 

[Abi]

Personally, I feel that sleep is extremely important. It is something that I struggle with, but, for me, not getting enough sleep causes me to have weaker self-discipline and willingness to experience discomfort for growth. Not to mention concentration, patience, memory, learning, etc. are all adversely effected with sleep deprivation. As an engineering student, I have come to realize that we all have the same amount of time in our day, and it is important to allocate it. You can include everything in a day that is important to you. I guarantee that you can find a way to fit the yoga and meditation back in with religious time management and schedule adjustments (if possible). Another thing to consider is to downsize the length of your morning routine, while still retaining it. I think that in order to get the most out of your classes and practices and to maintain good health, getting enough sleep is imperative. Note that "enough sleep" is different for every person. For me its 7-9 hours. For others it's 4-6. And for others yet it is 12-14. Know yourself. You can try to cut back on sleep, but I suggest keeping a journal or tracker where you can document how you feel mentally and physically as well as your performance in whatever it is you are working on and decide from there how important 8 hours of sleep is for you. furthermore, note that sometimes staying up for 3 extra hours to complete a task when you are exhausted is unproductive because you could have simply gone to sleep at a decent time, then gotten up feeling well rested and finished the task in 30 minutes. Also understand how sleep cycles work, you may be waking yourself up in the middle of deep sleep which is why you feel so sleepy with under 8 hours. Try to experiment with precisely when you go to bed and get up to find the optimal amount.

[AstralProjection]

You got to get sleep. Sleep is vital for hormone production, muscle creation, memory, and a host of other things. 6 hours is nothing, if I sleep less than 10 hours I feel like crap. I suggest you find other ways to include them into your routine. Honestly you will get a lot more out of your spiritual journey if you take psychedelics. Psychedelics are like a shortcut. Leo probably won't tell you that but it's true. If you could cut out the meditation and just do psychedelics every month and integrate what you learned, then that would be enough to give you some very very profound insights spiritually that should last a while until your next trip. Hope that helps, good luck Mondsee. 

Edited June 4, 2017 by AstralProjection

[Mastral]

It's not all or nothing, is it? How about cutting down the duration and maybe meditation on the way to the course?

You can always make up for it during the weekend with a long or even multiple sessions per day. Good luck!

[BjarkeT]

Why not go to sleep earlier?

[alyra]

I'd suggest finding time during the day to meditate and/or do yoga.

 

or, let go of the need to practice to such an obsessed point. dangerous of that addiction is what's keeping you at it, in respected to returning to the habit later. I don't meditate right now because I spend too much sedimentary time as it is, so I practice mindfulness predominantly. If I got the resources to and remember it, in any activity I do I just work on being more aware. and I chose a strat each week to use in my choices to focus on growth of some kind - for me most often it's focus, patience, or taking action.