Is Being Asleep Being Alive?

Would you rather sleep longer and live longer,
due to having improved health,
or sleep less and have more waking hours,
and in effect live and do more?

Am not sure myself,
though I’m inclining towards the latter.

What do you think?

The enlightened sleep little, if at all,
probably because they have better control of their energy,
and because there is so much they can do to help others.

Heedfulness is the deathless path,
heedlessness, the path to death.
Those who are heedful do not die,
heedless are like the dead.

– Dhammapada (v.21)

Related Article:
Rather Stay Awake
https://moonpointer.com/new/2010/04/rather-stay-awake

2 thoughts on “Is Being Asleep Being Alive?

  1. Urghh… Being still far from enlightenment, I’m still very much attached to sleep, so though the latter seems quite ideal, I’m quite fearful of it, just the thought of being sleep deprived makes me anxious.

    The thing is, sleeping less and having more waking hours might not in effect mean doing more, coz at least for me, sleeping less means that my waking hours will not be effective waking hours. Coz less sleep means less useful energy and more grouchiness in my ‘waking’ hours!

    ~ The Far From Enlightened

  2. I think all of us have better moods when our bodies feel well rested, e.g. after good sleep. But for me, it’s also the other way round… When I go to sleep feeling not so good spiritually (e.g. because I have not done enough fulfilling things for the day/night, I sleep reluctantly, with some unhappiness. If I sleep too early every day, my theory is I will become moody more often, which makes my lifespan shorter! (I try to practise – ‘When tired, sleep’)

    :dream: < sleep drool

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