Q:
Is it possible that a person can train themselves to need less sleep so he should have more hours to accomplish?
A:
Now on this subject, I must say a word of caution.
There was once a man who had a horse and he wanted to accustom the horse to eat less. So every day he made his provisions less and less; he gave the horse less and less. He almost had him down to nothing, but the horse died before he succeeded.
I know cases of yeshiva men who succeeded in entering the insane asylum because they tried to get along with less sleep. Sleep is extremely important. Anybody who doesn’t feel well must sleep more. But even if you feel healthy, you must be careful to get enough sleep.
Lack of sleep upsets people so, that their minds become unsettled. And sometimes they’re so unsettled that it won’t help; no matter how much sleep they’ll sleep afterwards. And therefore, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. You must get enough sleep.
The Chofetz Chaim zichrono livracha used to walk in the yeshiva at night, late at night, he saw a boy sitting and learning, so he said, “Morgen iz oich a tohg – You can learn tomorrow.” And he told him to go to sleep.
Now silly roshei yeshivas will be happy when they see such a sight; they’ll encourage the boys, learn later and later at night. But it endangers their health, their mental health. It’s a very great peril. And I’m sure most decent people don’t want that.
And that’s why although too much sleep certainly is not good – עצלה תפיל תרדמה, laziness casts a sleep on people (Mishlei 19:15); he thinks he needs sleep, but he’s really lazy; he’s not really sleepy because the same person when he takes a novel, he’ll sit until 2:00 at night and read it. Before he thought he was sleepy. At 9:00, he was sleepy; he’s falling asleep over the Gemara. So he took a book, a novel, and 2:00 he was still reading it. So you see he wasn’t sleepy at all; he was just lazy.
But the person who needs sleep, he shouldn’t begrudge himself what he needs.
(May 1989)
