Sleephacking, Vilna Gaon vs. The Rambam, The Great Sleep Debate
The age old Jewish sleep debate. How many hours of sleep does one need? One either end of the sleep extremes, stand two pillars of Jewish thought, halacha and general knowledge. The Rambam (Maimonides) on the one side and the Vilna Gaon (Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna) on the other. First, a little background…The Rambam in his Hilchot Deot (4:4) states that a person should sleep eight hours (1/3 of the day) per night and rise before the sun rises.
In the introduction to Biur Ha’Gra to Shulchan Aruch, the Vilna Goan‘s son writes that his father, the Gaon would only sleep two hours in the course of a day (1/12 of the day).
Image via Wikipedia
Image via Wikipedia
With these two bookends in mind, I recently stumbled across one of the most beautiful blogs/Internet magazines I
have ever encountered, dustincurtis.com. Dustin Curtis is a self proclaimed ‘creator of user interfaces and experiences’ and his blog certainly echoes this. Each post is not just a post, but a work of art. I love his blog experience. But, putting that all aside, his most recent post How to Hack Your Brain, Part 1:
Sleep caught my eye, because it outlines the same bookends mentioned above, sans the Rabbinic sources of course.
Check out the post for a little better understanding of how to master the two hour sleep patterns of the Gaon, how it works, an understanding of the Rambam’s veiw and a number of varying levels of sleep patterns between the two bookends which fit very nicely with the Mishna Berura (1:9), Aruch Ha’Shulchan (238:2) and many others who discuss sleeping the proper amount to satisfy each person’s individual body.
Enjoy!
Dustin’s Post: http://dustincurtis.com/sleep.html
Wikipedia Article he links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep
Additional Reading on the topic: http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=Everyman%20Sleep%20Schedule
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=32d33ae8-3dc2-4e66-b885-4d971cb18af1)
) so tell me if you like the new style/content or no in the comments!![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=42eb06ee-6e43-4db8-b914-44e21bcd581c)
