SLEEP


How much sleep do you need?


Do you struggle to get through the day? Chi expert Jost Sauer


discusses the importance of quality sleep, and having a morning practice. by Jost Sauer


DON’T WAKE UP FOR WORK – WAKE UP TO BUILD CHI The average time people spend between getting up and leaving for work is 23 minutes. During this time multitasking governs all actions – eating a bowl of cereal standing up, getting dressed and talking on the phone all at the same time. Some turn multitasking into acrobatic feats by adding tooth brushing, dog feeding and Facebook posting to the previous acts. Mornings become a juggle, a criterion that belongs in the Guinness Book of Records but not in our homes. The concern: if we don’t settle our chi in the mornings we uproot our chi when we get out out of the door as we are bombarded by sensory overload, urgencies and constant distractions. This has several consequences: we


50 MARCH | APRIL 2018


arrive uninspired at work, we are tired by lunch time and exhausted by 3.30pm. We don’t have the energy to be calm, we become short-tempered, even inconsiderate and insensitive to the people around us. A workplace turns into a war zone – and all because of the unplanned and stressed time gap between getting up and leaving for work. The key for a peaceful and happy life


is to have enough time for a morning practice. This lays the foundation for a beneficial ‘cause and effect cycle’. The goal is to start with a doable time slot such as 15 minutes, and, once formed as a habit, to extend to 25 minutes; then to 40 minutes, eventually to 60 minutes. The ROI, or ‘return on investment’ is peace and health – and that’s priceless.


THE IMPORTANCE OF QUALITY SLEEP Sleep is a mystical thing. Some say we need eight to ten hours, others say we need six to seven hours, some say five is enough. The fact is, sleep is yin. If you have an intense yang lifestyle where yin is an occasional ‘luxury item’ than you need eight hours or more to compensate for the lack of yin (yin and yang are programmed to balance each other). If you follow the path of yin and yang then you need far less sleep and most likely will get away with six hours, or even less. At bedtime you will enter deep sleep immediately and remain asleep the entire time, instead of tossing for hours desperately trying to capture the delicious feeling of drifting into astral territory. This is quality sleep and it’s the measurement to go by – not time.


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