Waking for tahajjud is natural

[Insaanah]

Thought this article was interesting (ignoring the evolutionary parts):

The myth of the eight hour sleep

A growing body of evidence from both science and history suggests that the eight-hour sleep may be unnatural.

In 2001, historian Roger Ekirch of Virginia Tech published a seminal paper, drawn from 16 years of research, revealing a wealth of historical evidence that humans used to sleep in two distinct chunks.

Countless prayer manuals from the late 15th Century offered special prayers for the hours in between sleeps.

Today, most people seem to have adapted quite well to the eight-hour sleep, but Ekirch believes many sleeping problems may have roots in the human body's natural preference for segmented sleep as well as the ubiquity of artificial light.

This could be the root of a condition called sleep maintenance insomnia, where people wake during the night and have trouble getting back to sleep, he suggests.

The condition first appears in literature at the end of the 19th Century, at the same time as accounts of segmented sleep disappear.

"For most of evolution we slept a certain way," says sleep psychologist Gregg Jacobs. "Waking up during the night is part of normal human physiology."

The idea that we must sleep in a consolidated block could be damaging, he says, if it makes people who wake up at night anxious, as this anxiety can itself prohibit sleeps and is likely to seep into waking life too.

But the majority of doctors still fail to acknowledge that a consolidated eight-hour sleep may be unnatural.

"Over 30% of the medical problems that doctors are faced with stem directly or indirectly from sleep. But sleep has been ignored in medical training and there are very few centres where sleep is studied," he says.

Jacobs suggests that the waking period between sleeps, when people were forced into periods of rest and relaxation, could have played an important part in the human capacity to regulate stress naturally.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783

 

[marwen]

^
Very interesting articles, Jazakum Allahu Khayran.
If we are recommended to pray at night in Islam, then it's certainly beneficial for us. Allah SWT never recommend us to do something, or his Apostle SAW, unless it's for our good, in this dunya and in the aakhera.


Narrated 'Aisha: Allah's Apostle used to offer eleven Rakat and that was his prayer. He used to prolong the prostration to such an extent that one could recite fifty verses (of the Quran) before he would lift his head. He used to pray two Rakat (Sunna) before the Fajr prayer and then used to lie down on his right side till the call-maker came and informed him about the prayer.
Sahih Bukhari , Book 21 (Prayer at night/Tahajjud), hadeeth No:223

Narrated AbuHurayrah: The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: May Allah have mercy on a man who gets up at night and prays, and awakens his wife; if she refuses, he should sprinkle water on her face. May Allah have mercy on a woman who gets up at night and prays, and awakens her husband; if he refuses, she would sprinkle water on his face.
Sunanu Abi Dawood, Book 5 (Prayer at night / kitabu-s-Salaf), hadeeth No:1303

Salim bin `Abdullah bin `Umar bin Al-Khattab (May Allah be pleased with them) reported, on the authority of his father, that the Messenger of Allah (sallallaahu ’alayhi wa sallam) said, "What an excellent man `Abdullah is! If only he could perform optional prayers at night.'' Salim said that after this, (his father) `Abdullah slept very little at night.
Ryadhu-s-Saliheen, Book 9 (Book of the virtues) : Chapter 212 (Excellence of Standing for prayer atnight), hadeeth No:1162
[This Hadeeth is in Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

 

[Ğħαrєєвαħ]

Bump!

BarakAllaahu feekum

 

[dqsunday]

Hmm maybe this is why I can't seem to sleep more than 2-4 hours at a time, my body wants the natural way. Then again I also take at least an hour to fall asleep.

 

[The-Deist]

JazakaAllahu khair
May Allah (swt) reward you for your efforts
Aameen