Sadhguru offers tips for those looking to reduce their sleep quota, and delves into the relationship between sleep, food, and restfulness.
萨古鲁为那些想要减少睡眠需求的人提供了一些小贴士，并深入研究了睡眠，食物与放松之间的关系。
#1 Don’t Battle With Life
不要与生活抗争
Sadhguru: The body needs rest, not sleep. In most people’s experience, sleep is the deepest form of restfulness they know, so they talk about sleep. But essentially, the body is not asking for sleep, it is looking for restfulness. Your mornings would be pretty bad if your nights were not restful. So it is not sleep but restfulness that makes the difference.
萨古鲁：身体需要的是休息，而不是睡眠。在大多数人的经验中，睡眠是他们所知的最深层的放松方式，因此他们谈论睡眠。但本质上，身体并不是在要求睡眠，它寻求的是放松。如果你晚上休息的不好，那么你早上起来就会感觉很糟糕。所以并不是睡眠，而是放松让你感觉不一样。
If you keep your body relaxed throughout the day, if your work, exercise and every other activity is form of relaxation for you, your sleep quota will go down naturally. The problem is that people have been taught to do everything hard – in tension. I see people walking very tense in the park. This sort of exercise will bring more harm than wellbeing. Don’t go at everything like it is a war. Whether you are walking, jogging or exercising, why don’t you do it easily, joyfully?
如果你一整天都保持身体放松，如果你的工作，锻炼以及各种其他活动都成了你放松的方式，那么你的睡眠需求自然就会减少。问题在于，一直以来人们接受的教育就是，所有事情都要努力去做——紧绷着。我看到人们在公园散步时都处于紧张的状态中。这种锻炼会给身体带来更多伤害而非健康。不要做每件事情都像打仗一样。无论是走路，慢跑或锻炼，为何不能轻松，愉快地进行呢？
Don’t battle with life. Keeping yourself fit and well is not a battle. Play a game, swim, walk, whatever you like. You will only have a problem if all you want to do is eat cheesecake! Otherwise there is no problem about being relaxed with any activity.
不要与生活抗争。保持健康并不是一场战斗，就去玩玩游戏、游游泳、散散步，做任何你喜欢的事情。如果你唯一想做的事情就只是吃芝士蛋糕的话，那才出问题了！否则，放松的去开展任何活动，没有任何问题。
#2 Yogic Practices – Shambhavi Mahamudra
瑜伽练习——香巴维大手印
Sadhguru: If you bring certain yogic practices such as the Shambhavi Mahamudra into your life, one of the first changes you will see is in your pulse rate. For example, someone who has just gone through the Inner Engineering program and started Shambhavi, if he checks his pulse before and after dinner and records it, and then practices Shambhavi twice a day for six weeks and checks his pulse again, it would have come down by eight to fifteen counts. If one really sinks deep into restfulness in Shambhavi, the pulse rate will go down further.
萨古鲁：如果你将某种瑜伽练习比如香巴维大手印带入你的生活中，你会发现，首先出现变化的一点是你的脉搏。例如，某人刚参加完内在工程课程，并开始香巴维练习，如果他测一下饭前和饭后的脉搏并记录下来，然后每天练习两次香巴维，这样持续六周，然后再检查脉搏，脉搏可能已经减少了8-15次。如果一个人真正沉浸在香巴维放松宁静的状态，他的脉搏会进一步下降。
With 12 to 18 months of practice, you can bring your pulse rate down to around fifty or sixty in a restful state. If this happens, your sleep quota will go down dramatically because the body is generally restful through the day. Whatever activity you may be doing, it remains restful, so it will not demand more sleep.
练习12到18个月之后，你放松状态时的脉搏率可以下降到大约50或60下。如果到了这种状态，你的睡眠需求就会大幅下降，因为身体一整天基本上都很放松。不管你在做什么，它都能保持放松，所以身体就不需要更多的睡眠。
#3 Yogic Practices – Shoonya Meditation
瑜伽练习——Shoonya 冥想
Sadhguru: There is a certain meditation we teach which is called Shoonya. This is taught in a program that we conduct only in the Isha centers in southern India and the United States. We do not teach it elsewhere because it needs a certain atmosphere, training and other processes. Shoonya can bring your sleep quota down dramatically. It is just a fifteen-minute meditation but you will see, if you settle down into this meditation process properly, your metabolism will drop up to twenty-four percent. Twenty-four percent is the deepest drop you can have in conscious states of meditation. If you go beyond that, you will not be conscious in the usual sense. To be able to be relaxed to a point and then to come out consciously, you cannot go beyond twenty-four percent.
萨古鲁：我们也教授一种冥想叫做Shoonya（苏尼亚）。这个冥想课程，我们只在印度南部和美国的Isha中心开设。我们不在其他地方教授，因为它需要特定的氛围，需要进行一些培训以及一些其他的过程。Shoonya可以大幅减少你的睡眠需求。它只是个15分钟的冥想，但你会发现，如果你安下心来进入到这个冥想中，你的新陈代谢下降程度能高达24%。24%是你在有意识的冥想状态中可以达到的最大降幅。如果再往下降，你就无法保持通常意义上的有意识状态。要想能达到一定的放松度，并且还能有意识地从中出来，你不能超过24%。
You will find this fifteen minutes of meditation is equal to two to three hours of sleep in terms of restfulness. Because there are such drastic physiological changes in the body, especially on the level of your blood chemistry, phenomenal things will change – which is why it needs to be taught in very controlled, focused conditions.
你会发现，这15分钟的冥想带来的放松程度相当于2到3小时的睡眠。因为身体里会出现剧烈的生理变化，尤其是你血液中的化学成分，将会出现巨大的变化——这也是为何这个冥想需要在非常严谨，专注的条件下教授。
#4 Bring Natural Foods in Your Diet
饮食中带入天然食物
Sadhguru: If you are sleeping eight or nine hours a day, one thing to look at is the food you eat. Consuming at least a certain amount of vegetarian material, particularly foods that can be eaten in their natural, uncooked condition is very important for your general wellbeing. When you cook food, a large volume of prana or life energy is destroyed. This is one reason why lethargy can set into the body. If you eat a certain amount of fresh fruits and vegetables, there are many benefits, but one thing you will notice immediately is that your sleep quota will come down.
萨古鲁：如果你一天要睡8到9个小时，你就得注意一下你吃的食物。至少要摄入一定量素食，特别是要摄入一些天然的、未经烹饪的生食，这对你的整体健康非常重要。在烹饪时，食物中大量生命能量都被破坏了。你的身体之所以感到疲倦，这就是其中一个原因。如果你吃一定量的新鲜水果和蔬菜，会给你带来很多益处，而有一点你马上就会注意到，那就是，你的睡眠需求会立刻下降。
#5 From Stove to Plate – Make it Quick
从火炉到盘子——短时间完成
Sadhguru: In Indian culture, traditionally it is said that any cooked food should always be eaten within 1.5 to 2 hours of being cooked. Keeping cooked food in a fridge for long periods of time and then eating it can raise your sleep quota in addition to causing many other problems to the body. The same is true for canned food. There is something called “tamas” which literally means “inertia.” Food that is kept like this will have a lot of tamas, which can bring down your mental agility and alertness.
萨古鲁：在印度传统中，食物经过烹煮后应该在1.5-2个小时内吃完。将煮过的食物长时间放入冰箱然后再食用，除了会给身体造成许多其他问题以外，还会增加你的睡眠需求。罐装食物同样如此。“tamas”这个词，字面意思是“惰性”。像前面提到的放冰箱的和罐装食物都有很多的tamas，会降低你头脑的灵活性和警觉性。
#6 How Much to Eat
要吃多少
Sadhguru: How keenly you manage your energies is what decides your alertness. To meditate, alertness should be not just of the mind but of your very energy. To assist this, for people on the yogic path, it is said that you should eat only twenty-four mouthfuls, and you must chew every mouthful at least twenty-four times. This will ensure that food is pre-digested in your mouth before it goes in, and it will not cause dullness.
萨古鲁：你将你的能量保持得多敏锐，决定了你的警觉性有多高。要进行冥想，不仅头脑要保持警觉，你的能量也要保持警觉。为了帮助你做到这一点，人们说，走在瑜伽道路上的人一顿饭应该只吃24口，而且每一口都至少要嚼24下。这样就可以保证食物在你的嘴里提前消化好再进入胃里，而且这样也不会让你迟钝。
If you do this during your evening meal, you will easily wake up at three-thirty in the morning. In the yogic system, this period is called the Brahma Muhurtam. It is an ideal time to do yogic practices because there is an extra support from nature at that time for your sadhana.
如果你晚餐时这样进食，第二天早上你很容易就会在3点30分醒来。在瑜伽体系中，这个时段叫做Brahma Muhurtam。这是进行瑜伽练习的最佳时间，因为这时候，大自然会给你的灵性练习提供额外支持。
#7 Don’t Forcefully Deny Sleep
不要强迫自己不睡觉
Sadhguru: How much sleep your body needs depends on the level of physical activity you perform. There is no need to fix the quantum of either food or sleep. When your activity levels are low, you eat less. When they are high, you may eat more. The same goes for sleep. The moment the body is well rested it will get up, whether at 3 AM or 8 AM. Your body should not wake up to an alarm bell. Once it feels sufficiently rested, it must come awake.
萨古鲁：你的身体需要多少睡眠取决于你的体力活动程度。没有必要去固定饮食量或睡眠时间。你活动量变少时，你就会吃的比较少。活动量多了，你可能就会吃的多一些。睡眠也一样。身体一旦休息好了，自然就会醒来，无论是凌晨3点还是早上8点。你的身体不应该被闹钟叫醒。一旦身体得到充分的休息，它就一定会自己醒来的。
If you forcefully deny sleep to the body, your physical and mental capabilities and whatever else you have will drop. You should never do that. You must give the body how much sleep it needs. But if the body is somehow trying to use the bed as a grave, it won’t want to come out.
如果你强迫身体不睡觉，那么你的生理和心理功能以及其他能力都会下降。一定不要这样做。你必须要给身体它所需要的睡眠。但如果身体想把床当成坟墓，那它就不会想起床了。
Somebody will have to raise you from the dead! It depends on how you are handling your life. If you are in a mental state where you want to avoid life, you will naturally tend to eat and sleep more.
得有人让你起死回生才行！这就取决于你如何对待人生了。如果你处于一种想要逃避人生的精神状态，那么你自然就会吃的更多，睡的更多。
#8 Don’t Sleep Right After You Eat
餐后不要立即睡觉
Sadhguru: There are quite a few people who are in such a mental state that unless they load themselves with food and make the body dull, they cannot fall asleep. You must give sufficient time for digestion to happen before you sleep. I would say 80% of the food that you eat will go waste if you fall asleep within two hours of eating. If you are in a condition where you cannot sleep unless you have a full stomach, you need to address this issue. This is not about sleep, this is a certain mental state.
萨古鲁：有相当一部分人都处于这样一种精神状态中，除非他们往身体里塞满食物，让它变得迟钝，不然他们就无法入睡。在你睡觉之前，必须要留出足够的时间让身体进行消化。我会说，如果你在用餐后2小时内就睡着了，那么你吃下去的食物80%都会浪费掉。如果你只有吃饱了才能入睡，你就需要解决这个问题。这和睡眠无关，而是精神状态的问题。
#9 The Right Position For Sleep
睡眠的正确姿势
Sadhguru: When the body is positioned horizontally, you can immediately make out that your pulse rate drops. The body makes this adjustment because if blood is pumped with the same force, too much will go into your head, causing damage. The blood vessels which go upward are a finer arrangement compared to those going down. As they go up into the brain, they become almost hair-like, to a point that they cannot take an extra drop.
萨古鲁：当身体躺下时，你立即就能发现你的脉搏率下降了。身体做出这样的调整是因为，如果这时心脏以同样的力度将血液向上输送，就会有太多血液进入头部，从而给身体带来损伤。与下行的血管比起来，上行的血管更加精细。越往上走，血管就越细，进入脑部的血管就像头发丝一样细，细到哪怕多一滴血，它们都无法承受。
When you sleep, if you place your head towards the north and stay that way for 5 to 6 hours, the magnetic pull of the Earth will cause pressure on your brain because iron is an important ingredient in your blood. It is not that if you sleep this way you will fall dead. But if you do this every day, you are asking for trouble. If you are beyond a certain age and your blood vessels are weak, it can result in hemorrhages and paralytic strokes. If your system is sturdy, you may not sleep very well because there is more circulation in the brain than there should be.
在你睡觉时，如果你头朝北睡上5-6个小时，地球的磁引力就给你的脑部带来压力，因为你血液中有一种重要成分－－铁元素。并不是说你这样睡觉就会导致死亡。但如果你每天都这样睡，就是在自找麻烦。过了一定年纪后，而且你的血管很脆弱的话，这样睡可能会引发脑溢血和瘫痪性中风。如果你的身体系统很强健，你可能会睡不好，因为在你脑部的血液循环太快了。
If you are in the northern hemisphere, East is the best direction to keep your head when you sleep. Northeast is okay. West is alright. South, if you must. North, no. In the southern hemisphere, don’t put your head to the south.
如果你在北半球，睡觉时，头朝向东方是最佳选择。东北方向也可以。朝西也还行。如果不得不超南，就朝南。但朝北，不可以。在南半球，头就不要朝南。
#10 Keep Your System Pure
保持你的身体系统纯净
Sadhguru: The nature of a human being is such that while every other creature adapts to the situations it is placed in, a human being is able to create the situations that he wants. That is what makes us distinct. If you have any sort of concern for yourself, you have to be conscious about what goes into your system.
萨古鲁：人类的本性就在于，其他生物都是努力去适应它所生活的环境，而人类却能够创造他想要的生活环境。这也正是我们人类的独特之处。如果你真的对自己有所关心，你就必须对任何进入你身体系统的东西保持意识。
The question is not of how long you live but how well you live. What you hear, what you say, how you eat – these things are practiced in yoga because by keeping the ambience, our tongue, our mind and body pure, there is a certain freedom, intelligence and blissfulness to your existence.
问题不在于你可以活多久，而是你活的有多好。你听什么、说什么、如何进食——在瑜伽体系中，所有这些都会需要去练习，因为通过保持一定的氛围，保持我们舌头、头脑和身体纯净，我们的存在就能有一种自由、智慧和喜悦。
Let me tell you a joke. Two Presbyterian nuns were driving in the Montana countryside and they ran out of gas. So they walked to a nearby farm which was five miles away. They found the local farmer – he was sloshed out – and they asked him, “We need some gasoline.” He said, “Take it from my tractor.” So they went to the tractor, but they did not have a can. Then they saw an old chamber pot. So they emptied gasoline from the tractor into the chamber pot and carried it to the car, five miles back. They were slowly pouring it into the car. A Baptist priest was passing by. He saw these nuns pouring things from the chamber pot into the gas tank, and he stopped, backed up and said, “Sisters, I really appreciate your faith, but believe me, it doesn’t work like that.”
我来给你讲个笑话。长老会的两位修女行驶在蒙大拿乡村的路上，然后发现车没油了。她们就走到了5英里之外的一个农场上。修女们找到一个当地的农夫——他正喝得醉醺醺——她们就问农夫，“我们需要一些汽油。”他说，“从我的拖拉机里取一些吧。”她们就走到拖拉机旁，但她们没有容器，然后她们发现一个旧夜壶。修女们就将拖拉机里的油全部倒进了夜壶里，然后提到汽车这边，5英里回程。她们慢慢地把汽油倒进车里。这时一位浸信会教士正好经过。他看见这两个修女从夜壶向油箱里倒东西，他就停下来，退回来说道，“姐妹们，我真心欣赏你们忠贞的信念，但相信我，这样是不管用的。”
If you just pick up some things here and there and put it into your system, it won’t go very far.
如果你只是随便将一些东西塞入你的身体系统，你的身体就无法走得太远。
Love&Grace,
Sadhguru
爱与恩典
萨古鲁
原文链接：
isha.sadhguru.org/blog/lifestyle/health-fitness/10-healthy-tips-to-reduce-your-sleep-quota
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