Season 1 Ep 8

You're listening to the productive Muslim podcast season four, Episode Six

Assalamualaikum productive Muslims. Welcome to the show. I'm your host me for marriage and your am with another episode taking your question and answers. So these are the questions that you've submitted to us via our website. So if you're still unsure on how this works is just pretty much you head over to our podcast website productive Muslim podcast.com. And you scroll down to a section where it says leave your questions. So you can leave your questions through a voicemail feature. So you get your microphone out, or the microphone on your laptop and you just record away your question. So from there, we can be able to take some of your questions and get them answered on the

show. So in this episode, we're going to be taking on one question, since it's a question that we have been receiving a lot. And I have with me again, Mohammed Faris suddenly go, wow. masala warahmatullah.

So he'll be joining us when I say that. Yeah, it's like at the start of the episode. It's always like our tongue gets tied and stuff like that. But you know, once we get into it and start answering the questions, it's like Miss Miller. Yes, sir. All right. So we will start with our first question. And okay, this This question is from for us. And I will just play that right now.

Hello, Slocum. My question is regarding fudger and sleep and waking up on time for work. So

during the summer here in England, the time finishes quite late. So it's around about 11 o'clock.

fudger is about three o'clock in the morning, last until about half, four. And then I have to wake up at half six. And the problem I have is, after I've slept off to Asia, and I wake up for fudger I find it very difficult to go back to sleep. Because I've woken up I've done will do.

And I need to sleep because if I was to wake up after Isha, it also goes to sleep and then wake up for fudger. That means that I've only got about four hours sleep. And it's just not enough for me to function through the day.

What What advice do you guys have regarding this? chisako? Okay.

Okay, great questions. We get it a lot, a lot. And, again, regardless of where you want the world, whether you get extremes, like the one the in the UK in terms of the summertime extremes extremes, or if you are also in a place that that doesn't have such extremes in terms of the timings of Asia, I think shortlist be helpful useful to you as well to know to learn. So I think there's a few things to keep in mind, before we get into the sort of practicalities of it.

The first thing is is always a mindset issue. Sometimes we we place we make something a problem.

Just by thinking it's a problem. For example, if I think oh my god, I only have four hours of sleep, I'm gonna die the rest of the day. And guess what you will suffer the rest of the day, you will, you will see Oh my God, I can do this so hard. And just keep repeating that to yourself. Like oh, my God isn't possible. Now I'm not belittling the challenge. I understand the chant. I live in the UK. I know the challenge of having sort of 11 o'clock, and three o'clock features.

It's a matter of is how you approach it. You put something say, Okay, this is a challenge, or this is a this is a challenge that I'm willing to take on head on. This is something it's almost like a I'm challenging myself, how well would I function in for this in this period. The second thing to keep in mind is that this is just temporary. I mean, our UK brothers and sisters, you guys have amazing winters as well, where facia is like 7pm. And fragile is like 7pm as well. So 7am sorry. So you guys also have when no one complains about sleeping that time.

I get zero questions or that time we're like, hey, actually, things are really cool for us. So notice this, the face is three months, that will pass.

So it's saying it's not an end. It's not something that's consistent throughout the year. That is extremely difficult to do unless you live in like Antarctica or some other places where you know, six months of the year you are you're struggling for that period. But normally for most people in most places, is a temporary challenge. So keep that in mind that a your mindset should say is not a problem or issue is its challenge. I agree. And B is temporary. With that in mind. Let's talk practical. So what I recommend people to do is to sleep according to the sleep cycles now.

If you haven't heard about sleep cycles before, it's a very simple concept just says that most human beings take about 90 minutes. So most human beings sleep in in multiples of 90 minutes. So for example, if I sleep at 11 o'clock at night, or let's say 1130. So I choose 11. Since 1130, asleep, how many 19 minutes sleep cycles? can you fit in between 1130 to let's say, four o'clock in the morning. So you say, okay, no one, from 1130 to 90 minutes means is going to be helping you is going to be what is going to be 1am

am from from putting a spot there, from what I am, you put another 90 minutes is what I can't get, I got it to 32, third, excellent and 30 to 30. The next one is what,

four o'clock. Perfect. So that means you've had three full sleep cycles. Now, here's a trick of the game. If you wake up at the end of your third interval, any of these sleep cycles, whether at

11, like one o'clock in the morning, or 230, or even four o'clock, you would have completed full sleep cycles, which means you'd feel quite rested. It's like you had a good nap right? Now, of course, the more sleep cycles you have, the better, right. So there's no arguments, if you have four sleep cycles, five cycles, your body rests more. Having said that, even having three sleep cycles, you wake up at the end of the sleep cycles feeling that you know that fear grogginess, and you're like, Oh, I can't be bothered to wake up. Now happens because you are waking up in the Middle East, it's like your alarm is going off when you are in deep, deep sleep mode. But if you wake up towards

the end of your sleep cycles, you wake up feeling much more, you'll wake up feeling much more

alert, less tired, this groggy, and you'll be able to function throughout the day. So that's one advice. So make sure you sleep according to sleep cycles. The second piece of advice is try to add multiple naps in your day, especially if you're efficient that late and register early. So what I recommend, for example, after sunrise as a sunrise, you said it's 430 in the morning, and you have till 630 before you have to get up for work. Instead of saying I need to sleep more soundly take a nap, it could be a 20 minute nap, a 40 minute nap or a full sleep cycle, a one and a half nap. So think about taking a multi a sleep cycle that is

try to take a nap maybe after sunrise till before you go to work and take another nap at work or on board time. So it took another but maybe this time, you can do full and a half you get fired as well otherwise, do 20 minutes, right? Do 20 minutes nap to 40 minute nap if you can squeeze that much, no, but 20 min should be enough. And you'll find that with these tips, you have three full sleep cycles at night, you can squeeze in a nap after sunrise. So if we get to work and another nap in the afternoon, and possibly if you really needed one more nap, after you come back from work, you'll be able to function pretty well, you'll be doing well. And if it's not Ramadan, you know, you have good

old coffee to keep you going as hell. But don't have coffee above more after 2pm because that's gonna mess up your sleep cycles. But otherwise you do well. I mean, you'll you'll be able to, you know, these three months won't be too bad for you. And last but not least, is

remember that you are being rewarded for the extra effort you put in just for thickness my dad alongside is putting in testing, it's creating this test conditions for you, you know what, I'm going to squeeze the night for you. I'm going to spread the day for you. Now show me how you're going to cope with this. And you're saying Allah, I accept this challenge. And I'm going to do my best to take on this challenge. And sometimes Ramadan comes in summer as well, which is a different story altogether. But that's that's a that's a test condition as hot as kind of a screening for you. So take a test and by playing the practical tips, you'll find it much more useful shut down and lose

my voice now. Okay.

Okay.

Yeah. So, um, that with sleep, I mean, one thing that we hear a lot is like how it's good to have, like, say seven to eight hours sleep like in like an adult is recommended to have that much. And then you see how there's all this talk about the dangers of not sleeping a lot and stuff like that. So then, I mean, how would you actually reconcile that? Like, I know that this question is a bit on a tangent, but still related to our topic. But my question is, how would you reconcile that with when we look towards like what Islam?

Like what I mean by that is like, say, we want to be a really good Muslim. So we're like, hey, I want to wake up with the hijab. I want to pray tahajjud I want to pray fudger I want to recite Quran until sunset and then get the reward of like hodgin O'Brien, you know, all those like, good deeds, and then how do we kind of

Free consult that we'd like sleeping, because I think is, obviously if you are trying to do that, then you won't be able to get much sleep. Good question. Good question. It comes down to

how we perceive sleep, or what's the intention behind sleeping? Yeah, if I see sleep, as the be all end all. And that might, the purpose of my sleep is to help me be to rest really well, so that I can become super alert and awake rest of my day,

then that's one intention for sleep. Or if you see sleep as a means, as a means of

getting closer to us as a means like, I'm going to take from sleep what I need to then get close to last high data. The same thing is with food, for example, right? I can't get it, you can have a really full meal eat every day. So I'm going to eat every day and I'm going to keep myself full and healthy and eat all this stuff. Or you can deprive yourself sometimes fasting or eat little so that it doesn't affect your, your worship. And so sometimes if we see sleep or food or any philos blessings as a means towards worshipping Allah Almighty, Allah, it corrects that that concept of saying, Okay, this is the this is the means I'm going to take to get close lost my dial, let me see

how much given given a scenario that I have, given the conditions that I have, how much of that blessings will I take, so that can get close to loss. But we use this blessing, sleep, food, any of our blessings and we over indulge in them? Sometimes they turn against them because this these blessing will turn against us This lesson will take us away from us.

Because we don't wait for Vegeta we don't you know, do I give to our responsibilities correctly? Now there is that of course the other argument is as well then your body has a right upon you. Your your spouse's right upon you, your hazard upon you, your family is right upon you. You say you can't the work you've signed is right upon you. So how do you reconcile these things and it's, well, the idea of if I am fulfilling the rights of my those who are around me, my family, my work my children, and then above and beyond that I fulfill the rights of my my lord as well. And I want to go extra after that, then go for it. And this is universal law, Selim this proposal is not stay protected every

single night. He used to get up very often, but actually the line is said that sometimes he would, he would sleep that I think that he'd never prayed the whole night. And sometimes he would never sleep I think that he'd never slept the whole night. So he showed us both ways of doing things so and that's why we told one of his companions that when one of the companions went to see Africa and he noticed that I was not sleeping He was praying all night he was fasting all day told him eat and sleep because your your rope is the right upon you. Your body has already upon you. Your family's right upon you. Your guests are right upon you give each one did you right so from bringing this two

augments together Yeah, think about from this two perspectives. One is

their rights responsibilities upon me as a human being and as a Muslim. As long as I'm fulfilling these rights now the question is okay, I've got extra hours. So maybe in the summer is very hard for you to be you can barely recovered it, because time is tight, and you need us to be functioning the rest of the day for us in the winter, where you have lots of hours and you can sleep for 12 hours, but you can hold yourself and that's why some of the Sahaba said that the winter is the is the spring of the believer, because the nights are long and the days are short. And that's because you can fast the day and and pray at night and still it's not too hard for you. So there when you have

extra hours you know, I'm going to go the extra mile I'm going to push a lot Extra Mile here because now I'm going to the blessing of having extra hours of sleep instead of sleeping. I'm going to save some of that to a fullest high dive. And that way the verse when it says describe the girl gender Ganapati them in the Lima hedgerows they used to sleep but little the night it's not that they used to sleep is it used to sleep so it was saying these people used to sleep or

what little the night so they used to get up some of that little the night and and the question is how little so that's when certain resentment in Lhasa says that these people get up. Sometimes for one third of the night, sometimes half, sometimes less than half. So there's more than half and then a loss of it. He says for chromatic whatever is easier for you like whatever you're able to do to this is a huge blessing because otherwise if he said every night had everyone struggled as Muslims so I will say make it easy if you so if you have 10 minutes to pray one Raka or just three records and and see that's my plan for now. And then in the winter. We have more hours, you can pray

234 that's the balancing to appreciate and bring in. So I hope I hope this kind of clarifies. Yeah.

Pretty much like what you're saying is like, so having discussed sleep and seeing it as a mindset and seeing it more as a means to an end, and then secondly, figuring out okay, is this the right time to do it now?

What I mean by that is like, first of all, you look at all the rights that you're giving to the people around you, and the things that you have to give rights to first and then you go look at Okay, am I in a position to go pray tahajjud

push myself to do extra and that's where your mind comes in some people Mashallah they're able to go above that they have such high tea that they will not miss vijuve no matter what happens, right and, and, but then the same time, if they are praying to God, and but then they're like sleeping on the day job. there's a there's a challenge. And that's not giving right to the job, boys, they sign a contract with employees, with the right upon them, because this is a rite of Alabama, right of the creation. And that will be something it'll be a court case in their judgment. So you it that's why you have to be very

conscious of the rights responsibilities upon you. And everything, even in the stem. So you can say, Okay, I'll forget fetcher because they have worked next day, no, no, that because it is an obligation, then that becomes a right you have to fulfill that. But whenever it comes to extra extra worship, you ask yourself, okay, how is it balancing? And you know, yourself, if you if you use it as an excuse to not push yourself harder, then you're you're just using using, you know, these arguments as excuse Oh, I need to be better work. So let me forget to let me forget fasting because it's not essential. It's just, you know, stuff like that you, you should always push yourself

harder, you should always try yourself to to improve yourself. And what I've noticed, this is an absolute crazy, but increasingly, that sometimes when you do these little sacrifices follows when you go the extra mile follows by dial, whether it's reading wonders or on whether it's fasting in a day, you feel like you shouldn't be fast, because you have that big presentation, over the weekend for family, and even for like for half an hour. The amount of Baraka that comes in your day, the amount of things that open up for you that day. And that's where Alyssa hides, sometimes he he beautifully attracts you towards his acts of worship, because even though it's not it, you know, you

can you can say logically, it's not the best thing for me to do now. Yeah, those doing them brings in the spiritual, divine goodness, which is called bucha that completely transforms your life. And that's why people don't get hooked on that. So so people, some people say, No, I don't have sacrifice, I'm laid no matter what happens, and I'll try my best to fulfill the rights of those around me as well.

Hmm, do you have an example of that happening in your own life? Oh, goodness.

What I've been doing when I was in corporate world, whenever I had a big presentation, something that I know like my career depends on out fast that they are making that fasting habit that they and every single time that that it's unbelievable than how Alaska opens doors were did not expect. So that has been a practice that I felt helped a lot in my own personal life where you have a big presentation is one time where I had a presentation where basically I was blasting the top management for for the report, I was presenting the report without the messenger. So I was blasting the top management on this.

And I remember that that meeting was was rough was tough. But I felt because I was fasting that they almost felt like protected. Like what can happen to me, right? Literally, I felt protected from that and, and it really helped boost my confidence. We helped me present in a in a very sort of

sincere way. Like I did not mean to attack me they just want to give some advice, I knew this will help management as well. And the consequences of that meeting was actually much more positive than I thought it would be. And I think that comes from the discipline of doing that. So a lot of times when whenever I've had situations where almost like I know that things depend on things going right I would actually fasting or you know really helps to give that spiritual boost. SSH Baraka Baraka is the secret sauce of Muslims is which our secret weapon because this is a well why don't one of Shoshana be one of the famous facility of head of clients said that Baraka is like a the subtle

soldiers of Allah Subhana Allah that come in then just do the work without even know you realize what's happening. And and those soldiers are called upon when you're in a position when you're fascinating, okay on Monday when you're close last dial, and it's and that's why it's such a powerful, important part of being productive, which is to call on this. You want this soldiers on your side, basically, make sure that you get things done. They help you get things done for you.

Yeah, that story of fasting reminds me of something I did with an exam that I had. So on that day, I think I had like two weeks

On that day, and then I was like, Look, I should fast. So then I fasted. And while look, I think one of my motivation of fasting was like, if I were to look at the timings between it and having to pray in between, I don't know if I have time to eat.

But hey, you know, that like, when you're actually fasting, you think of like, tension, like I covered a fast, but good thing was that I actually got top of my class with both of them.

And there's so many, so many

Baraka that comes out of Yep. And that's why this was so

when it comes to sleep, I will tell the people Hey, I mean, I know that sometimes scientifically, we should see so many hours and all that. But there is there's a hidden element that we're not talking about that just botica maybe an idea, it's hard to ignore that it's hard. It's you shouldn't ignore it. But we get so caught up with the because we've been trained in the sort of the scientific method where if I cannot feel it, touch it sense smell it, you know, senses that that means doesn't exist. But we know backed by Heidi backed up, hold on, if we truly believe in the final divine message to mankind, and we know the buttock exists, we know there is a powerful force, then we should be, you

know, you know, sacrificing sleep for the sake of the emulator, and a lot of times it's good for you, but it's a video If you do this, a thing is really good for you should be doing this and you're like, Nah, I feel like I should sleep for an hour, two hours. And he's telling it's good frequency because he knows God wants us to be the best and to give us that support and aid that we need to achieve thing that I like basically. Yeah, that's so true. And it's like it's it's something that when you try it and you sincerely go in with the right intention, like you feel the barricades, it's something that you have to leave it you have to feel it. Yeah, can't be explained. Alright, so this

actually brings us to the end of episode so say anything else you want to add? No, I think I think I think we've covered a lot about how to nap how to sleep. practical advice and again recommend if you want to learn more, we have a tire course on how to wake up early and have an amazing morning routine. It's part of practice macadam, which is our online platform. We have all these amazing courses that are practical, but also backed by ons and and latest science. So check it out. Do you want to learn more practical advice on how to connect Islam to just your personal life and to basically wake up early and live or be better?

Fantastic. Fantastic. Well, thanks for joining us Mohamad inshallah, we'll see you again soon.