Dharma Wheel

My problem is the following: I have quite a pensum of practices to do and at the same time I am working as a dentist 40 to 45 hours a week. The only practical way is to practice like two hours in the morning and only do protector chants and torma offerings in the night. For that I have to get up at 4.30, which makes me horribly tired the whole day which is not fair towards my patients as my work performance suffers from it.

So has anybody any idea how to need less sleep, so I can do both my practice and still be a responsible doctor?


tashi

Dhondrub wrote:My problem is the following: I have quite a pensum of practices to do and at the same time I am working as a dentist 40 to 45 hours a week. The only practical way is to practice like two hours in the morning and only do protector chants and torma offerings in the night. For that I have to get up at 4.30, which makes me horribly tired the whole day which is not fair towards my patients as my work performance suffers from it.

So has anybody any idea how to need less sleep, so I can do both my practice and still be a responsible doctor?


tashi

Your dentistry is 'practice'.

You exercise compassion and reduce the suffering of others.

Be mindful of your whole day with Compassion as your motivation in all you do.

Have you formal commitments to perform these practices you describe? I would suggest changing your surgery hours to allow for rising later. I would also advise discussing the pattern with your Guru as exhaustion is clearly unproductive.

Blue Garuda wrote:

Dhondrub wrote:My problem is the following: I have quite a pensum of practices to do and at the same time I am working as a dentist 40 to 45 hours a week. The only practical way is to practice like two hours in the morning and only do protector chants and torma offerings in the night. For that I have to get up at 4.30, which makes me horribly tired the whole day which is not fair towards my patients as my work performance suffers from it.

So has anybody any idea how to need less sleep, so I can do both my practice and still be a responsible doctor?


tashi

Your dentistry is 'practice'.

You exercise compassion and reduce the suffering of others.

Be mindful of your whole day with Compassion as your motivation in all you do.

edit: "I have quite a pensum of practices to do" should read: " I have some Damtsiks and like to do a lot of practices" but thats not really the point of my question

Have you formal commitments to perform these practices you describe? I would suggest changing your surgery hours to allow for rising later. I would also advise discussing the pattern with your Guru as exhaustion is clearly unproductive.

Dear BG,
yes- this is all very true. Thats also what my Guru adviced for a long time( to take it easy with the formal practice and focus more on the Bodhicitta of helping others). But recently he adviced me that I should try to get up early to practice before work, so if there are any ideas and experiences about how to do that succesfully i be more than grateful

Dhondrub wrote:My problem is the following: I have quite a pensum of practices to do and at the same time I am working as a dentist 40 to 45 hours a week. The only practical way is to practice like two hours in the morning and only do protector chants and torma offerings in the night. For that I have to get up at 4.30, which makes me horribly tired the whole day which is not fair towards my patients as my work performance suffers from it.

So has anybody any idea how to need less sleep, so I can do both my practice and still be a responsible doctor?


tashi

Best I can think of if you sleep more than seven hours is to set your alarm even on the weekend for seven hours and jump out of bed when it rings. Walk around until you wake up. After a while your body will get used to less sleep.

Dhondrub wrote:My problem is the following: I have quite a pensum of practices to do and at the same time I am working as a dentist 40 to 45 hours a week. The only practical way is to practice like two hours in the morning and only do protector chants and torma offerings in the night. For that I have to get up at 4.30, which makes me horribly tired the whole day which is not fair towards my patients as my work performance suffers from it.

So has anybody any idea how to need less sleep, so I can do both my practice and still be a responsible doctor?


tashi

Yoga inversions. When you go to bed, first lie down for like half an hour with legs either up a wall, or lie on the floor with legs up on couch. Elevate the pelvis with pillows to keep the adrenals higher than the heart. Also, I've heard 15 minutes of shoulderstand is worth 2 hours of sleep. Probably not literal, but very restorative nonetheless and long inversions may decrease need for sleep. Make sure you get assistance from a trained instructor for proper alignment - Iyengar or Anusara styles highly recommended.

Since this is alternative health, I will mention a supplement, ginko biloba available in pill form, vegan and not, this seems to my personal experience to lower the need for a total amount of sleep at times. At least for me it does. Though my requirments are higher than most. A heriditary thing some of my relatives are also like this. Recommended amounts are on the bottle.
Taken in the morning, or early afternoon. Nighttime would be counterproductive.

Caffine/tea is acceptable in many forms of buddhism. 6 hours or so within a sleeping time and one may find it hard to get to sleep.

Coincidentally I use dentistry since I have always had bad teeth as a ready handy thing with which to observe mind in pain, caps drillings and such, without fear of injury to oneself.
Do any of your patients do that? Just curious. None here in america seem to.
Perhaps you have patients of this sort.

Perhaps you shouldn't answer though...you should be sleeping instead.

21 times the purification practice of Vajrasattva will keep your samaya intact. If you don't have the empowerment, you should try to get it.
If you practiced ngöndro, do the purification part and that's good enough. 21 times too. This doesn't take long.
Focus on your main practice. Then do the above and you'll be fine. When you have more time, do the rest.
You need to sleep well, as you are aware. Respect your body. Not doing so is a samaya breach and with your profession it is also dangerous to others.

Dechen Norbu wrote:21 times the purification practice of Vajrasattva will keep your samaya intact. If you don't have the empowerment, you should try to get it.
If you practiced ngöndro, do the purification part and that's good enough. 21 times too. This doesn't take long.
Focus on your main practice. Then do the above and you'll be fine. When you have more time, do the rest.
You need to sleep well, as you are aware. Respect your body. Not doing so is a samaya breach and with your profession it is also dangerous to others.

Tashi--DN's advice is sound and sensible. Check your inbox for my PM.

Chris

The trick for needing less sleep is less emotionality. Strong emotions are as exhausting as heavy cardio in many respects. Equanimity in your emotions can lead to little or no real sleep being needed.

40-45 hours of work a week should still give you plenty of time for practice.. doctors here in USA often work 80hours+ a week. That's a basic 8-9 hour day, 5 days a week -- which is normal for anyone. If you get 8hours of sleep a night, that still gives you 8hours for transportation, practice, dinner, hygiene, and whatever personal relationships you have. If you are only doing 2 hours in the morning, and 20min or so in the evening, that should be workable. Are you sure there isn't some other unessential time-waste you aren't telling us about? Like internet use, TV, (dharmawheel etc.)?

Anyway even if there's other responsibilities you haven't mentioned, your daily essential damtsik is probably less than 2hours long. You mentioned that you "like" to do long practices. If your circumstances are such and you are depleting yourself and losing capacity at work, you need to fit your practice into an hour or so in the morning and get more sleep.
Then, you can do more elaborate extensive practices over the weekends. If your daily damtsik IS this time-consuming, then talk to your Vajra Master about your situation, and I am sure they will give you less of a commitment.

Personally, I find I can go with very little sleep for a few days, but then I need to catch up for at least a 8-10 hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep to compensate. You could try a schedule like that too, where you catch up on the weekends, as an alternative. You could also try taking B-vitamins during your workday, these help with alertness/energy.

Sam is my friend
Over sleeping had been his trend
You've got a new job Sam
US3000 is the pay
Starts at 5.00 am
At 4.30 he's on his way.

Dhondrub wrote:My problem is the following: I have quite a pensum of practices to do and at the same time I am working as a dentist 40 to 45 hours a week. The only practical way is to practice like two hours in the morning and only do protector chants and torma offerings in the night. For that I have to get up at 4.30, which makes me horribly tired the whole day which is not fair towards my patients as my work performance suffers from it.

So has anybody any idea how to need less sleep, so I can do both my practice and still be a responsible doctor?


tashi

Tashi delek,

My suggestion, sleep in a box straight up, just like they do in the 3 years Kagyu tradition.
In that way there is no or little difference between "sleep" and no "sleep" .
In the beginning it is very uncomfortable but if you get used to it, then it is easy.

Lying down that is imitating death process but sleeping in the sitting position is to be more conscious so sleep is here reduced to minimum.

Further advantage would be during the Chikai Bardo where one is able to shoot up / out the mind (phowa).

Mutsog Marro
KY