What an unhealthy custom we are keeping: Staying awake all night in Ramadan and sleeping during the day! We have switched our night to day and day to night. Is this what fasting is meant to be? Sleeping during the day (as not to feel the pinch of fasting) and feasting and roaming the streets all night are practices that distort the intrinsic concept of Ramadan. This is definitely upsetting to the standards of nature. Allah explains to us His purpose for the creation of day and night by saying, “And We have made your sleep as a thing of rest. And We have made the night as a covering (through its darkness). And We have made the day for livelihood. (Chapter: 78, verses: 9-11).
With the setting of the sun, a sensitive mechanism lying at the base of our brain starts emitting chemical signals to all our body parts to induce them to relax, preparing for night sleep. With the approach of nightfall we start to yawn; our eyelids become heavy; and our movements slow down. As we fall asleep, the perception entry of our brain is blocked from the world around us. The action of sleep is controlled by the hormone melatonin and its precursor serotonin. Both chemicals manage the efficiency of sleep with the help of the darkness of night, which induces sleep as it is explained in the above Qur’anic verses. However, with the unnatural reversal of day and night, we have upset our built-in “biological clock” that induces us to sleep at night in order to rise feeling refreshed, energetic, and alert in the morning. By interfering with this innate clock, we have created an inefficient sleep mechanism where sleep becomes disturbed and insufficient for fulfilling the needs of our body and mind.
Sleep is an essential body requirement. With inadequate sleep, mental responses and abilities decline and physical reflexes and reactions slow down while working and driving, which demand attentiveness and alertness. The weakened responses contribute to inefficiency, unnecessary miscalculations or mistakes, and accidents. Because sleep loss is cumulative, our brain keeps accurate record of this debt that should be replaced with enough hours of quality sleep. Sleeping hours are individualistic, but most scientists recommend seven to eight hours of night sleep for the accomplishment of satisfactory mental and physical performances. The less we sleep; the less productive and energetic we become, resulting in irritability and grogginess that undermine our cognitive skills.
Diminished quality of sleep also interferes with the immune cell repair and the stimulation of the immune fighter cells, impairing our defense mechanism and increasing infection and disease risk. Our sleep patterns dictate the soundness of our health, memory, alertness, and both mental responses and physical reflexes in order to execute our work effectively and responsibly and avert mistakes, erroneous decisions, job loss, wasted money, and possible disasters that may claim lives. Our bodies and minds are interconnected. Our brain and nervous and immune systems are intricately inter-wired through neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) released by the sympathetic nervous system. Restful sleep becomes a requirement to enhance energy, mood, memory, thinking ability, and focus among other cognitive skills.
Fasting cleanses the body, clarifies the mind, and resolves turbid emotions; Taraweeh and Qiyam prayers (special prayers in Ramadan) give similar results to transcendental meditations that clear both spirit and soul; and quality sleep, therefore, can make both fasting and praying effective and rewarding as well as healing to body, mind, and soul. Such are the advantages of sleep that can assist us in reaping the benefits of this Holy Month. May Allah guide us to perform his commands the way we should.
(Mariam Alireza is a holistic science specialist. Send comments to [email protected].)