Question: Two mornings ago, when I woke up, the first thought that came into my mind was, why did God make it necessary for us to sleep?

Sri Chinmoy: God wants us to sleep so that we can forget all our sad experiences. All sad experiences we have to forget. Sleep is the only doctor that can cure us for a short time. Again, after some time, that doctor will also fail.

Sleep is of paramount importance for the present physical body. Six hours you should sleep on an ordinary basis; otherwise, five hours. Do not try to sleep less than five hours, because it will tell upon your health. Sleep is absolutely necessary. All the nerves have to be fed only with the help of sleep. Sleep is not only for patients who are sick. If you want to have good health, then sleep, sleep.

But if you cannot sleep six hours at night for some reason, then during the day try to sleep for an hour or so. It is not good to sleep for more than an hour during the day. In India, they say that if you sleep during the day for more than an hour, all the undivine thoughts will enter into your mind and laziness will descend upon you most powerfully. During the day do not sleep for three, four or five hours. It is very bad for you. At night, try to sleep as much as six hours. And, if you cannot get up at six o'clock to meditate, then get up at seven or eight. But if you get up at eight or even later, then happiness will not dawn on you. You will feel miserable. You will feel that you have so many things to do and you have wasted the opportunity. Alas, if you go to bed at three or four o'clock in the morning, what can you do? At that time, you have to sleep during the day.

Sleep is absolutely necessary, absolutely necessary, unless you become a real spiritual Master. Then you can sleep a maximum of two hours or three hours per night. Sometimes spiritual Masters are not allowed to sleep because they have to deal with so many problems. The day before yesterday I could not sleep. It is not that sleep was not attacking me! I wanted to sleep, but I had to deal with a very serious problem in the inner world. To solve that serious problem, it took me more than three hours, so you can imagine there was no sleep for me that night.

Then again, sometimes when we have very serious problems, if we use the mind, that very mind will help us sink. If we use the heart, we find that the heart is not strong enough. But if we use the soul and the heart together, it is possible to solve the problems. Of course, the Grace of the Supreme is there.