Understanding Different Types of Sleep

The Haylulah sleep, or the sleep of deprivation.

This is the sleep that happens after the dawn prayer, and continues until

the sun rises. So many people love to sleep

at this time, thinking it makes up for the night's exhaustion.

No, stop right there. At this specific time,

blessings descend and people's sustenance is apportioned,

which is why religious law discourages this sleep

and calls it Haylulah because it comes

between you and your sustenance. So why? The thing

is, medicine has proven that exposure to early morning light

is what regulates your body's biological clock,

and sleeping during this period will make you sluggish all day,

depriving your mind of the mental activity that is at its peak

in the early morning hours. The Ghaylulah sleep.

Now for the kind that many people fall into without realizing it,

and this word is derived from “ghoul,” meaning destruction

and loss of reason. And when is it, my dear?

It is in the late morning, or when you sleep under direct

sunlight. This sleep drains your energy

completely and causes heedlessness and forgetfulness. So what…

The scientific explanation for this? The thing is, sleeping

at this time disrupts the brain's rhythm, which is supposed to be

at its peak of activity and focus. That's why you wake up

feeling mentally foggy and dizzy, unable to focus

on anything around you. The siesta. Let's move on

now to all the good stuff: the siesta. This

is the sleep of prophets and righteous people, and it happens in the middle of

the day, or a little after the noon prayer. This short nap

is considered a highly recommended Prophetic tradition,

because it helps your body stay awake at night

and renews your energy after the strain of the first half of the day.

And imagine the shock: modern studies today

confirm the same thing and say that taking a short break

in the middle of the day greatly enhances

memory abilities, reduces stress,

and recharges your brain so it can be more productive

and focused for the remaining hours of the day. The aylulah

nap. Now we get into the disliked kind of sleep,

the aylulah nap. This is the nap that happens after the afternoon prayer

until sunset. Its name is derived from the word

Illness, meaning disease. In the past,

the early generations intensely hated this kind of sleep, because it

causes laziness, weighs down the body, and brings worry.

So what's the scientific explanation for this? Medical observations

have proven that giving in to sleep at this late hour

completely disrupts your natural sleep cycle, which is what

explains why you wake up with a headache, in a foul mood,

and feel the mental fog that affects anyone who gets used to it.

The faylulah nap. Now here's the shock that'll make you

really surprised, my dear. It happens right after the Maghrib prayer

and shortly before the Isha prayer.

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, strongly disliked sleeping before

the Isha prayer, first, because

you might miss the obligatory Isha prayer, and second,

because they call it faylulah, since it brings on lethargy,

meaning it makes you wake up at night with a head heavy as a rock.

Medically, this random nap devastates

your nighttime cycle and keeps you up at night for no

reason at all, completely ruining your schedule for the next day.

Natural sleep. Let's end with the finest one,

blessed sleep. This is the natural sleep that

God created us to have. It begins, sir, after

the Isha prayer and lasts until one hour or

two hours before dawn. This sleep is the essence and foundation,

because you sleep while the night is quiet and wake at the greatest time,

the final third of the night, so you can pray the night vigil.

Scientifically and medically, this is the sleep that

secretes melatonin at its highest levels,

and completely rebuilds your body's cells. Religiously, it is

the sleep that recharges and prepares you to stand before God at

the time when He, Glorified be He, descends to the lowest heaven, meaning, health

for the body and greatness for the soul.