It is difficult for people to grow old if they remember the four sleeping rules

Rule 1: You must go to bed before midnight

In the Shaolin Temple's health-preserving concept, sleeping is the most important thing in life. If you don't go to bed before midnight (equivalent to 11pm - 1am the next morning) every day, many old monk doctors will say to you when they treat you: "I won't treat you anymore." In fact, it's not that they won't treat you, but that they can't cure you. People who stay up late for a long time, regardless of gender, will directly damage their liver and, over time, their kidneys, gradually causing a deficiency of both qi and blood in the body. When they look in the mirror every day, they will feel that their face is gray. At this time, even if you take nutritional supplements and exercise every day, you cannot reverse the damage caused by lack of sleep or poor sleep.

Therefore, it’s okay to get up early, but it’s definitely not okay to go to bed late. Many people who are listless have the habit of going to bed late, which can easily damage the liver, essence and gallbladder. Such people often have poor eyesight, are often depressed, and are rarely happy (the lung qi is also affected and cannot be effectively released for a long time). Some people think that if they go to bed late at night, they can make up for it during the day. In fact, it is impossible to make up for it. Either they can’t sleep or they don’t get enough sleep. Even if they feel that they have made up for it, their body’s qi and blood have actually been mostly damaged.

Rule 2: Don’t think about anything when you sleep

"Regard this body as nothing, or like sugar in water, which will melt the big toe first, then the other toes, then the feet, calves, and thighs gradually, and finally disappear into nothing, and you will fall asleep naturally." This is the ideal mental state for a Zen doctor to fall asleep. Many times, insomnia is caused by lingering distracting thoughts when falling asleep. At this time, do not toss and turn in bed, so as not to exhaust your energy and make it more difficult to fall asleep. The best way is to sit up for a while before going to bed. In fact, for modern people, if you want to fall asleep before 11 o'clock at night, it is also important to go to bed early to prepare your emotions, so as to give your mind some time to calm down slowly. This is the reason why we say “let your mind fall asleep first, then your eyes fall asleep”.

If it still doesn't work, you can try simply stretching your legs before going to bed, then sit naturally cross-legged or lotus on the bed, place your hands on your legs, breathe naturally, and feel the pores all over your body open and close with your breathing. It will be best if you can shed tears and yawn. When you want to sleep, fall down and sleep.

Article 3: Take a nap or sit quietly to relax your mind at noon

Noon (equivalent to 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.), at this time, if conditions are limited and you cannot sleep, you can sit quietly for a quarter of an hour, closing your eyes and relaxing. Zen masters who meditate in the Zen hall are accustomed to taking a nap at noon. In fact, if you close your eyes and really fall asleep for 3 minutes at noon, it is equivalent to sleeping for two hours, but you have to get the time right at noon. At night, you should fall asleep at midnight, and 5 minutes is equal to six hours.

Article 4: Sleep and wake up early

Monks live a life of morning bells and evening drums. Even in winter, they will not get up later than 6 a.m., and in spring, summer and autumn they try to get up before 5 a.m. For human health, getting up early is beneficial to the body's metabolism.

The benefit of getting up early is that, on the one hand, it can excrete metabolic waste from the body. If you get up too late, the large intestine will not be fully active and will not be able to complete the excretion function well. In addition, the human body's digestion and absorption functions are most active between 7 and 9 in the morning, which is the "golden period" for nutrient absorption. Therefore, don't stay in bed too long. Dizziness and fatigue are often caused by oversleeping.