43. Sleep Secrets

Somebody showed me Arnold Schwarzenegger's Six Secrets of Success on youtube. I found it funny when he reached the #5 secret, which was "Work your butt off," I told myself I don't know anyone who actually became successful without working. That's too obvious to be a secret. Nonetheless, he recounted how many hours we all have to sleep. He was saying while we are all sleeping or horsing around or partying, somebody is working and getting smarter and better than we are. He sleeps six hours, so he's only got eigtheen hours to work. Thus, for those who sleep eight or nine hours his recommendation to them is to sleep faster. I was expecting canned laughter after that line, but there was none. So, Big Arnold must have been serious. I'm wondering how can a person sleep faster. This thought takes me to a book written by Quijano de Manila about the life and times of former Vice President Salvador "Doy" Laurel. There is a lot of Philippine history in that book as it also recounts the life of Doy's father, former President Jose P. Laurel. But I recall that book now specifically for a breathing technique that Doy shared. Basically, he was saying if you inhale in one nostril and exhale in the other, and you do it for thirty minutes, that exercise would give you the energy that six hours of sleep would provide. He said that was how he managed to survive the long hours required for his graduate school work in Yale. I've done the technique myself in college and law school, and I must say that it worked. I haven't found the need or occasion to do this trick recently. Of course, Big Arnold was not likely thinking about Doy's breathing technique. Yet, what concerns me is how sleep has acquired such a bad reputation with "successful" people. My own experience is sleepless people are hardly successful. I reckon some of them actually die before they can achieve a measure of success. Some might be using a breathing technique and snort some prohibited substance on the side. In fact, if Big Arnold spent an extra hour sleeping, he might have been a better governor or actor. Seriously, if his motivation in cutting  sleep time is because somebody is getting better or smarter than him while he is  sleeping, he must be sick. I haven't met a person who got better by not sleeping enough or someone who caught up with better people by sleeping less. In case you find this video, you have to decide whether you're watching for advice on life strategies or you're just looking to laugh. I chose the second one and I haven't laughed this much recently.