Observance days - Midnight/4am vigils

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Samvega86
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Joined: Tue Jul 23, 2013 5:53 pm

Observance days - Midnight/4am vigils

Post by Samvega86 »

Hi,

I’m aware that some monasteries (especially here in the UK) have meditation vigils until either midnight or 4am on lunar observance days. I’m just curious as to what the schedules are usually like the following day, given that the rising bell is usually between 4:30 am - 5:00am, depending on the monastery.

I know one of the common responses to questions around sleep is that less is needed when meditating intensively but the impacts of sleep deprivation on everything from cognitive functions to insulin sensitivity and all-cause mortality are becoming pretty well documented.

So my question is: on the day following these vigils are guests/monks still expected to wake up at the usual time (4:30am - 5:00am) despite having been awake until midnight or even 4am?
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