Do you feel sleepy & tired during Ramadan?
Sleep in Ramadan can be hard to fit in with late-night Taraweh prayers and early Suhoor. Here’s how to hack your sleep for high energy while fasting.

It’s not uncommon to find tired, cranky Muslims who struggle through Ramadan with low energy, due to a lack of reliable sleep!

 

Time zone and geographic location determine sleep opportunities during Ramadan. Some Muslims fast in winter time zones, experiencing leisurely evenings. However, many Muslims fast in summer time zones, which means shorter nights. In addition, work obligations mean that many Muslims struggle to squeeze in enough hours of sleep every night, resulting in fatigue, irritability and exhaustion during the day.

Many Muslims complain that they cannot get enough sleep in Ramadan due to late-night prayers. However, one study found that 60% of fasting individuals who stayed awake after 11:00pm attributed their wakefulness to socialising with families and friends and watching TV(2).

 

Ramadan is a blessed, special time of the year. Naturally, you want to optimise your sleep so you can have high energy and reach your maximum worship potential. Your sleep in Ramadan is one of THE most important factors impacting your productivity and concentration both in work and worship. InshAllah, this comprehensive guide on improving your sleep in Ramadan will help you master your sleep timings, quality and quantity while fasting based on YOUR schedule!

Summarise it! Guidelines for Sleep in Ramadan:

  1. Maximise your sleep hours in the night around your worship schedule. Minimise sleep disturbances for leisure or cultural reasons (eg. socialising, shopping, online or TV browsing) during the night. Make the intention to fill your nights exclusively with worship, sleeping, or the required nutritional eating to refuel and reduce tiredness and maximise energy levels. (learn more about why your sleep matters and how to budget your sleep in Ramadan in the IMPORTANCE OF SLEEP IN RAMADAN article)
  2. Responsibly manage your sleep-debt (learn more about sleep-debts and how to recover from them in the IS IT TOO LATE? HOW TO CATCH UP ON LOST SLEEP IN RAMADAN article)
    • Commit to paying back sleep debts as soon as possible in increments. Do not allow your sleep debt to exceed 20 hours.
    • Enter the last 10 nights with no sleep debt so you can push yourself in your ibadah.
    • Use effective naps to mitigate your sleep debts (see the HOW TO NAP PROPERLY IN RAMADAN article for tips!)
  3. Improve your sleep quality by eliminating sleep disturbances and synchronising your body to Zeitgebers in the environment. Read the IMPROVING YOUR SLEEP QUALITY THE SMART WAY article to learn more.
Everything you need to know about
improving your sleep in Ramadan, in one place.