Sleep or not to sleep that is the question

Old people has said to control three desires. Three desires are, the appetite, lust and sleep. It is to bear food and drink, bear lust and sleep less. It should be well known to control your appetite and lust but it is not known that it is the way of taking care of yourself to have less sleep.

They reason why it is better to have less sleep is that the inner power shall circulate better and consequently you will have less chance for illness. You have larger chance to get sick if you sleep too much for your inner power will stagnant.

It is good to go to bed late at night. It is utmost hazardous to take nap during daytime. If you go to bed early in the evening your dinner won't be digested enough. It causes the stagnancy of digestion so that your inner power won't circulate well enough.

It is quite understandable that the old people has defined those desires as the three initial desires that had to be controlled. As you acquire the habit of sleeping long duration, it becomes unbearable not to sleep. The control of your sleep is quite identical with controlling other two desires. The hardship to bear sleep is identical to bear other two desire. You cannot bear unless you are accustom to bear.

It becomes natural to sleep less as you making sleeping less to be your habit. If you make effort to stay within less sleep, then it becomes habit to sleep less.

It is important to make it habit to sleep less.

I am objective with this opinion. Because I need nap frequently as I have passed 60. At the age of Ekken, there were not many people over 60. But mind you, he wrote this book of Yojokun at his age of 83. Probably he had get tired of taking sleep for living too long. Well?
The age was of Confucianism. And its doctrine tells that hard-working is the goodness.

By the way Japan is the only country where Confucianism ever prospered. It was not well accepted in China where the doctrine was born.