Bodhi Day and Sleep Deprivation

matthewmartin

I was reading up on Buddhist holiday's looking for some I can celebrate, I found Bodhi Day, Dec 8, Japanese holiday where people often stay up all night to replicate Gautama's famous night.

Here is an article that says sleep deprivation causes a burst of giddy euphoria, maybe caused by surplus of dopamine.
http://greatist.com/happiness/all-night-just-how-bad-are-all-nighters

It makes one wonder if the historical Buddha felt enlightened because he was up all night & was giddy from sleep deprivation.

Anyone try an all nighter and how well does one bounce back afterwards? I might be enlightened, but I'll still have to go to work Monday the 9th.

robot

I have put in many all nighters during my fishing career. Staying up for 24 hrs is easy. But if you have to work the next day, then you are into thirty or more hrs. You might need 12 hrs in bed to recover. It could wreck the rest of your week, depending on what kind of work you do. Probably not worth it.

how

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matthewmartin said:

It makes one wonder if the historical Buddha felt enlightened because he was up all night & was giddy from sleep deprivation.

Wow,
A major religion evolving from nothing deeper than an all nighter, a prerequisite for your average coming of age teenager. You'd think that you couldn't swing a cat without hitting a another example of enlightenment if that was the case.

Note..No cats were hurt in the production of this posting!

genkaku

I once went to a Rohatsu sesshin -- the seven days leading up to Dec. 8. Each night ran 15 minutes later than the night before ... until the last night, when people were free to go through the night or not. But I had a problem: I was an apartment painter and had a job during the week. So I could make it to morning sittings starting around 5. And I could make it to evening sittings starting around 6 p.m. But in between I had to work. I was scared I would run out of energy, getting up around 3:30, attending morning sittings, going to work for 8 hours, running home for a shower, going to evening sittings and then getting home once again at progressively later hours each night ... only to get up once again at 3:30. I thought I might turn into a basket case.

Nothing could have been further from the truth. As the week progressed, I found myself with MORE energy ... maybe because I was running on dopamine, I don't know. Sitting all the way through the last night was not especially hard. I did not fall asleep. And when it was all over and I could sleep eight hours if I wanted to, there were several days when I couldn't imagine why I had ever slept for such an extended period.

Just my experience.

Tosh

I've suffered with sleep deprivation during many occasions in the army; particularly during operations where this could go on for many days.

It just made me tired and grumpy mostly; though I've hallucinated once; I thought I saw a brilliant meteor storm, but no-one else saw it - so I guess it didn't happen.

Jainarayan

Tosh said:

I've suffered with sleep deprivation during many occasions in the army; particularly during operations where this could go on for many days.

It just made me tired and grumpy mostly; though I've hallucinated once; I thought I saw a brilliant meteor storm, but no-one else saw it - so I guess it didn't happen.

I've done 27 and 40 hour shifts with no sleep, restoring and rebuilding crashed mainframe systems. What I saw after that were visions also... visions of getting out of this accursed field of IT! :grumble:

matthewmartin

I'm going to do it. I'll celebrate it on Friday December 6th. It's not like anyone else I know is Buddhist & needs to co-ordinate with me.

In case anyone else is celebrating Bodhi Night, here was the most useful article I've found so far:

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/features/how-to-stay-awake-after-all-nighter

Don't drive the evening after Bodhi day, you might go from nirvana to parinirvana faster than you'd planned.

footiam

matthewmartin said:

Here is an article that says sleep deprivation causes a burst of giddy euphoria, maybe caused by surplus of dopamine.
http://greatist.com/happiness/all-night-just-how-bad-are-all-nighters

It makes one wonder if the historical Buddha felt enlightened because he was up all night & was giddy from sleep deprivation.

If it is the effect of dopamine, the effect most probably wears off. Enligtenment is not a feeling of euphoria, I suppose. Otherwise, one does not have to work hard for you. Just get some grass would do.