After a long research in different libraries and examining various research thesis and studies which share a temporal approach (time), I have highlighted a number of sciences that are closely linked to time programming, whether in terms of their nature or method. Then, I classified them in a list that excluded the sciences related to non-human sides of time, such as: metaphysics time, Mathematics Time, physics time etc. As well as those related to any human science topic tackled away from time programming points of view.
Some of these sciences are:
– Time management science.
– Sociology of leisure.
– Recreational education.
– Time budget.
– Sleep and insomnia studies.
– Chronobiology.
Sleep and Insomnia Studies:
Sleep is an essential part of every human’s life since Adam until the end of life. Sleep has played a significant role in human’s life since the earliest times (1), thus it was a fertile field for contemplation and observation, and it formed a wide range of different opinions and speculations.
All Ancient civilizations made different accounts in their attempt to explain the sleep phenomenon. Muslim doctors, specifically, carried out the best studies ever written about this topic in the human history worldwide. Dr. Haytham al-Mannaa says: “humanity needed one thousand year to surpass al-Kindī’s studies” (2).
In the early twentieth century – exactly in 1924- the German scientist Hans Berger discovered “electroencephalogram (EEG)”, which marked the beginning of clinical laboratory studies of sleep (3). Thenceforth, research and studies continued until the 1980’s when a number of scientists from very different fields conducted their study from completely different backgrounds and approaches in order to understand the faces of this mysterious world of night (4) like sleep, insomnia and dreams …
There are multiple aspects in areas of interests about sleep studies, because sleep is associated with several concepts, mainly:
* Time: (early, late, little, much, night, day, regular, irregular …)
* Place: (where we sleep, with whom, noise, surrounding environment)
* Requirements (social, professional and cultural requirements) (5).
It is clear that time programming will refer to the research outcomes in the world of sleep, in order to make a comparison between the authentic scripts in Qur’an and Sunnah, and the contemporary studies to answer the following questions:
– How many hours of sleep do we need per day? Is it constant? Or the number varies depending on people, seasons, geographical areas and occupations …?
– When does sleep become necessary? When does it become abominable? or prohibited?
– What about sleeping in the time of Fajr and Duha prayers?
– What about taking a siesta? Or sleeping in the evening? etc.
Answering these questions –even partially- will help determine the ideal structuring of time programming and expose the mistakes of contemporary man in the way he deals with the short death and the mystery that is called: sleep.
1 – Jaafar Essadik: Sleep and Insomnia, Child’s Dreams; P5.
2 – Dr. Haytham, Manna: The World of Sleep ; El Hiwar Publishing house, Syria, ed. of 1990: 1; P16.
3 – The Same Source.
4 – Schuller Edmond (Dr): Les insominies et le sommeil: collection: comprendre pour guérir; ed. Robert Laffont. Paris, 1997, p16.
As a template of this kind of research look :
Alexandre Le sommeil et la santé, spoutnik (Fev1990) p130.
Ferrara Jean: La pilule de L’éveil, Science et vie (no 862, Juillet 89) p54.
Science et vie: Le sommeil: dossier spécial, (No 996, Sep 2000)
5 – Haytham: The World of Sleep; P6, 7 – Look Ayman El Sherbiny : Al-Araq Wahm Lahu Ilaj = Insomnia is an Illusion that can be Treated, the latest studies about sleep, dreams and insomnia problems; Ibn Sina Library, Cairo, 1994, P112, Lion Gozit , One Hundred and One Sleep Tips, El Kitab Al-Arabi publishing house, Damascus, Cairo 1414 A.H./1993, P280-275.
Translated by Toufik Achour.
Reviewed by Omar Bouchelaghem
The Article in Arabic: دراسات النوم والأرق لـ: د محمد باباعمي