While books blabber a lot of idiotic stuff, and all sadhaka gurus talk about things that deter people from sadhana, there is actually a gradual progression of changes in sleep patterns of the sadhaka.
Debunking Misconceptions :
- Getting up in brahm muhurta is absolutely not important. As your sadhana will progress, you will automatically find yourself not being able to sleep beyond brahm muhurta, and in later parts, sleep is simply not needed, as sadhaka wins over Maya. In shastreeya traditions, they forget the procedure, and only keep the result, so they ask to wake up during brahm muhurta, this and that. But that is impossible and not expected either from a sadhaka.
- As a sadhaka, you will be doing sadhana till 4AM, so obviously you cannot get up at 4AM too, and neither it is expected from you.
- As soon as you begin doing sadhana, and do 20-50-100 purashcharanas, slowly Ishta will take control of your circadian, and sleep pattern will automatically change to the desired outcomes.
- Chatai + Bedsheet is enough
- You can use a pillow with pillow cover
- You can use Kambal, but do not use comforting rajai etc or a Gadda/mattress.
- Sleep and wakeup without any alarm. Let your ishta decide what is best for you.
- Note your sleeping and wake up time on first day of sadhana, you have to adhere to same schedule every day during entire sadhana.
- No sexual thoughts, sadhaka cannot sleep with a woman (unless she is there as you want to offer Maithuna to Ishta).