Sleep amount:

Do we need eight, six, seven, more or less hours of sleep? This is the question that a lot of sleepless nights have been spent on, in order to determine the magic sleep number.
I remember one night I was socializing with friends. It was getting late, so I asked one of them, who is a brain surgeon, when they were supposed to be at work. He replied in 4 hours! So, I asked the eternal question of how much sleep does a human being needs to get enough rest, and perform to their at most potential. He replied that he only needed 4 hours of quality sleep, and that every person’s needs are different.

Indeed, there is no literature, or scientific discovery that recommends a hard coded number of hours of sleep that a human being should get. However, almost all agree on the harm of sleep deprivation and over sleeping. Quiet the conundrum, isn’t it?  That’s why we are going to turn it to the Prophet Mohammed for an answer, and as believers, we will follow what the Quran and Sunnah teaches us, which in the most part aligns well with modern science.
The Prophet (PBUH) used to sleep a portion of the night, then woke up in the middle of the night for nightly prayers. Aisha, the prophet’s wife, said that the he used to sleep during the earlier part of the night and stood praying during the later part. She also said that when he got up at night he started his prayer with two rakaat. It was also reported that he didn’t sleep after Fajer (dawn) prayer, and that he sometimes took a nap between Duher (noon) and Asser prayers.
It was also noted in some Hadiths that he was woken up for “Fajer” prayer, which means that he, sometimes, didn’t stay up all night praying, but interrupted his nightly sleep with prayers.
Again, there is no magic sleep number, and the amount of sleep that worked for the Prophet Mohammed might not work for you. Sleep is so important that it has been mentioned numerous times in the Quran and Hadith. In our modern societies many universities have departments dedicated to sleep studies. The National Sleep foundation (NSF) has as one of its missions that: “Americans are aware that their sleep is an important component of their health and safety, and that they make obtaining sufficient sleep a priority”. But, we are not totally lost in this sea of knowledge accumulated about the Science and wisdom of sleep. If we follow the guidelines, which I have learned from all the readings I have done for this subject, we should be reasonably in the right path for a good healthy sleep existence.
1- Sleeping at night is repose, a rest for the body, waking up is a rejuvenation that has been likened in the Quran to resurrection. Which makes day sleep of less quality than sleeping at night.
2- Waking up early (dawn) is a very good way to start the day. So you need to sleep at least 6 hours before dawn, in order to be in the safe window of 6 to 8 recommended sleep hours. * This doesn’t apply to children, toddlers, teenagers that are still growing, or people that are sick and need to stay in bed to get better.
3- Sleeping a portion of the night, waking up for certain activities, then continuing your sleep as long as it doesn’t continue beyond dawn is ok to do. As has been practiced by the prophet, and was validated by some scientific experiments.
4- Wisdom and good health is the by product of being early to bed and early to rise.
5- Taking a nap during the day is a good practice for re-energizing the body.

Sleep as mentioned in the Quran and Hadith:

“And among His Signs is the sleep that ye take by night and by day and the quest that ye (make for livelihood) out of His Bounty: verily in that are Signs for those who hearken." Surah 30:23

"And He it is Who made the night a covering for you, and the sleep a rest, and He made the day to rise up again" (Qumran 25:47).

"And He it is who makes the Night as a Robe for you, and Sleep as Repose, and makes the Day (as it were) a Resurrection." Surah 25:47

Sleep, here, is mentioned as a bounty from God, that’s bestowed on humans for the purpose of rest. It’s paired with the bounty of night, which is described as a covering and a refuge.
Sleep is better when it’s done at night, and waking up early in the morning is very beneficial. Waking up at dawn to perform the Fajer prayer is the first activity that a Muslim starts the day with. So, the day is started with cleaning ones body by performing ablution, then engaging in a spiritual activity which is the Morning Prayer.

Good sleep habits contribute to your success in life:

A lot of successful people’s biographies indicate that they are early to bed early to rise. Ben Franklin famously said:” Early to bed, early to rise makes a man wealthy and wise.”
The Muslim ritual in the morning is to pray and engage ourselves with our creator through the Fajer prayer. Other people have a different kind of ritual, like their morning cup of coffee and newspaper, or their morning workout. Those rituals are a strong impetus for waking up and enjoying the part of day that most of us waste for sleep. So in order to get in the habit of waking up early even in weekends, you can start setting up goals to accomplish in the morning. We are creatures of habit, so start a good habit in the morning, which will make waking up more enjoyable.
Dalai Lama, said, "Everyday, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can.“
These kind words and positive energy ought to be espoused by every person that wants to succeed. It doesn’t come easily, so don’t force it.
Train your body and spirit until it reaches that perfection, and then keep up the efforts to maintain what you have achieved.
As much as mornings are such a drag, and sleep seems to be the perfect thing to do at the time we need to wake up. We should always remember the following hadith that
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O Allah, bless my Ummah in the mornings."

I would like to close with the following:

 Some of the salaf disliked the idea of sleeping after Fajr, ibn abi shaybah reported in his Musanauf with a saheeh isnaad from Urwah ibn Zubayr that he said: "Al-Zubayr used to forbid his children to sleep in the morning.” Urwah said: “I do not hear of any man who sleeps in the morning, but I lose interest in that person.”
We do not want Urwah or anybody to lose interest in us, so let’s take this matter seriously and approach this human behavior in a holistic manner. If we have a problem sleeping, then let’s heal the root causes, if it’s just a bad habit of sleeping late, like I and most of my friends suffer from, then let’s not force the good habits, but gradually adopt them.
After all it is worth our efforts, since there are a lot of blessings waiting for us in the mornings.