4 Hr Sleep 16 Hr Study Routine explained in detail | Ashish Ranjan AIR - 4, ISRO, IIT Bombay, BARC

Summary

Ashish Ranjan explains the context behind a viral clip in which he discussed sleeping four hours while preparing for competitive exams. He says the clip was often taken as advice, but he was describing an experience—not recommending that others sleep less. His broader point is that competitive-exam preparation can involve intense pressure and sacrifice, and advice about sleep or study should be understood in that context.

Sleep: what he tried and what happened

• For much of his preparation and career, Ranjan generally slept about six hours a night.
• Before trying four hours, he says he was sleeping around seven hours. A coaching faculty member’s claim that aspirants needed to sleep less persuaded him to try a four-hour schedule.
• He maintained it for roughly a month to a month and a half, but felt increasingly unwell. He describes waking disoriented or nauseated, struggling with painful or irritated eyes, feeling dizzy, and sometimes losing his balance.
• Most importantly, he says his memory and retention worsened: he kept forgetting what he studied.
• He eventually returned to about seven hours, then settled into roughly six. Even then, he felt he could not finish the syllabus or get enough practice.
• He also mentions sleeping only two hours for weeks, and sometimes going without sleep, but says those periods were not by choice and were connected to work pressures.

His conclusion is not that there is one ideal number of hours for everyone. Four hours did not suit him, and he believes it would be harmful or unsustainable for many people. He advises against treating his experience as medical guidance.

Why aspirants may take extreme measures

Ranjan describes the atmosphere he encountered in coaching institutes after graduating in 2016:

• Large classes, sometimes with hundreds of students, long sessions, and limited personal interaction with teachers.
• A sense that aspirants had only a short time to succeed, had invested money or a “drop year,” and might otherwise face unemployment or social stigma.
• A crowded field of competitors, with very few places available at the top.
• Anxiety—then more commonly called “tension” or “pressure”—and the feeling that one needed to find an edge over other candidates.

In that setting, a teacher’s confident advice could carry great authority. Ranjan says he believed the faculty member who urged students to sleep less, partly because teachers were skilled and persuasive speakers and were treated as highly credible. He warns that confidence and popularity do not necessarily make advice right; unrealistic promises can spread more readily than lessons grounded in experience.

The demands and sacrifices of preparation

Ranjan emphasizes that exam preparation can affect far more than study hours. Aspirants may give up time with family and friends, holidays, weekends, relationships, savings, or even a current job. He recalls spending weekends in the library and describes how failing after telling others about an attempt can intensify the disappointment.

He also highlights the exams’ practical demands. In the examinations he describes, calculators were not allowed, questions could require lengthy hand calculations, and candidates faced strict time limits. He trained his mental arithmetic with an alarm app that required him to solve multiplication problems before it would stop ringing.

Perseverance and what he took from the experience

Ranjan says preparing for exams helped him develop persistence, even when he doubted he would succeed. He later drew on a similar ability to keep working through uncertainty while writing a book, starting a business, and making YouTube content. He argues that ambitious pursuits often involve difficult stretches, but that this does not mean people should deliberately damage their health.

His exam attempts ultimately led to opportunities he valued, including becoming a scientist at ISRO. At the same time, he notes how contingent the outcome was: a different result on exam day could have changed his path. He does not claim that everyone should pursue competitive exams or that extreme effort guarantees success.

Main takeaways

• His four-hour sleep period is a personal account, not a recommended routine. He says it harmed his well-being and retention.
• Sleep and study advice should be judged in context, rather than accepted simply because a successful or authoritative person gives it.
• Competitive preparation can involve substantial pressure and personal sacrifice, which helps explain why aspirants may be drawn to extreme strategies.
• Persistence can carry over to other goals, but perseverance does not require ignoring health or copying someone else’s path.
• A person’s motivation matters. Ranjan says that pursuing a goal mainly because someone else chose it for you may not produce the same commitment as choosing it yourself.
• The Boy Who Did Not Sign, the book he discusses, is a fictionalized story inspired by his experiences, not a literal autobiography.

Speakers and sources featured

• Ashish Ranjan — the sole identifiable speaker; he shares his experiences and reflects on competitive exams, sleep, persistence, and his book.
• Unnamed coaching faculty members — mentioned by Ranjan as sources of advice and as examples of how influential teachers can be, but they do not speak directly in the subtitles.