Know! sleep deprivation reduces the sexual drive. For a person has within him a fire from the time of birth. From this fire burn all the bonfires of each of the desires. In addition, all the food and drink that people put into the body are burned and consumed by this fire. By sleeping less, this fire is weakened and is unable to burn.

However, sleep deprivation harms the mind. The same is true of excess sleep. When a person forces himself to sleep a lot, this too weakens and reduces the aforementioned fire, and it harms the mind as well. Only when a person sleeps the proper amount is the sexual drive potent and at its strongest, because the aforementioned fire has not been weakened. {We heard all this from [Rebbe Nachman’s] holy conversations. The depth of what he meant he did not explain clearly, yet, what I understood from his remark was that there is no solution for reducing the sexual drive by means of some ruse, because this harms the mind. For it would be possible to reduce the sexual drive by minimizing sleep or sleeping a great deal, but both harm the mind. Therefore, there is no stratagem or solution to fight this other than empowering himself with the strength of the warrior to conquer his evil inclination—and God will help him divest himself of this lust.}