You don’t really think about sleep much until you don’t get any. The last few nights I have been up with my 7 month old who has RSV. He’s doing better now, but the last few nights have been hard. When you get less than four hours sleep per night it starts to wear on you quickly. I was having a hard time concentrating and I was just a little crabby to say the least. Now that I got a good night’s sleep last night, which in this house means I was only up two times, I am feeling much better. But this whole thing made me think about how necessary sleep is.
So many commercials on TV are about sleep medications and helping you sleep. The Michael Jackson trial is focused on a medication he was given for sleep. He was so desperate for sleep that he ultimately died from the meds he was taking to help him sleep. It’s amazing the lengths someone will to go for sleep. Insomnia can have poor effects on your health and can cause early death. Sleep deprivation has even been used in some countries as a means of torture, those of us who are parents can appreciate that.
The Bible also mentions sleep. Psalm 127:2 states the God gives sleep to those He loves. Sleep is obviously important. There are so many things that interfere with sleep. Some things are temporary and some are not. I think insomnia is rampant in our society today. Some statistics state that 75% of people suffer from insomnia at least once a week. That’s a lot of people! Why? What is causing us to lose sleep?
For myself, I can say that it’s usually worry that causes me to lose sleep. What good am I doing myself by staying awake worrying about something. I cannot change it by worrying. But still I do it. I guess I assume if I think hard enough about something I can find the answer, but that’s not the case most of the time. God is the one with the answers in life, but I am too impatient to wait for Him to answer me. I think I need to worry about something to make things happen. There are lots of passages in the Bible about not worrying, but I do it anyway. I realize that I am loosing sleep over worry and doing myself more harm than good. I am actually hurting myself by not sleeping.
I want to be more like my husband in sleep. He can sleep almost anywhere and is asleep most nights in less than a minute, no kidding! He has never spent a night awake worrying about something. I am striving to be more like that, after all I am just hurting myself by worrying and not sleeping anyway.
Armloads of Blessings 
Are we twins, married to twins? I do the same thing you do, lay awake worrying. My husband does the same thing yours does, head hits the pillow and he’s OUT! I have always wanted to tap into his brain and figure out where the off button is located. I think my brain is missing that switch. When I worry at night, I pray and pray until I fall asleep. More so when I pray while stressed I thank God for all of my blessings, individually. I have so many blessings and when I name them out loud and thank God for them he relaxes my mind and I fall asleep. My thought is that he knows my needs, I’ve asked him for help with them over and over, so I praise Him and it reminds me that the Father ALWAYS cares for me.
Good idea about counting your blessings, I will have to try that. Yes, I think we are twins. It’s alarming sometimes 🙂
The first time I prayed like this was during the threat of my first miscarriage, I thought about Kyle and Jalen and just started praising God for them. God gave me a peace during those days of uncertanty. I still lost that baby and was devistated but it made me appreciate Kyle and Jalen in a way I never had before and made me realize what a true miracle life is. And by thanking God and praising Him in my saddest time I had all of these thoughts of joy and good memories with my kids and family. God took me at my saddest and covered me with blessings!
That is a great testimony. I have found that God really does meet you in your darkest times.
Your husband sounds like mine. He sleeps so hard that his dogs come to me to ask to be let out at night. He sleeps through everything!! Like you i’m usually up over thinking something. I need to work on that!