There is a lot of guilt built in around the pronouncements about sleep. We are told that everyone should have eight hours uninterrupted sleep every night. We identify deep sleep, with REM sleep (rapid eye movement sleep) somnambulistic sleep and dozing. We are suppose to sleep eight hours or we are not going to live properly and well. This heaps guilt on those who do not sleep in this way. We cannot force sleep for it is a voluntary state of being and it is very difficult for those with active minds.

It is hard to turn off the mind whatever you have been doing in the day, and therefore rest can by quite problematic. Some people sleep two or three smaller sleep in the course of the night and some nights we wake up wanting toasted pancakes!

It is ok to sleep in whatever pattern you do so. Some nights people don’t sleep at all and that is ok. We can make it up the next day or in the following nights.

To get wound up about how much sleep you are getting, just makes the situation worse and sleep will definitely elude you if you are stressed about it. We can survive with no sleep for quite a long time, but that usually indicates a deeper problem with our mind health. If we cannot switch off, it leads us down a dark road to being ill in our mind. It is importantly to give yourself a chance and look to God to give us the rest we need. The mind never stops even when you mare asleep but continues to sort out the stresses and issues of the day. It is the Lord that keeps the mind and gives the body rest. 

“In peace I will both lay myself down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, make me live in safety.”

Psalm 4:8

It is the Lord who grants us blessings of sleep and security, and we can lie down in peace. Sometimes God allows us to go through sleeplessness so that we will learn to trust Him better. He knows the working of our mind and will oversea all our trouble. The hymn writer got it right…

“The Lord has eyes to give the blind, the Lord supports the sinking mind…”

Isaac Watts

The Lord misses none of our needs, but will at times lead us into heavy weather and we must trust Him. He will give the necessary sleep at the right time.

“It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil, for he gives sleep to his loved ones.”

Psalm 137:2

These words can comfort or can play on the anxiety we feel about not sleeping. The mind reasons that if I don’t sleep I am not the Lord’s beloved! I can inadvertently let in doubts and fears which play on the mind. If we can get through the day with the sleep we have been given we can rejoice. I live from day to day and get the grace I need for today when I need it. The Lord Jesus had many nights without sleep as He communed with His Father in heaven. He did not sleep much for the crowds were always seeking Him and wanting healing and miracles. He was so trusting in His Father in heaven that He helped everyone who asked of Him, such in the power of His person. 

He knows all our pains and knows deeply what it means to go without. He was the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We can look to Him and know the sweet rest of a day recovering for lack of sleep and still being able to function. This is the power of God in our life and we should rejoice in the strength of the provision. 

“Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on His gentle breast. There by His love o’er taken, sweetly my soul shall rest.”

Fanny Crosby

If you are struggling today, look in the Scripture and you will find good things for your soul. Pray and the Lord will draw close to you. Christian’s have struggled with this all through time, so you are not alone…

Don’t let insomnia rule you. Have your day and do your activities and you will have success and your mood will lift and you will sleep.