Get Some Sleep

(Photo cred: Pixabay via PEXELS.com)

Most nights my kids’ bedtime is a bit of a battle. The biggest and most consistent issue is mom must be the one to tuck them in. I can volunteer, but, “No! Mommy!” is the usual shouted response. So, I tend to accept that Christie will take care of them. More and more, she’s been able to convince them to at least let me read a bedtime story to them.

The other major part of the battle, which I’m guessing most parents can remember or identify with their own kids, is the fit that comes with not wanting to go to bed. Our 4-year old daughter sometimes throws a fit if she’s overtired, though that’s happening less and less. Our 2-year old son is another story. Even if mom’s tucked him in and spent time in his room, he tosses and turns or just won’t fall asleep. When Christie tries to leave after 10-20 minutes, he usually turns his light on and either peeks out the door, runs to the living room, or runs to our bedroom. One of us, sometimes he will accept me at this point, has to bring him back to his bed and lay there a little longer.  The battle is won…at least until one of them wakes up in the middle of the night, and usually wakes their mom up because I sleep like a rock.

Bedtime routines exist because we as parents are trying to teach our kids the importance of getting rest. If they (and we, adults, too) don’t get enough sleep, they’re more likely to be whiny or grumpy, are more vulnerable to getting sick, are slower to react and make good judgments. We, humans, need sleep.

In her book, Liturgy of the Ordinary, Tish Harrison Warren looks at normal parts of her daily routine and identifies the sacred in them. What can things like making a bed, checking e-mail, or having tea tell us about God and ourselves, and even present us with opportunities to worship? The last chapter of the book deals with sleep. She writes:

Our need for sleep reveals that we have limits. We are unable to defend ourselves, to keep ourselves safe, to master the world around us. Sleep exposes reality. We are frail and weak. We need a guide and a guard….

Our need for sleep reminds us of our ultimate limit: we are going to die…Sleep serves as a daily momento mori, a reminder of our death. In the Scriptures, the terms death and sleep are often used interchangeably. When we go to sleep each night, we say with the psalmist, "I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me" (Ps. 3:5 NIV). And we proclaim with the church, "We lay down in death; we wake again because the Lord is risen indeed"…By embracing sleep each day we submit to the humiliation of our creatureliness and fragility. And in that place of weakness we learn to rest in the reality that our life and death—our days and everything in them—are hidden in Christ…

About one third of our lives are spent in sleep. Through these collective years of rest, God is at work in us and in the world, redeeming, healing, and giving grace. Each night when we yield to sleep, we practice letting go of our reliance on self-effort and abiding in the good grace of our Creator. Thus embracing sleep is not only a confession of our limits; it is also a joyful confession of God’s limitless care for us…At the end of every day, we lie in our beds. Even the most ordinary of days has shaped us—imperceptibly but truly…We are exposed and weak. We drift out of consciousness. Yet we are still held fast. Our Guard and Guide has called us ‘beloved,’ and gives his beloved sleep.

When we think back before the days of electricity and even farther back to the days of creation, we are reminded that light on-demand hasn’t always been around. On the first day, God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day (Genesis 1:3-5). Adam and Eve and many generations of their descendants couldn’t flip a switch or twist a knob and have a lightbulb turn on. They couldn’t push a button on a flashlight, headlamp, or smartphone and have a beam of light shine in front of them. When the sun went down, it got dark! Night was a time to rest from the labor that typically was done during the daylight. The only light that broke through the darkness was that of the moon and stars. The only way to increase light was to spark and maintain fire. If you’ve ever built a fire, you know that takes some work—and work takes time away from sleep.

God set in creation the daily rhythm of rest. The daily rhythm culminated in the 7-day span that we know as a week. By the seventh day, God had finished the work he had been doing, so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating he had done (Genesis 2:2-3). For this reason, God taught his people to do likewise, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” Who made it holy? He did. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:8-11).

We need sleep. We need rest. We cannot live and work and stay awake endlessly. No amount of coffee, pop, or energy drinks can truly satisfy this need. Students and some adults can go short stretches of days without sleep. It appears the unofficial record for the longest time a person has gone without sleep is almost 19 days. Some people live with disorders that greatly impact their ability to sleep or quality of sleep. Our bodies, minds, and moods need sleep, though.

I was amazed by Warren’s statements, “One third of our lives are spent in sleep" and we have "years of rest.” It’s simple math, though. If we average 6-8 hours of sleep each and every night, or if get less but add in a regular nap, most people pretty easily spend a quarter to a third of their day sleeping, which means in 3 or 4 days’ time, we’ve slept a combined 24 hours. Over the course of a year, we’ve slept between approximately 91 and 122 days. In the course of 3-4 years, the average person has slept through an entire year.

If you’re someone who’s personality is driven by productivity and going from one task to the next, you might be thinking, “What a waste.” But again, God created us with these limits. I don’t know if they’ll exist in eternity in such a way that we’ll need sleep or even be able to sleep. The apostle Paul tells us, For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immorality (1 Corinthians 15:52-53). John tells us in the final chapters of Revelation, The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp…There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light… (Revelation 21:23; 22:4).

So, get some sleep. Be reminded that at least in our time on this earth, God can do so much more than the combined efforts of myself and of everyone who’s reading this. Our rest is an exercise in relying on him. Our sleep is a reminder that we will one day die, maybe sooner than we’d like or expect. Maybe we’ll have a great legacy that people remember us for centuries or maybe only our families remember who we are and what we’ve done. Live your life in Christ and for Christ, but don’t fight against sleep because you think more highly of yourself or your work than is necessary.