Help, I Can't Sleep! (Part Two)

Help, I Can't Sleep! Part Two

(if you would like to go to part one first click here)

At 11 p.m. I explained to my friend on the phone, "My husband says I need to go to bed, so I better go." "I have to go start the laundry," she replied. "At this time of the night! You need to go to sleep," I blurted. "When is she going to do the folding? At 2 a.m.?," chimed in my husband.

I handed the phone to him because he was in a humorous mood. "Didn't you hear the news report today that only 4 percent of the population can properly function on four hours of sleep? The rest of us need eight to ten hours", he informed her. She told him what she had told me, "I never sleep more than three or four hours. I don't have time to sleep. Too many things need to be done."

He handed me back the phone. "I don't have time to sleep!" she resolved. Our phone call ended. I went to bed. She stayed up half the night doing chores, that 'couldn't wait'.

Sleep is Necessary 

Some people think sleep is as a waste of time. Especially those who try to squeeze more activities into each twenty-four hours. However, research has shown that sleeping less than eight hours a day is harmful. Doctors have also discovered going to sleep by 10:30 p.m. ensures optimal health. Getting too little sleep can cause weight gain, lower resistance to infection, heart disease, autoimmune disorders, diabetes, high cholesterol, and many emotional problems.

Life is a series of choices. Some are more important than others. Sleep is very important. Choosing to sleep eight hours a night is a decision that takes discipline. Rarely, if ever, are to-do list completed; and life is filled with many distraction preventing an early bedtime routine. As hard as it may seem to believe, some people deliberately choose not to sleep for many different reasons. They look for reasons to avoid it, like my friend who convinces herself that she simply doesn't have time to sleep. The fact is God will never give you more than what is possible in a day. If you are consistently running around at a frantic pace and it seems you never have enough time, you are choosing to do more things than God has asked.

We have to remember that there are a lot of good things to do in life; however, if we let God order our days, He will always make time for His best including our rest. Before beginning a project, volunteering, scheduling activities, or saying 'yes', take time to really pray to God, to seek His perfect will. Lay the opportunity before Him and listen quietly. Don't tell anyone you will do something until you have heard God's will for you.

God made our incredibly complex and magnificent bodies to need sleep. He instilled this pattern from the days of creation. On the second day, He created the day and the night, each having its own purpose. He also led by example showing Adam that rest was necessary, when He rested on the seventh day of creation with Adam. Lack of sleep wreaks havoc on every part of our being; body, soul and spirit. He knew sleep would be essential to our life. He created a sleep cycle in our bodies to give us time to restore, build, rest, and process activities and thoughts from our day. While God never sleeps, we must sleep for us to (physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally) recover from each day.

Abuse and Trauma Disturbs Sleep

People who have experienced trauma and abuse especially need sleep. Unfortunately, many former victims struggle with getting a good night's rest. Quiet, relaxation, and inactivity can stir-up painful memories. Dreams are often not sweet. A woman with a wounded heart can experience nightmarish episodes as random and racing thoughts collide. For some, sleep brings terrifying 'old horror movies' of trauma that are stuck on continual replay. Even worse, demonic tormentors can enter dream-like states and cause fear casting her into dreadful scenarios of confronting the perpetrator, being re-abuse, or taunted by lies. For the survivor of abuse, sleep is often anything but restful and restorative.

Sleep is not a period of inactivity. Our whole person (body, mind, and spirit) is very active during sleep. Random Eye Movement (REM) stage of sleep, one of the deepest levels of sleep, is the time our brain actually processes all the information, experiences sensed and feelings of the day. Our brain moves pictorial scenes of the day from the right to left side of the brain in a continual pattern. When a person is experiencing REM sleep, you can observe the eyes moving from right to left under the closed eyelid. In this process, the brain is actually processing events, moving them through both the fact (left) and the emotional/feeling (right) side of the brain.

When sudden trauma or abuse occurs in life, the factual and emotional memory of the event is not properly processed. It becomes 'stuck' in either fact or feelings. In the fact or left side of the brain, the survivor can report about the event like they are reading a news column, totally detached from their feelings. When trauma gets 'stuck' in emotions, it is frozen in right side of the brain. Whenever the survivor's horrific memory is triggered, she becomes highly emotional, causing her to scream, cower down, cry, panic or freeze, detaching from reality.

Sleep is a wonderful gift given to us by our Creator God. He knew we would face evil and need a way to recover from the damage and stresses of each day. My next article in this column will guide you to practical steps for sleep by God's design. For example, nightly reading His Word, like Psalms 119, is a wonderful way to end each day, and to prepare your heart for sleep.