Years ago, when I was taking a communication class at college, I had to do 'public speaking'. I chose to do it on an article I had read about sleep. I am pretty sure I even still have the paperwork for it buried somewhere in a folder. I forget the title of it, but it was on not the value of sleep, althought that is good, but on our waking hours.
Are we getting too much sleep and therefore not wanting to do anything the rest of the day? Or are we getting just enough sleep that we can get up energetic and ready to get tasks accomplished?
My devotions today really hit home. Ok, confession time. I go to bed anywhere between 8PM - 9PM. Usually it is around 8:30PM, unless I'm really tired. Unfortuantely, usually that tiredness isn't from anything I've DONE, it's from BOREDOM of life. Anyway - I'm going to share some of what I read this morning - and give you 'food for thought'.
Proverbs 6:6-11: "Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest - and poverty will come on you like a bnadit and scarcity like an armed man."
Newton's first law of motion states that a body at rest tends to stay at rest, while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. Get the law of inertia working for you, rather than against you, by getting in gear early. I'm not a morning person, but I've figured out (the hard way) that the direction I set in the morning is where the day heads.
Now I don't set the alarm clock, but because I have a Fitbit, I have the alarm(s) set on it. When it buzzes it is to wake me up and either I will get up right away, or will try to sneak in another ten minutes (as in snooze). This specific morning I couldn't believe I didn't feel the buzz of the alarm at 4AM, but it was 4:25AM before I felt it going off! Snooze, snooze you lose! The snooze button surely was inspired by the devil as a secret weapon against Christians! If he can get us to hit the snooze button on our alarm clock, he has won in stealing time off our day! And somehow he got me to sleep an extra 25 minutes today.
Part of it I do blame on my new medication as it seems to make me extremely tired the first few days after I take it. I'm hoping that wears off as I continue to take it weekly.
So what should we do in order to get enough sleep? As we age, believe it or not, we need less sleep - not more! That's why you see (as a rule) retired people still getting up early in the morning to start their day. I have figured out that I need a minimum of 7 hours. 7.5 hours is great, but more than that and I am lazy and sluggish most of the day unless I have something specific to focus on. So if I am in bed by 9PM, I easily wake up at 4AM and can come spend my time with God.
But the devil has been playing with me, as you will remember. I often have come in here, snuggled into my chair (and on these cooler mornings it is so much easier to do so!) and gone back to sleep. I've mentioned to you that I often think I'm climbing into my Father's lap to get that extra sleep, and that it was ok. And it is - if I haven't gotten the amount of sleep that I needed the night before. Otherwise, I am being lazy and giving the devil my time that I spend with God. Guilty! But also Forgiven.
Commit to a specific going to bed and wake-up time. When you wake up, don't start dreading the day; get up and get going! If you awaken during the night, there is possibly a reason for it and God is waking you to ponder about something; to pray for someone; to do something. He will arrange for you to get the sleep you need. Don't lay there tossing and turning because 'I can't sleep'.
God may be showing you that you need less sleep than you think. We have been drilled for years that we need a minimum of 8 hours sleep - and as a child growing, we definitely do! I'm sure there are still some adults who believe that as well. I remember weekends as an adult (40 years ago!) of staying in bed and dozing until 10AM - 12PM! Then I'd feel guilty about staying in bed so long when I would wake, turn over, and doze again. I was being lazy; and allowing my depression to overcome me. It's easy to stay in bed when you are depresssed. But that is how the devil gets to us. He lets us think that we are sleepy, when in fact, we have had plenty of sleep to get us through that day!
Take a moment and think about your sleep pattern. Are you consistently going to bed at the usual time? If you don't get to bed until midnight, don't try to stay in bed until 7AM just because you need 7 hours of sleep. If you wake up at 5AM - get up! Get dressed, and start your day. That night you will get perhaps a deeper sleep and sleep 7 hours. It's when we just continue to lay there and 'try' to sleep when God is prompting us to get up and DO something (like, spend time with Him?) that we mess up our sleep schedule.
Start out by setting your alarm for seven hours (eight hours if you are under 35) from your appointed bedtime. When the alarm goes off (or if you awaken having a reasonable amount of sleep), get up and get going. Try this for a week. Then adjust 15 minutes upward or downweard, depending on your energy level, until you determine the ideal number of sleep hours you need. Make it an adventure to see how many mornings you can wake up without your alarm going off. Set your alarm if you must, but try to get up before it goes off.
When I was working I had the alarm set for 4AM and I would get up and spend an hour with God, then at 5AM I would get in the shower and get ready for work, ready to head out the door at 6AM to report to work by 7AM. My mornings were set. When we were sent home to work remote, I decided to stay at 4AM because I really didn't expect to STILL be at home working, stating I would use the extra couple hours with God. That has worked well for me; except many times I have chosen to go back to sleep. My loss. With reading this devotional and thinking about it, I stopped and got dressed, and came back to finish my reading. Decided to share my thoughts here.
How much time are you giving to sleep (or tossing and turning, trying to sleep) when you may be getting all the sleep you need before waking up? I have a friend who gets by on 4-5 hours a night - has for years. So she stays up late so that she can sleep 'through the night' the 4-5 hours. I like getting a start on my day early (now) so I'm ok with going to bed before 10PM. Ok, there are occasional weekends I may watch movies until 10:30-11PM, and you know what? I wake up by 5AM - an hour later - cause I needed the sleep.
Let your body tell you how much sleep it needs every night. Go to bed at a set time; get up when your body wakes up. Some nights it may need a lot of sleep; some nights it may not. Don't let the clock dictate to you how much you should sleep. Let your body tell you.
And take that extra time to tell God 'thank you for waking me this morning'. After all, the alternative is not waking at all!
Blessings!
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