Sleep: A Real Need
“Sleep? Is she really going to write about sleep?” I know, I know, sleep doesn’t seem like something you’d see on a blog about fitness and nutrition. The fact is, sleep is an essential element to our general health and well-being. We need sleep to restore our bodies; and as you’ll see later, sleep is even spoken about in the Bible and getting sleep shows our dependence on God.
Health Benefits
Instead of giving you health benefits I want to direct your attention to a foundation completely devoted to sleep. I have not researched the National Sleep Foundation’s entire site so therefore I can not recommend everything written, but I am sure you will benefit from their research on sleep and the importance of it. Read Sleep-Wake Cycle: Its Physiology and Impact on Health for more information about the health benefits of sleep.
A Biblical Perspective
CJ Mahaney, President of Sovereign Grace Ministries, preached about this very topic- sleep. If you would like to understand all that the Bible says about sleep and why it’s important to God please check out CJ’s message, A Biblical Understanding of Sleep.
I’d like to leave you with a prayer from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions
Sleep
Thou hast promised thy beloved sleep;
Give me restoring rest needful for tomorrow’s toil;
If dreams be mine,
let them not be tinged with evil.
Let thy Spirit make my time of repose
a blessed temple of his holy presence….
I retire this night in full assurance of one day awaking with thee.
All glory for this precious hope,
for the gospel of grace,
for thine unspeakable gift of Jesus,
for the fellowship of the Trinity.
Withhold not thy mercies in the night season;
thy hand never wearies,
thy power needs no repose,
thine eye never sleeps.
Help me when I helpless lie,
when my conscience accuses me of sin,
when my mind is harassed by foreboding thoughts,
when my eyes are held awake by personal anxieties.
Show thyself to me as the God of all grace,
love and power;
thou hast a balm for every wound,
a solace for all anguish,
a remedy for every pain,
a peace for all disquietude.
Permit me to commit myself to thee awake or asleep.
(Valley of Vision, A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions, Edited by Arthur Bennett p.298-299)
