Sleep

Note: this is one of a few archived blog posts I carried over from my old site just for fun and to preserve some “history.” It may or may not reflect current thoughts or feelings. This post is from April 2011.

Sleep is in the news again. Every few months or so a new study comes out reminding us of the importance of sleep. We all agree we need more sleep and that we are a sleep deprived culture, but do we see getting enough sleep as a spiritual issue? Do you have a healthy theology of sleep?

I recently came out of one of my busiest stretches in recent memory. During this time, I frequently sacrificed sleep in order to get more work done. What I noticed about myself was not good: easily agitated, inability to make decisions, lack of compassion, low patience, and just an overall struggle to produce quality work. In summary, it was hard if not impossible to do well the things God has called me to do; I could not be the kind of Christian I wanted to be without proper sleep. This is a problem.

"Do you have a healthy theology of sleep?"

I was reminded of an article I read a few years ago by renowned writer Lauren Winner. In it she reminds us to consider “sleep as part of faithfulness” and that the answer “sleep more” may be one of the best answers to what Christians can do for the common good. She writes, “not only does sleep have evident social consequences, not only would sleeping more make us better neighbors and friends and family members and citizens. Sleeping well may also be part of Christian discipleship, at least in our time and place.”

In the end, like so many choices in the Christian life, sleep is a matter of trust. God has apparently designed our bodies to need at least 8-10 hours of sleep. When we refuse to put value on sleep, we are making a statement that other things such as work, productivity, and often entertainment, are more important than other Christian values that require adequate sleep. As Winner says, “a countercultural embrace of sleep bears witness to values higher than ‘the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things.’”