Sunday Morning Coffee: Sleep is Sweet

This verse, memorized a long time ago from the KJV: “I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for Thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.”

When Terry had a job that took him away from home overnight, I had a hard time sleeping. Every creak and groan, every blast of wind coming across the prairie and slamming into the house, kept me awake.

I was teaching full time, and desperately needed to sleep. As I look back on it now, I realize I was struggling with anxiety as well, partly due to the lack of sleep.

One night was particularly frightening. There had been a very severe blizzard, leaving those Midwestern roads a mess, covered with black ice. I knew he was on the road, and I worried. I slept in snatches, and when I finally got up around 5 a.m. he still wasn’t in bed with me.

That’s because he was asleep on the sofa. He’d come in around midnight and didn’t want to wake me, so he just crashed in the living room. While I worried and prayed and visualized terrible things, he was sound asleep in our living room.

After I quit pounding on him and trying to smother him with a pillow and screeching, “DO YOU KNOW HOW SCARED I WAS!!” I left him begging for mercy while I got ready to drive to work. That was when the phone rang, and I got the message that school had been canceled.

I told him I was going to bed. He was responsible for whichever kid came stumbling out of a bedroom. Above all, no one–absolutely no one!– was to bother me.

If you believed that bit about screaming for mercy, you’re very gullible. He was convulsed with laughter. Terrible man.

Well. Those were the good old days. Now, I have trouble sleeping because of restless leg syndrome, and I’ve finally found some solutions. But the most important thing I’ve found is that I’m not alone. Lots and lots of my Facebook friends have the same problem.

You don’t realize how precious sleep is until you aren’t getting anywhere near enough.

God intended for us to sleep. I’m embarrassed to admit that I’d forgotten about that wonderful verse, memorized when I was a newlywed and alone for a couple of weeks while Terry went to annual training. It helped me then. And, finally, it’s helping me now. I’m a practical person, and I’m not going to give up my weighted blanket, but I will also pray when I climb into bed tonight and ask the Lord to calm my mind and my heart.

He is the ultimate sleep treatment.