Are You Sleep Deprived?

By David Faust

I don’t know who first said it, but I agree with this quip: “Sometimes the most God-honoring thing you can do is just go to bed.” 

Here are some things others have said about rest. 

• “Sleep is all about recovering. So if you’re not sleeping, you’re not recovering. And if you’re going to break your body down a lot, you better find ways to build it back up. And the only way to do that is get a lot of sleep.” (Tom Brady) 
• “It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning.” (John Steinbeck) 
• “Often, when we have been fretting and worrying, we should have glorified God far more had we literally gone to sleep.” (Charles Spurgeon) 
• “There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson) 
• “Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace.” (Victor Hugo) 

The poet Robert Frost wrote, “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep.” Most of us have a lot to do and many promises to keep. Who has time to rest? 

What the Bible Says About Sleep  

Adam slept while God surgically removed his rib. Jacob used a rock for a pillow and dreamed of a stairway to heaven. Elijah was so depressed he wanted to die, but God used food and rest to restore the prophet’s capacity for ministry (1 Kings 19:3-8). God occasionally communicated messages through dreams and visions given while his servants slept (as in Daniel 10:9). 

Jesus slept through a storm on the Sea of Galilee, and his weary disciples slept in the Garden of Gethsemane although he had asked them to pray. Peter slept peacefully in jail while chained between two guards (Acts 12:6). 

Ministry can be exhausting. Paul often went without sleep during his missionary travels (2 Corinthians 11:27). Sometimes, though, sleep is a sign of laziness or a way to avoid responsibility. “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man” (Proverbs 6:10-11). On the run from God, Jonah went to the lower deck of a ship “where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep” (Jonah 1:5). 

Have you ever dozed during a sermon? Eutychus literally fell asleep from a third story window as Paul prolonged his sermon until midnight (Acts 20:7-12). 

Some biblical passages use sleep to describe death (Daniel 12:2; John 11:11-13; 1 Corinthians 15:51; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-15). And Jesus used sleep to illustrate spiritual apathy. The master of the house will come back suddenly, Jesus warned, so “do not let him find you sleeping” (Mark 13:36). Paul wrote, “The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11). Jesus told drowsy, complacent Christians to “Wake up!” and repent (Revelation 3:2-3), and Ephesians 5:14 quotes what may be part of an early Christian hymn: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”  

When God seemed absent, one psalmist cried out, “Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself!” (Psalm 44:23). But another psalm-writer insisted, “He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4). 

Rest Will Do You Good 

I don’t remember any Bible college or seminary classes teaching me the value of rest. I had to learn it the hard way. Here are some lessons I can pass along. 

Recognize your human limitations. Sleep reminds us that we are not sovereign and all-powerful. We spend approximately one-third of our lives functionally unconscious! John Piper says it like this: 

Sleep is a daily reminder from God that we are not God. . . . Once a day God sends us to bed like patients with a sickness. The sickness is a chronic tendency to think we are in control and that our work is indispensable. To cure us of this disease God turns us into helpless sacks of sand once a day. How humiliating to the self-made corporate executive that he has to give up all control and become as limp as a suckling infant every day. 

Embrace rest as a blessing from God. Go to bed at night saying, “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety” (Psalm 4:8). After all, “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves” (Psalm 127:2). 

Recognize the downside of neglecting rest. Busyness isn’t a badge of honor, and sleep deprivation doesn’t increase productivity. Sleep loss is associated with hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, heart attacks, strokes, and other problems. Years ago, I took a class taught by Dr. Archibald Hart, who did extensive research on sleep. In his book Sleep: It Does a Family Good, Dr. Hart wrote that sleep-deprived people are more irritable and negative, less joyful, and experience more memory problems. They are at higher risk for accidents and divorce, and they are less creative and productive. 

Build rest into your lifestyle rhythms. Your body is the Holy Spirit’s temple, and the temple requires regular maintenance. After years of trying to replace amazing grace with a blazing pace, I finally learned to build more unhurried space into my daily, weekly, and yearly schedule. I even invented a word to describe my new attitude about sabbath rest. I call it my “sabbattitude”! 

If you’re growing weary in welldoing, I encourage you to adopt a positive “sabbattitude” and find a healthier, more sustainable pace for your life and ministry. 

Here’s a radical idea to get you started. Go take a nap.