Having Trouble Getting to Sleep?

Sleep is vital for life.  In fact, I happen to think that sleep is a necessity to help us be happy, healthy, and prosperous!  Obviously, sleep can help us to be happy.  You can actually see the effects more in reverse—when you don’t get sleep you get unhappy!  A sleep deficit can have a definite negative impact on our emotions.

We also need sleep to keep us healthy.  Our bodies restore and repair at night as we’re sleeping.  A lack of sleep can weaken our immune system and increase our chances of getting sick.  Lastly, a lack of sleep can hurt our finances too.  Our prosperity can be influenced by the state of our emotional well-being and our health.  If our happiness and our health are suffering, it can lead to a loss of prosperity.  If we’re not happy and healthy, we’re less creative, miss work, have poor decision-making abilities, and thus make less money.  In fact, it can actually cost us money and time if we have health and/or emotional problems.

Sleepy momma

When my daughter was a baby she refused to go to sleep.  She fought sleep like crazy.  This actually lasted until she was a toddler.  At one point we even had to put duct tape on her light switches so she would quit getting up in the middle of the night to turn the light on and play!  This didn’t work either…she then just got up and played in the dark. 🙁 So her refusal to sleep on top of a bit of colic as a baby made us made pretty sleep deprived.  I was one worn out momma!  Saying I was sleep-deprived was an understatement.  That’s when I decided to try to find a scripture to pray and confess over her (and me) to help us go to sleep and get a good night’s rest.

I’ve since found these verses and others I’ve discovered to be extremely useful even after my daughter’s sleep boycott years.  Sometimes getting enough sleep and/or going to sleep is an ongoing battle for me, and boy does it show!  I’m super cranky when I’m tired.

I’ve had to lean on and confess these verses over myself on a number of occasions…

• Nights where I didn’t feel well
• Times when I was anxious about something coming up the next day
• Nights when I was dealing with conflict with someone that was eating me up (I can sit awake for hours at night having imaginary conversations and clenching my jaw so much that it hurts the next morning! I think there’s a reason the bible says don’t go to bed angry–Ephesians 4:26.)
• Nights when I couldn’t quiet my mind from all the busyness and to-do lists
• Sometimes nights when I brought sleep difficulty on myself due to drinking coffee after 5pm (I’ve gotta stick to decaf or herbal tea at night!)
• Nights when I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep

Here are some of the bible verses I’ve found and used to help me with sleep: Continue reading →