Getting a Restful Night’s Sleep

It was hard to sleep last night. Tossing and turning encouraged the dreams to get bigger than reality in my subconscious. Maybe it was the pizza dinner. Maybe it was the news before bedtime.

All too often we let the news or social media or concerns filter through our thoughts late into the evening and then expect to lay our head on the pillow and magically fall into a peaceful sleep. Maybe because it has been a rough year, or maybe it’s middle age, but what if I actually took God at His word and captured my thoughts and made them obedient to Christ? Especially before bed.

One habit that has proven to capture my untamable thoughts at bedtime is to spend a couple minutes reading my Bible before attempting sleep. Certainly I do not have the brain power for Bible study, word definitions or commentaries at night; but I do have the ability to read a simple translation (usually the New Living Translation) for a couple chapters and go to sleep with the comfort that God is the One in control.

Life gives us plenty to be concerned about and chew on that will keep our minds awake and churning all night. But the Word of God reveals the character of God and brings a steadfast peace to our soul.

It’s science! A study was done several years ago on reading before bedtime at the University of Sussex. It showed that reading as little as 6 minutes before going to sleep lowered stress by 68%. And who couldn’t use lower stress these days?

The average time spent on an online article is 15 minutes. The blue light of reading something online prior to sleep has proven to disrupt sleep patterns. But did you know, if we spend 15 minutes reading the Bible per night, we will have read the whole Bible through in one year?

So why wouldn’t we read it and meditate on it as we fall asleep?

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