Tag: Sleep

Body, Mental Health, Mind, Yourself

Sleep and Our Feelings

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So often when I read of the importance of sleep, I get frustrated. This is because I want to sleep and sometimes struggle with actually doing it. Have you been there? Does it ever feel like you’re not sure who is in charge in the middle of the night. The you who desperately wants to sleep or the you who is wide awake? For this reason, this post is not going to discuss the importance of sleep and how it impacts many areas of our waking hours including our feelings. It will instead give some real-world practical suggestions for things to do in those wee hours when you want to be sleeping but are not.

Focus more on the now than on the coming day

It is so easy to get into the what if dialog within your brain when you wake repeatedly in the night. Certainly there are effects we feel when we’ve missed sleep, and the reality is, we have gotten through all our prior rough days that followed nights with little to no sleep.

Count breaths backwards

This can be an extension of focusing on the now. As silly as it may seem but counting backwards in weird increments can actually give your brain something to focus on that is not ruminating about things you cannot control. An example can be to count backward starting at 128 in increments of 7. So 128, 121, 114, 107, 100, 93, etc.

Play the alphabet game

This is something I learned from Lynn Lyons, she suggests when we get anxious, it can be a helpful way to get our brains to break focus on what we don’t want to be focusing on and challenge them to focus on something else by playing the alphabet game in any given category. One of my favorite ways to use this is to work through the alphabet praying for people or things I know that start with an A, then a B and so on. Another option I do is work through confessions about myself for each letter. For example: I am appreciative. I am blessed. I am compassionate. Finally another favorite for me is to name off attributes of God. This fits right in with scripture.

“You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.” Isaiah 26:3

Body Scan

Deliberately move your awareness around from one body part to another slowly. Right thumb, right index finger, etc.

I pray some of these are helpful if you find yourself wanting to sleep, but your mind not being as cooperative as you would like. Are there any hints you’ve found especially useful? I’d love to hear.

Jesus, Yourself

The Gift of Rest

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How many times have we read some verses and not really known what they are saying. This verse is like that for me:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest … “. Matthew 11:28a

Did you see it? Rest in this verse is a gift. A gift that Jesus longs to give us. I don’t know about you but rest for me can sometimes feel like something that is illusive. Sometimes, I get myself so tired that I literally think I’m going to collapse from exhaustion, only to find that I “cannot” fall asleep. Aren’t these times just so frustrating? I describe this as a battle between my mind and my body. My mind is on overdrive, but my body is spent.

At times if these nights go on too long, or I have too many in a row, I can find that I literally start seeking rest or sleep or both. This is where this verse is so applicable. Rather than seeking the rest or the sleep, the invitation here is to seek Jesus and the rest will be given.

Ok, so that all sounds good in theory but because Jesus is invisible and we are so tired, sometimes I find that I just need someone to boil it down to what does that look like practically speaking. So here is what I am learning about “coming to Jesus” – it is not as difficult as I make it. I am learning a really practical way I can turn to Him (since He never left) is to simple stop (pause) and take a deep breath. In that breath I say His name (Jesus) and in the exhale I say “You are here.” I say these words silently. I usually say them multiple times as I breath slowly. I actually just learned recently, there is a term for this practice I’ve been doing. Some call these types of prayers, breath prayers. Who knew? Well apparently many people. But if you, like me, had not, I’m sharing with you. I’ve found these types of simple acknowledging prayers help me to return to the reality that Jesus is here and that I am safe with Him. And I receive rest.

I pray you will as well!