Insomnia – How Scripture Can
Help
Dr. Larry Thorson
Psalm 4
Today’s New
International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
During the last couple of
weeks I’ve been talking about insomnia, things that keep you awake at
night. I need to make this clear, one
restless, sleepless night does not mean you have insomnia. But if those kind of nights prolong for a
month or more, you’ve got a problem.
If you’ve ever had insomnia, you know
how miserable and frustrating the experience is. I don’t mind lying awake, listening to the
sounds of the night, but it’s the dread of the following day that I really
don’t like. When I can’t sleep the night
before or several nights, I go through the next day feeling miserable. My head usually hurts, I can’t focus on
anything, I’m anxious about every coming event, and I can’t find enough words
to articulate what I need to say.
Basically my joy for that day is robbed.
That’s a shame because God gives us each day as a gift.
If you ever have insomnia, try to figure
out what’s going on. Maybe it’s a
neighbors’ barking dog that keeps you awake.
Maybe you have chronic pain.
Maybe you live with someone or next door to someone who is loud. If you take anything with caffeine including
medication, enhanced diet vitamins, drinks or anything that is meant to be a
stimulant it could be affecting your sleep.
Check everything that goes into your body. Notice if there is anything different that
you’ve started taking than normal including vitamins or a different brand of
drink. Read the labels carefully. Try writing a sleep journal. Record what time you go to bed, what you did
in the hour before going to bed, what you ate in the hours leading up to going
to bed, how long it took you to go to sleep, how long you stayed asleep, what
you were thinking about before you went to sleep.
What many don’t realize is that while
most of us, when we go to bed at night, physically prepare our bodies for sleep
that we also need to prepare our brains for sleep. We exchange our day clothes for night clothes
but not always our day thoughts for nighttime thoughts. Fortunately most of you aren’t like the
homeless man I once knew who was invited to live in a house with other homeless
guys but was so nervous sleeping in a building after years of sleeping under
bridges that he slept with his shoes on.
He didn’t last long in that house.
While we know how to physically
transition by changing clothes and brushing our teeth which signifies that
we’re not going to eat anymore that night, we don’t always work at
transitioning our minds for sleep. On
Wednesdays and a lot of Thursdays at my house, my wife and I often don’t get
home much before 9:30 even though the hour between 9:00 and 10:00 is when our
bodies want to start getting ready to sleep.
That’s actually important sleep prep time for us. But we haven’t seen or talked with each other
all day so one will say “how was your day”.
The other will then start unloading the upsetting things that happened
to them that day because of course the most upsetting things are the things
most at the front of our brains. So
while we’ll be getting physically ready for bed, we’re stimulating our brains
for war by reliving the pain of that day.
But if we don’t unload that pain, it stays bottled up and the other
person could think we’re depressed or mad at the other one.
There’s nothing wrong with unloading the
bad things that happen during a day with someone we love, but we’ve decided
it’s not a good thing to do that in the same room where we’re going to try and
sleep, at least not when we’re getting ready to put our brains to bed. But sometimes we can’t help it because the
bedroom is the only private space in our house.
The last thing Martha and I do before
going to sleep at night is pray a short prayer together. We always, always pray
for our two children. But we often pray
about a bad situation that they’re dealing with. What’s wrong with that? Nothing except that it brings that bad
situation back into the forefront of our brain.
A recent example is when our daughter had a fast growing tumor and the
doctor told her there wasn’t an opening for her surgery until November. Of course we were naturally upset. When we prayed about it at night, we trusted
mentally that God would protect our daughter, but by mentioning the problem in
prayer when we were tired and not so in control of our emotions it raised
anxiety in us. Fortunately the kind
doctor found a date for surgery in September and everything worked out.
Petition prayer, where you ask God for
something is a very good thing to do and we should be doing it all day. But for most of us, petition prayer will not
put the brain to bed at night. That’s
where Scripture comes in but not all Scripture is helpful for putting the brain
to bed at night. Let me read from the sixth chapter of Joshua…
1 Now the gates of
2 Then the LORD said to Joshua,
"See, I have delivered
20 When the trumpets
sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a
loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took
the city. 21 They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every
living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.
Maybe you’re into war strategies and battles. But even if you are, I doubt that any of you
find reading about genocidal slaughter of men and women, young and old
relaxing. That’s many things, but
relaxing it’s not. There’s no verse in
the Bible, not one, that says “All Scripture is meant to relax you”. You won’t find that verse. That means if you
choose to read some Scripture before going to sleep, and you decide to read a
little bit from a particular book in the Bible, chances are you may come to
something that’s very upsetting.
Mary Ellen Van Ostenbridge, our music
director, was telling me last week how one Saturday night she couldn’t get to
sleep. The biblical book of Micah kept
coming into her mind. So she got up and read the entire book, the upsetting
parts and the comforting parts. At the
end of the reading, she closed her Bible, turned off the light and went off to
sleep.
Scripture can have an incredible impact
on us. Take for example David’s Psalm
4. It says 1 Answer me when I call to you, my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; have mercy on me and hear my prayer. 2 How long will you men turn my glory into
shame? How long will you love delusions
and seek false gods? 3 Know that the
LORD has set apart his faithful servant for himself; the LORD hears when I call
to him.
4
Tremble and do not sin; when you are on
your beds, search your hearts and be silent.
5 Offer the sacrifices of the righteous and trust in the LORD. 6 Many, LORD, are asking, "Who will
bring us prosperity?" Let the light of your face shine on us. 7 Fill my heart with joy when their grain and
new wine abound.
Imagine
reading verse 8 as the last thing that you read or think about before turning
off the light at night. “In peace I
will lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety.” Imagine how your brain will react to those
words.
One of our members last week came home
from work to find that her house had been burglarized. Her bedroom had been ransacked. To make matters worse the officer who took
the report told her that the burglars now knew what she had in her house and
could return. What do you think would
have been on her mind if she had laid her head down on that bed in that bedroom
that night? Pictures of thugs I would
expect. In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell
in safety.
When David prays “for you alone, Lord,
make me dwell in safety” he’s contrasting with everything else that could keep
him safe from his enemies. The police
can’t put a 24/7 watch on your house. An
ADT alarm could be disabled. A barking
dog could be tricked. In peace I will
lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety. “…you alone, LORD, make me dwell in
safety.”
Say those words over again. And again.
For something to penetrate the brain, it takes repetition. What you feed your mind is what it is going
to live on. Contrast “…you alone, LORD,
make me dwell in safety…” with this late night news report last week that I
read in the LA Times on September 25, 2009: “Public health officials in
Riverside County are urging residents to steer clear of bats acting strangely
after a 15-year-old Hemet boy was bitten.
The bat was rabid and the teenager was treated by a doctor last week
after the bite. According to the Riverside County Department of Animal
Services, the boy found the bat flopping around on the ground during the day.
When he tried to pick it up, it bit him. His condition was not immediately
known. "If you see a bat during the
day, something is not right with that bat," said Sharon Fortino, assistant
nurse manager for the county Department of Public Health. "They're
nocturnal feeders." She said no one should touch a bat but if necessary
use a shovel, tongs or heavy leather gloves. Dogs, cats and other mammals can
easily contract the virus if they get too close to a rabid bat. Last year,
What do you think the impact of that story
will have on your brain as you’re starting to go to sleep? Instead try meditating on Scripture. Meditation is where you take one or two
verses and you read them over and over allowing the mind to absorb them. In peace I will lie down
and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety.
Take your Bible and read it. Read a Psalm sometime during the day,
everyday. Note the verses in the Psalm
that are comforting and peaceful. Then
come back to those verses at night before going to sleep. The Psalms are filled with them.
Once during my most severe insomnia
experience, I picked up a little paperback New Testament and started reading
the first chapter of the Gospel of John.
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God.” That was the first night. I read it over and over again that
night. The next night I read “In the beginning was the Word and the Word
was with God.” And the next night
the same thing. Finally after a week I
moved on to the next verse.
The goal in meditation is not to cover a
lot of ground and learn a lot about the Bible.
The goal is to drown out all the other thoughts that flood our
mind. Think of thoughts of conflict that
so often flood our mind at night as being like stimulants, caffeine or
speed. They trigger other upsetting
thoughts. We want to drown out or dilute
those thoughts. We want to disarm them
at night instead of drawing them to the front of the brain.
I make no guarantee that if you follow
this advice you’ll overcome your insomnia.
But Scripture has helped me with my insomnia. Insomnia is a complicated disorder that you
might need to see a doctor and/or a counselor to help you work through a
plan. There is help.
If you’re not having sleeping problems
meditating on passages of Scripture will give you better focus in life and help
you get to know God better. Jesus died
on the cross to forgive us our sins and restore us more fully back into God’s
image. Ask Jesus to come into your life
and be your savior. Then take Bible
verses and allow God’s Spirit to form your soul into God’s image. God will get you where you need to be. May you sleep well tonight.