Insomnia (an excerpt from "Go to Sleep" by Catrina Johnson-Bloun

Insomnia–the inability to go to sleep, or to stay asleep for a full night of rest. This has plagued me for most of my adult life. It seems like a mixed bag of blessing and curse. Lack of sleep, sustained over a period of time, hinders you in a lot of ways. It breaks your concentration and impairs the body’s ability to repair itself.

On the other hand, my wakeful moments are sometimes my most brilliant. I write a lot of my poetry during the midnight hours. A few restless nights isn’t too bad, but I have realized that a sustained period without rest is not a good thing. Not only that, if your lack of rest is brought on by worry and fear, you are working outside of God’s plan for your life.

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.

Not only that, the Lord Himself keeps watch over us, so there is no need for us to stay awake!

My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

Psalm 121:2-4.

Even though God does not slumber or sleep, He created in us a need to do just that. Sleep is needed so that the body can rest, replenish, and dream. I began to think about that. Many of us are exhausted and over-stressed. In our high-tech, fast-paced society we are always driven to do more and to see more. It is no wonder that we can’t turn off our minds when it is time to go to sleep. So how do we conquer this problem? If you watch television, you’ve surely seen the myriad of commercials advertising things designed to help people sleep. But are sleeping aids, as helpful as they are, the best answer? Perhaps we need to ask the Lord to help us sleep. That’s what I am learning to do. And I have learned that God desires sleep for us, and for our enemies. In fact, He uses our sleep, and our dreams, to accomplish his purposes in us.

In the creation which crowned the head of man, woman, the Bible says that God caused a “deep sleep” to come upon Adam.

So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

Genesis 2:21-22.

This sleep was deep enough to allow God to take a rib from Adam and create Eve. This sleep was so deep that God was able to cut Adam open, extract the material that would fulfill his deepest need, and create that fulfillment without interruption and human intervention. Notice that God already had in Adam everything he needed to make Eve. All it took to pull it out was a good sleep. I dare you to go to sleep and let God go to work on you. There’s no telling what He might bring to you in the morning!