Sleep is such a blessing. I don’t always appreciate my ability to fall asleep at the end of a long day. I certainly don’t enjoy my accidental naps when I sit down to read the newspaper. I don’t like napping during the day, but I do like sound sleep at night.
Normally I can brush my teeth, put on my sleep apnea mask, crawl into bed, say my prayers and curl my left arm under my pillow and fall right asleep. About the only times my sleep pattern gets interrupted is if I am gone from home, or if I have had an over-active day, where my mind won’t shut down.
Neither of those is the case this week. I am doing all my normal before-bed habits, however, I am not drifting off to sleep. I often feel myself on the brink of sleep, but I don’t seem to be blessed with the ability of tipping over into dreamland. It has been four nights now, since I have had a really good night’s sleep. I often lay there, for hours, perfectly relaxed, mind blank, ready for the oblivion of sleep, however, no sleep comes.
Eventually, by getting up and reading or something, and then trying again, I sleep. So, instead of getting six to seven hours of sleep a night, I am getting four to five, and I am not liking it. It makes me sleepy during the day, and the lack of energy is beginning to show.
Then there is the beginning of apprehension of maybe not being able to get to sleep tonight. I try not to let that overtake my thinking. However, as each day goes by, it seems to grow worse.
What is causing this inability to sleep is unknown to me. Everyone has a night or two with problems sleeping, however by the third night, I should be sleeping before my head hits the pillow.
I am looking forward to Saturday night, with the end of daylight saving time, when I get the hour back that I lost this spring. However, now I am concerned it only means I have one more hour not to be able to sleep.
With November and the end of daylight saving time, it will be the beginning of lighter mornings, and earlier, darker nights. It also means that winter is closer, and any talk of snow becomes more serious.
When I think of November, I think of Thanksgiving, and all the things I have to be thankful for. Sometimes when life is not going as well as I expect it to go, or when bad things happen to people I love, I can get to feeling dejected and downtrodden. When I am tired and suffering from lack of sleep, it heightens those feelings.
However, I know that I am a child of God, and that he defends me from all danger and guards and protects me from all evil.
Matthew 10:29-30 says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”
Sleep, it is a blessing, and I pray that I will never take it for granted again.
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