What to Do When You Can’t Sleep

I’ve had trouble sleeping lately. During Christmas break, I tried (rather unsuccessfully) to stay on some semblance of my normal schedule, and the last few days before school started again, I made myself go to bed at the normal time and try to sleep.

I did everything I could think of: I drank chamomile tea before bed, made myself lie perfectly still, and tried not to think about anything that would wind my brain into high gear. However, try as I might, it just didn’t work. I would lie there for about two hours and then give up.

All that time spent not sleeping has given me lots of opportunity to think. One of the things I’ve been thinking about when I’m not sleepy is how to use the time I spend not sleeping.

Funny, right?

And yet, since I believe that God is purposeful in each thing He allows in my life, however small a thing it may be, it stands to reason that there should be something God wants to accomplish through these wakeful hours.

As I write this, it is very late on a school night. Once again, I have tried in vain to lull myself to sleep. In the process of lying very still and trying to be sleepy, I began to think about all the verses there were in Psalms about what the psalmists thought about when they couldn’t sleep.

So, of course I turned on my light, grabbed my phone, and searched the book of Psalms for all the verses containing the word night. Because… why not?

It’s not like I was sleeping anyway.

Many of the verses I found had to do with sleeplessness due to sorrow or inner turmoil. I’ve certainly been there before, but what I’m experiencing right now is just ordinary insomnia, so I focused on the verses that seemed to apply to that. 

Here are some that seemed especially pertinent:

Psalm 1:1-2 “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night.”

The Psalmist is describing a godly man, who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night, not because he has to, but because he delights in it! I wonder if I will get to the point of being happy I can’t sleep, because it means I have time to bask in thoughts of God’s Word while everything is quiet and still?

Psalm 42:8 “Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.”

When I was young, I remember one of my Sunday School teachers saying that the best way to fall asleep was to fall asleep praying. Now, she didn’t mean that praying was the best way to make us fall asleep; rather, she meant that it was particularly special to fall asleep with one’s thoughts on God and one’s heart in communication with Him. I suppose it’s a bit like when I was very small and would ask Mommy to stay with me until I fell asleep after I had a nightmare. There’s just something comforting and sweet about falling asleep with the consciousness of God’s loving presence.

Psalm 63:5-6 “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips: When I remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches. Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice.”

Notice the bookends in this passage: My soul will be satisfied and my mouth will praise when I remember God while lying awake in bed. Then, on the other end, the psalmist says that remembering will lead to rejoicing. (After all, he wouldn’t be praising God for being his help if he hadn’t remembered God helping him!)

Wakefulness at night can be a time of remembering times when God has helped, times when His goodness and love have been on display in your life. That will turn your wakefulness from frustrated boredom to sweet rejoicing!  

Psalm 119:55 “I have remembered Thy name, O Lord, in the night, and have kept Thy law.”

Times of wakefulness can serve as helpful opportunities to review Scripture. Just as God brought snatches of these familiar verses to my mind tonight to help me deal with my wakefulness, God can bring helpful Scripture to your mind while you lie awake, waiting to fall asleep.

Psalm 119:148 “Mine eyes prevent the night watches that I might meditate in Thy Word.”

The word prevent is used here to mean “go before” or “precede.” If I am understanding this right, the psalmist is saying he actually stays up late so that he can meditate in God’s Word.

During those times when I just can’t get to sleep and I decide to give up and be awake, It would serve me well to grab my Bible and start reading. Normally, I do my regular Bible reading during my time with God in the morning, but since I can’t sleep, what could be better to fill my heart and mind with than God’s Word? It’s certainly better than scrolling Pinterest on my phone, or making a mental to-do list for tomorrow, or reliving (and overthinking) all the conversations I had today.

Psalm 139:12 “Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee”

Ok, so this one isn’t technically about wakefulness, but it did remind me that God never sleeps, and the darkness of nighttime does not hinder Him from working. He has a purpose for my every moment, even this one…

when I “ought” to be asleep.