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The other day my friend said she hadn’t made it to an early morning rehearsal because she hadn’t slept well. It got me thinking about when the LAST time I actually slept well! I’m fairly certain it was before kids. Over the past six years or so, I haven’t slept well due to worry, the dog getting sick, the cat tap dancing on my body, one of the children throwing up, an earthquake, worry, grief, the cat, migraines, too hot, neighbors, and the cat. Just last night I was “writing” in my head, a blog about what to do when sleep doesn’t come. Great timing for inspiration! Can’t the words and ideas come at, say, ten in the morning or three in the afternoon?

Since I am resigned to the fact that sleep will be a lost art for me, do I just give up on life? Well, that isn’t exactly an option for me so I came up with.

5 Things To Do When You Can’t Sleep:

1. The first thing I always do now is start praying for the widows on my list of acquaintances. I jot them in the notes on my phone when I think of them. I can periodically review the list so I don’t have to open my phone during the night and get distracted by games or social media.
2. Another thing I do is pray through the alphabet. Like thinking of someone who starts with A, then B, then C, etc. My grandmother Popo taught me that many, many years ago.
3. If you have several favorite Scriptures memorized, this is a perfect time to go over them. Some of my favorite late-night Scriptures are Psalm 94:19, Psalm 16:11, Psalm 1, and Psalm 23. You can search for your own favorite verses using Biblegateway or Youversion or one of the other great Bible apps. You can search for a word like “fear” “love” “peace” or “anxious” and jot down the verses on notecards. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have glow-in-the-dark ink on the cards so you could read them in the middle of the night without turning on the lamp?
4. Instead of “counting sheep” try to count what the Shepherd has blessed you with! Count your blessings, name them one by one. There was a time I was quite confident at 2 in the morning that I would be moving our family into the homeless shelter downtown. I was worrying about things and taking everything down a path we weren’t even near. And this counting of the blessings was a lot of work. But it becomes more of a habit as we do it. It changes our focus from what we don’t have to what we do have.
5. And if all that doesn’t work, did you know the biblegateway app has an option for “audio” where you can listen to one of two or three readers, read scripture out loud? Put in your earbuds if there are people that would be disturbed by hearing someone speaking to you in your bedroom or play it out loud as a soothing voice as you drift back into sleep. Biblegateway is also a site on your computer. You can have your choice of languages and readers if your computer is nearby during the middle of the night.

I hope these ideas help you. We may never get another full night of sleep until heaven and that may just be the way God wants it – maybe He is trying to get our attention to spend more time with Him!

And we know there are times when medical intervention is necessary to help you sleep. Pray for wisdom to know the difference between needing a prescription and needing to quiet your mind. There is no shame in getting some help from a physician when needed.

Father God, many of us struggle with sleep, especially after losing our husbands. You created our bodies to need the recharge that sleep brings to our minds and our bodies. Guide us as we struggle through answers that will allow our minds to be quiet enough to recharge and rest. Lead us to professionals that understand and friends that can encourage us during this time. Amen