Sleep

18 posts

Always Everywhere

Children often have fears when they get ready for bed. The scary thoughts don’t really start at bedtime. They are usually there during the daytime, but doing the day there are often enough distractions to not be focused on being afraid. However, at night, when things are calm and the distractions are gone, the scary thoughts return. It is important to grasp for yourself and for your children the reality of fear and the objects of fear. Your children’s fears are not abstract, but real. David addresses the reality of this in Psalm 23 when he says: Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Whether it is a […]

Late at night, wide awake

Sometimes at night I find myself awake, wide awake, hopelessly awake. In these moments I am confronted with piercing clarity about past sins, the stupidity of thinking I had a good reason to trust my flesh and ignore my God. I remember the allure of self-justification, of the fog of self-pity. Why could I not have had this awareness of the deceitful awfulness of sin forty years ago, twenty years ago, twenty hours ago? The opening plea of Psalm 130 perfectly describes the state of my heart with eyes wide open in the bleakness of night. From the depths of despair, O Lord, I call for your help. Hear my cry, O Lord. Pay attention to my prayer. Also in […]

Remembering God at night

I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. Psalm 3:5 Here is a prayer by John Calvin that demonstrates the truth of Psalm 3:5. This prayer reminds us of just how intimately connected God is to our lives. Imagine consistently, night after night, asking God for strength to honor him, even in your dreams! Notice too, the peace that can come with acknowledging our sins each day knowing that we are forgiven in Christ. In this way, your conscience, along with your body may enjoy rest! “O Lord God, who has given man the night for rest, as you have created a day in which he may employ himself in labor, grant, I pray, that my […]

Sometimes at night

Sometimes at night I find myself awake, wide awake, hopelessly awake. In these moments I am confronted with piercing clarity about past sins. I remember the stupidity of thinking I had a good reason to trust my flesh and ignore my God. I remember the allure of self-justification, of the fog of self-pity. Why could I not have had this awareness of the deceitful awfulness of sin forty years ago, twenty years ago, twenty hours ago? In these moments I am also aware that I am the same pathetic creature of my past. The opening plea of Psalm 130 perfectly describes the state of my heart with eyes wide open in the bleakness of night. From the depths of despair, […]

To Sleep, To Dream: Sleep Disordered Breathing & Psychotic Disorders

by Dr. Charles Hodges, Author of Good Mood Bad Mood It is not uncommon today to have patients come to the office with several diagnoses from several physicians. It is just as common for them to be taking several medications prescribed by different providers who do not always know what the other doctor is doing. And, at times it is up to me to help them sort it out as their family physician. I have seen several people who have come to me being treated for adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder who were being treated for obstructive sleep apnea at the same time. Almost always the symptoms of ADHD predate the discovery of the obstructive sleep apnea. Generally neither the sleep […]

Depression & Sleep: Should we blame Edison or ourselves

By Dr. Charles Hodges  Author of Good Mood Bad Mood Light bulbs have become a modest fixation for me. I hate anything that approaches fluorescence with a passion. I grew up in an incandescent world courtesy of one of the world’s greatest inventors Thomas Edison. And, frankly I would have preferred to finish under the somewhat golden light of a glowing filament. Thanks to a government that outlawed my favorite light source, I have become a hoarder of incandescent bulbs.  By now you are wondering what depression has to do with light bulbs and Tom Edison. The answer is that Edison made it economically practical to stay up long after dark. Our bodies are made to cycle up when the sun […]

A prayer for going to sleep

Sleep does not always bring rest. Here is a prayer to focus our hearts and our thoughts on the goodness and glory of God as we sleep: O Lord God, who has given man the night for rest, as you have created a day in which he may employ himself in labor, grant, I pray, that my body may so rest during this night that my mind cease not to be awake to you, nor my heart faint or be overcome with apathy, preventing it from adhering steadfastly to the love of you. While laying aside my cares to relax and relieve my mind, may I not, in the meanwhile, forget you, nor may the remembrance of your goodness and grace, […]

A prayer for going to sleep

Here is a prayer that asks for holiness even when we sleep. O Lord God, who has given man the night for rest, as you have created a day in which he may employ himself in labor, grant, I pray, that my body may so rest during this night that my mind cease not to be awake to you, nor my heart faint or be overcome with apathy, preventing it from adhering steadfastly to the love of you. While laying aside my cares to relax and relieve my mind, may I not, in the meanwhile, forget you, nor may the remembrance of your goodness and grace, which ought always to be deeply engraved on my mind, escape my memory. In like manner, […]

Sleep and your brain’s video recorder

My wife and I had a conversation with a neuro-ophthalmologist at Duke University a few months ago. He explained to us that 30-50% of the brain’s activity is taken up with vision. That fact amazed me. The eye is the lens that lets in the light, but our brains do the processing and storage of the images carried by the light. So everything I see is processed and stored in my brain, even if I don’t remember all of what I see. So that led me to consider, well, just how much can our brains store? Here is an answer from Scientific American: “If your brain worked like a digital video recorder in a television, it has enough memory to hold […]

A prayer on going to sleep.

I lie down and sleep;       I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. Psalm 3:5 O Lord God, who has given man the night for rest, as you have created a day in which he may employ himself in labor, grant, I pray, that my body may so rest during this night that my mind cease not to be awake to you, nor my heart faint or be overcome with apathy, preventing it from adhering steadfastly to the love of you. While laying aside my cares to relax and relieve my mind, may I not, in the meanwhile, forget you, nor may the remembrance of your goodness and grace, which ought always to be deeply engraved on […]