The Sabbath Side of Sleep

When you travel overseas, specifically when you cross multiple time zones, your body has to adjust. Typically, for every hour difference, it takes your body 1 day to adjust to the new time zone. For example, when I travel to South Asia there is a 9 hour adjustment; unfortunately, by the end of the trip my body has finally become adjusted and it’s time to come home. Due to this switch just flipping back, in addition to the tiredness induced by international travel, the body can experience intense jet-lag coming back home. 

Part of that intense jet-lag is produced by going 24 hours without sleep. In fact, in just 24 hours without sleep the body can experience many negative effects. For me, altered perception and impaired judgment hit me hard after a long journey home. I was finally home, exhausted, and couldn’t keep my eyes open at 7pm. Asleep in my bed I hear voices; more specifically, I hear French speaking voices. 

Why were there French people in my home? Did my wife invite some friends over from France? To help answer these questions I decided to grab my phone and text my wife, “Who are the people speaking French in our house?” Just seconds later I hear a burst of laughter. My wife’s friend was over and saw my text. Needless to say, there were no French visitors to be found, just a very tired brain suffering from impaired judgement. 

While the longest recorded time without sleep is around 11 days, it only takes 24 hours without sleep for our bodies to show negative effects. Prolonged hours of sleep deprivation bring more significant effects like irritability, memory deficits, muscle tension, hormone imbalance, and inflexible reasoning. We need sleep. Generally, adults need 7-9 hours of sleep daily. What do your sleep patterns look like? How do you get ready for sleep? Are you experiencing any negative effects from sleep deprivation? 

Jesus tells us that “the Sabbath was made for man.” Sabbath is a gift. Why? God rests; but, not because He has to. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. Why? We need sleep. Why? Because we aren’t God.. There is a sabbath side of sleep. Not all sleep is restful; I think we can all agree on that reality. However, if Sabbath can remind us daily of our dependence on God the Father, perhaps our perspective on sleep will not seem like a pesky necessity for these mortal bodies, but rather a gift to experience Him daily even while we lay sleeping in our beds.

Submitted by: Mikey Conrad