I’ve noticed recently that sleeping has become a very important part of my life. When the sun goes down, so does my interest in staying awake.
After we finish the day, we watch a little TV before we go to bed. Usually around 9 o’clock, wife Martha, The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage, will look at me and say, “Is it time to go to bed?”
When she asks that question, I look at her seriously and ask, “Are you ready to go to bed yet?” Then, looking at my watch, I said, “It’s not quite 9 o’clock yet.”
She clears her throat and says, “I was just wondering if you were ready to go to bed.”
Every once a while I notice that her eyes are shut and I asked her, “You’re not sleeping are you?”
“Oh no,” she’ll say. Then it goes around the other way, and she sees my eyes are closed and asks me, “Are you sleeping?”
“Oh no,” I reply, “I’ve just been praying for the day.”
She smiles and says, “I thought so because I heard you snore.”
As we age, our schedule begins to change a bit, and it seems more healthy to go to bed earlier and get more sleep.
Lately, I’ve been trying to stay awake until 10 o’clock, and then go to bed. I’m not sure why I stay up until 10 o’clock, but I’m trying to convince myself that I’m not as old as I think I am.
The next thing about sleep is getting up in the morning. It’s funny I can be awake all night and then fall into a sleep that lasts several hours by 4 o’clock in the morning.
I know I should have an alarm clock to get me up, but what do I need to get up for?
The only reason to get up in the morning is for breakfast. I can’t think of anything else to schedule my early rising from La-la land.
Sometimes, I wake up around 5 o’clock and enjoy the silence in our neighborhood. I think I should be getting up very soon.
Then I fall back into such a sound sleep I don’t awaken until 7:30. I wake up, look at my clock, and wonder where in the world the time went.
I stare at the clock and wonder how in the world I could’ve slept for more than nine hours. That doesn’t seem possible at all. And yet it happens more than I like to admit.
The question I have is, how much sleep is too much? What’s the right amount of sleep for a person my age?
Another aspect of the sleep problem is I usually take a nap in the afternoon, too. I think I sleep more than I’m awake, which may be good for the people around me. In all of my considerations about this, I must confess I really enjoy sleeping. I’m not sure of any activity I enjoy more than this. Thinking about this I was reminded of what David said.
“It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.”
— Psalms 127: 2
Sleeping is a blessing from God.
Dr. Snyder is a former pastor who lives with the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage, wife Martha, in Ocala, Fla. Contact him by email at jamessnyder51@ gmail.com.
