Article May 1, 2000 Issue

Don't be a slave to sleep

Rest doesn't necessarily require sleep.

By Katherine Jane Hildreth

Are you forever chasing sleep and never quite catching up? If so, I know just how you feel. I once thought that if I didn't get seven or eight hours of sleep every night, I'd be totally out of it the next day. And, of course, I was.

Then I got a job I really loved. The only problem was that in order to be at work on time, I had to get up at 4:30 a.m. This meant going to bed very early if I was to meet my self-imposed sleep quota. Sometimes this was convenient, but mostly it wasn't. So I was perpetually short on sleep and always tired.

Finally, I began to pray to remedy this situation. Soon I discovered that, although it's certainly nice to have a good sleep, it isn't how much sleep we get, but how peaceful we are in the highest sense—how clear an understanding of God, Truth, we have before going to bed—that enables us to start the next day with joy and dominion. With that sense of dominion, we can accomplish whatever God gives us to do without being tired. Mary Baker Eddy confirms this point in Science and Health, where she writes, "The consciousness of Truth rests us more than hours of repose in unconsciousness" (p. 218).