“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

If we combine this verse with one like 1 Peter 5:7, we hear our call to cast all our anxiety upon the Lord. This is what we do as we fall asleep. As we recite all of the things which are worrying us or causing anxiety, we embrace the humility of letting go. As you drift off into sleep, give these things to the Lord.

The ultimate answer to our sleep problem is Christ because Christ is the One who is setting all things right. Our anxieties, the realities that our brain cannot process, our fears, and our need to “watch out for potential trauma” all come as a consequence of the fall. Christ has, and is, overturning the fall.

In his book You’re Only Human, Kelly Kapic addresses the spiritual discipline of sleep. He says,

Sleep is a spiritual discipline that daily reminds us of our lack of control. Just as a king is not saved simply by the size of his army or a warrior by his strength alone (Ps. 33:16-18), so sleep reminds us daily that we can’t rescue ourselves: we are never strong enough, we never know enough, we never can do enough to eliminate our vulnerability. And so sleep is an act of faith. It requires us to see our finitude as a good part of God’s design for us. (Kapic, 217)

As an act of faith, we exercise this discipline through our union with Christ. We lay our head down to rest because we know Christ has completed our work.

Sleep well.