How to Partner with Your Body and God to Get the Sleep You Need

Sleep is a spiritual practice.

Honoring the sleep your body needs is a spiritual non-negotiable. It’s stewarding the temple of your body well.

But honoring your season of life is also a non-negotiable. And in some seasons of life, like parenting small children, sleep seems like a luxury.

These non-negotiables can be at odds with each other!

In a more personal post than usual, I’m going to share what’s working for me personally with regard to sleep. It may or may not work for you, and that’s fine. Chew the meat, spit out the bones.

An Invitation

This post is an invitation to intentionally think about sleep differently, as a spiritual practice, with an unconventional partnership I’ll explain below. And see what happens.

There’s a tricky balance here: Our body needs a certain amount of sleep AND we have commitments & responsibilities. Those things can be at odds, even at war, with each other.

I balance letting my body get the sleep it needs with getting up early enough for the day’s work by fostering an unconventional partnership between myself, my body, and God.

At a practical level, here’s how it works. I practice these three things:

1) I don’t set an alarm.

I feel much better, for the entire day, if I wake up naturally with less sleep. say at 4:00 AM, then if I wake up with more sleep to my alarm, say at 6:00 AM. This is because the alarm yanks us out of a sleep cycle when our body isn’t ready to wake up yet.

When we try to force-fit our body into the day’s schedule, instead of partnering with our body’s natural rhythm, eventually we pay for it with our health. If we survive on coffee, energy drinks, fast food, and other time-saving stimulants, there’s a good chance adrenal fatigue, sickness, and/or a crash ‘n’ burn breakdown are in our future. If we don’t give our body the rest it needs now, it will force us to later.

I know not setting an alarm sounds crazy. And, yes, we have to get to work on time. Get the kids up for school on time. Make our commitments and responsibilities. I know, I know, I know.

When I started not setting an alarm, I still set one — a drop-dead alarm – the absolute latest I could possibly get up and still meet the day’s commitments and responsibilities. The beauty of it is, I never hit the drop-dead alarm. I always woke up first, for more than a year. So now, I don’t even bother setting the drop-dead alarm. I pulled this off by practicing the second thing:

2) I partner with God for my wakeup time.

In bed, before going to sleep, I ask God to wake me in the morning when he knows I need to get up for the day. Often, he wakes me before I think I need to get up, because he wants to spend time with me first. And on those days, he gives me the grace to not be tired and actually be more productive than normal the rest of the day.

It’s not “I’ll set my alarm an hour earlier so I have some devotion time.” No, that puts it on you.

Instead, I put it on God: “Ok Lord, if you want to spend time with me tomorrow morning, wake me, feeling refreshed, early enough so we have the time together you want.”

Then it’s in his control, and it’s his problem, not mine. And I have been shocked at his faithfulness.

3) I partner with my body for my wakeup time.

In bed, before going to sleep, I also tell my body what time I want to wake up. For me, this is typically an hour or more before my drop-dead time, so I have time to go to the gym and/or have some devotion time.

“Ok, body, I want to wake up at 4:45 tomorrow. Got it?” It is amazing how often I wake up at that exact time, to the minute, or within 5 minutes or so. Waking up naturally, I feel refreshed. Because my body optimizes my sleep rhythm to hit that time.

I have no idea why this works, but, in my experience, it totally does. Your mileage may vary, but give it a try for a week and see what happens.

The beauty of not setting an alarm is, on the occasions when my body needs more sleep than my schedule wants to give it, my body can have it. So on a nightly basis, I’m routinely giving my body the sleep it needs.

This helps my immune system so I don’t get sick as much. And it helps the attitude I go into the day with. It’s amazing how much better the day itself looks when you start the day feeling physically refreshed versus physically exhausted.

Honor your season of life.

If you have young children, this will look very different for you than it does for us as empty-nesters. Ask the Holy Spirit; he’s a genius at this. Ask wise friends you respect.

Then try stuff. Experiment. Learning what doesn’t work, because you tried it, is a win. Negative results are just as important. Keep trying and tweaking until you discover the rhythms and practices that work best for you.

Does this resonate?

Is this idea of sleep as a spiritual practice new to you? Has your relationship with sleep been a rocky one? Tell us your story in the comments; it will help others.

Do You Want Help?

Reach out to Dave and Janet here for an inner healing session. We use a method called The Immanuel Approach, a facilitated safe, gentle way to experience a connection with Jesus, get unstuck, and receive the healing he has for you.

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