At midnight I rise to give you thanks
for your righteous laws (Psalm 119:62).
Some
people think it traumatic if they have to get up in the middle of the night.
Some even keep their eyes closed as they walk to the bathroom, for fear of
waking themselves so much that they don't fall asleep immediately when they
climb into bed. Some people like the notion of falling asleep while praying and
consider it a special time of "pillow talk." I don't know if monks or nuns still follow the
Benedictine rule to the extent that they get up in the middle of the night for
a prayer time so that their minds are returning to thoughts of God.
I
was always taught that it's best to have 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep each
night. I also noticed that when my sleep was interrupted, the problem was made
worse if I stressed out over not getting sleep. Then, quite a few years ago, I
started waking up around midnight. I would get up, make a mug of decaf coffee
and check the obituaries in the Wilkes-Barre (PA) newspaper. My parents
families lived in the area for more than a century, so it was a chance to track
down dead relatives and their survivors. I found that this time of wakefulness
didn't seem to really bother me unless I got into a debate with someone. That
habit disappeared last year sometime.
Not
too long ago, I read something about biphastic or polyphastic sleep. Instead of
trying to sleep for 8 uninterrupted hours, one
sleeps for a few hours, then gets up for a short time and does something
worthwhile before returning to bed for another round of sleep. The sleep/wake
alternation takes place so that the person still gets the needed sleep, just
not all at one time.
What if, instead of whining at God that we need to
get up in X hours and we need our sleep, we were a little more like the
psalm-singer and the monks? What if we spent the time we're awake thanking God
for His righteous laws and contemplating them on our beds? That would be a
change of pace for me. The past several nights I've been saying grace in the
middle of the night, but it's not asking God to show me His grace, and it's not
asking blessing on food, it's "Grace, lie down," and "Grace,
what is your problem?" and "No, Grace, go to sleep." Perhaps
tonight I'll add to that a "Thanks, Grace, for giving me the chance to
contemplate morality and to thank God for His wisdom in how He designed the
universe."
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