Sleep Deprivation

Sleep Deprivation is a terrible thing. I used to be a fairly sound sleeper, but anymore, I've always got at least one ear "on call" during the night for Claira and tend not to sleep as well as I used to. I tend to also worry and fret and my mind spins with problems of the day - something I am struggling to let go of. (Okay, no comments here about how aging affects sleeplessness, please!!!)

I'm finding that, for me, sleep deprivation can become a serious problem. When I become fatigued from the lack of rest, REAL rest, I become this crazy person who can't think straight, cannot focus, my imaginations tend to run on the wild side, and my attitude? Well, let's just say that my attitude quickly moves onto a sliding scale that has been greased with WD-40! Insomnia becomes a vicious cycle being spurned on by tension, stress, and anxiety which are only enhanced by fatigue...

I've subjected myself to reducing the amount of caffeine I drink daily. It doesn't mean I have elminated Starbucks (I'm not THAT crazy), but on most days I try to stop drinking anything caffeinated past 3:00 pm in order for my body to process it out so I can actually rest when I climb into bed. Now, last night, I made the mistake of drinking a diet Pepsi Jazz (strawberries & cream- MMMM!) with dinner and at 11:00 I was still tossing and turning in bed, unable to quiet my thoughts and settle my body to rest. So I got up, heated up a mug of milk and honey and was soon drifting off into dreamland. For the first night in a LONG time, I actually slept ALL NIGHT LONG. I didn't wake up once. Greg, who sleeps very soundly, even if I have to climb over him to get to Claira, asked me this morning if Maddie had cried during the night. I said I had no idea because I slept all night. What a BLESSING that was.

I was telling our student worker, Amy, and her boyfriend, Andrew, about my drinking milk and honey and Andrew commented on the "milk and honey" part. It got me to thinking about the "Land flowing with Milk and Honey" that the Lord promised to the children of Israel, and we kinda laughed about how ironic that was. Maybe there is more to the idea of milk and honey than I've ever given it thought. When I was little, I always had this picture in my head of this shiny, syrupy, milky river flowing through the land that God had promised - that's how I pictured it. But last night, I feel like I got a glimpse of the meaning behind the "milk & honey" that God was promising: REST.

Milk contains calcium and tryptophan, both of which encourage sleep. Honey is a complex carbohydrate which is calming and also encourages that feeling of sleepiness (think Thanksgiving Day dinner!) While the land that the Israelites crossed over into was NOT sticky with a milky river, it WAS intended to be a place of rest. And isn't it just like God to make reference to something so practical and readily available to draw a picture for us of what He wants to give to us...