“Sleep is spiritual,” is the claim made in a newly-published guide to discipleship, written by London-based Church of England vicar, Sarah Guinness.
Although overlooked by many, ‘The Alternative Guide to Discipleship’ places sleep firmly at the core of growing in Christian spirituality.
Guinness writes, “Sleep is not wasted time. It is an opportunity for God to seal our dreams, and to deposit things and ideas in our hearts and minds.
“I’d like to imagine that at night God, who knit our brains and bodies together, stands by our beds, ready to sort through the day that we’ve had, patching the holes, processing that conversation, mending the tears in our armour so that we wake up feeling repaired, refreshed and ready for another day.”
Guinness, the vicar of St Faith’s and St Paul’s in Brentford, West London, believes that sleep can be creative, an opportunity for God to speak to us, a place to be vulnerable and a practice run for our Christian lives.
She cites how Adam fell into a deep sleep and wakes to find Eve, how God speaks to a sleeping Abram about his promises and seals a covenant with him, and how Jesus sleeps and then wakes with clarity to curse a fig tree and clear the temple.
In Mark 1, Jesus goes to bed, sleeps and awakes early to pray, and later in the day tells the disciples they need to move on to other towns. “It’s as though,” says Guinness, Jesus “goes to sleep, has a divine download and feels focused on his priorities.”
It’s in our dreams that God speaks to us most powerfully, she explains. “God, being God, can do far more in our sleeping than we can do in our waking. He uses dreams to get our attention.
“People talk about being woken in the night with a strong urge to pray for a person or a situation. Why? Because sleep isn’t dead space when our bodies reboot. Sleep is spiritual.”
Guinness also points out how sleep can be a place of physical and emotional healing, with our sleeping hours helping us to heal from trauma and process our emotions. She explains that the Hebrew word for dream is harlam – which means to make whole or healthy.
Sleep is also an opportunity for God to speak to us. Job 33, for example, refers to God speaking in dreams, “in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls.”
Guinness explains, “God whispers in our ears – he warns us, he helps us make the right decisions, he protects us. While we are sleeping, Jesus is working in us, guiding us, correcting our mind, our heart and our senses.
“When we invite Jesus into our hearts and minds, and when we give him lordship over our lives and an ‘access all areas’ pass, then he uses our sleep to keep us on the narrow path of following him.”
Dreams and visions play a vital role in numerous Biblical stories, from Jacob and Daniel in the Old Testament, to Joseph in Matthew’s nativity account receiving reassurance and warnings in his dreams.
Guinness concludes, “Sleep is a practice run for death, because one day we will fall asleep and wake up – not here, but in God’s loving arms.”
The importance of sleep is also emphasised by Christian doctor Richard Pile, in ‘Fit for Purpose,’ a guide to ‘better health, wellbeing and living a meaningful life.’ He describes Jesus as leading by example in his approach to sleep.
When the storm arose on the Sea of Galilee, and the disciples were terrified, Dr Pile explains, “Waves were not just pounding the boat, but pouring over it. Where was Jesus? Was he running around, leaping into action, bailing out water? No, he was asleep in the hold. He knew what his body needed and was prepared to prioritise it.”
In ‘The Alternative Book of Discipleship,’ Sarah Guinness goes beyond the importance of sleep to map out a route to spiritual growth based on managing boundaries, embracing emotions, learning to play, surrendering outcomes, and other insights. It is founded on the author’s experiences as a parish priest and, before that, 12 years as an occupational therapist.
Rev Peter Crumpler is a Church of England minister in St Albans, Herts, UK, and a former communications director with the CofE.
