Can anyone relate, sleeping is difficult.
I fall asleep at night just fine. At 10pm, I am looking forward to turning over to go to sleep. But then 2:30am rolls around, I have thoughts, to-dos, ruminating on the past. Sleep is far. Within all of the thoughts are more thoughts “I really need to get back to sleep. My alarm is going to go off in 3 hours.” The worry produced from this thought only prevents me from going back to sleep even more. All control is being lost as I count down the hours until my alarm goes off.
Recently, I have found being intentional about seeing the sunrise in the morning has helped with my sleep patterns and energy throughout the day.
What I have read about circadian rhythm is that the sun helps indicate to our bodies when to release certain hormones throughout the day. In the morning the blue rays are what our bodies see based on the rising over the horizon. When our eyes see this blue rays our brains signal to the rest of the body to release hormones to be awake. In the evening, when our eyes take in the red rays of sunset our brain sets off the signal to release hormones that prepare our bodies for sleep.
We were created this way.
Lets pause to think about that for a moment.
If you think about life before all the technology we have at our fingertips, people relied on the light of the sun. It makes sense that our bodies are created to have particular reactions to the light of the sun.
This week when I was reading John 11 verse 9 jumped out at me.
“Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the light, he will not stumble, because he can see by this world’s light. But if anyone walks at night, he stumbles because there is no light to help them.'” (John 11:9 NCV)
This verse is not about the light rays of the sun, but it does speak to the rhythm of society at that time in a very straightforward way. And if we are live our lives like Christ shouldn’t the daily rhythms of his life be imitated as well? He is God here on earth showing us how to navigate this life the way we were created to.
I believe Jesus is showing us how to live a healthy life- spirit, mind, body.
What are your thoughts?
An Invitation 