Pete's Blog

(I tried to save this post yesterday, but instead accidentally published it. I did delete the incomplete version, but it still landed in Buzz and other places that received the syndication, before I deleted it. This is the complete version.)

C. J. Mahaney put out a sermon on what Scripture says about sleep, but that's not what this post is about.

If asked which super-power you would pick, what would be your answer? Perhaps what comes to mind is invisibility, or the ability to fly. Or maybe it's super-strength, or teleportation. These are the ones thought of (most commonly). Loosening the question, instead asking what you would change about yourself, people would probably not choose the super-powers (though, perhaps guys would pick super-strength—would they pick super-strength even if they looked like skinny-pencil geeks?), but would choose to be taller or thinner or stronger or smarter or better able to relate to people. Perhaps some would want to never have to eat again. Or perhaps some would want to not need to breathe (which dips back into the super-power realm because you could swim endlessly). Or perhaps some would desire to never sleep again. (Imagine how much you could get done if you didn't need to sleep?!)

That intro, talking about super-powers and the rest, was to get to the thought of not sleeping. Consider again what it would be like to not sleep. And don't impose it on your life right now, but imagine that from birth you never needed sleep (your mother would probably have put you up for adoption!)—or rather from the age of seventeen. (Yes, I realize that not needing sleep carries strong implications with it. If this were consistent, you'd never need to sit down, you'd never get tired while exercising. But suppose those things were true, but somehow you did a good job of not being a freak.)

For the first seventeen years of your life you go to bed each night, get up, and live that day of your life, ending it in bed. Then, BAM! You turn seventeen and you no longer need to sleep. By that age, your parents trust you (or they don't but nothing's going to change), and you start looking for ways to keep yourself from dying of boredom with those extra hours added to your life. You get to University, and live in residence in your first year. After making some friends, you move in with them in your second year. You decide not to buy a bed. And you begin to find good ways to use the extra hours of the day you've acquired.

You hang out with friends all day long and through much of the night, but then still have plenty left in you to study for a few hours before you need to make your way off to class. This becomes a good routine for the next few years.

You graduate, and get a job. But how do you organize your day? What's the point of going home every night? When you meet a girl and get married, are you going to buy a bed big enough for the two of you just so that you can biblically know her, or are you going to be cheap and get a bed that's big enough for just her?

Who knows what other freakish unusual decisions would need to be made as a result of not needing to sleep.

All that is to put it negatively. To put the value that sleep gives to us positively, it's nice needing to come home every night and sleep. It's nice to have an anchor that forces you to leave your work. Maybe this is closer to C. J.'s sermon than anticipated. But it's a blessing that sleep forces a person to build a home life. You really need a home so that you can sleep. You can do everything else in a restaurant or gym or office. But ongoing, regular sleeping, requires a home. Interesting.

Sorry it took so long to get to the point.