Importance of Sleep and Its Benefits

What does a child do immediately after birth? They are indignant about having to leave a warm place, blink their eyes trying to understand where they ended up, and then fall asleep. Sleep is an integral part of every person's life. We spend a third of our life sleeping. Our entire life is arranged so that at the end of the day a person should go to bed until morning. And so every day until death. And then a brief moment and glorious awakening for Eternal life.

Sleep is a natural transition of the body's vital activity from wakefulness to rest, reboot and recovery, during which consciousness is disconnected, nervous system activity decreases and the body begins to launch restorative processes for regulation of vital functions.

Sleep is an important factor for strengthening immunity, cell regeneration, metabolism restoration, production of growth hormones, joy, appetite and restoration of physical and emotional strength.

A newborn child can sleep 17 hours a day, waking up for feeding, but the older they become, the more their sleep time decreases. An adult's sleep time is 7-8 hours. This circadian rhythm is embedded in our body by the Creator Himself, and if something in it is artificially constantly violated, then doors open for all kinds of diseases and mental disorders.

It's important for parents to understand how much and when their small and big children should sleep and strictly follow this daily routine so that the child's body can develop properly. Child sleep deprivation is a gross violation of health laws and can lead to many negative consequences affecting physical, spiritual, emotional and mental human development.

Children grow in sleep, during which there is release of somatotropin hormone responsible for normal development of muscles and bones. With sleep deprivation, disruption in this process can occur and body growth slows down.

In the early stage of sleep, with sufficient darkness, the pineal gland produces melatonin hormone, which has antioxidant properties, slows cell aging, increases immunity, regulates circadian rhythms in the body.

Lack of sleep can also affect increase of stress hormone—cortisol, which doesn't decrease during rest hours but remains at high level, which can lead to insomnia, further aggravating health problems.

It's not difficult for parents to notice that when a child needs sleep, they become disobedient, capricious, begin to whine and cry for no reason. The body gives signals about need for rest, and the child, not understanding what's happening to them, begins to behave badly. It's important to notice this timely and give opportunity for the child's body to sleep. Daytime sleep should last as long as needed until the baby wakes up on their own. It happens that after daytime rest the child's body is already awake, but they themselves haven't come to themselves yet and look very gloomy, and need gentle parental embrace to finally wake up.

Strange as it may seem, children who sleep little become very mobile and hyperactive and very poorly and reluctantly go to sleep. Although some parents might like this, one needs to sound the alarm, as there is disruption of frontal lobe function, the child's nervous system is excessively overloaded, impulse control decreases and malfunction can occur.

A couple of hours before sleep, one needs to watch that children are calm, don't eat stimulating food, don't watch exciting films and don't have access to gadgets. Joint reading of useful books, calm conversations and prayers before sleep prepare the child's body for sleep and naturally introduce it into this state of rest.

Caring for their children's rest, parents shouldn't forget about themselves, that they too are living people who need night rest. Night communication, late film watching and sitting on the internet until late doesn't add health, but destroys what is then very difficult to find or restore in the body.

When a person goes to bed not too late and spends enough time sleeping, then their circadian rhythms are restored and all hormones excellently perform their functions, and upon awakening consciousness is filled with hormones of joy and happiness, and life energy overflows.

That communication, film and show watching, game participation that is customary to conduct at night time is not worth a gram of your health, which once lost, you can never get anywhere. And if parents have enough wisdom and strength to force their children to live correctly and receive blessing from this, then where does all this go when it comes to themselves?

Exceptions can be in every person's life. And one-time sleep deprivation, although it brings discomfort, the body quickly recovers and serves faithfully further.

From my many years of observing people who constantly worked night shifts, I can tell that they all subsequently had serious problems with normal sleep and little brought them joy in life when health was lost.

Sleep is also God's gift to humans, during which everyone stops sinning and takes a pause in their life path. And night lifestyle deprives the already exhausted by sin body of those important restorative processes that want to serve us and heal us.

With sleep deprivation, memory worsens, learning ability decreases, stress resistance decreases, coordination worsens, chronic fatigue becomes the norm of life. Accordingly: study, behavior and life activity of the child are not at the proper level, which parents may perceive as disobedience or rebellion against their influence and aggravate this with unfair reprimands and punishment.

It's good when children have a separate room for sleep where no one will disturb them. If this doesn't exist, then parents need to adapt to the child's rest routine and not interfere with their noise and loud communication. The child's rest room should be dark and quiet. All electronic and radiating devices should be turned off.

Late food intake, shortly before sleep, is also not a desired rule. A full stomach doesn't give the body sufficient rest. And sweet or flour food increases sugar release into blood, which prevents the body from producing melatonin. And hard-to-digest food creates unnecessary load on digestive organs and the body begins to produce cortisol prematurely, leading to wakefulness. During food digestion, growth hormone is not released, leading to developmental delay.

We should all remember that at night time, when we sleep, although our mind rests, the body continues to live and perform necessary processes embedded in it by God. Therefore one needs to watch this and cooperate with one's health.

Ignorance of health laws or ignorance in these matters doesn't protect us and our children from consequences of their violations. Although we're all different, health laws are the same for everyone. Obedience to these rules brings health blessing, enriches life and brings joy.

1. Please read 1 Cor. 6:19-20; Ps. 3:5; 4:8; 127:2; Prov. 3:24; Eccl. 5:12; Jer. 31:26; Mark 4:38; 6:31 in light of this chapter.

2. What other verses from the Bible came to your mind?

3. What did you understand from this chapter?

4. What is sleep?

5. Why is it important to know what processes occur in the body during sleep?

6. How is sleep deprivation connected to a person's spiritual state?

7. What hormones are produced during sleep, what are they called and what is their role?

8. Why do children need to sleep longer than adults?

9. What consequences can chronic sleep deprivation have in a child?

10. Why is it important for a child to have an established daily routine and bedtime?

11. How does spiritual state affect sleep quality?

12. How does sleep quality affect spiritual state?

13. How can prayer before sleep help a child and adult?

14. How can parents set an example for children of correct attitude toward rest?