Years ago, I started reading a Psalm before I go to bed at night. I started the habit during a particularly fearful time in my life; that habit has stayed with me over the years.
Our Daughter’s Fear
Our daughter, Maggie, has taken up the habit in a slightly different way. She has several verses that she’s written on paper taped to the wall above and around her bed. Most of those verses are taken from Psalms. Every night, she stands next to her bed and reads over those verses before crawling into bed. It’s the only thing that has helped her over the years to be able to calm herself and go to bed at night. She has always had a hard time going to sleep at night and has always been our most fearful child.
Sometimes I forget she does this every night because she does it after I leave her room for the night–after she’s tucked in and prayed with. But she reminded me the other day when we were working on our Scripture memory for school. We started reading our Psalm, and she stopped me. “Mom, I already know this one because it’s one of the verses I read every night before bed.”
Good Habits
Some habits can be really bad and difficult to break, but some habits are freeing and life-giving. Reading or reciting a verse or two from Psalms before bed is a habit that is both of those things. I’ve watched it make a difference in not only my life but also my daughter’s. Sometimes it’s the simplest things in life that make all the difference in the world.
Reasons We Can’t Sleep at Night
There are so many reasons we have a hard time going to sleep at night.
- Fear
- Worry
- Anxiety
- Shame and Guilt
- Feelings of not enough
- Reminders of our failures
- A mind that refuses to shut down
- An overactive imagination
- Drinking too much caffeine
- Feeling overwhelmed
Whatever the cause, there are plenty of reasons we have a hard time falling asleep at night. The best way I’ve found to fight back is to calm my mind and my spirit by reading the Psalms. Sometimes it’s just a few verses. Sometimes, it’s a few chapters. Other times, I need to recite a few verses multiple times in my head before I finally drift off to sleep.
If you’re struggling with any of these reasons for not being able to sleep at night, try reading the Psalms. See if it doesn’t make a difference and help give you the peace you need to calm your mind and sleep.
More Encouragement
For more on this topic, check out the video Matt and I made a little while back about Praying through the Psalms. You can also read my post, What to do When You Can’t Sleep at Night.