Get Some Sleep

One

Good Leisure and the Mind

A well-rounded and balanced life requires good leisure. It requires that we do activities that make us feel more alive, more connected to the goodness of the world, more alert and more engaged.

Good leisure is where we pursue a delight in truth and goodness and beauty. That’s why there’s a real sense in which good leisure is, next to prayer and love, the thing that makes us most fully human, and most fully alive.

But instead of that, instead of pursuing good leisure, what do we often do? We come home from work, eat a quick meal while we look at our phones, maybe get the kids to bed, and then “veg. out” in front of the TV.

Isn’t that an incredible phrase: “Veg out”? Instead of living like a human being who is full alive, we act like a plant, we use our free time, not like a man or even like a dog, but like a vegetable!

That can’t be right. What are we doing? 

Two

“Vegging out” is not what you need.

When we are tired, vegging out will not revitalize us. When we are tired mentally, emotionally, or physically, usually we need to sleep or exercise. And if you really need to veg out, that means it’s time to turn off the screen and just go to bed. Because if you’re that tired, if you’re dead-beat, then you’re not going to be able to really engage in good leisure, not going to be able to give the mind and emotions what they need - because that takes energy.

Delighting in insight, exploring new ideas, appreciating the way everything comes together, you can’t do that, you can’t be fully alive, fully rational, if you’re totally zonked. 

We indulge in mindless entertainment so often because we don’t have the energy for good leisure. And we don’t have the energy for good leisure, because we don’t get enough sleep. And guess why we often don’t get enough sleep? That’s right! Because we’re indulging in mindless entertainment!

So, you have to break this vicious cycle. You have to quit the mindless entertainment and get to bed. 

Then tomorrow, after you rest, then you can really try to invest in an activity that will make you happy, an activity that will allow you to be more than a zombie, fighting off the sleep you need by looking at garbage on a screen.

Three

Eat Well, Exercise, Sleep

If you don’t take care of your body, it will revenge itself on you by preventing your mind and emotions from delighting in the highest things this life can offer.

So how can you have the health and energy you need to enjoy your free time? 

We need three basic things.

The first thing you need is to eat well. Your body and mind need real food – not the highly processed stuff. We need to go to the store and buy real food we actually prepare, not all the processed junk that comes in boxes or cans (and fast-food is highly processed stuff, that’s why its fast), not to mention all the sugar and alcohol. If this is the only fuel you put in the tank, not only is it going to be bad for your body, but more importantly it’s bad for your sou, bad for your intellect and emotions. It’s going to prevent you from delightful leisure. 

If you just eat junk, you’re simply not going to feel, at the end of the day, like life is an incredibly beautiful, exciting gift. You’re going to feel sticky and stiff and foggy and you’re going to want to veg out.

Four

To have the health and energy to feed the soul what it needs, we also need exercise and sleep.

You have to exercise. That doesn’t mean you have to get a gym membership. But you should be at least walk every day. And you need some strength and balance training. And you have to get enough sleep. 

How can you delight in truth, goodness, and beauty when you feel like you’re on the edge of a sleep-deprived migraine all day? 

This isn’t about some kind of new fitness or wellness program. It’s not some silly promise that if you stay healthy you’ll magically become happy. Not at all. It’s just the obvious truth that if your body is a mess, your mind and the powers of your soul will also be a mess.

In this life, the functioning of the body is the prerequisite to the full functioning of the soul.

So don’t abuse your body or you won’t be able to get your soul off the ground.

Five

Don’t be afraid to die

Why do we fight sleep when we’re tired? Why do we resist the natural impulse to go to bed? Why do we cling to just a little more mindless pleasure, a bowl of ice cream, one more episode of a show?

Isn’t it because we think we’ve earned a little pleasure after the end of a long day?

But remember, we don’t want a little pleasure that we’ll regret later. We want happiness. We want to be fully alive. And that might mean letting go of a passing pleasure so we can get to bed.

Actually getting to bed early is good practice for that day, or that night, in the future when we have to let our head fall on the pillow and die. It will have been good practice if we haven’t been clinging to passing, meaningless pleasures.

It will have been good practice if we’ve said, “I’ve got my work done, and I’m tired, but I don’t need to force myself to have one more pleasure that doesn’t mean anything. I don’t choose passing pleasure. I choose happiness. And I’m ready for that now.”

Please God, I pray we’re all able to say that on our deathbed. And please God, I pray we practice for it now, by going to bed when it’s time.