Sleep problems can arise from a variety of causes. These causes might have a physical origin for example. I myself suffered with broken sleep at one time because of a neck related problem (see futher down the page for details). Possible physical causes ought to be checked out.

Here in this article I'm not going to deal primarily with possible physical reasons. Rather I'm going to look at how you can find the peace of God in the night time hours in spite of things from the daylight hours that might otherwise crowd your head and your heart and so disturb your sleep. Hopefully, after reading this you will be able to see a way forward so that you can sleep well again.

The trouble many people have with sleep arises out of their minds. Anxious, fretful or distressed thoughts about the situations of life come upon them in the night hours to haunt them. These thoughts swirl around them and they can't get a hold of them to effectively put them to bed. Is this is what you are experiencing? If so, what can you do about it?

Read on, if you are having sleep stolen from you by out of control anxious, fretful or distressed thoughts in the middle of the night. Read on and see how you can find the peace of God (that passes understanding) settling you down for a good night's sleep.

The following are three steps for moving into a place where you can enjoy good sleep every night.

STEP ONE

The first thing you need to do is to establish in your thinking - by this I mean really get it settled in your mind - that good sleep is a gift from God that He wants you to enjoy. You can do this by taking to heart God's precious promises of sleep that He has given you by the prophets. We have a record of these promises in the Bible.

Ponder these promises. I have provided you with two of them below. Speak these promises aloud to yourself. Get comfortable with what they declare to you. Let confidence in their promise arise within you.

Now, as you find yourself assured of the reliability of these promises, present them back to the Lord. Take these promises to the Lord in prayer. Make a bold request to God in prayer that these promises be fulfilled to you in your life. Ask God to make it so you experience what these words are promising.

PRECIOUS PROMISES FOR SLEEP:

It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrow; for so He gives His beloved sleep. (Let's repeat that last bit - God gives His beloved sleep.)

Psalm 127:2 - NKJV

When you lie down, you will not be afraid; Yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet.

Proverbs 3:24 - NKJV

STEP TWO

It would be good to try and pinpoint what it is that is robbing you of sleep or disrupting your sleep. A good starting point for this would be to ask yourself the following questions. (I've followed these questions with counsel about what to do if the answer you give is yes.)

1) Are you anxious about something?

It is often anxiety over issues in the day that awake us at night or prevent from sleeping when we go to bed. If this happens to you, the solution is to pour out your heart to God. You have to let Him know all your concerns and requests. Release to Him with the words of your mouth all that is on your heart. Hand over all those concerns. Get everything off your heart into His hands!

It was this form of counsel that the Apostle Paul provided in his letter to the Christians in Philippi. You can read it below in The Message translation (a parphrased translation by Eugene Peterson),

Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Philippians 4:6-7 - The Message

2) Have you got cares? Is their a weight of care on your shoulders?

Taking on the cares of this world is common. So is carrying them home from work and even carrying them into the bedroom which ought to be a place of rest.

Ian Stackhouse in his book The Day is Yours has this to say, "Night-time commits the ultimate heresy for moderns: getting us to stop. To sleep well one has to relinquish, to let go. And since letting go is not something we are good at, many of us don't sleep very well."

If you realise you're doing this, let go and let God catch your cares. Do what the Bible calls you to do and cast that weight of care on the Lord. You can do this confidently because He says He cares for you. Roll your cares over to the Lord. Deposit in His hands all that would give rise to worry in you. Fully deposit those cares with Him.

This is the counsel that the Apostle Peter gave in his first letter. You can read it below.

Casting all your care upon Him (God), for He cares for you.

1 Peter 5:7 - NKJV

3) Are you fearful?

A sense of fear or apprehension is not something you should entertain in your life. If you find you have this you must act quickly against it. For example you ought to command any spirit of fear to depart from you.

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1:7 - NKJV

STEP THREE

You can take control over how you're experiencing the circumstances around you by speaking words of peace, love, hope and faith to yourself. You have to tell your mind and emotions God's handling all that would otherwise make you disturbed and distressed.

It's time for bed and sweet sleep. Refuse to loose any more sleep over fears that have now been cast out and cares that you are no longer carrying!

Sweet sleep is a precious gift of God for you, His beloved child.

I mentioned at the beginning of this article how I suffered from broken sleep because of a neck related problem. Let me take a moment at the end of this article to tell you in more detail how my sleep improved after some treatment of this physical problem.

For quite awhile I was often waking in the night - sometimes several times a night - with muscular aches around my neck, shoulders and torso. The forced me to have to get up and walk around until it eased before I could return to bed and sleep.

I thought it might be a problem with my mattress or my pillow but while visiting an osteopath for a physical assessment I mentioned this problem. The osteopath found there was very little movement between the vertabrae of my neck because of an old sports injury. She did some work on loosening this off. After only two sessions I was sleeping all through the night without the previous interruption because of aches.