Over the last few weeks most of will have heard the Christmas carol, Silent Night, which includes the repeated line ‘Sleep in heavenly peace’. So, it’s ironic that it’s at this time of year that the most internet searches are made for the topics, ‘child won’t sleep’ and ‘I need sleep’. An expert in the field, Professor Kevin Morgan, explains that the festive season creates a perfect storm of late-nights, over-eating and drinking, unpredictable getting-up times, and increased levels of stress about getting ready for Christmas and the new year; all of which disrupt sleep and leave us feeling exhausted.
In desperation, the internet reveals that any number of remedies have been attempted, including watching a slow-motion film about sheep grazing, listening to a recording of people yawning, and even explaining to a child the infrastructure plans of China’s leader Xi Jinping! The success or otherwise of any of these techniques is sadly not recorded.
Perhaps the real answer to a good nights’ sleep, however, is to be found in the carol where we started which points to sleep in ‘heavenly peace’. It’s when we are truly at peace that we are able to find rest, and the carol points us to the true source of that peace: Christ the Saviour [who] is born.