In So Many Words

By Dr. Charles W. Page

Do you recall trying to sleep on Christmas Eve while waiting for Santa to come to town? The anticipation of Saint Nicolas and all his goodies was just too much—who could sleep? The lyrics of Santa Claus is Coming to Town taunted me. “He sees you when you’re sleeping—he knows when you’re awake…” I tossed and turned trying to fall asleep, fearful I’d miss out on Santa’s visit if he caught me awake. I never doubted Santa’s ability to be aware of my wakefulness.

Unfortunately, as adults, the issues that keep us awake during the Christmas season are more complicated than those we experienced as kids. Financial burdens, strained relationships, difficult decisions, brooding regrets and fretful thoughts race through our minds and hinder our rest.

There is someone who “sees you when you’re sleeping and knows when you’re awake.” It’s not Santa Claus. The Bible reminds us, God’s eyes never close. Perhaps this truth can tuck us in for the night.

“He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” (Psalm 121:3-4)

We erroneously think that as we “turn in” that God somehow “turns off” or moves on to do more important things. But God doesn’t wait for us to wake up before He returns to work. God is just as active during our sleep—or sleeplessness. Believers can rest assured knowing God is awake guarding our lives.

What does God do as we slumber? Psalm 127:1-2 reminds us that God gives to those that He loves as they sleep. What does God give? Understanding God’s generous nature, one rendering would be that God gives to the believer whatever is needed at the time. God can give you wisdom and direction with decisions as you “sleep on it” overnight (Psalm 16:7, James 1:5). Maybe there is a financial need. The scriptures are filled with examples of how God provided for the physical needs of those He loved as they rested (I Kings 19:1-8; Exodus 16:1-8).

God’s gifts are good, perfect (James 1:17), eternal (Ephesians 1:3) and purposeful (Galatians 5:22-25). They do not require batteries, warranties and cannot be purchased in stores. But they are available 24/7/365—not limited to one night each year. God’s greatest gift did not arrive under a tree but on a tree (John 3:16). “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)

It’s plain to see, God has our back as we sleep. Try this Christmas recipe for rest.

1. Repent—in areas where we are aware of our transgressions. “A clean conscience
   makes a soft pillow.”
2. Release—control of problems you’re facing and give them over to God.
3. Relate—connect with God through prayer and meditation while in bed.
4. Rest—allow God to do what you cannot do for yourself as you sleep.
5. Receive—God’s unmerited forgiveness, grace and blessings while you sleep.

An English proverb reminds us, “As you make your bed so you must lie in it.” The truth of God’s Word helps us face our situations. Although we cannot change the failures of our past, we can rest with a clean conscience based on God’s gift of forgiveness. Our current circumstances may appear overwhelming, but God gives His presence and His guidance in our hour of need. Our future is secure and hopeful when God’s greatest gift—His Son—is kept in view. A life supported by a vibrant, healthy relationship with the Shepherd of Sleep makes the most comfortable mattress. In childlike faith learn to trust Him as you lie down to sleep and remember: “He sees you when you’re sleeping.”

Dr. Charles W. Page is a sleep-deprived surgeon who completed medical school and residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Dr. Page is currently a rural surgeon and has taken numerous medical mission trips to South America and the Middle East. He and his wife Joanna live in Texas with their five children. He is the author of Surrendered Sleep: A Biblical Perspective. You can find more information at surrenderedsleep.com.

Surrendered Sleep

A Biblical Perspective
by Dr. Charles W. Page

PUBLISHER: Camino Real Publishers
ISBN-10: 0983138109
ISBN-13: 978-0983138105
PRICE: Paperback: $14.95; Ebook: $10.95

Surrendered Sleep: A Biblical Perspective
Dr. Charles W. Page
Publisher: Camino Real Pub.
ISBN-10: 9-780-983-138105
ISBN-13: 978-0-9831381-0-5
Release Date: 9/15/2011
Paperback: 189 pages
Retail: $14.95

To win an entry into the giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post by midnight on September 25th. One person will be chosen at random to be entered into the drawing for the grand prize, which will be announced on October 3rd by the tour sponsor.

Book Summary

(Nacogdoches, TX) Sleep Clinics. Sleeping Pills. Sleep Systems. With all the focus on sleep, it’s obvious to anyone breathing (or not—in the case of sleep apnea) that sleep disorders are on everyone’s minds. Can’t fall asleep. Can’t stay asleep. So many problems, but so few zzzs.

Dr. Charles W. Page has been plagued with sleep deprivation his entire adult life. Whether from the rigorous unpredictable lifestyle of a general surgeon or dealing with obstructive sleep apnea, Dr. Page sees sleep as a precious commodity. Many of his surgical patients also report sleep problems on their medical histories. It’s certainly a widespread problem.

Although there is extensive medical literature regarding sleep, insomnia and sleep disorders, there is little instruction about these issues from a Christian worldview. Sleep was God’s idea—why shouldn’t we go to the One who created rest in the first place for answers to our sleep problems. One of the reasons Dr. Page wrote Surrendered Sleep was to heighten people’s awareness of the spiritual side of sleep issues, which often goes neglected in health and medical literature.

Author Bio

Dr. Charles W. Page is a sleep-deprived surgeon. He completed medical school and residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and serves as surgeon in rural Texas. Dr. Page is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the Christian Medical and Dental Association. In addition to his involvement in the teaching ministry of his local church, he has participated in medical mission trips to Cameroon, Pakistan, Milawe, Niger, Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua. He and his wife Joanna live in Texas with their five children.

Grand Prize Giveaway

($69.35 Value)

• Surrendered Sleep – Book
• Surrendered Sleep – 8-Volume DVD Series
• Sleep Songs – CD of music from Fletch Wiley

SLEEP – Lavender Vanilla Aromatherapy from Bath & BodyWorks

• Pillow Mist (4 oz)
• Body Wash & Foam Bath (2 oz)
• Lotion (2 oz)
• Candle (1.6 oz)

Don’t forget – To win an entry into the giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post by midnight on September 25th. One person will be chosen at random to be entered into the drawing for the grand prize, which will be announced on October 3rd by the tour sponsor.

My Thoughts

Sleep is definitely an issue I have struggled with at various times and for various reasons, so I was very interested to read Dr. Page’s thoughts on the spiritual aspects of sleep. The book is a nice size, with room for notes in the margins along with some questions to get you thinking as you are going through the chapters. I appreciated how the author encourages rather than condemns, even when addressing possible areas that need to be changed in our lives.

The book is focused on the attitudes of our heart, starting out by talking about having a calm heart that trusts in the Lord and keeps its perspective through tools such as prayer, praise and meditating on God’s promises. There are also several chapters on having a wise heart, covering topics such as priorities, relationships, work, financial choices, and health.

Dr. Page then talks about several other heart conditions that can help or hinder our sleep: responsive, disobedient, servant’s, separated, and enduring. He is not trying to ignore medical issues or remedies, and indeed gives direction as to where to look for help in those areas, but offers this book as a way to fill a gap in the literature about sleep.

If getting a good night’s sleep is something you struggle with, I would recommend Surrendered Sleep as a good resource for examining any changes you could make in your outlook or actions that would make it a bit easier to truly rest and relax.

Note: This is Book #81 of my 2011 Reads (master list here). I received a review copy for free, and all opinions and comments are my own.

When I learned that the topic for this month’s Best of the Best was sleep issues & bedtime routines, I was flooded with memories: sitting next to my son’s toddler bed holding his hand for most of the night, being awakened by a preschooler at the side of my bed for the tenth time in an hour, and even arguing with my husband over the best way to help our son fall asleep on his own.

The topic of sleep and bedtime routines is a big one in our culture, with hotly debated positions from a variety of parenting experts (whether real or self-styled). I have no interest in promoting any particular agenda, but I would like to share a few of the personal lessons I have learned along the way.

1. Look for any Physical Issues First

We hear this from behaviorists all the time. How many anecdotes have you heard about kids whose parents or teachers thought they were doing something out of defiance or as a stim and were later found to have a sinus infection or chronic constipation?

For our son, a large part of the problem disappeared when we addressed his physical issues. I’ve written about these in more detail previously, but the first big breakthrough came when we took Michael off of dairy and he stopped waking up with gas pains every night (Solving Our Sleep Problems, Part I). The second was when we started giving him melatonin at bedtime and he was able to fall asleep in about 20 minutes rather than taking 45-90 minutes (Solving Our Sleep Problems, Part II).

Obviously, identifying and treating physical issues should be done in conjunction with your child’s physician. Also, resolving these didn’t eliminate the need for a good bedtime routine, but it seemed to allow the routine to be more helpful.

2. Throw Out the Parenting Books

You don’t have to actually throw them away (although there was one particular book that I threw in the garbage rather than let it fall into the hands of any other vulnerable parent). But it is important to know that you can use the tools and strategies gleaned from these books without having to subscribe to the author’s entire philosophy.

I wish that I had learned how to trust my intuition and connection with my son much earlier than I did instead of feeling like I a failure for not meeting some societal expectation.

3. Respect the Importance of the Routine

One other thing I learned over the years was not to take away any part of the routine as a punishment for bad behavior. Even if we decided to cut playtime short and put him to bed early because he was behaving badly or seemed overly cranky and tired, we learned that attempting to skip any part of the routine would just make things worse and usually result in a bad night’s sleep for everyone.

Our current routine includes several parts:

• changing into pajamas
• having melatonin, a small snack and a glass of water
• brushing teeth and making a trip to the potty
• hearing bedtime stories read by either Mommy or Daddy, or sometimes making up stories about a little boy named Michael who goes on adventures
• listening to soft music and cuddling with a stuffed animal while falling asleep

If I am home, I will usually cuddle with him for a few minutes once we turn on the music and turn off the lights. When he was younger, I had to stay until he fell asleep, then we would negotiate how many songs I would stay for, and now he is usually satisfied with three or four minutes.

To me, this is another example of autism turning conventional wisdom on its head. Some people may see this as giving in to a power struggle, but after several horrendous nights, I realized that ensuring a good night’s sleep was far more important than trying to use the bedtime routine as leverage for good behavior. Children with autism crave routines and stability, and the end of a long day is not the best time to work on teaching flexibility and accepting change.

It all comes down to identifying your goal and then focusing on the best way to achieve it. And I think that lesson can be applied to whatever situation you find yourself in.

Note: This post was written for the Best of the Best, Edition 8: Sleep Issues & Bedtime and Special Needs Kids. Please check it out to read viewpoints from other bloggers on this topic.

This week on Try This Tuesday, one of our readers asks the question, How Do You Get Your Children To Sleep? Please stop by and offer your ideas for her to try!

Yesterday I shared how some of our Little Guy’s sleep issues (and some other problems) went away after modifying his diet.  But that wasn’t the whole story for him – as he became preschool age, it started taking him a long time to fall asleep, often at least 45 minutes and sometimes up to 90 minutes.  He just couldn’t relax enough to close his eyes, and it sometimes seemed that he was reliving his day or a video he had watched earlier.

He also began to wake up in the middle of the night and have a lot of trouble getting back to sleep.  He wasn’t evidencing any pain and was very quiet and groggy, not hyper and alert like some kids are when that happens.  Again, we were looking at 45-90 minutes to go back to sleep, and he would get very upset at either time if I tried to leave his room.  You could argue that was my fault, and you could be right, but that’s where we were at the time.

After implementing the suggestions offered by some sleep experts related to consistent routines, physical activity and slowing things down in the evening, etc, we still weren’t seeing any improvement and both mom and son were not functioning as well as they should be during the day due to the lack of quality sleep.

In my research on various supplements and treatments that could be helpful with autistic kids, I learned about melatonin, which is a hormone secreted in the body to help regulate sleep cycles, among other things.  Although it is an over-the-counter product, we did consult with his doctor before starting it.  Since then, my husband has started taking it, and I use it on occasion as well.

There are different opinions as to a proper dosage and every person is different, so I am not making any recommendations for other people, but I will share that we use Kirkman’s 1 mg chewable melatonin tablets.  They have a slight mint-flavor and are not very expensive compared to many of the other supplements you may be using.

Without question, melatonin has been a lifesaver for us in terms of sleep.  Now he can fall asleep within about 20 minutes and rarely wakes up in the middle of the night, or, if he does, falls asleep immediately after being ushered back to his bed. (Melatonin doesn’t technically help you stay asleep as it only enhances the natural melatonin present at bedtime, but perhaps the sleep quality is better, allowing him to not wake up so easily as before.)

If you are thinking of trying it, I would recommend reading more about it – the Autism Research Institute has a good article on melatonin – and talking to your supportive health care professional.

After posting about the Sleep Number Sleep-In Challenge the other day, I started thinking about the sleep problems we have experienced with our son and how grateful we are to have regular sleep now.

From the time our Little Guy was a baby, he would often have trouble sleeping unless I was holding him in an upright position against my chest.  He also spent many nights with me rocking him in his infant car seat.  When he did sleep in his crib, and later his toddler bed, he would often wake up crying and require a lot of effort on our part to help him get back to sleep.  I later realized that he was experiencing a lot of gas and bloating and possibly some reflux.

Shortly after his diagnosis of autism at 33 months old, I heard about the gluten-free casein-free (GFCF) diet and became convinced that we should give it a trial run.  We started by removing all dairy and within a few weeks realized that he was no longer waking up in pain during the night.

In addition to the better sleep he was getting, we also noticed the complete absence of the cold-like symptoms he had shown most of the time since he was about 2 weeks old and the reduction of some sensory-seeking activities, such as spinning around for long periods of time.  He also began looking at both people and objects more directly rather than by getting up close to them, squinting and looking at them out of the corner of his eye, which he had often done with his toys, the TV and even our faces.

Of course, the highlight of starting the diet for us was hearing him put two words together for the first time (and in a sentence to boot!) within 24 hours of going casein-free.  It was a wonderful feeling to have a back-and-forth connection in a way we had not experienced before.

Since then, we have had other sleep issues, which I’ll share about more tomorrow, but if you are interested in more information on the GFCF Diet, check out my Autism Resources post on that topic.  I also read a wonderful “getting started” article recently at type-a mom called GFCF 101: How To Transition to the GFCF Diet and Remain Sane While Doing It.  If you try it, I’d love to hear how it works for you!