By: Drew Narmour
A strange pattern has emerged in the last three biographies I’ve read about some of history’s most remarkable figures. Ulysses S. Grant camped on the battlefield with barely a few hours’ rest. Winston Churchill worked through the night in war cabinets fueled by cigars and adrenaline. Charles Spurgeon preached and led at a pace that often pushed the limits of his own health. It’s hard not to admire these men’s stamina and tenacity, but is it healthy?
Today, sleeplessness has become a kind of status symbol in the business world. It’s a race to see who can wake up earliest and squeeze the most out of their day in order to get ahead of competitors. Tim Cook reportedly wakes at 3:45 a.m., along with CEOs like Richard Branson and Jack Dorsey.[1] Donald Trump once said, “I’m not a big sleeper… like three hours, four hours. I toss and turn, I think, I wanna find out what’s going on.” In his book Think Like a Billionaire, his third rule is: “Don’t sleep any more than you have to.” [2]
For these men and others like them, sleep is a weakness to be overcome—something getting in the way of a productive life. But the Biblical view is quite different. Our need for sleep isn’t a biological flaw, but a part of how we were designed in God’s infinite wisdom. He has built these rhythms in our life not as a burden, but as a gift.
Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.
2 In vain you rise early and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat — for he grants sleep to those he loves. (Psalm 127:1-2)
In other words, effort doesn’t always lead to more fruit. Work isn’t ultimately what builds the house or protects the city—it’s the Lord. In that context, sleep becomes a declaration of trust, one that pushes back against illusions of self-sufficiency. David Murray states, “we all preach a sermon in and by our sleep.” [3] When we live for extended periods of time running on too little sleep, we reveal a disregard for how our Creator has made us, a lack of trust in Him to carry our burdens, or that we treat our work as an idol.
It should come as no surprise, then, that science affirms that we break ourselves when we ignore the boundaries God has designed. Chronic sleep loss significantly raises risks of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and hypertension.[4] It also significantly effects how we perform tasks by inhibiting memory consolidation and attention.[5] Those who sleep less than six hours a day are twice as likely to develop major depressive and anxiety disorders.[6] Could this have been a significant contributor to the depression that burdened Spurgeon for so long?
Sleep is a built-in reminder that we are finite dependent creatures. We can’t do it all. We aren’t meant to. God, by contrast, “will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4). He sustains the world while we close our eyes. Every time we go to bed, we’re accepting our limits and handing the day over to the One who has none. As Don Carson once said, “sometimes the godliest thing you can do in the universe is get a good night’s sleep.”
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-wake-up-morning-routine-productivity-2019-8
[2] https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trumps-early-twitter-tirade-alicia-machado-highlights-dislike/story?id=42473597&utm
[3] David Murray, Reset: Living a Grace-Paced Life in a Burnout Culture (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 54.
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK19961/?utm_source
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_sleep_deprivation_on_cognitive_performance
[6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03155-8#:~:text=Participants%20with%20an%20average%20daily,cancer%20or%20coronary%20artery%20disease
