Sweet Dreams Giveaway

If you haven’t read my Proverbs 31 Encouragement for Today devotion that is running today, click here to get caught up with the rest of us. Don’t forget to come back for the giveaway!!

__________________________________________________

Well, little did I know two months ago when I turned in this devotion what this week would hold for me! The flu has hit here hard, robbing me not only of health, but of oodles of sleep! With both boys and mom contracting it, our home has been a continual coughing, sneezing symphony!!!

Tired isn’t a strong enough adjective to describe this gal.

But I do feel I’ve turned a slight corner (thanks in GREAT part to the prayers and well-wishes of many of you!) and I am hopeful I’ll be able to head Sunday to Charlotte to appear on next Monday night’s Made to Crave webcast and spend two days with my daughter Kenna and the Proverbs 31 office gals. (I’ve been on the P31 speaking team for nearly 5 years and writing for the magazine for over 8 and I’ve still never seen our office!)

My exhaustion this week is not a foreign concept to many of you, I know.

Everywhere I go I encounter worn-out women.

Married gals.

Single sisters.

Moms who work away from home.

Women who have a home office.

Moms whose whole life is work for their family.

Twenty-something waitresses.

Thirty-something business women.

Forty-something retail workers.

Fifty-something grandmas.

All trying to balance home, church, community, family, life and love.

While sleep may be high on their list of needs…

It is often last on their roster of realities.

What’s a slumber-deprived gal to do?

I have struggled with this issue for over 20 years.

You heard me right! The last time I slept consistently through the night on a regular basis was in 1990 when I became pregnant for our oldest child.

Three difficult pregnancies; two kids who would not sleep through the night until the next child was born.

Then, the third child slept through the night at 5 weeks!!!! Yay!!!!

Not so fast…..at 6 weeks, his dad was put on the night shift.

He returned home to our 900 square foot home at 3:00 am each morning.

I’m such a light sleeper that I heard his keys in the door every night.

Again, my sleep was interrupted continually. And although I usually can fall asleep at the beginning of the night after 20 minutes or so, when I wake up in the middle of the night, I toss and turn for AT LEAST 45 minutes til I can drift off again.

It stinks!!!

Todd no longer works that night shift. No ma’am.

Now he works first shift and gets UP at 3:30 am!!!!!!

Well, fellow short-on-slumber sisters, besides my suggestions in the devotion, here are some sleepy-time tips for you to try:

~ Utilize a notebook to not only list worries and prayer requests but to jot down “to do” items as well. Somehow listing “Pay electric bill” or “Transfer bank funds” can take the task off your mind and allow you to sleep soundly knowing you won’t forget to do it the next day.

~ Try not to eat for the last few hours before bed. It can mess with your sleep.

~ Do drink a toasty mug of chamomile tea with a touch of honey. Zzzzzzzzz……

~ Try some pillow mist spray in lavender or other soothing scent.

~ A microwavable cloth bag filled with buck wheat and lavender works well too. I have a homemade one from my best friend from college but I have seen them online as well. The warmth and lavender scent is very sleep-inducing.

~ Employ a white noise or nature sounds machine to drown out distractions

~ Have some memory verses nearby and a tiny reading light. (I have a clip on one) Spend a few minutes going over your verses when you can’t sleep.

~ Also have a Bible or devotional book on your night stand to read during your awake times as well.

Now, to help out one gal who comments this weekend, I’ll be giving away the following Sweet Dreams package:

~ A box of Sleepytime tea

~ A Hope mug with the verse Jeremiah 29:11 on it ” For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord”

~ Some Bath & Bodyworks lavender vanilla lotion

~ A Bath & Bodyworks lavender vanilla candle (be sure to blow it out before you sleep!)

~ Some Bath & Bodyworks pillow mist in warm milk & honey scent

~ A RingDex card system for you to record favorite verses on

Simply leave a comment anytime this weekend here on this post.

Do you have any tips?

Any struggles in this area?

Any favorite verses or coping methods for inducing sleep?

Or as always, if time is tight, just say “I’m in!” Drawing is random and winner will be announced Monday. The Monday I pray I am safely in Charlotte and on Lysa’s webcast.

Prayers appreciated!

Now, leave your comment. :-)

Sweet Dreams,

401 Comments

  1. Hi Karen, Please read my Bio on my profile page. Your book is a must have for me. I would have to write a book to explain. Life is to hard on me, if it wasn’t for God I wouldn’t survive. I couldn’t believe it when I seen your link on prov. 31. That’s also been one of my favorites. I am a mother of five. I’m in the midst of trouble. Please read. Thank you, Nita

  2. Hi Karen, Please read my Bio on my profile page. Your book is a must have for me. I would have to write a book to explain. Life is to hard on me, if it wasn’t for God I wouldn’t survive. I couldn’t believe it when I seen your link on prov. 31. That’s also been one of my favorites. I am a mother of five. I’m in the midst of trouble. Please read. Thank you, Nita

  3. Hi Karen. I just found your blog and hope to come back to visit often. I have a hard time sleeping too. The mind just keeps racing, hence me blogging at 4am. I have a lavender sachet pillow that I keep on my bed. Not only does it help with relaxation but it’s wonderful for my sinus’.

    Hugs…Tracy :)

    I’m having a giveaway too. Hope you stop by and enter or just come for a visit!

  4. Your blog sounds so familiar. I too am a light sleeper after I’ve been asleep for a couple of hours. My husband can just roll to the clock to see what time it is and I wake up.
    I won’t set the time on the coffee pot on the weekends, so I can sleep until we wake up.
    I have so much on my mind, from empty nest to over powering finances and probably mid life mixed in all of it, with being unemployed for 8 months.
    I read through the posts to the bottom to leave a reply and reading other woman’s post is a comfort I will try their ideas. I will also try the writing down of my worries to ask the Lord to take them so I can rest comfortably in his Love.
    I will pray for you and Leann on the MTC webcast tonight.
    Thank you for your Love & comments.

  5. What beautiful words of wisdom. Thank you for the opportunity to be blessed by you words. Prayer is the ultimate sleep aid for me. Surrendering my worries before bed and leaving them at the cross.

  6. I have my daughter’s old i-pod beside my bed and pull up the translation I am using to read the Bible through in a year. I start reading and it usually isn’t long before I have fallen asleep. Sometimes with the i-pod in my hand.

  7. Karen you are such an inspiration. thank you for sharing with me about ways to fall asleep.I like to challenge my self with saying bible scriptures starting in aiphbetacal order, thats a challenge i thin pray and ask GOD to give me the next scripture you would be surprised how GOD shows you so many , before you know you are sleeping.Thanks for the chance to win the giveaway.

  8. Your devotion was very timely for me. Woke very early this am and could not fall back to sleep for all the worries going round and round in my head. I got up and started my homework for the bible study I am involved in. It helped calm me but I like your idea of making a list.
    Thanks for the devotion!

  9. I don’t sleep well because if health problems. Some things I’ve learned through doctors and research: never turn on the tv or computer when you wake up – electronics activate your brain making it harder to fall back asleep, keep your room dark and cool, we like to be warm but it’s actually better to sleep if your room is cool
    Thanks for all your tips

  10. I wish I could tell you the countless hours of sleep I miss out on! I have reached for a pad of paper many times and just to start writing and have to say God has moved many times through my words on paper. Thanks for the blog!!

    God bless,
    Deb
    I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. 3 John 1:4 (NIV)

  11. Oh Karen…if you were to see some of my most recent Facebook status’s, you’d be able to tell by the time they are posted how I’ve been struggling to sleep. I know for myself right now, anxiety is denying me rest. Anxiety, unknowns, a racing heart, uncertainty…all things that the Lord wants to carry for me, but are so hard to completely surrender. My head tells me I can trust Him with my current health concern and the surgery ahead, but it’s still hard to embrace that completely and rest in His peace. I am sooooo tired. I do find often that if I begin praying I will drift back to sleep. I’m sure it’s not because I’m not concentrating or that my prayers are of little interest, but I think it’s because the enemy would rather have me sleeping than praying, and he’s probably the one who has stolen my sleep with anxiety to begin with!!!

    Thank you for the suggestions in your post to make some practical changes. I just purchased some Sleepytime Tea yesterday. Actually, if I was to win the gift package, I have another friend with whom I would love to share that mug. She calls herself “Hope” and I’m forever looking for things to remind her of her Hope in Him. (Where did you get that?)

    Thanks for letting me know I am not alone. When I’m awake tonight at some unearthly hour, I’ll smile and think of you and pray for your sweet sleep.

    Hugs,
    Joy

  12. I’m there!!! I have a 16 month old that still wakes 1-2 times a night or more! And my husband has to be up at 4 am but has 4 alarms that span from 3:30-4…and he doesn’t even hear them…I do!!! For instance it’s 8:13pm and I’m falling asleep as I type this! :-)

  13. I’m in! I am constantly struggling with sleeping at night.I only EVER get about 4 hours of good sleep a night and i don’t know why.

  14. To fall asleep I go through the alphabet from A to Z listing characteristics of God. A- all knowing, B- bestower of blessings, C- comforter, and on and on until I fall asleep. It helps!

  15. I couldn’t believe what I was reading today on my Proverbs 31 Encouragement devotion. The ‘anxious toil’ you speak of, it was like someone had spilled everything that had happened to me this past week to you. Circumstances beyond my control yet the anxiety that robs me and keeps me ever so worried and sleep deprived. I understand I’m in God’s waiting room right now and for the most part I cling tightly to His promises and I wait. However, when certain circumstances seem to rear it’s ugly head, all of the sudden I feel myself start to lose my grip. My mind takes over and I begin to question everything; ‘have you already spoken to me Lord in what to do and I failed to hear?’, ‘what do you need from me now?’, ‘why is this happening and where do you want me to go from here?’, ‘do I respond to this now?’, ‘what do I say when I’m so hurt and distraught?’, ‘Am I still suppose to wait (in a big decision) or is this a sign I’m not to wait any longer?’ – – Nothing seems to come at these moments but tears and anxiety and sleeplessness. So I lay in my bed and I begin my prayer after that last glance of the clock reading 3:49am. I even request sleep as I know it will not matter to the 4 boys in the morning whether mommy is restful or not. And at some point I drift off to sleep while still holding on to my Jesus!

  16. What a great gift basket! I may have to try listing my worries on paper to release them, God knows they are many right now!

  17. Karen,
    Sorry to hear you’re still under the weather. Prayers for healing so you can travel to P31 for Monday. Would love to hear you on the webcast!! The RingDex index cards you show look awesome! I have been struggling with how to corral my prayers and this looks like the perfect thing. No need to win the prize–just going out to buy me one of those RingDex things! Blessings,
    Heather

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *