The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - The Problem of Sleeplessness

Episode Date: December 26, 2025

Why do so many people struggle to sleep, even when they’re exhausted? Jeff explores the problem of sleeplessness and the hidden spiritual and emotional factors that keep us awake at night. Through Scripture, Church wisdom, and real-life examples, Jeff shows how worry, anxiety, and misplaced priorities rob us of peace and how turning our hearts back to God restores us. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit https://media.ascensionpress.com/?s=&page=2&category%5B0%5D=Ascension%20Podcasts&category%5B1%5D=The%20Jeff%20Cavins%20Show for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kavens show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is show 462, The Problem of Sleeplessness. Well, hello again, and thanks for joining me. I'm Jeff Kaven's day after Christmas. What a day. huh? House is a mess, food laying out, treats and candy and pastries and everything else, and a lot of wrapping paper. But in the middle of it all, I'm going to talk today about a subject that a lot of people are struggling with, and that is sleeplessness, sleeplessness,

the problem of sleeplessness in our country. And a lot of times studies show that it's in the midst of the holidays that people's sleep is is really challenged and it's upsetting because their schedules are different. They're traveling and eating so much sugar and things and staying up late, watching television and all that that they have a hard time sleeping. But besides that, and Merry Christmas, besides that, this show could be listened to it any time during the year because I think as a whole, we are really a people who struggle with sleep. And sleep is so very important in our lives.

Sleep is great for weight loss. Sleep is great for a sense of well-being in your thinking. Sleep contributes to autophagy, which is the cleansing of the cells and the rebuilding of the structures within. And it's just very, very good, not to mention it just feels good. After a night of sleep, you wake up, a good night of sleep, and you get up and you feel new. You know about 33 to 35 percent of U.S. adults report getting less than the recommended seven hours of sleep per night. Now, I know that I know very well that not everybody needs seven hours of sleep.

I typically will do around five to six and sometimes seven. but I know of people who get eight, nine, ten hours a day, and I don't think I could do that. But this is supported by the CDC data, around 35 percent in recent years, and sources like the National Sleep Foundation and Gallup polls, they estimate stable or slightly increasing numbers now as we go forward. And it's interesting that the U.S. sleep AIDS market that encompasses things like mattresses and pillows, sleep apnea devices, medications, and other products. Well, that's estimated to be about $30 to $40 billion, with a B, dollars annually. And recently, that's going up as well. And if you take

all of North America, that is north of $40 billion to be sure. So we're struggling with insomnia. We can't seem to get asleep. Can't get to sleep. And it keeps you up all night. And of course, that is really a lousy time of the day to be all alone and you can't sleep and you know that everybody else is sleeping but you're struggling you're getting up walking around going to the refrigerator because therein lies your answer no you pick up you pick up your TV remote therein lies the answer no we wander around the middle of the night figuring out what are we going to do so I want to talk to you about the problem of sleeplessness and and by the way I went to the store, in just as by way of research, just to go to the drug store and to look at all of the sleep aids.

And it is now a very substantial portion of the shelf. All kinds of sleep aids with the word PM on it. Prescriptions for Ambien are out of control. So in Daniel chapter 2 in verse 1, in the second year, the king of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. That is really a good definition, isn't it? Of sleeplessness is that your spirit is troubled. It could be over money.

It could be over relationships. It could be over anxiety or depression or troubles within the family. It could be bills are due and you don't know what to do. But your spirit is troubled. And that's really a good definition. or a good way to describe people who struggle with sleeplessness is that they do have a troubled spirit. Well, we know one thing for sure, and that is that God doesn't sleep, and he does sleep.

He doesn't sleep. It says in Psalm 121, he will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. But we do know from Matthew chapter 8 and 23 that Jesus, of course, horse did go to sleep on the sea of Galilee in the boat. And it bothered the disciples. It bothered them. And they thought the Lord didn't care. He didn't care at all of the fact that there was a storm and he slept through it. So God does sleep and God doesn't sleep. Both are

scriptural actually. So some thoughts on sleep. Well, excessive sleep. And let's look at that for a moment. excessive sleep leads to poverty. Proverbs 6, 9 through 11. Listen to this. This is interesting. How long will you lie there, oh, sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. And poverty will come upon you like a vagabond and want like an armed man.

Let me read that again. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. and poverty will come upon you like a vagabond and want like an armed man. Proverbs 20 verse 13, love not sleep lest you come to poverty. Open your eyes and you will have plenty of bread. So excessive sleep is something that scriptures talk about as well and that if you have excessive sleep, it's usually related to poverty, that things are not going to go well for you because you sleep too much.

So, yes, you can sleep too much, but then you can also sleep too little. And when you do that, you don't take care of yourself. And there are serious repercussions, not only mentally and physically, but spiritually. You become tired and drowsy. So what are some of the reasons that sleep robs us of this peace that we are desperately looking for? What are some of them? Well, one for sure, which, and by the way, These are things that I'm not endorsing.

These are things that are a problem. But I think that there's a solution to all of this, which we'll get to, that God has for our sleeplessness. Now, one thing that causes sleeplessness is worry. Worry. Worry is a huge waste. It's a huge waste. My dad used to say that worry was like getting a speeding ticket. You got absolutely nothing out of it.

and it didn't help you in any way to gain what you were searching for, what you were hoping for, what you were working for. Psalm 1272, and I'll put it in the show notes for you. By the way, I should say that if you do want the show notes, just text my name, Jeff Kaven's one word, text it to the number 33777. We'll get you on board. So worry.

Psalm 1272. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives to his beloved sleep. So people worry about a lot of things. You know, all day long they're anxious and they're thinking about it and they're trying to avoid some end that they don't desire. And then at the end of the day, when they're tired, the worry keeps them up. The worry acts like almost an accuser or someone who is,

just constantly talking to you about how bad the future looks and what if this happens and that happens. And suddenly you're put into the position where you have to not only deal with the prior day, but you now have to worry about and you have to take it upon yourself the coming days. And we're not built that way. So people worry about a number of things. They worry about money. That's probably a really big one. They worry about relationships. They worry about how they have been hurt or whether they hurt somebody else. And I'll tell you one that I know has robbed me when I was a young man in my 20s, and that was health. Say, were you unhealthy, Jeff?

No, I wasn't unhealthy. In fact, I was a long-distance runner. I ran about eight miles a day. And I was healthy. But my dad had a lot of heart problems and had a quadruple bypassed at 49 years old. and I was worried that something was going to happen to me. So it was over my health that I worried incessantly. It was really, really hard.

I went for years like that. And it just, it weighed me down. I finally faced it and said, you know what? Whatever happens happens, but I'm not living this way. I'm going to give it to you, Lord. Now, the later that it gets at night, it seems to be lonelier and more anxious. You grow. you know, midnight? Okay, that's one thing. It's late night. Okay, you're getting to bed

late. Midnight. One o'clock, all right, we should be to bed by now. Two o'clock, I think I got a problem. Three o'clock. Am I going to get anything out of this night? Four o'clock. You know what? Maybe I should just go downstairs. Give it up. I'll be tired tomorrow night. It's really, really plays havoc, doesn't it? So worry is one thing. Number two is anxiety. A general feeling of doom, helplessness a dread of your future the email you read and the text messages isn't that a mistake oh my that is a mistake you know my dad told me and he was a vice president of honeywell and he used to tell me he said i never make decisions after seven o'clock at night never make major decisions after 7 o'clock at night.

And he didn't take calls and that type of thing. And I think that was really good advice because it's amazing how many people originally said, I'm not going to deal with email at night. I don't want to get involved in business and think about this as I try to lay down to sleep. That's just social suicide in a way, isn't it?

Isn't it? That's corporate suicide to start going through your text. But here's the problem is that now, the messages that we get have bled over from email to text to text to Instagram, Instagram, to X, Facebook, and so forth. And you start to go through Instagram and you start to see stuff about your business or whatever, and then you go to bed and you can't sleep. I sent an email to a friend a while ago at 10 at night, and it was like sending a large

coffee with two shots in it to him. and I remember that that I sent it and I regretted it and thought to myself I shouldn't have sent that this was a while ago this wasn't just recently I mean this was years ago that I remember it stuck out in my thinking you know that I sent an email to a guy that had

consequential content and it was 10 o'clock at night and again that's like sending the guy a big cup of coffee with a double shot in it and that's not fair right so sometimes we do that we shouldn't be reading all of this stuff. Now, that's number one is worry. Number two, is anxiety. And number three, sin causes insomnia. That's right. Sin causes insomnia. Psalm 36-4 says it does. He plots trouble while on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He does not reject evil.

do not enter the path of the wicked and do not walk in the way of evil men avoid it do not go on it turn away from it and pass on for they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble wow so sin in our lives let's say that you're involved in sin let's say maybe you're involved in sin related to work you're involved in sin related to home or your finances or relationships, that will keep you up because you are not created to live with sin. It will disintegrate you. That's what sin does. It disintegrates you. Pope John Paul II said that sin is spiritual suicide. Well, have a good night's sleep after that then, right? After sin, worry meets anxiety, meets sin, and you have terror at night. So,

that is a problem as well. And then, of course, we also have some natural things like drink and diet. Drink diet and TV, the trifecta. That'll keep you up. You watch shows from 7 o'clock at night to 11 o'clock at night, have something to drink with sugar in it, maybe a pastry or something, and say, I'm going to go to bed. That is not wise at all.

Social media will keep you up at night, scrolling through Instagram, mindless chatter that will keep you up. So, what do we do about it? Well, I've got some solutions here, and I'm going to share them with you right after this.

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz, and we know, right, as disciples of Jesus, we need to be encountering God's word on a regular basis. We need God's word to transform our minds, to move our hearts, and yet if you're anything like me, sometimes you sit down to read the Bible and just fall asleep. Or you get caught up in the names and the events. It can be a confusing set of books. We've created an answer. And the answer, we think, is the Bible in a

year podcast. It is produced by Ascension and hosted by me. For more information, you can go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. Welcome back. Wake up. We're talking about the problem of sleeplessness in our lives. And there's a lot of reasons for sleeplessness, but there's some solutions as well. I'll be honest with you. I, at different times in my life, struggled with sleeplessness, but over the last, I don't know, four or five years, I have found the edge here is how to get to sleep. And some of the things that I'm going to share with you now are things that I put into practice in my own life. So I will put these, they're not in particularly in the order, but they're very, very important, all of them.

Number one, the solutions. Number one, we have to redirect our hearts to God rather than things and problems and people. You have to redirect your heart to him. When we talk about repentance, that is a reorienting of your heart to God. When we talk about a peaceful night's sleep, we're talking about redirecting your heart to him rather than the things that keep you up and cause you to worry. You could put it this way. In Matthew 6, verses 25 through 33, talk about it, and that is this.

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you, or all these things will be taken care of. So here's how it goes in Matthew 6. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on, is not. life more than food, and the body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? In which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life?

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even solid. in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so close the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, now listen to this. This is the heart. Do not be anxious saying, what shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness

and all these things will be added to you. Now that's Matthew chapter 6, and I like to couple that with Proverbs 3, 24 through 26. And I'm just, I'll read real quick here. If you sit down, you will not be afraid. When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden panic or the ruin of the wicked when it comes.

For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. So seek first the kingdom of God. If you're struggling with insomnia and your life right now, before you go to bed tonight, turn the television off. Stop eating after 7 o'clock. And turn the television off if you are really struggling with this. Your body is telling you. Your mind is telling you. You cannot handle this.

You've got to go the way of God here. So number two, out of people struggle with anxiety, conquering anxiety can happen if you are a person of prayer. Now, when you can't sleep at night, you have an option. Turn the TV on, raid the refrigerator, go to Instagram, or seek God, pray. It's an easy choice. And you know as well as I do that we all have gone through this. You know that.

And you know as well as I do that we have all made the wrong choice from time to time. And it didn't solve anything. It just wasted our night. Ridder away. But you can pray. Philippians 4.6 says, and it's pretty blunt. Paul says, do not be anxious about anything. But in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.

and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Now, if you do these verses here in Philippians 4, verses 6 and 7, if you will do those, you will see a difference in your life, in the way that you sleep. You will. Jesus prescribes this to us. And here's the third thing. The Lord protects. abide in God's shadow, not the shadow of sleeplessness, but abide in God's shadow. Now, I'm going to give you these scriptures in the show notes, and I always give you a lot of scripture because I'm hoping that you'll take them and that you'll appropriate them. And one of the great Psalms to read at night when you can't sleep is Psalm 91.

Psalm 91, he who dwells in the shelter of the most high, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust, for he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the hour that flies by day. Now, that sounds inviting. doesn't it? That sounds good. That sounds tasty. But you have to do it. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. Now most people who can't sleep at night are afraid of something.

They are anticipating something. They are hiding from something. They're trying to figure something out. and the scriptures tell us to dwell in the shelter of the most high. That's a decision. Been given a will. You got a Bible. You can seek the Lord and hide in Christ. Number four, the Lord sustains me. To remind yourself that the Lord sustains you.

Psalm 3.5, I lie down in sleep. I wake again for the Lord sustains me. What a beautiful little prayer to say, say before you go to bed tonight. You might even try it between now and the new year. Psalm 3-5, I lie down and sleep. I wake again for the Lord sustains me. Before you go to bed, pray. And in part of your prayer, I'm not saying just pray this, but pray, spend some time with the Lord. Read a couple Psalms. Talk to the Lord and trust yourself to him and say, Lord, you sustain me. I like Psalm 4-8. It's in the package here. I'll give you. In peace, I will both.

both lie down and sleep, for thou alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. All right. Here's a couple more. That's, man, I can get a whole other show. But I'm not going to, I'm going to share all this with you, even if it's a little long. Here's one, number five, you want to sleep better? This one's going to surprise you. Then give God an honest day's work.

Give God an honest day's work. Do you know that a lot of people who don't sleep well have a day behind them where they didn't get anything done and they were a sloth and they sat around and ate and drank and watched TV and really didn't do anything? Certainly didn't accomplish anything. Certainly didn't grow in fruitfulness. And now they have a hard time sleeping. Go figure. So get an honest day's work. I remember some of the jobs I had when I was a young man. And at the end of the day, I just felt so good because I felt like I really worked. worked hard. I really did. And there was something satisfying about it. Ecclesiastes 512 says, Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the surfeit of the rich will not let him sleep well. A woman ironing clothes and the results. I told you that, though, didn't I? I think I told you that a while ago, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, let me tell you again. Every time I think of this, a lady came to me years ago, and I was a professional. I was a pastor before coming back to the Catholic Church.

And she was struggling with depression, anxiety. She couldn't get anything done. Her house looked like a wreck. Clothes everywhere, unironed, but unironed. And she came to me and she said, I don't know what to do. I said, my life's a mess. My life is a mess. And I said to her, I want you to go home and iron one shirt.

Because she complained that her house was so messy and everything with all this clothing and all the ironing to do and all the other things that were piling up. And she said, oh, I don't think I could do that. I don't think I could do that. Well, she was in my office one day in a counseling session. And I had an appointment at the hospital. So I said to her, do you want to go to the hospital? with me. And she said, for what? And I said, you can accompany me. I got, I'll put you to work there. And she went to the hospital with me and I said, you know, while I'm visiting so and so down in

room 107, I have someone else in room 211, whatever it was. And they just need someone to talk to them and pray with them. Would you mind going up there and talking with them? She said, me? I said, yeah, you. And she said, well, okay. So she did. And about 45 minutes later, I met her in the boy, the front door, and she had a smile on her face. I said, how'd it go? And she goes, it was amazing. I prayed with her. And she says, I haven't felt this good in a long time.

And I said, well, then maybe you'd like to go on a lot of these calls. She goes, oh, I could never do that. I could never do that. And I thought, isn't that interesting? She found out that there was joy in a lack of anxiety and depression by doing the labor of the kingdom, yet she wouldn't do it. over and over and over. Isn't that like us? Pursuing things will keep you up, but doing the will of the Lord will give you a good sleep. What do I mean by pursuing things

will keep you up? You know, we're so set on things in our culture. People think about what they're going to buy tomorrow. They're going to get up. You're going to go on Amazon. They're going to go down to the flea market, whatever it might be. Pursuing things will keep you you up at night. Your heart is set on them. We need to be free. Number six, how about a clean conscience? That will help you with your problem of sleeplessness. Go to confession. It might be the sleeping pill that you're looking for. Go to confession. You can cover up the problem with Ambien, but you cannot cover up the problem from God. And it's going to get you. Go to confession. go to confession maybe you haven't been to confession for a long time it reminds me of my good friend

over in israel he said he said my conscience is clean i never use it number seven establish a healthy routine if you can't sleep don't watch cable news or real estate gimmicks all of that stuff that comes on in the middle of the night if you can't sleep rise up and praise god and read scripture psalm 11962 at mid night, I rise to praise you because of your righteous rules. So let's bring this all into the airport here, shall we? Jesus said, in Matthew 11, 28 and 29, he said, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am humble, right? You'll find rest for your soul. That's it. That's the truth. So when you can't sleep,

don't go to the TV, don't go to the refrigerator, don't go to your phone. Go to Matthew 1128, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Give God a chance. Give them a chance. Now your assignment for tonight. Going to bed. Take Psalm 23, read it, meditate on it. Say, Jesus, I trust you. And may the last thing that you do.

May the last half an hour of your night tonight be given to the Lord, not to TV, not to your phone, not to food, but to the Lord. And I pray with you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I thank you for my friend and I lift them up to you. And I ask you, Lord, to draw our hearts to you in those evenings when we find it difficult to rest. Help us to search our hearts, to find the ways of our heart, to repent, to give our lives completely over to you, to relinquish control. of our lives to you. We thank you for this. And we ask for the intercession of our dear mother, Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed our thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our

death. Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Love you. Thank you.