The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - What to Do When You Can't Sleep

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

What do you do when you just can’t sleep? Jeff tackles insomnia from a Biblical and spiritual perspective, exploring why sleepless nights are so common and what Scripture has to say about rest. 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!

This podcast is brought to you by Ascension. To discover even more free Catholic podcasts, videos, and resources, to help you live your faith every day, visit ascensionpress.com. Welcome to the Jeff Kaven Show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is show 468, what to do when you can't sleep. Hello and welcome to the show. I'm Jeff Kavans. Good to have you with me today and good to be with you. You know, on this show, we talk about everything we can about discipleship, studying the Bible, really letting Christ live big in us, so that we can change the world along with Jesus, kind of cooperating with them. That's the way we'll put it today. Well, sometimes in your life, I got to tell you this, you just can't sleep. You know, life is going on, everything's going great.

And all of a sudden, you hit this bump in the road. And for some reason, you can't sleep. You might even notice cycles in your life where you're fine for a month or so. And then you've got two or three nights where it's just really rocky. And you don't know why. And some people, they have problems for months. And it really, really takes a toll on them. So let's talk about that today, what to do when you can't sleep.

Let's look at some of the problems. with sleeping and why people struggle with sleeping at times. You know, some people really have a problem and they got to go see a doctor and get some kind of medication at least to help them get through it. But in my years as a pastor for 12 years, years ago, in talking to people, I found many times there were just things on their mind or things who were struggling with or they had sin in their life. And we're going to talk about that and some of the solutions to it.

If you want the show notes, just send my name, text my name, rather, to the number 33777. That's 3377. My name Jeff Kaven's one word, and we'll get you the show notes and got plenty of them today. So, here we are. The Olympics just started. If you're listening to this like in two years from now, which would be 2008, well, the Olympics are just beginning. And a lot of people are going to be staying up at night watching the Olympics, maybe even past a regular hour. So let's talk about this, shall we?

Insomnia. The kind of thing that keeps you up at night. You know, I went to the store not too long ago. You probably have seen it too. There was a day when if you had trouble sleeping and you went to the pharmacy, you'd have to get some kind of prescription. But today, every kind of pain-killing medication, whether it's Advil or Tylenol, there's a lot of others, they now have a whole section for PM, prescriptions for Ambien, out of control. And many people just simply can't get to sleep without something.

Now, it's interesting, clear back in the Old Testament, in Daniel chapter 2 in verse 1, it says this about Nebuchadnezzar. He's the guy that really came against the children of Israel. And Daniel, the prophet with his great fasting and his marvelous diet, he overcame Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar ended up bowing his knee to the God of Israel. But it says in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. That's one way to put it.

His sleep left him. Is your sleep been leaving you? Well, we find out in Psalm 121 in verse 3, and I think it's really good to always go to the scripture to find answers here. He will not let your foot be moved. That's God. 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. Now, that's one aspect. What we do see in Scripture is that God doesn't sleep and he does. Now, right here in Psalm 12, we see that God never slumbers nor sleeps. In other words, he's aware of you all day long and all night long. Yet, when God became a man, Jesus, when Jesus came to earth, in Matthew 823, Jesus was in a boat with the disciples and listened to this. and when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him.

And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea so that the boat was being swamped by the waves. But he, God, was asleep. And they went and woke him saying, save Lord, we are perishing. And he said to them, why are you afraid, oh, men of little faith? And then he rose and rebuked the winds in the sea, and there was a great calm. and the men marveled saying, What sort of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? That's interesting, isn't it?

On one hand, God does not sleep. On the other hand, he does. But here's the beautiful thing, is that even when we see Jesus sleeping in the boat, in the middle of a storm, I might add, which storms are what cause people to lose sleep, whether it's a physical storm or a storm within their heart, Jesus is with them either way. Now, there are some things about sleep that Scripture talks to us about.

Like, for example, if you have excessive sleep, it can lead to poverty. Proverbs 6 says, 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. Isn't that interesting? We fold our hands to pray typically.

We're taught that from the time that we're little. But it's interesting that scripture talks about the one time of folding the hands to rest, poverty comes in. I find that interesting. Proverbs 2013, love not sleep lest you come to poverty. Open your eyes and you will have plenty of bread. So on one hand, too much sleep leads to poverty, but no sleep at all. What does that end with? It ends with worry.

For example, in Psalm 127, 2, and by the way, I am putting all of this in the show notes, it says 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 right there in Psalm 127 and verse 2, we can get a glimpse of the fact that God wants to give you sleep. God wants you to rest. Why? Well, it's good for you physically. It's good for you emotionally.

And it is good for you spiritually. But worry steals sleep. Now, what would you be worrying about? Right? You're living in America. You're living in the UK. You're living in Australia. You're living in New Zealand, wherever it might be.

what is there to worry about? Well, it seems like everything. Money, relationships, hurts, health, your children. There's a lot of things that people worry about. And the later it gets in the night, the lonelier and more anxious people grow. And so worry steals sleep. Another thing that steals sleep is anxiety.

a general feeling of doom, helplessness, a dread of your future. You know, the email you read and the text messages that you meditate on before you go to sleep can cause worry and anxiety consequently steal your sleep. You know, I sent an email to a friend some time ago. And if I remember right, it was somewhere around 10 o'clock at night. And it was bringing up a topic. I shouldn't have done it. Let me just say that.

I should not have done this. But it was bringing up a topic that I wanted them to think about because we were going to be meeting the next day. But when I sent that email, and this is a lesson for you and for me, it was like sending a large coffee mug with two shots in it. Now, shots of espresso, that is. And that's what it was like to him. I sent that email about 10 o'clock or so, I don't know, 9.45, 10 o'clock. And he downed that email just like a cup of coffee with a double shots of espresso, and he could not get to sleep. That was not right.

And part of this, you know, that causes us to lose our sleep is what we do to each other. in the night when we're supposed to have the lights off and the phone put away and really rest. You know in the Old Testament, one of the goals of Israel was to enter God's rest on the Sabbath. Hebrews tells us that they never really did, but that was the goal. And it's not any different today. Our goal is to rest in God. And that happens through the sacrament of the Eucharist. The body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus in the Mass on Sunday, we enter totally into his finished work.

Now here's another thing that gets in the way. And this one's a big one. A cause of losing sleep, cause for insomnia? Sin. That's right. Sin. Psalm 364. He plots trouble while on his bed.

He sets himself in a way that is not good. He does not red. reject evil. Boy, what do you think about when you go to bed? What do you entertain your mind with? Plotting trouble on your bed? You don't reject evil. You just dwell on it.

Could be evil thoughts towards someone. Could be unclean thoughts. You allow yourself to rest in that and sin causes insomnia. It just does. Listen to this. How about Proverbs? Proverbs 4. 14, 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. And so people lying down their bed can, you know, hatch all kinds of schemes of what they're going to do at work or what they're going to do to their, their brother, sister, Christmas coming up, or a holiday or a birthday, whatever it might be, and sin eludes you. Worry meets anxiety, meets sin, and you have terror at night. Let me say that again. Worry meets anxiety meets sin and you have terror at night. Here's another thing.

You know this one as well as I do. Too much drinking at night. Oh, too much drinking. Too much eating and television. Those are like no-brainers, but people do it anyway. If you drink alcohol at night, yeah, sure, you think, well, I go to sleep, I'm going to have a couple of drinks or whatever. Well, you got to remember that that's sugar. And if you have a couple glasses of wine before you go to bed, do not be surprised if at 1.30 in the morning,

you wake up when that turns into sugar and you got a sugar buzz and you cannot get back to sleep. Or you watch television until you turn off the light. In other words, you go to bed and that's what you filled your mind and your heart with. In some ways, we just want to let loose with a big, duh. Of course you can't sleep when you do that. How about social media? That'll keep you up at night. You know, my dad said something to me years ago about the night hours.

After eating at night, he said something that was so wise. He told me not to make serious decisions after 7 p.m. and at first I thought, well, 7 p.m., who cares? What does it matter? Make a good decision. But you know what? Over the years, I found out he's right. He is right. You do not make good decisions when you're tired. You can make that decision tomorrow, but at night, wind down. There's got to be a time where you say, my work is done today. I'm going to relax. I'm going to be with my family. I'm going to break the cycle that I've been in since 7 in the morning, right? So stop reading your email.

Get off of social media. Have a time at night where you can turn it off so that at least you can give yourself half a chance of a good night's sleep. Now, let's take a break. When we come back, I do have some solutions for you. And I think you'll be interested in them. They're very practical and biblical, I might add. So you're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. I am Father Colomba, Jordan a Franciscan friar of the renewal living here in Ireland.

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today. God bless you. I'll see you soon. Welcome back. Wake up, right? Talking today about what to do when you can't sleep. What were some of the causes? There are many. I put them all in the show notes for you. Solutions. That's what you really want to know, right? Solutions. Okay, well, let's go through a few of them. Now, as I give these to you, I got to tell you, I can read minds. Not in a cultic way. Okay, I'm just kind of kidding you. But I can. can read some minds. And I know what people think when you start to tell them the solution. They're thinking in their mind, oh, is that it? Oh, I thought it was going to be like some formula or some kind of strange novena said backwards in Latin or something else. You mean, what you're saying is going to help me? It seems so simple. Well, oftentimes the answers are simple. You know, maybe you've heard of Occam's Razor. Occam's Razor was the idea that the right answer is probably the most straightforward one. It's the one that seems the obvious. It's the

quickest way there. So number one, if you can't sleep, do not go out and watch television as the pagans do. No, don't seriously, don't do that. Your answer is not on an infomercial at 2.30 in the morning on how to make money selling real estate. That is not where the answer is. Here it is. Ready from chapter six, verses 25 through 33. Seek first the kingdom. That's it. Redirect your heart to him rather than things, entertainment, substance. Social media, email, texts.

Seek first the kingdom. Listen to this. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, Jesus says. What you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body. 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 more valuable than they? And 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 Solomon, in all of his glory was a raid, was not a raid, rather, like one of these. Solomon wasn't even arrayed like one of these birds. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you? Oh, you of little faith? Therefore, here it is. Ready? Therefore, do not be anxious saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear. For the Gentiles seek all these things. And your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Here it is.

Are you ready? Verse 33, Matthew 6. Boom. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all these things will be added to you. I got to ask you a question. You ready? Do you believe that?

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things that people are worried about and anxious about. They'll be added to you. God will take care of you. Do you believe it? It's either yes or no. It's not yes but, but it's yes or no. Do you believe it? If you believe it, then seek first the kingdom and you'll get those results.

If you don't believe it, you'll try it a few times and then go back to 2.30 in the morning watching real estate infomercials. Proverbs 3 24 through 26 says 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 of the ruin of the wicked when it comes. For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. Love it. Number two, how do you deal with this? How do you conquer anxiety?

Pray. There it is. See, I told you. First ones first seek the kingdom. Maybe you were looking for something bigger than that. The second one, pray. Now, my guess is you probably knew that. But you'd be surprised at how many people wake up at 2 o'clock in the morning.

And on one hand, they look at the refrigerator. On the other hand, they look at television. They got to put them both down and put them together. if they're going to get the answer, and that is to pray. Philippians 4.6, listen to this. How straightforward can Paul be with you? 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.

Ooh, that sounds good at 2 a.m. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts. and your minds in Christ Jesus. So if you do verse 6, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. Then verse 7 will happen. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Now, you know something?

I looked this up in the Greek. Do not be anxious about anything. And you know what I found out in Greek about that word anything? You know what it meant? Anything. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything. Now I looked that one up in Greek. But in everything.

You know what that word everything meant? You got it. Everything. But in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. Okay, number three, you're struggling with insomnia, can't sleep. Well, a lot of people are worried in the middle of the night, fearful in the middle of the night, all kinds of things.

You know, you can be fearful of losing your home, your health, your money, your family, your children, your dignity, whatever it might be. and there's all kinds of things that people can worry about in the middle of the night. But know this. Number three, the Lord protects. You can't sleep. Seek first the kingdom of God. Begin to pray. Know this.

The Lord protects. Abide in God's shadow, my friend. Abide in God's shadow, not the shadow of sleeplessness. And here's the scripture for you. Psalm 91 in verse 1. He who dwells in the shelter the most high, who abides in the shadow of the almighty will say to the Lord my refuge in my fortress my God in whom I trust for he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler 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 arrow that flies by day can I say that again just one more time, you will not fear the terror of the night. Oh, that's good. That's number three. We're having fun here. Number four, number four, the Lord sustains me in the middle of the night. Psalm 3.5 says, I lay down and sleep.

I wake again for the Lord sustains me. That's a good part of a prayer, isn't it? I'm feeling a prayer coming on here. And that is that when you go to bed, why not just take out these verses and start reading them? You know, Psalm 3-5 is if you're married, look over at your spouse and say, hey, let's pray this, shall we? Well, scripture says, I lay down and sleep. I wake again for the Lord sustains me. You say, honey, let's trust God.

Let's trust him with our life. Let's pray. Let's seek first the kingdom of God. Let's trust him. Let's let the Lord protect us. The Lord will sustain us. And number five, now this one's a real interesting one. How about an honest day's work?

Right. An honest day's work. Ecclesiastes chapter five, verse 12, 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. So sweet is the sleep of a labor, whether he eats little or much. A woman who puts in a good day of work and home at work, wherever, it's all work, right?

And you work as unto the Lord, and you love, and you pour yourself out. You've got a better chance of sleeping at night. Same with a man. Pursuing things will keep you up if your heart is set on them. How are you going to get to sleep if your heart is set on things? Set your heart on the Lord. And number six, I got two more here. Number six, clean conscience.

Go to confession. It might be the sleeping pill you are looking for. That's right. Go to confession. It might be what the doctor ordered to clean your heart, to lift the burden off of you. Listen, if you're trying to get to sleep and you're dealing with sin and it's unconfessed, good luck.

You're not built that way. You're not wired that way. Your spiritual DNA doesn't let you sleep when sin is involved in your life. Good luck in trying to overcome it. Go to confession. If this is speaking to you right now, I'm going to challenge you, if you can,

depending on what time you're listening to this, go to date. That's right. Go to confession today. If you know there is unconfessed sin in your life and you're trying to solve the sleeping problem, then you need to go to confession. Now you can cover up the problem with Ambien if you want. But that's all you're doing is covering it up. It's kind of like the alcoholic who's on the 50th floor getting into the elevator.

Sooner or later, you're going to hit the bottom. What floor do you want to get off on? The 49th. It's going down. The 47th. The 33rd, the 26th, the 19th, 8th. It's getting down there. You've got to make up your mind.

You're going to hit the bottom here. Go to confession. I have a good friend over in Israel. He's a guide, my chief guide in Israel. By the way, I just got back. I just got back from Israel two days ago. It was in Egypt, Jordan, and Israel. and had a wonderful time.

Anyway, my chief guide, Ronnie, he's just such a great guy. We were talking about at the Sea of Galilee, going to confession. And I told the people on the bus, I said, before we go to confession tonight, you might want to make an examination of your conscience. That is, check your heart, your conscience. How are you doing? And he pipes up and he says, my conscience is clean. He says, I never use it.

Now, that's a joke, of course. and it's not going to help you with the problem we're talking about, so forget it. Number seven, establish a healthy routine if you can't sleep. Don't watch cable news, real estate gimmicks. Tony Robbins is not your solution. I'll bet on that right now. He may have some good things going on, but putting you to sleep and taking the burden from your soul

and forgiving you of your sins is not Tony Robbins' wheelhouse. So if you can't sleep, rise up. and praise God and read scripture. If you need a Bible, I'm looking right here at a good-looking, great-adventure Bible made of goat skin on the outside. I call it the goat. Get yourself a Bible if you don't have a Bible. Listen to what the Bible says, and I'm going to, oh, this is so good.

Psalm 119, 62. You ready? At midnight, I rise to praise you. because of your righteous rules, your law. Ah, here's a good one to read. You can't get to sleep. Psalm 23. Maybe you're listening to this right now.

And you can't get to sleep. What a co-inkidink, right? What a coincidence that is. It's Psalm 23, a Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me. In the presence of my enemies, thou anointest my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, and I might add nights of my life. and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I love it.

One more. This is a bonus one. I don't normally give bonuses out on every show. But today we're going to give you a bonus scripture. Matthew 1128. You ready for this? And then when I'm done with this, just close your eyes,

go back to sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a great day. Matthew 1128, 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. I am gentle and humble of heart.

So in that you know that if you are carrying a heavy heart, come to me all who are weary, heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Take my yoke. What's the yoke? His worldview. It's looking at light through his eyes.

Now there's something I want to teach you at the end here. And that is how to say good night in Hebrew. There's two ways to say it. One is good evening, and that is Erev Tov, E-R-E-V-O-V-T-O-V. Ere-E-E-N-E-Nate, Tov-G-E-E-V-N-E-T-V. But the one I really want to teach you was what you'd say in the very last thing you say. If you're married, you look over at your spouse and say this, Lila Tov. Lila is night.

Tov is good. it's what you'd say in an endearing way. Lila Tov, would you pray with me? In the name of the Father's Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I thank you today that you do have the solution to sleepless nights. Lord, you have told us in your word what causes them and also what remedies the problem. And so, Lord, we take it to heart, starting today.

that we will make that effort to get proper sleep. For the chief reason, Lord, is serving you and loving you, but also taking care of this temple, our bodies. We give ourselves to you, and we do ask our mother to pray for us, Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with the blessed art 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. Amen to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. I love you. God bless you. See you next week.