Sleep?!?!? What about it?

Wednesday night we discussed the damaging effects on those who don't get enough sleep. The article from NY Magazine had a lot to say. Here are a few main points...

*Because children’s brains are a work-in-progress until the age of 21, and because much of that work is done while a child is asleep, this lost hour (of sleep) appears to have an exponential impact on children that it simply doesn’t have on adults.

*A loss of one hour of sleep is equivalent to [the loss of] two years of cognitive maturation and development. (i.e. a 6th grader on one less hour of sleep than needed will act as intelligent as a 4th grader).

*The correlations really spike in high school, because that’s when there’s a steep drop-off in kids’ sleep. Dr. Kyla Wahlstrom of the University of Minnesota surveyed more than 7,000 high schoolers in Minnesota about their sleep habits and grades. Teens who received A’s averaged about fifteen more minutes sleep than the B students, who in turn averaged eleven more minutes than the C’s, and the C’s had ten more minutes than the D’s.

And there are a lot of other interesting points.....



To read the follow up article "How to get Kids to sleep more" click here! It has some simple solutions!

So, WHY TALK ABOUT SLEEP AT CHURCH?

Well, all we had to do was look at the life of Jesus Christ.
He was essentially the superstar of his day. Once people found out he could perform miracles and tell parables and stories on what true salvation is they pretty much FOLLOWED HIM AROUND EVERYWHERE!

Think about it....how difficult is it today for a celebrity to be anonymous in public. That is nothing compared to the star power that Jesus had!

And Jesus was still great with people. He took time to listen to them, to heal them, to feed them, and to hang out with them.

But guess what, Jesus was physically human...so his body got tired just like the rest of us!

What did he do? He got away from all the people to rest and find a solitary place.
He did it here and here and here and here and here, just to name a few spots in the Bible!

Everyone knows Jesus was great with people....but he was also great at getting away from them! If he didn't find time to "recharge" himself physically than he couldn't help everyone else nearly as effectively.

So, how are you using your time? Do you feel swamped and tired and full of emotions. Chances are you need to find a way to be better at isolating yourself....from people, from the internet, from television, from your i-pod....then you will be a happier, healthier you! So, find time to make sure you get "recharged"