“And now I may dismiss my heroine to the sleepless couch, which is the true heroine's portion - to a pillow strewed with thorns and wet with tears. And lucky may she think herself, if she get another good night's rest in the course of the next three months.” ― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

The Southern Gospel song puts it this way: "I woke up this morning feeling fine I woke up with heaven on my mind... I woke up with joy in my soul cause I knew my Lord had control..." That's not a bad way to get our day going, here on this Thursday, May 2, 2013. Benjamin Franklin came up with this one, "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." One thing that Facebook has brought to us is the opportunity for those who are not early to bed to find others of the same ilk to commensurate with. This matter of sleeplessness seems to dominate our culture today and we have it in our family and know of it in many others as well. This is a big deal. There's a five page write up on the subject on the WebMD website and this problem is not only troubling to many, it can be deadly. Some 100,000 auto crashes per year are attributed to sleep deprivation. Thus far, I have not had to deal with that problem in my own ability to sleep well. I do practice long waking hours each day but I also have solid and refreshing sleep. My wife is not that fortunate and Jimmy our son isn't either. They are up way too much in the middle of the night. That article listed literally dozens of factors that are linked to this malady and we all know just from the number of commercials for sleep help medications that this is a huge problem in our country. One young woman who is now away from home but grew up in our fellowship had this to say in the wee hours of the morning on her Facebook page: "I just wanna go to sleep so bad! I'll do almost anything! Ugh." I'm always so thankful when those near and dear to me do get a good night's sleep. I pray this for all those who have trouble in this important area of life. Amen.

You noticed that I didn't give advice because there's just too many reasons for there to be simple solutions. My granddad would have said, "Get up, go and work hard, get home, and when the time comes, go to sleep. The next day: repeat the cycle." And, that does probably work for some. However, it is not the answer for every situation. I'll leave it to the experts to tell us why this is such a growing problem and it is now impacting our children. Yes. The 24 hour news cycle, the unlimited availability of all forms of entertainment, games, social media and the like are all mentioned as possible influences. I'm sure diet in terms of what we consume and when plays a role as well. I do have somewhat of an established regimen. I try to always eat early in the evening and not snack any after a reasonable hour. Bottom line is that everyone pretty much has to evaluate all the details of what they are doing to see if they can make any changes that will help them to get onto a better experience in their waking and sleep cycle. Some people poke fun at my somewhat challenging schedule but the outcome is found in how it works for me. On top of all of this, I can give a universal piece of advice that I know will be good for anyone at anytime: Spend your sleepless hours in Bible study and prayer because that will always do a body good, period, end of story. It might even make you sleepy. Just sayin!

Now that I've exhausted everyone on the subject of being exhausted because of sleeplessness, maybe it is best to call it a day, or a night, depending on when you are reading this, or where you happen to be. I also know that many people resist the advice from those who don't have the same problem. I do know from experience that one size does not fit all in this case, and in many others as well. I also know what some of you are thinking. After a day long binge of Community Coffee overload, my body is probably in zonked mode by the time I go to bed. There could be something to that but here's a little ditty from the Community Coffee House Facebook page that may help us all: "When life gives you lemons, throw the lemons back into the face of life and say this: I didn't order lemons, I ordered an espresso!" As George Burns used to say, "It's time to say goodnight Gracie." To which Gracie would always reply: "Goodnight Gracie." And, that goes for me too. Have a great day and may God bless each one. Amen.   ....More later.