On Getting Into Bed (not like that)

Facing yourself at night when you're suffering from mental affliction

Photo by Cassidy Dickens on Unsplash

I have been writing a series of articles that essentially extend the advice I gave in On Getting Out of Bed over the last few months, and not too long ago one reader commented that she didn’t have much trouble getting out of bed. It’s going to sleep once she’s in bed that’s the challenge. She had a good point. When you’re suffering from a mental affliction, going to bed can be terrifying because you know that you will be stuck with your thoughts: shame over mistakes you made that day, guilt over sin, regret that you didn’t get enough accomplished, feelings of inadequacy, doubt, and anxiety. Fear about the next day. As Jake says in The Sun Also Rises, “It is awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another thing.”

So what can we do? How can we get into bed without dread?

Take all the following as (what I hope is) wise advice, not professional counsel, because I’m not a mental health professional. But as I’ve written about before, I believe in the role of wise counsel in our lives, so I’m going to try to offer some. Here are some general principles that I think can help us face ourselves and therefore face sleep when we are ashamed, afraid, anxious, or guilty.