I’ve always been the kind of person that falls asleep pretty much as soon as my head hits the pillow; I never really struggled with insomnia. That is, until a few years ago.

Our Car Fire

A few years ago, we experienced a car fire in the middle of the night. I was in the middle of a sound sleep when I heard a loud sound. My eyes shot open, and I laid in bed for a moment, trying to figure out what in the world the sound was. Moments later, somebody started banging on the front door. I quickly woke up Matt and ran into the kids’ room to check on them.

Matt ran down the stairs and opened the door for the police officer, that was banging on our door; and I woke up our two older kids and grabbed our third from her crib and raced down the stairs. We stepped outside and immediately felt the blast of heat hit us. I looked over and saw flames shooting high into the sky as we ran down the steps and away from our home.

Eventually, the firefighters came and put out the fire. We found out sometime later from the detective on the case that it had been intentionally set. The fear that came from that night stayed with me for a long time.

Insomnia

For months after the fire, I woke up every night between 2:30 and 3:00am. No matter how tired I was, I woke up single every night. It was exhausting and a dark time in my life. I really struggled with fear and consequently, with sleeping at night.

During that season of my life, I put some things into practice to help me be able to get past the fear and to be able to start sleeping all night again. I still use those practices today.

If you’ve ever struggled with insomnia because of fear or lack of peace or worry, it’s so frustrating. You can’t sleep because of something, and then that something just gets worse because you’re not sleeping. It’s a circular problem. A lot of women that I talk to struggle with sleeping well at night, whether that’s because of fear, shame, worry, anxiety, or something else.

Help for When You Can’t Sleep

Here are the things that helped me get through that time that I still do nightly:

1. Every night before I go to bed, I spend just a few minutes in prayer. I thank God for something good that day, confess anything I need to from the day, and pray for a good night’s sleep and safety around each of us and our home as we sleep.
2. Every night when I get into bed, I open up YouVersion on my phone and read a Psalm before going to sleep. I do this so that it’s the last thing on my mind before I go to sleep.
3. During that time my life when I couldn’t sleep, I started memorizing passages of Scripture to say to myself at night when I couldn’t sleep. There’s something about reciting verses at night that helps you to relax. Not always, but most times, if I can’t sleep and I start reciting a passage of Scripture, I will usually fall asleep around verses 10-13. If I’m having a rough night and can’t get to sleep or wake up and can’t get back to sleep, I will start reciting those verses to myself until I fall asleep again. If I am particularly struggling with fear, I will recite verses about fear to myself repeatedly.

Verses to Memorize for When You Can’t Sleep

If you’re looking for some great verses to memorize to help you sleep at night, here’s a few good ones:

1. Psalm 4:8 In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe.
2. II Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
3. Romans 8:38-39 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.  No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Passages of Scripture to Memorize for When You Can’t Sleep

1. Psalm 23
2. James 1
3. Psalm 100
4. Psalm 91
5. John 14:1-6

I hope this post gives you a few things to try when you can’t sleep.

More Encouragement

If you want to know more about my story with all this, check out my book, The Hidden Pain: When You Fear God is No Longer Blessing Your Life or read my post The Hidden Pain—a Peek into the Book I’m writing.