Most humans spend approximately 1/3 of their lives sleeping. That is a long time! Sleep is when we dream, file memories, and process information. Sleep is when we heal from the traumas and trials of life. The better our sleep, the more efficient this process works. Healthy people almost always get good sleep, whereas the opposite is almost never true for unhealthy people. When we lose sleep, our emotional, physical, cognitive, and spiritual health decline. When we gain it, it won’t take long before we notice improvement in all of these areas.
Sleep is undoubtedly influenced by many factors, including what we eat, our levels of physical activity, sunlight exposure, and how we manage daily life stressors. Sleep is also influenced by another big factor that I want to address in this article: our level of integrity. One of the mottos I like to live by is “Don’t do anything during day that negatively impacts your quality of sleep at night.”
A Clean Conscience For A Better Night’s Sleep
Our conscience is a guiding light. The feedback it gives us, often in the form of pain, is actually a blessing. Imagine having a broken arm, but not feeling any pain. That arm would never heal! People with a seared conscience, who experience no remorse and sleep easy after doing evil, are a great danger to themselves and others.
When we do evil, we invite chaos into our lives. Chaos is a kind of inner disorder that keeps our bodily systems from functioning at peak levels. A chaotic mind leads to suffering during the day and suffering at night, both for ourselves and for people who have the misfortune of interacting with us.
In the Bible, Cain’s face fell after being confronted by God for his sin (Genesis 4). David was distraught after committing adultery and murdering another man’s wife (Psalm 51). Peter wept bitterly after denying Jesus (Luke 22), and Judas hanged himself after betraying Jesus (Matthew 27).
We may fool others, but we can’t fool our own minds (unless we go crazy). And we can’t fool God under any circumstance. This is why bad decision are so costly. An accurate score is always being kept by something and someone no matter what others think (accountability).
Many choices have yet to be made. We can’t go back in time, but we can get it right moving forward.
If you liked this article, check out Integrity Increases Self-Esteem. For more, see the complete archive of articles on integrity.
