Insomnia
Rest for Wakeful Souls: Puritan Counsel for Troubled Nights
Many of us know the particular loneliness of the night when sleep will not come. The body is weary, yet the mind will not lie down. Thoughts multiply, memories stir, fears speak loudly, and even prayer can feel strained. The Puritans knew this experience well. They did not dismiss wakefulness as trivial, nor did they crush tender consciences by treating sleeplessness as a moral failure. Instead, they approached restless nights as a pastoral concern, shaped by the state of the soul, the habits of the mind, and the frailty of the body.
They understood that insomnia often grows where inward unrest already dwells. For this reason, their counsel began not with techniques, but with peace.
An Unquiet Conscience Makes an Unquiet Bed
Puritan pastors repeatedly observed that unresolved guilt, spiritual confusion, or continual self-accusation will not remain politely confined to the daytime. When the world grows quiet, conscience speaks more freely. Richard Baxter was careful here. He did not claim that every sleepless night proves hidden sin. He knew that many godly believers suffer wakefulness through weakness, melancholy, or bodily causes. Yet he insisted that when conscience is burdened, rest is difficult.
The remedy he offered was not endless self-examination, but honest confession followed by deliberate rest in Christ’s finished work. When we go to bed still acting as our own judge, prosecutor, and saviour, the soul cannot lie down. But when conscience is quieted by the blood of Christ, the bed is no longer a courtroom. It becomes a place of creaturely rest under divine mercy.¹
The Tyranny of Anxious Forecasting
Another great enemy of sleep, according to the Puritans, is excessive care about tomorrow. Thomas Brooks warned that anxious forecasting is a subtle form of unbelief, not because it feels wicked, but because it assumes responsibility that belongs to God alone. When we rehearse possible futures in the dark, we are attempting to manage a world we cannot govern.
The Puritan counsel here was strikingly practical. They urged believers to make a conscious transfer of responsibility before sleep. This was not vague resignation, but intentional casting of care upon the Lord. We name our fears, acknowledge our helplessness, and entrust both ourselves and tomorrow into God’s keeping. What we refuse to hand over will follow us into the night and keep speaking long after the lights are out.²
Governing the Mind Before Sleep
The Puritans were deeply aware that the mind requires discipline, especially in the evening hours. William Gurnall and others warned against letting the thoughts roam unchecked at night. An undisciplined imagination, they believed, becomes fertile soil for fear, temptation, and despair.
Their counsel was not mental strain but mental settling. They encouraged believers to fill the last waking moments with familiar, steady truths rather than new problems or emotional stimulation. Short portions of Scripture were preferred, especially those that speak of God’s keeping, His shepherd-care, and His watchfulness over His people. The aim was not study, but calm. Truth was to quiet the heart, not exercise it.³
Bodily Wisdom and Godly Moderation
The Puritans did not despise the body. They understood that exhaustion magnifies fear and that late-night overstimulation feeds restless thoughts. They urged moderation in work, restraint in evening activity, and regular rhythms of life. Over-straining the body, even in religious duties, was seen as unwise. God made us embodied creatures, and grace does not cancel our creatureliness.
A weary body invites intrusive thoughts, and a tired mind is easily frightened. Restful sleep, they believed, is often protected earlier in the day by ordered living and reasonable limits.
When Sleep Still Tarries
Perhaps most gently of all, the Puritans taught that wakefulness itself need not become a second affliction. They warned against adding self-reproach to sleeplessness. God is not displeased with His children because they cannot sleep. Many of their writings remind us that the Lord often meets His people in the quiet watches of the night.
If sleep does not come, they urged believers to turn wakefulness into patient waiting rather than anxious striving. Prayer, quiet meditation, or simply resting silently before God were commended. We are not more loved when asleep than when awake. The Shepherd does not keep office hours, and His care does not pause when the night is long.
Rest Found Ultimately in Christ
Above all, Puritan counsel leads us not to a method, but to a Person. They believed that true rest flows from union with Christ. Sometimes that rest comes as sleep, sometimes as peace while sleep delays. Either way, the night is not a sign of abandonment.
“Come unto me,” says our Lord, “and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). The Puritans would remind us that this promise holds at midnight as surely as at noon. Even in the dark, the covenant-keeping God remains near. And even wakeful nights are held within His faithful care.
Footnotes
- Richard Baxter, A Christian Directory; or, A Summ of Practical Theologie and Cases of Conscience (London: Nevil Simmons, 1673), Part I, Christian Ethics, sections on melancholy and governing the thoughts.
- Thomas Brooks, The Mute Christian Under the Smarting Rod (London: 1659), especially the opening chapters on quiet submission under God’s providence.
- William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour (London: 1655–1662), sections addressing the government of the mind and resisting inward disturbances.
- See also Christopher Love, The Dejected Soul’s Cure (London: 1657), and Joseph Symonds, The Case and Cure of a Deserted Soul (London: 1639), for extended Puritan treatment of inward unrest and spiritual heaviness that often accompanies sleeplessness.
