Is There a Way to Wake Up on the Right Side of the Bed?

An interesting characteristic of dreams

A month or so ago I read an interesting statistic on dreams, which said that 90% of all dreams had a particular characteristic. I decided to give it an informal test. A couple of weeks ago at Sunday dinner with my wife and son I asked the following question, "Tell me some dreams that you remember." As the conversation ensued and various dreams were shared, I was surprised because 100% of their dreams had this characteristic.

What is the characteristic? 90% of all dreams are negative in nature: falling, being chased, something bad or sad occurring, embarrassing incidents we don't want anyone else to know that we even dreamed about, drowning, being shot, arguing, and so forth. This caused more pause for me.

Having done some reading in dreams I knew that dreams typically reflected the feelings and incidents of the previous two to three days. From my own experience, what I went to bed with is what I woke up with. If a particular issue was on my mind and I went to bed thinking about it, I woke with it on my mind. Research has verified this tendency.

Ephesians 4:26

Paul's verse came to mind, "Do not let the sun go down on your wrath." If I go to bed angry, then the probability is that I will wake up angry. Whether I remember it or not, I probably dreamed about it that night, which reinforced the unresolved nature of the conflict. I realized that if I go to bed with sin or conflict (in the temptation sense) on my mind, then there is a probability I will reinforce them and wake up with them! Egads, I don't want that.

Mark 14:37-38

Jesus knew terrible temptation was about to befall him and his disciples. He commanded the disciples to watch and pray. When he checked on them later, they had fallen asleep. This awake and asleep occurred again. When the temptation came (the arrest of Jesus), the disciples scattered and retreated and ... failed. We know from earlier verses that the disciples were sure that they would not fail Jesus, that they would not forsake him.

I tend to think that the disciples might have prayed for Jesus, but they were uncertain what to pray about. The Scriptures state they were confused about who the betrayer was, what the betrayal was about, Jesus being taken and killed, and rising again made no sense at all. They probably fell asleep in blissful ignorance of their own temptation, likely thinking everything would be ok the next day. They may have discussed Jesus' near panic state and not have prayed at all.

So ... how is this useful?

I've thought over my past. Many times when struggling with a temptation or a sin, I'd finally just go to bed ... sleep it off. Just forget about it. Right, huh??? No, I don't think I slept it off. I probably reinforced it. Using the example of Jesus versus the disciples, when struggling with sin, it is better to pray to honor the Lord and fall asleep while doing that rather than fall asleep hoping it will simply go away or that things will be ok the next day.

If I fall asleep while trusting the Lord (showing faith in prayer, affirming that his will be done, wanting to please him, desiring to be like Christ, etc), then the probability will be that I will awake trusting the Lord. If I fall asleep trying to ignore temptation or sin, I will probably awake with the temptation or sin. If I don't awake with them, then they are probably crawling around in my unconscious, like nasty bugs in the crawlspace.

Dozing off in prayer is far better that dozing off trying to forget. I know how I'd rather wake up to face the new day. There really is a practical way to wake up on the right side of the bed.