It seems that my hunch about the link between sleep and our complex/emergent brains was right, at least according to this article in The Guardian today.
In an article I wrote some time back, I expanded on this a little more, but to summarize:
It is when we sleep that our brains do the ‘post-processing’ work to make horizontal links between the myriad experiences we have sensed each day.
Hence, without sleep we end up losing this ‘complex’ aspect to our thinking, and thus go down familiar, well worn paths rather than coming up with innovative, creative solutions.
In terms of church? I’m not sure we ever get time to sleep. To lie down and do nothing. And thus we tend to follow familiar paths and well-tried solutions. “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” is the usual rallying call of the Pastor, who projects this macho image that there’s no time to sleep while there are still heathens out there. Sleep = laziness.
This research shows how wrong this view is, and how important it is that we get sleep if we are to remain creative. I believe this is true for institutions as well as individuals. And that God affirms this throughout scripture with the periods of ‘waiting’ that people experience. Advent is good for us. So is jubilee. And the sabbath.
So if you’re wondering how we might be church better, I suggest getting some shut-eye in some Sunday soon 😉
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7 responses to “Church: A Great Place to Sleep”
Sleeping in Church as a Spiritual Discipline
This post from the Complex Christ blog talks about the benefits of sleep for our brains, and how that translates into how people and institutions (including churches) would be more creative and innovative if they allowed themselves the down-time of sle…
I completely agree. I don’t know how many times I’ve had an Epiphany right before or right after sleeping. And another thing, why does “church” have to be in the morning, when everyone is tired?
Quite right. And why can’t we have good slug of wine at the beginning to help things along, rather than a little sip at the end?!
I totally agree with this. I have often thought that my brain does a lot of processing while I am asleep and things kind of just come together in a way they had’t the day before or I get a good idea about something I am working on. Pays to have paper and pen beside my bed. I asked about this once at a dreams workshop and the person leading it wasn’t sure.
Having to get up for an hour at 2AM every morning to burp the baby, I wander downstairs and catch my American and Ozzy friends online… now, not only is my game-play better, but our conversations have been really profound just because I’m more able to see what they mean and respond eloquently…
… maybe one day I’ll post here at that time… but I do so like to be incoherent here!!!!
Hey – heard on the vine that you’d popped another – congrats 😉
Happy burping.
Key question: does the new-born have a cyber-name yet? :p
*FNG*SOLO.
Solomon, to off-liners.
😉