Gnosticism and Sleep

I came across the following in Posterity Letters by Dorie McCullough Lawson:

"Avoid the night air in sickly situations. Let you dress be rather warmer than the weather would seem to require. Carefully avoid fatigue from all causes both of body and mind (pg. 268)."

This is from a letter Benjamin and Julia Rush wrote to their son, John. This is such good sense, and such plain and practical advice that it startled me a little. What startled me even more was the realization that I have never preached a sermon with anything like similar advice.

I wonder in my heart of hearts if we are not more influenced by gnosticism than we know. Gnosticism is the heresy that only the spiritual/intellectual matters. The body is like a candy wrapper; it will soon (thankfully) be discarded. If we look at the world like this we will inevitably think it is more spiritual to, for example, stay up late preparing a sermon than to go to bed at a reasonable hour. If we are influenced by gnosticism, we will think it is more spiritual to go to a meeting than to go to the doctor.

Also, consider the pressures of our age, and the constant temptation to be a workaholic. We don't have time to even think about our physical health, much less actually attend to it. Pastors especially are tempted to neglect their physical health. One specific area of neglect is the area of sleep. Why is it we think it is more spiritual to sleep less? It probably has to do with the definition of success that we have inherited from the spirit of the age. Success is measured by hours worked.

My mom said something worthy of repeating to me today (her 33rd day in ICU). She said, "Son, why do you worry so much? If you trust God, you don't have to worry."

I believe this applies, at least to me, in the area of sleep. If I trusted God more, I'd sleep more. I'd know that he is kindly looking out for everything. He is awake when I am asleep. The work will get done, because He is the prime worker and, "He who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps." Why do we worry so much? Why do we sleep so little? If we trust God, we don't have to worry, and we will be able to sleep.