This isn't a post you're going to find in a health magazine, because I will freely admit that physical health isn't really one of the benefits of lack of sleep. There you will find out why you must get at least 8 hours a night. Little do the authors know that I would love 8 hours straight of sleep. Given the option, I'd go for 9 or 10, even -- this sounds like a recipe for paradisical living!
However, there are some benefits of lack of sleep that bear mentioning. Especially to those who aren't getting 8 hours straight. The main benefits, should one choose to take advantage of them, are spiritual.
First, one gets the chance to make a large sacrifice for one's family: getting up with the alarm. I believe that there needs to be no more said on that point.
Second, one needs to pray most fervently that today go okay. Because one realizes on this day, even if this has never occured to one before, that one cannot do this alone. Especially since one is not a caffeine drinker and one will be fighting heavy eyelids and slower thinking all day.
Third, one has many occasions for humility throughout the day: one cannot finish housework as one would like; one cannot remember a darn thing that one promised oneself to remember for today; one barks at one's children for minor offences and then realizes that one is completely out -of-line...The list could go on.
Once one has faced the humility lessons for the day, one gets more motivated to practice other virtues: patience, kindness, goodness, self-control, etc, in an effort not to be too overloaded with humility.
So as the day progresses, one is brought to thankfulness for the lack of sleep, as there are so many obvious spiritual blessings emanating from it. But one also prays for better sleep tonight. Because even though God can bring good out of anything, it's not easy to be chronically tired. And one might even remember to get Motrin at the store in an attempt to help the teething baby facilitate one's sleep.
