Piper on Sleep

John Piper on Sleep:

Sleep is good and absolutely needful. But let us find the amount we need to function fully for God and take no more. Why? Because Paul said in Ephesians 5:15f, "Look carefully then how you walk, no as unwise men but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Time is precious because the stakes are so high in an evil age. Let us beware of frittering away precious hours in fruitless dawdling and excessive sleep.

I remember the story of a German New Testament professor who was asked why he rose so early and worked so hard. He answered: "Ich spare den Schlaf fuer die ewige Ruhe!" ("I am saving sleep for the eternal rest.") Of course this can be abused so that you kill yourself with heart failure or turn yourself into a first class grouch. But perhaps the time has come to sound Paul's trumpet again from 2 Corinthians 11:27, "... in toil and hardship, in hunger and thirst, through many a sleepless night..."
Let us take heed to ourselves and to our appetite for sleep, redeeming the time for the days are evil.

Read the full-text of his sermon from where the quote above is taken here.