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I wonder how you slept last night? Or if you remember your dreams? And how the day is starting for you as a result? Sleep – the length of time and quality of sleep itself – affects our day, our mood, our ability to make decisions. It was reported yesterday that 2 million children in England are living in overcrowded or cramped conditions and that 300,000 of them share a bed with other family members. More than a quarter of parents surveyed said that they regularly slept in the kitchen or bathroom or corridor – on the floor. In a rich society this is a shaming statistic for all of us. Because sleep is essential for life. And children who habitually can’t sleep form habits that can lead to physical and mental illness in later life: diabetes, depression and anxiety in adulthood. Sleep is a normal part of life until you can’t have it, and then you can think of little else. Whether through systemic disadvantage or individual circumstance, sleep deprivation causes great suffering: makes us less resilient, less able to cope with change or uncertainty or conflict. In the Christian tradition, the ancient service called Compline, meaning ‘completion’ is prayed at night, recognising the transition from day to night, from wake to sleep, from light to dark – and that this transition is necessary, that God is there just as much as in the day. I often spend time talking to people going through homelessness who spend much time searching for safe and quiet places to sleep outside in the city. It’s hard – and for many who sleep on the streets, night becomes day and day night. On the pavement, it’s difficult to feel safe asleep when there are fewer people around. Physical sleep is a way that the body and mind should come to rest, and much reflection in the Christian tradition centres on rest of the soul. Such resting is associated with simply being, not focussed on achieving or doing, as a necessary state for human beings to flourish. Of all the population of the planet, at any one time, at least half are asleep. As a universal need, it’s close to being a human right, essential for living.

For all the children sharing beds, for the parents on bathroom floors, for the guys in shop doorways and the restless nights that can be for a hundred reasons for anyone else, the words of the traditional service of compline may resonate …

Keep watch dear Lord with those who wake or watch or weep this night. And give your angels charge over them that sleep.