I STAND IN AWE AT THE WONDROUS works of God throughout His great creation. How little of them has yet been discovered, for they are indeed “wonders without number.” Yet, despite myriads of evidence all around us attesting to an omnipotent and omniscient Creator God, masses suffer evolutionary blindness–that God-cancelling, heretical teaching of ancient pagan days, reintroduced by Darwin in the 1800s.
Nature defies such a teaching. The things He made prove “His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse…Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” Rom. 1:20 and 22.
Consider the human body itself–that amazing structure of numberless miracles. Are we to believe that the eye somehow just haphazardly evolved? Really? The immune system? The brain? Methinks I can hear God shout, “Fool, fool, fool!”
I stand in awe when I contemplate how God so “wonderfully made” the human body. Even in our sleep, He is at work. “Researchers have examined the physiological and psychological aspects of sleep for over a century with studies consistently showing how sleep plays a critical role in our health. When you sleep well, the body undergoes essential repair processes, everything from consolidating memories and flushing out toxins to repairing damaged cells and DNA–all crucial for delaying the onset of age-related diseases.” 1
Hormones Released for Our Health
The pineal gland in our brain helps control the circadian cycle of sleep and wakefulness. It releases four hormones every night:
- Serotonin–regulates mood for happiness and well-being.
- Melatonin–a fix and rejuvenate hormone, responsible for healing, rest, and rejuvenation.
- Arginine vasotocin puts us into a deep sleep. It is a natural pain killer. If you have pain of any type and go to bed early, this natural pain killer will kick in. Then there will be waste from its use. Next night, it won’t release more, but exercising during the day will remove it from the body.
- Epithalamin increases learning capacity. Students that go to bed late cannot concentrate the next day in school. This hormone also slows down aging.
These daytime activities help stimulate the release of these hormones:
Sunshine, drinking water, getting to bed early, good nutrition and regular mealtimes, exercise, avoiding technology, and abstaining from caffeine and alcohol (as they drop the production of these hormones 41%). 2
These hormones are released during the night due to our circadian rhythm, or internal clock. God made the night and the day, intending the night for our sleep. Getting sun early in the morning helps regulate our circadian rhythm and prepare for sleep at night. This rhythm is especially aligned with light, and “is incredibly influential in our quality of sleep.” 1
In the morning, look directly at the sun briefly to sync your circadium rhythm. Light goes through the optic nerve to the pineal gland. This prompts our body to release melatonin at the right time, making it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep. When disrupted with late nights, jet lag, or shift work, it can lead to poor sleep, various health disorders, and premature aging.
The key to having the full advantage of the many health benefits of sleep is to go to bed early–not appealing, I know, for our 24/7, tech-addicted generation!
If an individual goes to bed at midnight, even if he sleeps till 8, he misses the pineal gland secretions. Sleep deprivation and the consequent circadian clock disruption has become an emergent health problem.
Regular late nights have a similar effect on the body as alcoholism and drug addiction, because it does not allow the body to revive and recharge every night. 2
The Hazards of Blue Light
The blue light from screens–TV, phones, computers, tablets–especially in the evening, suppresses natural melotonin production, causing sleep disruption, which increases the risk of heart disease, cancer, and eye health.
We do get blue light from the sun, but along with it, 42% infrared light, so it is a natural safe balance. Humans are not designed to withstand all the melotonin-inhibiting blue light we are getting from our devices. LED lighting in our homes poses the same health hazards. 3
There are reasons that we are seeing an epidemic of insomnia.
Filing, Learning and Emotional Processing
There is a short-term memory unit at the base of the brain called the hippocampus that transfers memories of the day and files them in the cortex at the top of the brain for long-term storage. The hippocampus is also involved in learning and emotional processing, including anxiety.
There is an amazing order to the filing of these memories. Negative things are filed together and the positive things are filed separately. Dreaming is involved in the process. Then a consolidation of all that is learned throughout the day takes place.
The body also repairs and regrows tissues, builds bone and muscle, and strengthens the immune system.
God’s love for His creatures is evident in His vast creation, even while we sleep. A veritable spa of wellness treatments awaits those willing to retire early enough. For adults, it is said we should have 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep. Chronic sleep loss impacts health, being linked to heart disease, obesity, diabetes, reduced immune function and even accelerating how fast you age. 1
Your Nightly Brain Bath
With no room in the skull for the lymphatic system, God, whose ways are past finding out, designed another marvelous wonder to detox the brain.
“During sleep, special cells found alongside blood vessels, pump cerebrospinal fluid from the edges of the brain to its center. The brain’s neurons actually shrink to permit the fluid to rush through the tiny spaces between cells where it picks up and carries off metabolic waste products.” 4
One evolutionary scientist said that the lymph system evolved, and then credited the brain itself for somehow solving “the problem of waste clearance.”
“The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.” Psalm 14:1.
Are humans but the products of time and chance, as declared by evolutionists? Can it be that we really are the result of random processes operating over billions of years? I declare that this takes far more “faith” to believe than to believe in God.
This writing touches only upon some of God’s wonders worked while we sleep. His glory is manifest everywhere in this universe, and were one to honestly consider His divine, exquisite engineering and creative craftsmanship in all things, the scales of evolutionary teaching would fall from their blinded eyes.
1] https://oneskin.co/blogs/reference-lab/whats-
the-connection-between-quality-sleep-and-longevity
2] https://youtube.com/watch?v=v8W1QgBMla8
3] https://primalherb.com/the-danger-of-led-blue-lights-will-blow-your-mind
4] https://icr.org/article/brain-bath-clever-design-solution
