Falling Asleep During Prayer

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Hi everyone. Often times when I am in bed, I’ll pray to God my nightly prayers but I often end up falling asleep sometime before I can formally finish my prayers. Is this a sin? 🤷:confused:
 
For something to be a sin, you have to will it - seeing as most people (you included I’m sure) don’t have control over when exactly they fall asleep or not, I very much doubt you sinned. 🙂 But still, if it bothers you, maybe you could say your prayers before you get into bed?
 
Holly3278 said:
Hi everyone. Often times when I am in bed, I’ll pray to God my nightly prayers but I often end up falling asleep sometime before I can formally finish my prayers. Is this a sin? 🤷:confused:
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A SIN?
I only wish i was receving the GRACES you are.a lot more people would be on a fast track to heaven if they FELL asleep praying.one of our little saints ALWAYS fell asleep praying and in adoration.I think you can be assured Jesus is very well pleased with you. Keep up that beautiful prayer.
 
St. Therese used to become grief-stricken when she often fell asleep during prayer. She consoled herself by saying that mothers loved children when they lie asleep in their arms so that God must love her when she slept during prayer.

May we all follow her Little Way and may she shower roses upon us from heaven!

St. Therese, our Little Flower, pray for us.
 
Saint Therese of Lisieux fell asleep during early morning prayer,and adoration for years.And she was named Doctor of the Church.
 
basenji said:
St. Therese used to become grief-stricken when she often fell asleep during prayer. She consoled herself by saying that mothers loved children when they lie asleep in their arms so that God must love her when she slept during prayer.

May we all follow her Little Way and may she shower roses upon us from heaven!

St. Therese, our Little Flower, pray for us.
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Thank you Basenji.
 
No there’s no sin in falling asleep during prayer - still, try not to if you can avoid it.

Simple solution - kneel by your bedside and say your prayers there before getting in. Never known anyone to fall asleep kneeling!
 
I once heard that if you fall asleep while praying, the angels finish the prayer for you. 🙂
 
Holly, as the others have mentioned… St. Therese of Lisieux often fell asleep in the Choir, during prayer. She makes mention of this in her autobiography “The Story of a Soul”. St. Therese teaches us… that Our Heavenly Father loves us just the same… whether awake or asleep.

I try to save my “formal” prayers, for when I’m fully awake. But when I climb into bed, and shut out the lights… I often chat with Our Lord… and fall asleep, this way. I like the idea of my last conscious act of the day, to be conversing with Jesus.

Try to think of it like this. How sweet… to fall asleep in the Arms of God. :gopray: (and then, finish your “formal” prayers in the morning 😉 ). May He bless you.
 
Holly3278 said:
Hi everyone. Often times when I am in bed, I’ll pray to God my nightly prayers but I often end up falling asleep sometime before I can formally finish my prayers. Is this a sin? 🤷:confused:
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No. You’re sleeping in the Spirit. 🙂

Now, if you intentially sleep through Mass or prayers or something because you’re bored, then that’s not good.

-Jeanne
 
LilyM said:
No there’s no sin in falling asleep during prayer - still, try not to if you can avoid it.

Simple solution - kneel by your bedside and say your prayers there before getting in. Never known anyone to fall asleep kneeling!
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Yeah but that’s the thing Lily. I can’t kneel for very long at a time and often my prayers are very long prayers. My knees just start to hurt too badly to pray kneeling. 😦
 
jeanne71350 said:
No. You’re sleeping in the Spirit. 🙂

Now, if you intentially sleep through Mass or prayers or something because you’re bored, then that’s not good.

-Jeanne
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Oh don’t worry Jeanne. I definitely do not fall asleep during Mass. Never intentionally anyway. I think I fell asleep during Mass one time but I quickly woke back up. Thanks! 👍
 
I do not believe there is sin involved in your situation. When tape cassettes were popular I had a rosary on tape wherein the priest-narrator said if you dozed off while praying the beads it was as if falling asleep in the arms of our Blessed Mother. And was it St. Margaret Alacoque who often prayed before bedtime that she would place her heart spiritually at the feet of Jesus in the tabernacle to keep watch with him through the night.

As for me, I download the homily from the daily Mass at EWTN.com into my MP3 player and listen to that while waiting for Mr. Sandman.

Joe
 
Holly3278 said:
Oh don’t worry Jeanne. I definitely do not fall asleep during Mass. Never intentionally anyway. I think I fell asleep during Mass one time but I quickly woke back up. Thanks! 👍
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Ok good! Before I became on fire for God, I used to sleep through Mass at school and whever we went to chapel to pray the rosary. Not anymore!! 🙂

-Jeanne
 
wanner47 said:
I once heard that if you fall asleep while praying, the angels finish the prayer for you. 🙂
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I heard that one a lot during my years in the Episcopal Church, sometimes that it was one’s guardian angel specifically.

I sometimes pray the rosary in bed at night, and often fall asleep during the first or second mystery, so I guess there are a lot of third, fourth, and fifth mysteries being prayed by my angels. 😃
 
How about sitting, in a reverent manner, to say your prayers?

I love to fall asleep in my recliner, so I have to put it in normal chair position when I pray.

Lately though, I’ve been having trouble praying.

Thanks for the topic, and God bless you!
 
I fall asleep to an informal prayer all the time at night. When I get into bed and settle down I just say goodnight to Jesus and several saints. A lot of times I do not get through the list. Also if I wake up in the middle of the night EWTN radio puts me back to sleep, that does not sound good but it is meant as a complement.🙂
 
Actually there is another way of looking at this… It means that the last thing on our lips and in our minds and hearts are the things of God. There is so much lower, more mundane things we could be thinking about as we drift to sleep. Praying right up to the instant we drift off is not bad at all. 🙂
 
Holly3278, you’re not the only one. I fall asleep during my evening prayers too! 😉 There are times that I finish before I fall asleep, and other times I fall asleep right in the middle of my prayers.

I have trouble sleeping due to health issues. So while I say my evening prayers laying down, I have, I guess you could say, a “sub” prayer going on. The prayer is for God to help me to get to sleep. Sometimes he doesn’t wait for me to finish my evening prayers. 😃

Every night I wake up at least twice, if not more. Without fail, if I’ve fallen asleep while praying, the first time wake up during the night I will immediately pick up where I left off when I fell asleep the first time. I wake up praying. It’s kind of funny. Sort of like someone pressed the “play” button after the audio has been “paused.” hehe

Any other time I wake up during the night I concentrate on my “sub” prayer to God that he helps me fall asleep while quietly praying the “Our Father.” Sometimes I’ll toss in a “Hail Mary” too. I do this to rely on God to help me sleep because I have sleep issues - it’s tough for me to stay asleep. I have never fallen back asleep so fast as I have when I started doing this. It’s better than Rozerem. 🙂

I was going to suggest, and it seems others have suggested this too, that if it really bothers you, consider kneeling or sitting.

I was going to say that I absolutely love the responses in this thread and I really like the idea that God is indeed on our minds when we sleep.
 
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