Is it a sin to fall asleep during prayer?

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LilyM said:
Well, it’s not really something you can control - you get tired, you fall asleep! That’s why tired people have car accidents, they wouldn’t if they could control their falling asleep.

St Therese of Lisieux writes of sometimes falling asleep during prayers. If memory serves she was of the opinion that like all parents, God probably loves His children best when they are asleep 😃 It’s also a pious tradition that if you fall asleep while saying the Rosary your Guardian Angel finishes it for you. I’d imagine they do so with other prayers as well.

So I doubt it’s a real problem. On the other hand, it’s preferable to remain conscious while you’re praying, if you can. If you know that praying in bed = falling asleep, for example, sit up in a chair or kneel at your bedside instead.
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At night when I awake and cannot go back to sleep I pray and I go to sleep. Praying is the best thing for relaxing your mind and soul because HE is with you. So pray that is when God is closest and you will sleep.
GOD BLESS
 
“Is it a sin to fall asleep during prayer?”

Yes, but only if you’re driving a car. 😉
Otherwise, might be a good thing too, as you can’t commit sin while sleeping. 👍
 
OK, since nobody else did it, I’ll be the wet blanket.

Not saying it’s a sin, but not ideal either, if your main prayer time every day ends up with you falling asleep.

It’s been happening to me a lot lately, and I know it’s all my fault. Through lack of discipline and poor planning, I find myself getting to bed very, very late (like 2 am). I usually attend Mass at 5:30 in the evening, and my main prayer time is the hour before Mass. When I’m sleep deprived, I tend to fall asleep as soon as I quiet my mind for prayer, which results in my missing out on most of my time with Our Lord. Definitely something I need to work on.

This discussion reminds me of a question that was asked of a priest once: “Is it OK to smoke my pipe while I pray?” The priest’s answer: “Ask instead if it’s OK to pray while you smoke your pipe, and I’ll say yes.”

Is it OK to fall asleep when you pray? Maybe - maybe not. Is it OK to pray while you fall asleep? Definitely!

Betsy
 
JulieAA said:
Very cute, and yet very humble as well!!🙂
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Thanks Julie. Usually I’m neither, so it pays to have an off day. :whacky:

Speaking of falling asleep with a prayer on my lips, it’s 3:15 AM Gotta fly. God Bless
 
What good is your earlier rising, your going later to rest when the Lord God bestows gifts on His beloved while they slumber.

My grandson was about 4 when he woke from his nap with that look on his face that told me even before he did that something special had happened while he slept. He recognized God’s blessing.

As Baltobetsy rightly points out, we are called to care for this temple which we call the body, giving it proper rest and nutrition.

A former pastor talked about how he often spent the first day of his annual retreat sleeping, a practice encouraged by a retreat master.
 
Good day,

I have found whenever I do the Rosary in front of the Blessed Sacrament I get ‘nodsy’ my eyes get heavy and if I do succumb and nod off for a moment, I am reminded of my own human failing as I am transported back to The olive garden and not even Apostles could keep vigilant that night. It depends how ferverant I’m praying to how fatigued I get while praying. I think biblically, when one of our heros from the past God moved close to them they fell drowsy (ie. Adam, Abram, Joseph, the Apostles, and later St. Paul), but just my observation. I could be wrong, I dunno.

:twocents:
mpc
 
If your child fell asleep in your arms while she was telling you about the joys an anxieties of her day would you take it as an affront? If the analogy holds that God is our heavenly father, then falling asleep while in prayer cannot be sinful. It sound like you keep busy and are tired at the end of day and find peace in prayer. Good for you.
 
Not at all. I think God would be very happy if all of us fell asleep with our minds and hearts on Him in prayer. What a beautiful way to end the day. God bless!
 
Willy_Jose said:
“Is it a sin to fall asleep during prayer?”

Yes, but only if you’re driving a car. 😉
Otherwise, might be a good thing too, as you can’t commit sin while sleeping. 👍
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That reminds me of the man who wished to die peacefully in his sleep

Not screaming and cursing like the people in the car he was driving. 😃
 
Hmmm, it seems as though the consensus is that falling asleep during prayer is not a sin. What a relief! :o
 
Joe_Kelley said:
I wake a lot in the night. I have a cheap string and plastic rosary [from Operation Rescue] that I loop around my wrist. It tends to stay on my arm most nights, though it often crawls up to my shoulder. Whenever I wake up I resume wherever I can last remember praying. If I don’t finish five decades by morning, I finish it while trying to get the ambition to get up.
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Amazing, I thought I was the only one who slept with Rosary Beads wrapped around my forearm and My hand holding the crucifix:)
 
St. Jerome said that we should read the Bible until our head nods and touches the pages. So tell me, are you going to argue with St. Jerome, probably the greatest Scripture scholar of all time?

Also didn’t a young man fall asleep and fall out of a window while St. Paul was preaching?

Who is greater, you are the apostles? They fell asleep in the garden with Jesus right in front of them.

Who created sleep? Sleep well and long my friend. We’re gonna pray for eternity.

And have a slice of cake on me before you sleep.
 
Whitacre_Girl said:
I have been having real trouble sleeping lately, and I have taken up this practice! It really gets me to sleep if I say the rosary or Chaplet while I sleep. Although it sucks waking up with a rosary stuck to your face…lol
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do you even KNOW how many times I’ve done that>>>??? LMAO!!!🤷
 
Very helpful comments in here. I’d just like to share that I schedule my lengthy prayers at daytime when I am most alert. At night before sleeping, I just say the classic short prayer before sleeping.
Now I lay me down to… zzzzzz :sleep:
 
I was nodding off saying the Rosary last night, on the couch, with my wife, under bright living room lights! People who receive good massages often fall asleep, due to the intense relaxation involved therein. I wonder if praying is the same thing–theoretically, we can never be as relaxed as when we are accessing Christ, as that is when we are most living in Him, right? Falling asleep may be merely an inevitable, human response to the peace we find in Him. Just a thought of mine!

(Oh, and I’m sure I’m not helped by the glass of wine right before bed!)
 
How about falling asleep during Sunday’s homily? lol

but in all seriousness, sometimes in the daytime when I pray I go into a deep state of meditation where I’m neither asleep or awake. It’s just a state of peace which sorta comes about naturally as an extension of the prayer.

I feel as if God puts me in this state, so I would figure that that state of peace would be perfect to go to sleep if one were tired.😉
 
jorgeraul3 said:
How about falling asleep during Sunday’s homily? lol . . .
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The Puritans had very long sermons. I was told in my school days that the usher had a long pole with a rabbit’s paw on one end and his tail on the other. If a boy fell asleep he got bopped with the paw; a girl got her nose tickled with the tail .😉
 
I have read many lives of saints. Many saints have discussed this and it is believed that falling asleep during prayer on a consistent basis is actually a power of the devil to prevent the individual from spiritual growth. If you are aware of this attack and that is happens especially during certain prayers then it is time to get up and walk around until you finish what you started. Then lay down and begin more prayers to fall asleep to.
 
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