Falling Asleep During Prayer--Is It Really Okay?

We can all become complacent and comfortable in our prayer lives, and one of the things to guard against is being okay with falling asleep during prayer too regularly. We’ve often heard the saying that if you fall asleep praying the rosary, your guardian angel will finish it for you and there’s also a meme that has been on Facebook that says something like ‘If you feel bad falling asleep during prayer, let me ask you something: how do you feel when your child falls asleep in your lap? Glad that’s settled.’ While falling asleep every once in a while may not be able to be helped, when we make it a regular occurrence we are telling God that our time with Him is not that important to us and the value of our prayer time is diminished because we lose the ability to pay attention to God and receive what He wants to tell us. There is even a warning from Jesus Himself against falling asleep during prayer in the Gospels and Archbishop Sheen also relays a story to us that tells the importance of guarding against sleep during prayer.

In the Gospel of Matthew, once Jesus has returned from praying in His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, He finds Peter, James and John sleeping and He says to Peter, “Could you not watch one hour with Me (26:40)?” He then proceeds to tell them to stay awake, keeping watch and praying so that they may not give in to temptation. Being attentive during prayer and really internalizing what God is saying to us helps us in our fight against the outside world and it also helps to discipline our bodies when we are feeling tired or lazy so that we can better serve God without thinking of ourselves. Yes, Jesus was also talking about falling asleep in spirit and letting worldly cares and pleasures take over our lives, but succumbing to our bodies in the physical sense during prayer also is detrimental to our spiritual growth and we end up not giving God the attention and praise that He deserves.

In his autobiography, Treasure in Clay, Archbishop Fulton Sheen tells of his great devotion to the Eucharist and the promise he made to the Lord to make a Holy Hour every day. At the beginning of one Holy Hour, however, he was so exhausted from traveling that he immediately fell asleep and didn’t wake up until the end of the hour. He asked the Lord, “Have I made a Holy Hour?” and he says that he thought he heard His angel reply, “Well, that’s the way the Apostles made their first Holy Hour in the Garden, but don’t do it again.” It is important for us to make a great effort to stay awake and attentive during our prayer time so that we receive all of the graces and blessings that God wants to give us, as well as make sure that God is given the adoration and attention that He is rightfully due. Yes, we are God’s children and we should be comfortable in His presence, but we should also have respect for our time with Him and make sure our bodies are disciplined and open to His instruction.