A Prayer for a Night Shift Worker Trying to Sleep

Father, the rest of the world is just starting its day, and I am finally trying to end mine. The sun is climbing while I pull the curtains tight and ask my body to sleep against everything it expects. It feels like swimming upstream.

I confess this backwards life wears on me, the loneliness of being awake while everyone sleeps and asleep while everyone lives, the meals at strange hours, the holidays I work, the feeling of always being slightly out of step.

So I bring this tired, off rhythm body to You, the one who made both the day and the night and is not confused by my schedule.

Help me sleep now, in the brightness, with the world loud outside my window. Quiet my body and my mind enough to truly rest, even though everything around me says it is time to be awake.

The day is Yours and the night is Yours, the darkness and the light are the same to You. So my upside down hours are not lost to You. You watch over my odd sleep the same as anyone's.

Guard this rest I am stealing from the daylight. Restore me for the next shift. Thank You for being Lord of every hour, even the strange ones. Amen.