Sleeping in the Temple
Posted on June 27th, 2005 by Clark Goble
We finally made it to the temple Saturday night. We decided to do that for our date night. We knew we wouldn’t have enough time for a full endowment session, so we did sealings which typically take far less time. It had been far too long since we’d made it to the temple. (At least a year, if not more) The difficulty was always in finding a babysitter. (Yes, we’re probably being paranoid - but it’s our first baby) The one thing that was most familiar about it all though was how the peace of the temple made me tremendously tired.
It often seemed that I ended up dozing off in parts of the endowment, not for reasons akin to lack of attention in church, but simply because of the feel the temple had. It really is hard not to be so relaxed there that you start to doze off. Am I the only one? Anyone think this is a bad thing?
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Don’t worry. A friend of ours sat next to Elder Oaks one session. When the order was give to awake and arise, Elder Oaks did, along with many other members of the company.
I, too, think that part of it is the peace and serenity of the setting. After being so used to the tension of normal life, it is hard not to be relaxed to the point of sleepiness.
The most obvious time I remember was in the MTC. I had a zealous district and I don’t remember at what time the early session we decided to attend. But it was too early.
According to a number of studies, many Americans need to get more sleep at night. We have an unfortunate tendency to be workaholics. If we went to bed earlier, and got more sleep, we probably wouldn’t fall asleep during temple sessions. That said, I have certainly gone to sleep during a session. I just take it as a reminder that I need to better obey the commandments in D&C 88:124
I’ve fallen asleep in the Seattle temple a time or two; I try to go each time I travel to Seattle, which means I tend to be there very early in the morning or very late at night (at least according to my Eastern-time-acclimated body).
Clark,
I remember being somewhat shocked when my Grandmother dozed off during my first Temple session. Since I was there to receive my own endowment and it was all new to me I was surprised that anyone could find such a sacred experience soporific.
Of course, I failed to take into account that she worked in the Provo Temple twice a week at 5:00 am as a veilworker and was likely exhausted, poor dear. There’s no one who takes the Temple more seriously than my grandmother and no one I’d rather pattern my life after. If even she occasionally succumbs to sleepiness then certainly it is forgivable for a new father too.
The worst time I’ve had staying awake was during a trip to the temple in the midst of a whirlwind road trip. A couple friends and I had driven through the night from Salt Lake to Portland, Oregon, to attend the wedding of a friend. We arrived at about 5 a.m., but the wedding wasn’t until 10 a.m. and we didn’t have any place to go or anything to do so, after stopping for breakfast, we decided to attend an endowment session.
“Oh, yes!” I thought, “That will be lovely!” Ah, what fools we were. We obviously hadn’t slept at all that night since we were driving (and I’d actually had only a couple hours sleep the night before that due to an inflamed elbow). One friend was more wise than us, and he wished us a happy time and napped in the car.
I have never struggled so hard to stay awake. So quiet… so peaceful…. I kept poking my friend to wake her up every minute or two because she would start breathing so loudly. It was horrible. I didn’t get anything from the session, and I hope the poor soul who I was standing in proxy for doesn’t hate me for it.
But the wedding was lovely
According to a number of studies, many Americans need to get more sleep at night
Especially with small children! (grin)
It’s dark, and there’s not exactly a lot of ACTION, y’know? I found that sucking on cinnamon tic-tacs during the film helped me stay awake and alert. Plus I had that sparkling fresh breath action going, in case Mr. Right happened to be hangin’ in the Celestial Room.
Eight years ago, after a 7 hour bus ride and sitting in the 3rd session of the day, I was not surprised to see my friend next to me asleep. But I was amused as anything when her mouth hung open and she let out an audible “Hemuuughmm” noise during a session. All decorum was lost and it was all I could do not to laugh out loud. I settled for turning red and not breathing for about a minute, delirious from lack of sleep myself.
I agree that there is something about the temple that lulls you.
alamojag wrote:
Once upon a time I was attending an endowment session at the Los Angeles temple and the poor fellow sitting two seats down from me was having trouble staying awake. At one point of the endowment, he barely made it to his feet when members of the company were requested to arise. Problem was, only the sisters were supposed to be standing.
I think he stayed awake after that.
What a great topic for true confessions. I have to say that as guilty as I feel for falling asleep, I love waking up in the temple. And I think the quality of sleep I get in those 5 or 10 minutes far surpasses what I’d get in, say, sacrament meeting. I took a class from Leslie Norris, famed English poet and BYU professor, and every MWF I’d fall asleep to the sound of his mellifluous voice and wake up feeling like I’d been to the symphony.
Now, as to eating in the temple–there was a woman sitting on the front row a couple of months ago who had stashed away a bag of Doritoes and pulled them out about half-way through and began crunching on them. The sound wasn’t so bad as the smell, and the smell wasn’t so bad as the fact that I couldn’t stop staring and laughing alternately. I told myself afterward that she was probably pregnant and needed to keep her blood sugar up.
Sleeping in the temple is an ancient and venerable tradition. I kid you not. Anciently, a cheap way to seek communciation from the divine involved going to the sanctuary and sleeping there. In theory, whatever dreams you had there were communications from God. In the OT, for example, we have Jacob sleeping at Beth-El. Some of the Psalms “were intended for use in the ancient rite of incubation, i.e., sleeping, or passing the night at a sanctuary, near the presence of Deity, and awaiting some sort of divine visitation.”
Word Biblical Commentary Psalms 51-100, on 55:23.
So, whenever I fall asleep in the temple, I don’t feel too bad about it. Unless I have really whacked out dreams
“needed to keep her blood sugar up”
So she eats salt?
During my frantic college days, when my roommates made uninterrupted sleep at the apt impossible, I admit to looking forward to catnaps in the celestial room. If I sat the right way, it could look like an extended prayer. In the celestial room, there are those comfy couches - much better for sleeping in than the seats in the endowment rooms. None of the temple workers ever woke me up.
It is hard to stay awake in the temple, for me.
Except the time I was the only woman in the priesthood session. That was difficult not to laugh. The two matrons stood up with me, but it still seemed kind of ludicrous. Wide awake that day.
I’m going to consider a power nap in a quiet place from now on before the endowment.