Reading Room · Anxiety · 4 min read
When Anxiety Won't Let You Sleep
Written by the Scripture Nook team · January 15, 2026
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."
Anxiety has a way of arriving in the dark. The lights go out, the house grows quiet, and suddenly every fear you held off all day takes a seat at the foot of your bed. You are not alone in this. The Psalms are full of writers who lay awake, David, in caves and on thrones, often whispered to God in the dead of night.
Philippians 4:6 does not ask you to stop feeling anxious. It asks you to do something with the anxiety. Bring it. Name it. Hand it over, piece by piece, with thanksgiving for what is still good. The verse that follows promises a peace that 'transcends all understanding', meaning a peace that will not always make sense, and does not need to.
Tonight, if sleep will not come, try this: write down three worries on a piece of paper. Beside each one, write one true thing about who God is. Then leave the paper on your nightstand. You are not solving anxiety; you are practicing the handover.
A Prayer
Lord, I am tired and my mind will not be still. I bring You every worry I have been carrying alone. Trade my racing thoughts for Your peace, and let me rest in the knowledge that You are awake even when I cannot be. Amen.