Sleepy Time

Every night before my sister Mary Magdalene would go to sleep my mom and I would pray together with her.  One Our Father, one Hail Mary and the Guardian Angel prayer was our nightly prayer time with God and together as a family.

However sometimes my sister suffered from insomnia and at times she would only get two maybe three hours of sleep a night. 

Every night I would quietly check my sister to see if she was sleeping and from time to time she would be wide-awake. I would quietly tippy-toe into her room to her bed.  Mary would turn her head and look at me so helplessly because I know she was tired. So I would gently stroke her hair and whispered,       “Mamas, it’s sleepy time, it’s time to go to sleep.  You need your rest, can’t you sleep?”
“No,” Mary replied softly with a tear running down her face.

So I would keep tenderly stroking her head and gently say, ”Sleepy time, go to sleep, its sleepy time Mamas, try to get some rest.”   Mary would close her eyes and try to relax but a few seconds later her eyes would pop open and the tears would fall again.

Mary was prescribed some medication to help her sleep but at times it didn’t seem to take effect at all, no matter how often she took it.

So one night I was at my wit’s end with my sister’s insomnia, it was two in the morning and Mary was going over 24 hours without sleep. Mary looked so exhausted, she was staring to get dark rings under her eyes and it seemed that Mary wasn’t going to have the sleep she so desperately needed.   I sat by her bed and started to stroke her hair, over and over I would whisper, “Sleepy time Mamas, it’s sleepy time.,”  as Mary struggled to relax so I started softly sing,

“Sleepy time, close your eyes, time for mimis say good night;

sleepy time, sleepy time, my love;

sleepy time, say good night, time for sleeping, close your eyes;
 sleepy time, sleepy time, my love.”©

As I  softly sang to my sister the Sleepy Time Song, softly stroking my sister’s hair, she gently started to drift off to sleep.  I couldn’t believe it!  I sat quietly and watched my sister  sleep peacefully in her bed.  “Is that it? She just needed a lullaby?” I thought.  What a fool I was! Some thing so simple as a lullaby could help Mary relax and put her at ease to the point was she was able to go sleep. No drug could have done it; just love and compassion. So I tippy-toed out of my sister’s bedroom as she slept quietly.

After that when my sister had a difficult time sleeping, all I had to do was sing the Sleepy Time Song© and my sister would gently drift to sleep. 

I’ve only sung this song twice since my sister went back to heaven, once at her vigil and a month after her passing at the cemetery.  I love you Mamas, I miss you but know we will see each other again.