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Insomnia: God's Night School
Book by Soth, Connie
180 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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July 16, 2026
This was a deeply unfortunate read.
The scientific facets of this book are built upon scant research and fail to confer the study of sleep the respect it has merited. Given that this book was written thirty years ago I think that's easily forgivable. That is worth mentioning largely because some of the "facts" are stated so confidently yet are in direct contradiction to the truth. Page 135 best exemplifies that where she states that meditation is a perfectly fine substitute for REM sleep because you're "dreaming" during both instances.
I cannot easily brush past the following concerns:
1. Zionist Theology: Connie contends that the prophecy of Israel being "born in a day" was fulfilled in 1948 when the nation-state of Israel declared independence. This interpretation of the text is found no where throughout the patristic era, because it is a twentieth century creation. Israel (that is, the Church), was created at Pentecost.
2. Poor editing: Little examples like "waked up" (pg. 110) or slapping a capital letter on anything to do with God or His objectives, or the lack of punctuation on the dedication page, all demonstrate that the editing process was rushed or brushed over.
3. An insistence on using the Amplified Bible translation: Sure, I'm somewhat of an ESV elitist, but the Amplified Bible has so many awkward insertions using box brackets ([]) that it's impossible to determine when they are of her own insertion or are a part of the translation. Each time the Bible was quoted I struggled to parse the connection she was attempting to build because of the inherent obfuscations within that version.
4. A peculiar and recurring notion to infantilize the reader and his/her relationship with God. Although initially brought up anecdotally, it becomes prescription on page 158 where the reader is encouraged to refer to God as "daddy" and "drift off to sleep while sitting on God's lap, but if you [the reader] don't, just enjoy being there, His little child, until you feel ready to go back to bed." When our Lord teaches us to "change and become like little children" (Matt. 18), He is teaching us to abandon pride and self-reliance for the sake of being vulnerable enough to let Him into our lives—not act like a five-year-old sitting on "daddy's" lap.
I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.
The scientific facets of this book are built upon scant research and fail to confer the study of sleep the respect it has merited. Given that this book was written thirty years ago I think that's easily forgivable. That is worth mentioning largely because some of the "facts" are stated so confidently yet are in direct contradiction to the truth. Page 135 best exemplifies that where she states that meditation is a perfectly fine substitute for REM sleep because you're "dreaming" during both instances.
I cannot easily brush past the following concerns:
1. Zionist Theology: Connie contends that the prophecy of Israel being "born in a day" was fulfilled in 1948 when the nation-state of Israel declared independence. This interpretation of the text is found no where throughout the patristic era, because it is a twentieth century creation. Israel (that is, the Church), was created at Pentecost.
2. Poor editing: Little examples like "waked up" (pg. 110) or slapping a capital letter on anything to do with God or His objectives, or the lack of punctuation on the dedication page, all demonstrate that the editing process was rushed or brushed over.
3. An insistence on using the Amplified Bible translation: Sure, I'm somewhat of an ESV elitist, but the Amplified Bible has so many awkward insertions using box brackets ([]) that it's impossible to determine when they are of her own insertion or are a part of the translation. Each time the Bible was quoted I struggled to parse the connection she was attempting to build because of the inherent obfuscations within that version.
4. A peculiar and recurring notion to infantilize the reader and his/her relationship with God. Although initially brought up anecdotally, it becomes prescription on page 158 where the reader is encouraged to refer to God as "daddy" and "drift off to sleep while sitting on God's lap, but if you [the reader] don't, just enjoy being there, His little child, until you feel ready to go back to bed." When our Lord teaches us to "change and become like little children" (Matt. 18), He is teaching us to abandon pride and self-reliance for the sake of being vulnerable enough to let Him into our lives—not act like a five-year-old sitting on "daddy's" lap.
I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.
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