Question:
I’ve realized that lustful thoughts mostly enter my mind at night when I’m trying to sleep. I went to sleep at 11:40, and now it’s 12:25 AM. I pray a lot in my mind so that the thoughts will not dwell there, but they keep entering my mind even as I pray.
Answer:
Several factors contribute to making it difficult to fall asleep.
As you fall asleep, your mind goes into a stage of sleep called Rapid Eye Movement (REM). It is in this stage that you start dreaming, but your body also causes you to have an erection. This especially happens when your seminal vesicles are getting full. Because you are physically aroused, your brain digs through your memories for scraps filed under “erotic.” These get mixed with other memories to produce erotic dreams eventually. Ultimately, this is supposed to lead you to ejaculate in your sleep (a wet dream).
Being sleepy, it is hard to keep your thoughts in line. Being aroused, your mind’s judgment centers take a break, and the thoughts follow paths that deal with sex. Tensing up because you are upset with the way your thoughts are going causes your erection to increase. So, the spiral continues.
It would be nice to sleep right through the whole process, but you tend to move in your sleep. Essentially, having a wet dream is a form of sleepwalking where you masturbate in your sleep. But some guys are light sleepers, especially at the beginning of sleep, so they wake up or at least become semi-aware. The best thing is just to let nature take its course, but this upsets some because they are convinced that it is sinful.
Of course, not getting good sleep makes you more on edge and unable to think clearly.
Lust is accepting sinful behavior. It is desiring what you know you should not do because it is wrong, yet you want it anyway. It is making excuses to yourself that sin would be “not so bad” in some circumstances. As Christians, we battle sin; therefore, we battle lust.
The hard part is separating what is wrong (lust for fornication) and your need to ejaculate. It can be done, but it is a struggle.