The Apostle Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 6:19 that “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God.” I think we can agree that we should take care of our bodies. And I have found that most Christians do try to eat right and take care of their bodies in most ways. But I have also noticed that many do not get enough sleep. We all live busy lives, and sometimes sleep is seen (even in the Christian world) as a luxury rather than a necessity.

A new study shows how sleep-deprived people make poor decisions. If we want to be all that God intended, we need our sleep. Researchers at Washington State University took a set of volunteers and had half sleep normally, and the other set of volunteers go without sleep for two days.

In one test, the volunteers had to click a button when they saw certain numbers and hold back when they saw others. Then they switched the rules. The well-rested group did better on this task, as you might expect. But when the rule was reversed, none of the sleep-deprived volunteers were able to get the right answer, even after 40 tries.

Paul Whitney, a psychologist at the university, put it this way: “It wasn’t just that sleep-deprived people were slower to recover. Their ability to take in new information and adjust was completely devastated.” Apparently the lack of sleep dulls our nervous system to new information.

The study also demonstrated why many of us think we can get by with less sleep. On some tasks, the difference between well-rested participants and sleep-deprived participants wasn’t very much. But on others, the difference was remarkable. At the very least, the study suggests that you shouldn’t be “making any high-stakes decisions when you’re short of sleep.” We know that sleep-deprived operators failed to prevent the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown and the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

This latest study reminds us that we need to take care of ourselves. Getting enough sleep is not optional. It’s essential.