I have seen this happen in my church seeler.   I can't imagine why it would be a sign that one should stop attending tho.  

Some people get up during our services - walk to the back, stretch crampy muscles, go to the washroom, soothe a fussy baby ... this is acceptable at my church. 

I quite frequently bow my head down to rest during the sermon as I'm super exhausted sunday mornings and church is a place of peace & rest for me.  Only once did I fall asleep but every Sunday would love too.  I don't care what others think.  I'm still listening and learning in my own way.  My uncle looks like he sleeps too so it must run in the family!

At my home church, the minister will playfully tell me to stop yawning infront of everyone or speak to me privately when he noticed I get bored.  So I try my very best to look alert the whole time for him and be an attentive listener.  As a teacher, I should know better as when a kid isn't paying attention during a lesson, I intervene.

I'd rather have someone fall asleep at my church, even during my preaching, than fall asleep at home.

I have told this story so many times and laugh every time. My co-worker and I were serving communion together. We did the litany of the bread and it was passed to the servers.

Beautiful, quiet music was playing and several minutes went by and then it was time for the wine. My co-worker didn't move. I glanced over and he was sound asleep. He snorted a few times and settled in for a long nap.

What to do. What if I stood and he didn't wake up and he was sitting and sleeping and I was standing.

So I had no alternative. I elbowed him in the ribs. He jumped to his feet and continued the service.

Only a few in the balcony saw what happened and after church they came running. We saw what happened. The ordained one denied it ever happened.

So sleeping in the pew is okay, seeler, unless someone beside you elbows you in the ribs.

lol, great story CH.  The person may not have realized.  I remember driving home and thought my lights were going on and off, when later I relized i was falling asleep.

Seeler, I would let those around me know and my minister.  Say, if it happens, feel free to wake me up.

My Mom used to say, "Nudge me gently if I fall asleep.  I don't want to be startled and jump."

I have to confess when an older lady in the choir fell asleep, I used to worry that she would fall off her chair.  I paid more attention to her sometimes than the sermon.

It seems rude, but it isn't. People falling asleep in church can't help it. It's fine with me.

My take is that these things happen.  If you have a judgemental minister and/or congregation it might help to pass the word that there is a reason for your nodding off problem.  If you are lucky they just might cut you some slack.

Hi seeler...

Can't help but wonder if it was rude for Jesus to sleep in the boat while the fishers struggled to keep it afloat on the troubled waters.

I grew up in the Dutch Calvinist church. There was a custom. As the minister got into the pulpit to preach, the folk would pass rolls of dutch peppermints to those next to them. We would slip them into our mouths and dissolve them while the minister preached.

Sometimes I would sit with my Omma and Tante. My Omma quite consistently fell asleep while the minister preached. Mostly this went unnoticed by all but my Tante. She would quietly stew and let the pot boil over in the car going home.

One Sunday something out of the ordinary happened. As Omma slowly nodded off, the peppermint slipped down his throat and got stuck.

What an outburst of choking and coughing!

What an interesting ride home in the car with Omma and Tante!

George

people and their particular cultures are SO FASCINATING :3

one church i actually fell asleep in was at a www movie.  a good friend and i were really into wrestling (its like opera, but without the snoot and a lot more pleasantly sweaty) and we would sometimes go watch it on the big screen.  one of the only times i actually sinned was one time i actually fell asleep in the middle of the showing.  i stupidly hadn`t eaten anything but the popcorn in the show, so of course my blood sugar went all haywire and there i was, off to sleeplandia.

when i woke up, my friend was actually angry.  i had sinned.

i`ve also done it at least once when my dad and i saw a movie in the theatres.  i had been one of my nonsleeping binges and stupidly said that with sheer willpower alone i could stay awake during the movie.  it was Quartet.  my willpower didn`t get past act 1.

movies are a sacred thing to my dad, so now it has become a thing, that when i go see a movie with him, he always says for me to get enough sleep beforehand

there have been a few times, during the service at the conservative lutheran church my sweetie goes to most often, i have felt sleepy and intentionally closed my eyes and tried to feel the sermon.  but i haven`t fallen asleep.

my wife has one cultural affect that i ran into one time during a sermon.  for the first time ever, i was, during the sermon, looking at all the pictures on my phone, holding the phone on the bottom of the pew.

she didn`t like that.  i got some clarification as to why (i asked why she didn`t feel upset when her friend was knitting during the sermon...).  i now will not do that during the sermon because i know it makes her uncomfortable.

people are so fascinating :3

(i wonder if there were any times when an audience member, or jesus, would be so bored by the sermon that they`d try to get them to please stop...life is too short...lets go out for some fortified wine, eh?)

Northwind tried to share this but could only get it up on FB.

I LOVE Mr. Bean!  Thanks for that!

Thanks for posting that Chemgal. :) I don't think it is a problem to fall asleep in church. Perhaps letting people know you have a good reason might help.

Ilove it. Thanks Northwind and Chemgal

lol I'm just glad my old laptop is good for something :)

my laptop died today.

Mr. Bean is funny in his exagerated role, but I can certainly relate to the first 30 seconds. 

 I'd rather have you in church sleeping for part of it than not there at all.  Thanks for the reminder of the effects of medications.

There is a growing body of sleep research evidence that indicates that reading on screen inhibits one from falling asleep - at least at night.  Something to do with the 'blue light' from the monitor affecting melatonin production, if I recall correctly.  So I prescribe an hour or so of wondercafe before going to church! 

Good Carolla!!!!!!  Now I have permission to come here.

Hi seeler,

Only if it presents a danger in getting to or from the services.  I am not disturbed if you fall asleep when you get here.  I will be troubled if you fall asleep while driving back and forth.

I can't promise that the sermon will put you to sleep.

Apparently my pastoral prayers are too quiet.  I'm trying to train everyone to say thoughtful instead of quiet.  It is a tough lesson for them to learn for some reason.

Respectfully I think these questions are secondary, maybe even tertiary.  What needs to come first is an understanding of what is going on and how that is or isn't normal or acceptable.  Along with that I think that Churches need to be a bit more permission giving to members who may be experiencing some understandable limitations.

Once that (or those) conversations have happened  I think the questions raised above are up to the individual to work out for themselves and everybody else is responsible for support.

Ordinarily I would agree with you.  If the reason for the fatigue is that you pushed the limits by watching the Teletubbies marathon you are being rude.  If the reason you are falling asleep is a side-effect of medication anyone critical of you is being rude.

Speaking as a preacher, if the whole congregation falls asleep while I'm preaching my only concern is that they don't wake up and claim that they had the same nightmare about killer bee's droning in their ears.

If I could tell my colleagues that my Church was packed on Sunday morning they'd be to jealous to ask if it was because we are an emergency evacuation site.  So if everyone is sleeping they are still present to be counted.

Our pews are padded but not so comfortably so that you can have a nice relaxing sleep on them.  The best pews I found for that purpose were at Knox United Church in Ayr, Ontario.  The cushions were slightly musty but once you stretched out on them sleep was not a long time coming.

At any rate, I am not offended by medically induced sleep during my sermon.

Don't talk in your sleep while I am preaching though, that is just asking for trouble.

Grace and peace to you.

John

Interesting. I have actually switched from reading a tab to reading paper books or magazines before bed recently. Did not know there was empirical backing for that decision.

Wonder how ebook readers like the Kobo Touch/Glo and Kindle Paperwhite play in, since the eInk screens they use are a passive display that does not emit light (hence the recent proliferation of readers that include a lighting system).

Mendalla

Yes - I think the e-books are in a different category as you say Mendalla.   I have a paperwhite and find it's quite different from reading on computer screen. 

It can also be an issue for kids who are playing their video games right up until 'lights out' time at night & then have a problem settling to sleep. 

We have persons in our congregation who fall asleep . . . they are elderly and mostly in the pews.

I am concerned for a person in our congregation who nods off sometimes during the sermon as where they sit is easily viewed by everyone . . . and my concern is for what others think, but rather personal safety if they fell over.  I haven't intervined in anyway as I am aware of several others who have.  It doesn't bother me except for the safety concern.

I sense that video games are less about the screen and more about the intensity of the game.  I would be interested in seeing the data on this one.

Here's the original study pinga - 

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2013/01/08/peds.2012-1651.full.pdf+html

And a less 'academic' article about it - 

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2013/01/14/screen-time-near-bedtime-means-less-sleep-for-kids 

I do notice the effect in myself & have been lately been making a point of turning the computer off much earlier!

But sorry - seeler - this is a bit of a diversion from  your OP. 

Something that I do find disruptive and a little rude is choir members and organists loudly flipping the pages of a hymnbook while the scriptures are being read, during a sermon or prayer.  I have been tempted to give them all bookmarks hoping they will take the hint 

I love the Mr Beans u tube.

I have a collegue who has narcolepsy- a brain disorder making him fall asleep easily, especially when sitting still in meetings.

Narcolepsy /ˈnɑrkəˌlɛpsi/, also known as hypnolepsy, is a chronic neurological disorder caused by the brain's inability to regulate sleep-wake cycles normally.^[1] People with narcolepsy often experience disturbed nocturnal sleep and an abnormal daytime sleep pattern, which often is confused with insomnia. Narcoleptics, when falling asleep, generally experience the REM stage of sleep within 5 minutes, while most people do not experience REM sleep until an hour or so later.^[2]

One of the many problems that some narcoleptics experience is cataplexy, a sudden muscular weakness brought on by strong emotions (though many people experience cataplexy without having an emotional trigger).^[3]

Narcolepsy is a neurological sleep disorder. It is not caused by mental illness or psychological problems. It is most likely affected by a number of genetic mutations and abnormalities that affect specific biologic factors in the brain, combined with an environmental trigger during the brain's development, such as a virus.^[4]

Carolla, thanks...it does speak to the heightened alertness, so that makes sense to me....ie multiple causes.

Also to mention, people with sleep apnea (they stop breathing frequently during sleep at night for a prolonged time, which  leads to day time tiredness and sudden "napping", as they don't get the rest during sleeping at night. It also can lead to heart problems and therefore should not be ignored. It's interesting that even kids can have sleep apnea.

So, Ministers, don't take snoring in church personal!

Lots of conditions.  I used to fall asleep often in class as a kid, it was usually a sign that my asthma wasn't well controlled, especially with all the allergens in the school.

There was the undiagnosed reaction to the flu shot that caused chronic fatigue (as a symptom, different from CFS).

I've been pretty fatigued with my latest set of health issues too.  It's a known symptom, both as a prodrome as well as after, and stress has added to that exhaustion.  I would hope no one would be offended if I sought out a service (I've actually been thinking about it) and drifted off for a bit.

Dreamerman - maybe the problem is the kids all run off to Sunday school - if they stayed in church we might hear loud proclamations "Mommy - why is that man sleeping up there??"