5 Dangers of chronic overwork, inadequate sleep stressed at Witnesses’ Convention

*The ongoing 2023 ‘Exercise Patience!’ Regional Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses highlights the need to ensure work-life balance, cautioning about 4,000 delegates, in Nigeria, against the dangers of ‘chronic overwork’ that has become part of modern living in this fast-paced world

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Staying active for too long without rest or sufficient sleep on a typical day is fraught with risks, the ongoing “Exercise Patience!” Regional Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses has stated.

Festus Adeyemo, one of the speakers at the Friday session of the third in the series of the convention holding at the Assembly Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Ota, Ogun State of Nigeria, identified five of the health risks arising from chronic overwork.

These, he said, include avoidable accidents, fatigue, depression, anxiety, and lack of concentration when performing one’s daily activities.

Speaking on “Land Mammals” during a five-part symposium titled, “What creation can teach us about Jehovah’s timing”, Adeyemo told nearly 4,000 delegates about the habit of chronic overwork that has become part of modern living.

“Overwork can be deadly,” Adeyemo warned, stressing the need not to stay active for a long period in a day.

How to avoid overwork to maintain work-rest balance

On how people can avoid overwork because of its inherent dangers, the ordained minister admonished the delegates to ensure that they enjoy a balance between work and rest when performing daily tasks by taking useful lessons from God’s other creation, including plants, sea creatures, birds and insects.

The delegates were encouraged to devote time to various activities, including work just as God has made all His creation by design, not by accident. They were reminded of the need to appreciate how the Creator designed the sleep pattern, brain chemistry, and brain cells in land mammals, especially humans for a purpose.

Linking the leading benefits of a good sleep to God’s remarkable sense of timing through His wonderful creation, the speaker also urged the delegates to make room for adequate rest in order to allow their brains to recoup or reset the body system, and boost their memories.

Using the 2 divine gifts for mankind

The convention part enjoined the participants to follow “a pattern of wake and sleep” in order to enjoy a balance between the two divine gifts for mankind in line with the principles contained in the Bible book of Philippians 1: 9,10.

“We all need sleep adequately, too; we are not made work constantly, so as to devote time to more important things, including creating time to renew our friendship with and refresh our faith in God,” Adeyemo stated.

According to him, adequate sleep of about eight hours per day usually enables people to achieve cognitive development, improve human memory, body recuperation, allow brain to rest, and remove “toxins from the body” after a day’s activities.

Benefits of work-rest balance

By following the divine regulation on maintaining a balance between work and sleep, the convention part, therefore, encouraged the delegates to work in harmony with the natural flow by strengthening friendship with their Creator as one of the more important things in life.

The convention, which ends on Sunday, is one in a series of over 320 to be held in 39 host cities across Nigeria.

Globally, some 6,000 conventions would be held worldwide as part of the 2023 “Exercise Patience!” Regional Convention that started outside Nigeria from January 7 this year.

Kindly Share This Story