Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

Now I lay me down to sleep is a Christian children's bedtime prayer from the 18th century.

Text

Perhaps the earliest version was written by George Wheler in his 1698 book The Protestant Monastery, which reads:^[1]

Upon lying down, and going to sleep.

Here I lay me down to sleep.
To thee, O Lord, I give my Soul to keep,
Wake I ever, Or, Wake I never;
To thee O Lord, I give my Soul to keep for ever.

A later version printed in The New England Primer goes:^[2]

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my Soul to keep[;]
If I should die before I 'wake,
I pray the Lord my Soul to take.

Other versions

Grace Bridges, 1932:

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray my lord my soul to keep,
In the morn when I awake
Please teach me the path of life to take.

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
His Love to guard me through the night,
And wake me in the morning's light amen.^[3]

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
Please angels watch me through the night,
And keep me safe till morning light.^[3]

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
Angels watch me through the night,
And wake me with the morning light.
Amen^[4]

Now I wake to see the light,
As God has kept me through the night;
And now I lift my voice to pray,
That Thou wilt keep me through the day.

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
See me safely through the night,
And wake me with the morning light. Amen.

It is sometimes combined with the "Black Paternoster", one version of which goes:^[5]

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
Bless the bed that I lie on.
Four corners to my bed,
Four angels round my head;
One to watch and one to pray
And two to bear my soul away.

Sometimes the prayer ends with, “and this I ask for Jesus’ sake. Amen.”^[6]

In popular culture

Music

• American thrash metal band Megadeth uses this prayer in their 1991 song "Go to Hell".
• The final verse of Ron Miller's "Heaven Help Us All", first recorded and released by Stevie Wonder in 1970: "Now I lay me down before I go to sleep/ In a troubled world I pray the Lord to keep/ Keep hatred from the mighty/ And the mighty from the small/ Heaven help us all"
• American thrash metal band Metallica uses this prayer in the song "Enter Sandman".
• Todd Rundgren quotes this prayer in the first three lines of his 1976 song "When I Pray".
• Bob Dylan uses "I pray the Lord my soul to keep" in his 2012 song "Roll on John".
• Rapper Snoop Dogg uses this prayer in his song "Murder Was the Case".
• Rapper Sean Combs uses this prayer in The Notorious B.I.G.'s song "Ready to Die", from his album of the same name.
• Rapper Kid Cudi uses this prayer in the chorus of the 2008 song "The Prayer".
• Rapper G-Eazy uses this prayer in his song "Me, Myself & I".
• Blackbear uses the prayer "I pray the Lord my soul to keep" in his song "Do Re Mi"
• Rapper Kendrick Lamar uses the line 'If I should die before I wake' in the hook of the song "The Relevant".
• Rapper XXXTentacion rewrites this prayer in his 2018 song "before i close my eyes".
• Singer-songwriter Halsey uses this prayer in the opening lines of the song "Nightmare".
• Record producer Frankie Knuckles uses the prayer in the opening lines of the track "Baby Wants To Ride".
• Singer Jordin Sparks uses the line "If I should die before I wake" as the first lines in her song "No Air".
• American industrial rock band Sister Machine Gun uses this prayer in the song "Sins of the Flesh".
• Belgian hardcore DJ DRS uses this prayer in the introduction of his Thunderdome set in 2022.^[7]
• JID uses "as I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep" in the 2022 song "Kody Blu 31".
• Rapper JPEGMafia uses lines from this prayer in the chorus of his song "the 27 club" from his 2016 album "Black Ben Carson".^[8]
• Singer Fletcher references lines from this poem in her song "Girl of my Dreams" from her album of the same name.
• Singer-songwriter Liz Phair uses the poem in her song "Ride" from her 1998 album "Whitechocolatespaceegg".
• Brian Wilson uses a slightly modified version in the 2003 remake of Smile, on the song In Blue Hawaii: “If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord, my soul to take my misery”

Literature

• The books in Rachel Vincent's Soul Screamers series are named from the prayer, and deviations thereof.
• In Ernest Hemingway’s novel A Farewell to Arms, the protagonist misremembers the prayer as “In bed I lay me down my head” while sleepy and delirious in Chapter 18.

Film and television

• In Poltergeist (1982), Carol Anne recites this prayer when she and her mother bury her pet canary in their garden.^[9]
• In A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), as Nancy goes to bed to prepare for her final battle with Freddy Krueger.
• In The Simpsons episode "Lisa's First Word" (1992), Homer builds a terrifying clown bed for a young Bart. In Bart's imagination, the clown says 'if you should die before you wake.'
• In Bad Times at the El Royale (2018), Laramie Seymour Sullivan recites this prayer to his daughter on the phone before bedtime.
• In Supernatural episode "Something Wicked This Way Comes" (2006), the episode opens with a young girl reciting the prayer before bed.

Theatre

• In The Color Purple (2005 musical), a variation of the prayer is used in the songs Our Prayer (sung by sisters Celie and Nettie) and Big Dog (sung by Celie alone).

See also

• Christian child's prayer – Easily memorable prayers recited by children
• Adon Olam - a Jewish prayer bearing some similarities

References