SLEEP QUOTES III

quotations about sleep

Sleep quote

Loved Sleep! methinks I feel thee o'er me hover,
Thy seraph wings expanding to descend:
They fan me now, their balmy wavings blend
Along my brow; strange elf-light things come over
My fancied sight: now thought's unmeaning train
Runs through my mind; and, like a spell-bound lover,
I am enslaved with a bewitching chain--
Loved Sleep!

ROBERT LEIGHTON

"To Sleep"


Blessed sleep, kindest minister to man,
Sure and silent distiller of the balm of rest,
Having alone the power, when naught else can,
To soothe the torn and sorrow-ridden breast.

JAMES WELDON JOHNSON

"Blessed Sleep"


Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.

HERMAN MELVILLE

Moby Dick

Tags: Herman Melville


I go to bed, and I wait for sleep as a man might wait for the executioner. I wait for its coming with dread, and my heart beats and my legs tremble, while my whole body shivers beneath the warmth of the bedclothes, until the moment when I suddenly fall asleep, as a man throws himself into a pool of stagnant water in order to drown. I do not feel this perfidious sleep coming over me as I used to, but a sleep which is close to me and watching me, which is going to seize me by the head, to close my eyes and annihilate me.

GUY DE MAUPASSANT

"The Horla"

Tags: Guy de Maupassant


Sleep of seven lights upon you
Sleep of seven joys
Sleep of seven slumbers on you
In your easy poise
You are home this night
Home of stillness
Your home of spirit
Being and bliss

DONOVAN

"Sleep"


Far from a passive state of being dead-to-the-world, sleep is part of a complex neurological rhythm that we can condition ourselves to. Much as an exercise regime conditions the muscles, establishing a sleep routine trains the brain to undo the stresses of the day.

RICHARD E. CYTOWIC

"Four Ways to More Restful Sleep", Psychology Today, August 24, 2017


Sleep delays my life (get up, get up)

R.E.M.

"Get Up"

Tags: R.E.M.


Even sleep is characteristic. How charming are children in their lovely innocence! How angel-like their blooming hue! How painful and anxious is the sleep and expression in the countenance of the guilty!

KARL WILHELM HUMBOLDT

attributed, Day's Collacon


Sleep is a state in which a great part of every life is passed. No animal has yet been discovered, whose existence is not varied with intervals of insensibility; and some late philosophers have extended the empire of sleep over the vegetable world.

SAMUEL JOHNSON

The Idler, November 25, 1758

Tags: Samuel Johnson


Our sleep is like a rollercoaster going through 90 minutes of sleep cycles, starting in deep sleep and then light sleep ... going across the night. That deep sleep stage is the period where the conscious part of the brain -- the upper part of the brain -- is least activated. If you wake up and are quite confused as to what time it is, where you are, or who your friend is that just woke you up, you're likely to have woken up out of the deeper stages of sleep.

LEON LACK

"Sleep is like a rollercoaster which may contribute to waking up confused", ABC News, August 11, 2017


It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.

JOHN STEINBECK

Sweet Thursday

Tags: John Steinbeck


When pillow talks turn to pillow fights
Remember before you say goodnight
To make up before you go to sleep
So pillow fights turn to pillow dreams

GALANTIS

"Pillow Fight"


For six months I couldn't sleep. With insomnia, nothing's real. Everything is far away. Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy.

CHUCK PALAHNIUK

Fight Club

Tags: Chuck Palahniuk


Good night, sleep tight
Don't let the bedbugs bite.
But if they do, take your little shoe
And beat them black and blue.

ANONYMOUS

"Good Night, Sleep Tight"


How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads, to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams.

BRAM STOKER

Dracula

Tags: Bram Stoker


Sleep in heavenly peace.

JOSEPH MOHR

"Silent Night"


I'm not a very good sleeper. But you know what? I'm willing to put in a few extra hours every day to get better. That's just the kind of hard worker I am.

JAROD KINTZ

Whenever You're Gone, I'm Here For You


Beneath the tides of Sleep and time strange fish are moving. For Sleep has crossed the worn visages of day, and in the night time, in the dark, in all the sleeping silence of the towns, the faces of ten million men are strange and dark as time. In Sleep we lie all naked and alone, in Sleep we are united at the heart of night and darkness, and we are strange and beautiful asleep; for we are dying in the darkness, and we know no death, there is no death, there is no life, no joy, no sorrow, and no glory on the earth but Sleep.

THOMAS WOLFE

From Death to Morning

Tags: Thomas Wolfe


The brain's sleep cycle -- comprised of deep and light sleep stages -- probably played a role in our survival as a species. Most species have this sleep cycle -- it may have served some vigilance-type function. Every 90 minutes or so, you come into light sleep and you're much more responsive to the environment and just awake for a few minutes to check out that everything's still OK, and that there's no danger. Having that type of sleep pattern across the night may have helped to increase our chances of survival. If the sabre-toothed tiger came into your cave at night and you came out of deep sleep, you would probably respond more slowly. If our whole sleep period were deep sleep, then we would be more vulnerable to any environmental changes that may occur.

LEON LACK

"Sleep is like a rollercoaster which may contribute to waking up confused", ABC News, August 11, 2017


It is one of life's bitterest truths that bedtime so often arrives just when things are really getting interesting.

DANIEL HANDLER

as Lemony Snicket, The Grim Grotto

Tags: Daniel Handler