Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

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

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Text

Perhaps the earliest version was written by Joseph Addison in an essay appearing in The Spectator on March 8, 1711. It says:

A later version printed in The New England Primer goes:

I Can T Sleep Poem Video

Other versions

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

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In popular culture

• Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (organization) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that offers complimentary remembrance photography to families grieving after a stillbirth or the death of an infant.
• If I Die Before I Wake is the title of a 1938 crime novel written by Sherwood King which served as the basis of the Orson Welles film The Lady from Shanghai.
• Shel Silverstein parodied the prayer in his 1981 book A Light in the Attic with a poem titled Prayer of the Selfish Child.
• Aerosmith paraphrases the prayer as "Now I lay me down to sleep, goodnight/Pray the Lord my soul to keep tonight" in their song "Darkness".
• Frankie Knuckles and Jamie Principle open their classic Chicago House track "Baby Wants to Ride" with the first part of this prayer.
• Sky Ferreira paraphrases the lyric as "and laid awake,/Pray the Lord my soul to take" in her song "Sad Dream"
• Kid Cudi paraphrases the lyric as "And if I die before I wake,/I pray the Lord my soul to take" in his song "The Prayer"
• Kanye West paraphrases the lyric as "As I lay me down to sleep" in his song Only One
• Metallica paraphrases the lyric as "Now I lay me down to sleep/I pray the lord my soul to keep/And if I die before I wake/Pray the lord my soul to take" in their song "Enter Sandman"
• Megadeth paraphrases the lyric as "And if I die before I wake/Pray the lord my soul to take" in their song "Go to Hell"
• Aloe Blacc paraphrases the lyric as " And Now I lay me down to sleep/I pray the Lord my soul to keep/And if I die before I wake/there must be a mistake, Lord take me back" in his song "Take Me Back"
• TobyMac paraphrases the lyric as "If I should die before I wake/I pray the Lord my soul to take/And if I should get a peaceful sleep/I wanna wake at my Father's feet" in his song "Captured"
• The Civil Wars paraphrase the lyric as "Still can't lay me down to sleep/If I die before I wake/I know the Lord my soul won't take" in their song Barton Hollow.
• In the 1984 slasher movie A Nightmare on Elm Street Nancy Thompson, played by Heather Langenkamp, recites the prayer before going to sleep to confront Freddy Krueger in the Dream World.
• A little girl recites the prayer to keep herself safe from the monster she sees in the 1986 slasher movie Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.
• Sir Psycho Sexy by Red Hot Chili Peppers uses an alternate version of the rhyme.
• Christina Aguilera paraphrases the lyrics as "Now I lay me down to sleep/I pray we'll meet inside my dreams/If I should go before I wake/I pray our souls will join again" in her song "Little Dreamer".
• In Michael Grant's book, "Plague", Dekka recites this prayer with Hunter in his last moments before Sam euthanises him with a deadly beam of light because of the "greenies", parasites which were eating Hunter alive.
• Snoop Dogg interpolates the whole prayer in his song "Murder Was the Case" from his debut album, Doggystyle.
• HIM paraphrases the lyrics with some different words in their song "Buried Alive By Love, "If I should die before I wake/Pray no one my soul to take/If I wake before I die,/Rescue me with your smile" from their album Love Metal.
• Frank Wilson samples part of the prayer in his Northern Soul song "Do I Love You, Indeed I Do" .
• Notorious B.I.G. paraphrases the lyrics as "Now I lay me down to sleep/Pray the Lord my soul to keep/If I should die before I wake/I pray the Lord my soul to take" in the title song of his album "Ready To Die".
• Dalton Trumbo uses the sentence "Now I lay me down to sleep" in his book Johnny Got His Gun, in both sections Book I: The Dead and Book II: The Living.
• 2Pac paraphrases the lyrics as "Now I lay me down to sleep/I pray the Lord my guns to keep/If I die before I wake/I pray the Lord my soul to take" in the song "When Thugz Cry", which was scrapped from the album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory and put at the end on his demo album The Don Killuminati: The 3 Day Theory. The song later appears on one of 2Pac's posthumous albums; Until The End of Time, and also featured in his posthumous documentary film, Tupac: Resurrection.
• G-Eazy paraphrases the lyrics as "Yeah, lonely nights I laid awake / Pray to lord, my soul to take" in his song "Me, Myself & I".
• The song "Crazy World" from the 1991 album "House of Exile" by Lucky Dube includes the entire prayer.
• OPM uses a variation of the prayer on their 2000 album Menace to Sobriety for "Heaven Is A Halfpipe" as "If I die before I wake at least in heaven I can skate"
• Pirates of the Mississippi uses a variation of the prayer on their song "Feed Jake," a country hit in 1991. During the first part of each chorus--as "Now I lay me down to sleep / I pray the Lord my soul to keep / If I die before I wake/ Feed Jake, he's been a good dog"--an elderly man express hope that if something should happen to him and his dog (the titular Jake) survives him, Jake will be taken care of.
• Sweethearts of the Rodeo use the prayer in the bridge of their song "Midnight Girl/Sunset Town," a country hit in 1987, to express a young woman's restlessness of living in a small, backroads town with old-fashioned values ("Now I lay me down to sleep/I pray the Lord my soul to keep/If I should die 'fore the world turns 'round/Lord, don't leave me in this one horse town ... ").
• In The Simpsons episode "Lisa's First Word," there is a scene where a 3-year-old Bart goes to bed in a new-but-poorly designed clown bed created by Bart's father, Homer. As a frightened Bart tries to go to sleep, he imagines the headboard--one that because of its poor design resembles an evil clown--coming to life and with evil cackling reciting the prayer, ending with "If you should die before you wake ... " before tormenting and trying to attack Bart.
• In the 1940 MGM animated short Puss Gets the Boot, Jinx the mouse recites the prayer as he gets caught by Jasper the cat after his scheme fails.
• Ernest Hemingway wrote a short story titled "Now I Lay Me".
• In the 2001 Survival horror game Silent Hill 2, the prayer is backmasked into one of its ending songs "The Reverse Will"
• The character of Stuart Larkin, played by Michael McDonald (comedian) on Mad TV, recites the prayer near the beginning of a sketch referred to as "Stuart and the Tooth Fairy".
• Belgica Wave Party uses the New England Primer version of the rhyme in their song "The Wave".
• Blackbear references the poem in his song "do re mi"

Source of the article : Wikipedia