"Daysleeper" is a song by American
alternative rock band
R.E.M. It was released as the first single from their eleventh studio album Up on October 12, 1998. Sung from the point of view of a night shift worker corresponding with colleagues, "Daysleeper" focuses on the disorientation of time and
circadian rhythm in such a lifestyle, leading to despair and loss of identity. Lead singer
Michael Stipe developed the song's concept after noticing a sign reading "daysleeper" on a
New York City apartment door.
Background
During R.E.M.'s performance for
VH1Storytellers, Stipe explained the background to the song:
I was in
New York, putting together a book of
haikus that I worked on with several dear friends of mine over the course of a year, and I was walking down the steps of this building. It was probably four o'clock in the afternoon, and I come to a door—it's apartment 3-D or something—and there's a sign on it that says "Daysleeper," and I walked a lot more carefully, quietly down the steps, thinking about that poor person who's trying to sleep, and me and my big old boots interrupting her sleep. So I wrote this song about a daysleeper that's working an 11–7 shift and how furious the balance is between the life that you live and the work that you have to do in order to support the life that you live.
The song "The Lifting" from R.E.M.'s 2001 album Reveal is a
prequel to "Daysleeper" and features the same character.[1]
Music video
The video, shot at Broadway Studios in the
Astoria district of
New York City in September 1998,[2] was filmed in stop-frame photography to get what Stipe called a "really druggy, really great look."[2] It features Stipe as the office worker who goes to work at night. All three band members then wear
pajamas and bed socks, while failing to get to sleep during the day. The video was directed by the
Icelandic Snorri brothers. "I think it's about the sort of alien nature of a night shift," explained Mike Mills. "The weird lighting, the fluorescent lights that you find and the isolation of working the graveyard shift—how it screws up your sleep patterns and that sort of thing, and I think that's the main image we're trying to get across."[2]
^"The Best of '99: Most Played Triple-A Songs". Airplay Monitor. Vol. 7, no. 52. December 24, 1999. p. 38.
^Bell, Carrie (October 3, 1998). "R.E.M. Is Looking 'Up' with Album". Billboard. Vol. 110, no. 40. p. 16. The single 'Daysleeper' was delivered to European radio in September...