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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
Literature
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

References

  1. ^ The Protestant Monastery; or Christian OEconomicks, containing Directions for the Religious Conduct of a Family, 1698
  2. ^ The New England Primer Archived 10 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine, 1750 ed., p. 23.
  3. ^ a b Debbie Trafton O'Neal; Nancy Munger (1994), Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep: Action Prayers, Poems, and Songs for Bedtime, Augsburg Books, p. 6, ISBN  978-0-8066-2602-4
  4. ^ James Limburg (2006), Encountering Ecclesiastes: a book for our time, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, p. 103, ISBN  978-0-8028-3047-0
  5. ^ I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), ISBN  0-19-860088-7, pp. 357–60.
  6. ^ https://www.catholicprayer.ca/Prayers/Now-I-Lay-Me-Down-To-Sleep.html
  7. ^ Thunderdome 2022 | DRS, retrieved 10 February 2023
  8. ^ "JPEGMafia - the 27 club | Genius".
  9. ^ "Poltergeist (1982 film) Quotes | IMDB". IMDb.
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