The City That Never Sleeps is a ubiquitously used nickname for New York City. It has been applied to several other cities around the world.

Origin

The phrase "the city that never sleeps" was popularized by Frank Sinatra in the song Theme from New York, New York:

• I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps
  And find I'm a number one, top of the list ... ^[1]

List of other cities

Although New York City is the most prominently recognized city termed "The City That Never Sleeps", ^{[2] [3]} and the city's subway system never closes, ^[4] the term has been applied to other cities. Below is a list of cities that have also been called "the city that never sleeps": ^{[5] [4]}

Africa

• Cairo, Egypt ^[6]
• Lagos, Nigeria ^[7]

Asia

• Beirut, Lebanon ^{[8] [9]}
• Dhaka, Bangladesh ^[10]
• Dubai, UAE ^{[11] [12] [13] [14]}
• Karachi, Pakistan ^[15]
• Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India ^[16]
• Manila, the Philippines ^{[17] [18]}
• Mumbai, Maharashtra, India ^[19]
• Shanghai, China ^{[20] [21]}

Europe

• Barcelona, Spain ^[22]
• Berlin, Germany ^[23]
• London, England, U.K. ^[24]
• Madrid, Spain ^[25]
• Moscow, Russia ^[26]
• Valencia, Spain ^[27]

North America

• Chicago, Illinois, U.S., in the film City That Never Sleeps
• Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. ^[3]

South America

• Buenos Aires, Argentina ^{[28] [29] [30] [31]}
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ^[32]
• São Paulo, Brazil ^[33]

Other 24/7 services

In many "24-hour" cities plenty of eateries are open until 3 am, several clubs are open until 6 am ^[3] and bars close 2 am ^[4] or a few hours later.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many 24-hour and late-night establishments have begun closing earlier. Coffee shops in lower Manhattan, in particular, began to close at 9:30 pm, whereas before the pandemic they had frequently closed at 12:30 am. ^[34]

The people who make use of these facilities, studies have found, are nevertheless affected by sunrise and sunset. ^{[35] [36]} In other words: "that most humans aren’t as influenced by Earth’s light-dark cycle as we used to be" is not fully supported; there is an observed annual shift for "a stretch of three or four months" and "then, the process reversed direction". ^[37]

See also

• The City That Never Sleeps (film), a 1924 lost film
• City That Never Sleeps, a 1953 film noir set in Chicago, not New York City
• List of nicknames of New York City

References