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Japanese A prayer for the night, from the Book of Common Prayer: “Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.” It is the Collect for Aid against Perils from Evening Prayer.
Short prayers before sleep
These are for adults at the end of an ordinary day or a hard one. Say whichever fits the night.
At the end of a long day
Lord, the day is over. Thank you for what went well, and forgive me for what I did wrong and for the good I left undone. What is unfinished I leave with you until morning. Give me rest, and wake me ready to serve you. Amen.
When your mind will not slow down
God, my thoughts keep running: the conversation I should have handled better, the bill that is due, the list for tomorrow. I cannot switch them off. Quiet them. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee” (Isaiah 26:3). Let me fix my mind on you, and let sleep come. Amen.
When you cannot sleep
Lord, it is the middle of the night and I am still awake. The psalmist knew this too: “Thou holdest mine eyes waking” (Psalm 77:4). If I cannot sleep, let me rest anyway, and let these hours be spent with you rather than with my fears. Give my body the sleep it needs before morning. Amen.
After an argument
Father, I am going to bed angry. Your word says, “let not the sun go down upon your wrath” (Ephesians 4:26). Show me my part in the quarrel, soften my heart toward the person I fought with, and give me the humility to make peace tomorrow, or tonight if I can. Amen.
Against fear and bad dreams
Lord Jesus, I am afraid of the dark hours and of the dreams that wake me. Stand guard over this room. “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night” (Psalm 91:5). Keep my sleep free of anything that is not from you, and if I wake frightened, let your name be the first thing on my lips. Amen.
There are more prayers against nightmares for nights when bad dreams keep coming back.
When tomorrow worries you
God, tomorrow holds something I dread. I cannot do anything about it tonight. Jesus said, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself” (Matthew 6:34). Hold tomorrow for me, and give me sleep tonight. Amen.
For the people you love
Father, watch over everyone in this house tonight, and those who are far away. Keep the children safe in their beds, the travelers on their roads and the sick in their pain. Bring us all to morning. Amen.
When you sleep by day
Lord, the rest of the world is waking up as I lie down after a night shift. Quiet the street outside and the thoughts inside, and give me deep sleep in daylight. Bless the people who kept watch with me through the night. Amen.
Giving yourself to God
Into your hands I commit my spirit, Lord, as David did: “Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth” (Psalm 31:5). I lie down in peace, whatever the night brings. Amen.
If sleeplessness goes on for weeks, see a doctor as well as praying. If you lie awake with thoughts of ending your life, call or text 988 in the US, or call Samaritans on 116 123 in the UK and Ireland, at any hour. There are also more Christian and crisis lines.
Traditional night prayers
From the Book of Common Prayer
The family prayers of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer include two prayers “At Night.”
O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen.
The Book of Common Prayer (1928), Family Prayer, “At Night,” pp. 594–595
O God, who art the life of mortal men, the light of the faithful, the strength of those who labour, and the repose of the dead; We thank thee for the timely blessings of the day, and humbly supplicate thy merciful protection all this night. Bring us, we beseech thee, in safety to the morning hours; through him who died for us and rose again, thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Book of Common Prayer (1928), Family Prayer, “At Night,” p. 595
From Catholic night prayer
Compline is the Church’s night office. In the 1888 Manual of Prayers, it includes this antiphon, sung with the Song of Simeon (“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace”), and this closing prayer for the house.
Save us, O Lord, watching, guard us sleeping: that we may watch with Christ, and may rest in peace.
A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity (1888), Evening Prayers (Compline), p. 74
Visit, we beseech Thee, O Lord, this habitation, and drive far from it all snares of the enemy: let Thy holy Angels dwell therein to keep us in peace: and may Thy blessing be upon us always. Through our Lord, etc.
A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity (1888), Evening Prayers (Compline), p. 75
From Orthodox evening prayer
In the Orthodox service of Great Compline, the choirs sing:
The day is past; I thank thee, O Lord: Grant me, I entreat thee, that this evening and this night I fall into no sin; and save me, O my Saviour.
Hapgood, Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church (1906), The Office of Grand Compline, pp. 151–154
Later in the same service comes a prayer to Christ by Antiochus, a monk, which asks for sleep free of evil dreams. Its opening lines:
And grant unto us, O Master, as we lay us down to sleep, repose both of body and of soul, and preserve us from the gloomy slumber of sin … Still our every earthly and material anxiety; and vouchsafe unto us, O God, a watchful mind, a chaste reason, a sober heart, sleep gentle and free from every vision of the Devil; and raise us up again at the hour of prayer …
Hapgood, Service Book (1906), The Office of Grand Compline, pp. 161–162
Russian Orthodox Christians have a longer set of evening prayers, the Prayers Before Sleep. The sixth of them asks God to give “rest of soul and body” to those going to sleep, and the set ends with a line said on lying down, which in English reads: “Into thy hands, O Lord Jesus Christ my God, I commend my spirit. Do thou bless me, have mercy on me, and grant me life eternal. Amen.”
“Now I lay me down to sleep”
This children’s bedtime prayer first appeared in print in the 1737 edition of the New England Primer, a schoolbook for children. Its author is unknown. Paul Leicester Ford’s 1897 history of the Primer gives it as:
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 takePaul Leicester Ford, The New-England Primer: A History of Its Origin and Development (1897), p. 46
What the Bible says about sleep
Scripture treats sleep as a gift and a sign of trust. “I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me” (Psalm 3:5). “It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep” (Psalm 127:2). Proverbs promises the one who keeps wisdom, “thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet” (Proverbs 3:24).
The night also appears as a time for prayer. The psalmist remembers God “upon my bed” and meditates on him “in the night watches” (Psalm 63:6), and says that for God “the darkness and the light are both alike” (Psalm 139:12). In a storm on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus was “in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow” while his disciples feared they would drown (Mark 4:38).
Catholic Compline in the 1888 Manual begins its psalms with Psalm 4. Its last verse is a prayer on its own: “I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety” (Psalm 4:8).
