Out Like a Light—We've Got the Best 130 Sleep Quotes Before You Go Catch Some Z's!
Sleep Quotes
Napping, getting some shut-eye, nodding off, hitting the hay, turning in for the night—there are numerous ways to refer to sleep. And there are plenty of things to say about sleep as well! So, before closing your eyes and crashing into bed, forget counting sheep—enjoy these 130 sleep quotes instead!
For many of us, the Sandman is a myth in more than one sense, as insomnia, tossing and turning, work, and/or anxiety may keep us from getting a full night's sleep. There's a reason "don't lose sleep over it" is such a popular comment, after all (even though that's much easier said than done). However, that doesn't mean sleeping like a log is impossible!
There are a lot of tips available for powering down before bed and combating exhaustion, like taking melatonin, getting advice from sleep-focused podcasts, and eating the right snooze-inducing foods. And the benefits of prioritizing a good night of deep sleep are seemingly endless! Whether you go to bed early, let yourself sleep in late, or take a catnap (or two!) during the day, this form of self-care should positively impact your health, mood, motivation, memory, and more.
Tuck yourself in and get re-inspired to rest—here are 125 of the best quotes about sleep that might just help you catch some z's.
Related: Surprising Tips on How to Sleep Better
130 Sleep Quotes
1. "There is no sunrise so beautiful that it is worth waking me up to see it.” ― Mindy Kaling
2. "People say, 'I'm going to sleep now,' as if it were nothing. But it's really a bizarre activity. 'For the next several hours, while the sun is gone, I'm going to become unconscious, temporarily losing command over everything I know and understand. When the sun returns, I will resume my life.'" — George Carlin
3. "Man is a genius when he is dreaming.” ― Akira Kurosawa
4. "There's so much joy in life, so many pleasures all around, but the pleasure of insomnia is one I've never found." — The Barenaked Ladies
5. "She used to say she could taste sleep and that it was as delicious as a BLT on fresh French bread.” ― Rebecca Wells
6. "Of all the things a man may do, sleep probably contributes most to keeping him sane. It puts brackets about each day. If you do something foolish or painful today, you get irritated if somebody mentions it, today. If it happened yesterday, though, you can nod or chuckle, as the case may be. You've crossed through nothingness or dream to another island in Time.” ― Roger Zelazny
7. "There is renewal in rest.” ― Lailah Gifty Akita
8. "Having peace, happiness and healthiness is my definition of beauty. And you can't have any of that without sleep." — Beyonce
Related: How to Get Enough Sleep
9. "I love sleep because it is both pleasant and safe to use. Pleasant because one is in the best possible company and safe because sleep is the consummate protection against the unseemliness that is the invariable consequence of being awake. What you don't know won't hurt you.” ― Fran Lebowitz
10. "My father said there were two kinds of people in the world: givers and takers. The takers may eat better, but the givers sleep better." — Marlo Thomas
11. "Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death." — Arthur Schopenhauer
12. "I know you’re tired, just let me sing you to sleep." — The Spill Canvas
13. "I crave the sweet surrender of sleep and my dreams' uncensored communication: no tiresome small talk, sucking up to impress, or tiptoeing around charged topics. Dreams are the naked truth; get ready for it.” ― Judith Orloff
14. "I had a dream I was awake, and I woke up to find myself asleep." — Stan Laurel
15. "Sleep is the best meditation." — Dalai Lama
16. "In an era when Fear of Missing Out has its own universally understood acronym, recuperative rest and relaxation are not always regarded as the intensely worthwhile pursuits that they are. Instead, we are harassed into believing that we must be constantly available to be of value, that peak productivity and performance are directly related to presenteeism, and that to snooze is to lose. This couldn't be more wrong.” ― Michelle Ogundehin
17. "Once you wake up and smell the coffee, it's hard to go back to sleep." — Fran Drescher
18. "A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them." — Victor Hugo
19. "It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it." — John Steinbeck
20. "If you were not to set an alarm clock, would you sleep past it? If the answer is yes, then there is clearly more sleep that is needed." — Matthew Walker
Related: 250 Good Night Quotes
21. "No wonder Sleeping Beauty looked so good...she took long naps, never got old, and didn't have to do anything but snore to get her Prince Charming.” ― Olive Green
22. "When I'm alone, I can sleep crossways in bed without an argument." — Zsa Zsa Gabor
23. "Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after." — Anne Morrow Lindbergh
24. "At the end of the day, you go to sleep with the people you love, you wake up with the people you love, and you spend your time with the people you love." — Tyga
25. "Marriage is good for those who are afraid to sleep alone at night." — St. Jerome
26. "I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?” ― Ernest Hemingway
27. "I like to embrace natural beauty. I try to get at least 8 hours of sleep, drinking a lot of water and exercising." — Tia Mowry
28. "Nothing makes you feel better than when you get into a hotel bed, and the sheets feel so good. Why shouldn't you wake up like that every day? Spend money on your mattress and bedding because these things make a difference on your sleep and, ultimately, your happiness." — Bobby Berk
29. "I can think. I can sleep. I can move. I can ride my bike. I can dream." — Bill Walton
30. "Exit light, enter night." — Metallica
Related: The Best Side to Sleep on For Heart Health
31. "There's a reason they call it 'beauty sleep.' Getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night can actually improve your appearance." — Lauren Conrad
32. "Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night.” ― Charles Fisher
33. "We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep." — William Shakespeare
34. "Control what you can control. Don't lose sleep worrying about things that you don't have control over because, at the end of the day, you still won't have any control over them." — Cam Newton
35. "Eat well and sleep well. That will feed your nervous system and your psyche. As you get older, you look how you feel." — Francesca Annis
36. "It was that sort of sleep in which you wake every hour and think to yourself that you have not been sleeping at all; you can remember dreams that are like reflections, daytime thinking slightly warped.” ― Kim Stanley Robinson
37. "Listen, I love babies. I love children. And I melt when I'm around them. I also love my freedom and I love that I can sleep at night." — Ellen DeGeneres
Related: 100+ Insomnia Quotes
38. "How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads; to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams." — Bram Stoker
39. "Before you sleep, read something that is exquisite, and worth remembering.” ― Desiderius Erasmus
40. "Human beings are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent gain. Many people walk through their lives in an underslept state, not realizing it." — Matthew Walker
41. "The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep." — Robert Frost
42. "Sometimes at night I would sleep open-eyed underneath a sky dripping with stars. I was alive then.” ― Albert Camus
43. "If I have a bad game, I think about what I have to do to return to form. Figure it out, go to sleep, and wake up a new man." — Matt Kemp
44. "I love that moment, when you stop struggling to stay awake and your eyelids shut sink down and you slip effortlessly into another realm that’s beckoning to you.” ― Rachel Klein
45. "The nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least I can dream." — Marilyn Monroe
46. "As important as it is to have a plan for doing work, it is perhaps more important to have a plan for rest, relaxation, self-care, and sleep.” ― Akiroq Brost
47. "A mom who has slept is an alert and happier mommy." — Tamera Mowry
48. "Whoever drinks beer, he is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long, does not sin; whoever does not sin, enters Heaven! Thus, let us drink beer!” ― Martin Luther
49. "Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
50. "A little bit of rest can go a long way.” ― A.D. Aliwat
Related: Goodnight Paragraphs to Make Your Partner Dream of You
51. "Never waste any time you can spend sleeping.” ― Frank H. Knight
52. "Coffee is a beverage that puts one to sleep when not drank." — Alphonse Allais
53. "The night is the hardest time to be alive and 4 am knows all my secrets.” ― Poppy Z. Brite
54. "Taking breaks isn’t about cheating yourself, it’s about treating yourself.” ― Curtis Tyrone Jones
55. "I'm going to sleep well tonight knowing that I made the right decision." — George Ryan
56. "They slept profoundly, desperately, greedily, as though for the last time, as though they had been condemned to stay awake forever and had to drink in all the sleep in the world during these last hours. ” ― Hermann Hesse
57. "We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm." — George Orwell
58. "Activity and rest are two vital aspects of life. To find a balance in them is a skill in itself. Wisdom is knowing when to have rest, when to have activity, and how much of each to have. Finding them in each other - activity in rest and rest in activity - is the ultimate freedom.” ― Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
59. "Life is something to do when you can't get to sleep." — Fran Lebowitz
60. "I wonder why I don't go to bed and go to sleep. But then it would be tomorrow, so I decided that no matter how tired, no matter how incoherent I am, I can skip one hour more of sleep and live.” ― Sylvia Plath
61. "Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night." — William Blake
62. "In the midst of these hard times it is our good health and good sleep that are enjoyable." — Knute Nelson
Related: 150 Good Morning Quotes
63. "For me, sleep is a major thing...I don't always get it, and when I don't, I look like I've been hit by a truck." — Gwyneth Paltrow
64. "When asleep we all become children again. Perhaps because in the state of slumber we can do no wrong and are unconscious of life, the greatest criminal and most self-absorbed egotist are holy, by natural magic, as long as they're sleeping." ― Fernando Pessoa
65. "Of all the seasons, winter is the most conducive to the great art of dormancy. This art requires an appreciation of semi-consciousness: the beautiful and necessary prelude to sleep - a special pleasure in itself that is all too often neglected, under-valued or looked down upon." — Michael Leunig
66. "As soon as I get into bed, I drop off. I’d better get a bigger bed." — Tommy Cooper
67. "Death, so-called, is a thing which makes men weep, And yet a third of life is passed in sleep.” ― Lord George Gordon Byron
68. "Anything seems possible at night when the rest of the world has gone to sleep.” ― David Almond
69. "I love to sleep. When I'm rested, I'm at my best." — Halle Berry
70. "Most of the things we need to be most fully alive never come in busyness. They grow in rest.” ― Mark Buchanan
71. "In this fast-paced world, it's important to slow down sometimes.” ― Dano Janowski
72. "I’ve dreamed a lot. I’m tired now from dreaming but not tired of dreaming. No one tires of dreaming, because to dream is to forget, and forgetting does not weigh on us, it is a dreamless sleep throughout which we remain awake. In dreams, I have achieved everything.” ― Fernando Pessoa
Related: Is Waking Up In the Middle of the Night Normal? What Sleep Doctors Say
73. "Sleep is that golden chain that ties health and our bodies together." — Thomas Dekker
74. "Put my head under my pillow, and let the quiet put things where they are supposed to be.” ― Stephen Chbosky
75. "As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death." — Leonardo da Vinci
76. "The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep.” ― W.C. Fields
77. "Sleep is a regenerative process where we heal and where our neurons build strong connections. It's like a fountain of youth that we dive into every night." — Mikhail Varshavski
78. "Work eight hours and sleep eight hours and make sure that they are not the same hours." — T. Boone Pickens
79. "Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone.” ― Anthony Burgess
80. "Marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who can't sleep with the window shut, and a woman who can't sleep with the window open." — George Bernard Shaw
81. "Asleep, he looked a lot younger than going-on-seventeen, but I had noticed that Johnny looked younger when he was asleep too, so I figured everyone did. Maybe people are younger when they are asleep.” ― S. E. Hinton
82. "I have a funny relationship with sleep.. It arrives without ever letting me be aware of its arrival. And goes by not letting me notice the nudge it gives me to be awake....Yet, I know it had been there...Morning freshness tells me about its useful presence..” ― Ramesh Sood
Related: Why It's Harder to Get a Good Night's Sleep as You Age
83. "Good night - may you fall asleep in the arms of a dream, so beautiful, you'll cry when you awake.” ― Michael Faudet
84. "Sleep has become profoundly important. I didn’t understand the value of it." — Jamie Oliver
85. "Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine." — Thomas Aquinas
86. "Rest and be thankful.” ― William Wordsworth
87. "I'm a huge napper." — Emmy Rossum
88. "When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.” ― Ursula K. LeGuin
89. "One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well." — Virginia Woolf
90. "Now for a good twelve-hour sleep, I told myself. Twelve solid hours. Let birds sing, let people go to work[...]I was going to sleep." ― Haruki Murakami
91. "If you're going to do something tonight that you'll be sorry for tomorrow morning, sleep late." — Henny Youngman
92. "You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” ― Dr. Seuss
93. "We want to do a lot of stuff; we're not in great shape. We didn't get a good night's sleep. We're a little depressed. Coffee solves all these problems in one delightful little cup." — Jerry Seinfeld
94. "If men only felt about death as they do about sleep, all terrors would cease. . . Men sleep contentedly, assured that they will wake the following morning. They should feel the same about their lives.” ― Richard Matheson
95. "I think insomnia is a sign that a person is interesting.” ― Avery Sawyer
96. "A night full of nightmares is way better than a sleepless one.” ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana
97. "A professor is someone who talks in someone else's sleep." — W.H. Auden
98. "Also, I could finally sleep. And this was the real gift, because when you cannot sleep, you cannot get yourself out of the ditch--there's not a chance.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert
99. "There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep.” ― Homer
100. "We need time to defuse, to contemplate. Just as in sleep our brains relax and give us dreams, so at some time in the day we need to disconnect, reconnect, and look around us." — Laurie Colwin
Related: Is Six Hours of Sleep Bad?
101. "My body has decreed that I shall nap, and nothing will stand in my way.” ― Kathryn Ormsbee
102. "People spend money on beauty potions, but a good night's rest makes all the difference." — Christina Aguilera
103. "Some people talk in their sleep. Lecturers talk while other people sleep.” ― Albert Camus
104. "I'll sleep when I'm dead." — Warren Zevon
105. "If you want to have a good sleep, you have to have a good mattress." — Jonathan Scott
Related: Why You Should Close Your Bedroom Door at Night
106. "Moments before sleep are when she feels most alive, leaping across fragments of the day, bringing each moment into the bed with her like a child with schoolbooks and pencils. The day seems to have no order until these times, which are like a ledger for her, her body full of stories and situations.” ― Michael Ondaatje
107. "Rest is the best cure for busy man and work is the best cure for lazy man.” ― Amit Kalantri
108. "What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams.” ― Werner Herzog
109. "Sleep is the Swiss army knife of health. When sleep is deficient, there is sickness and disease. And when sleep is abundant, there is vitality and health." — Matthew Walker
110. "You never know. Maybe when we’re dreaming…we’re more lucid than when we are awake.” ― Katherine Angela Yeboah
111. "Reading and naps, two of life's greatest pleasures, go especially well together.” ― Will Schwalbe
112. "Next time you see someone sleeping, make believe you're in a science fiction movie. And whisper, 'The creature is regenerating itself.'" — George Carlin
113. "Music is a big part of my sleep routine. I listen to peaceful and calming music every night, and have my go-to playlists and albums I play at night." — Lexi Underwood
114. "She stared at the stars like they were pillow for her mind and in their light she could rest her heavy head.” ― Christopher Poindexter
115. "When I woke up this morning my girlfriend asked me, 'Did you sleep good?' I said, 'No, I made a few mistakes.'" — Steven Wright
116. "I do my best thinking at night when everyone else is sleeping. No interruptions. No noise. I like the feeling of being awake when no one else is.” ― Jennifer Niven
117. "Meditation is all about the pursuit of nothingness. It's like the ultimate rest. It's better than the best sleep you've ever had. It's a quieting of the mind." — Hugh Jackman
118. "Tired minds don't plan well. Sleep first, plan later." — Walter Reisch
119. "A bed has a friendly and benign look: it wishes to be kind.” ― T.F. Powys
120. "Sleep is my weapon...I try to get eight hours a night. I think what works best is sleep, water — and a good cleanser." — Jennifer Lopez
121. "I want to see beauty. In the ugly, in the sink, in the suffering, in the daily, in all the days before I die, the moments before I sleep.” ― Ann Voskamp
Related: Why Am I So Tired in the Afternoon?
122. "She wanted to return to her dream. Perhaps it was still somewhere there behind her closed eyelids. Perhaps a little of its happiness still clung like gold dust to her lashes. Don't dreams in fairy tales sometimes leave a token behind?” ― Cornelia Funke
123. "I count it as an absolute certainty that in paradise, everyone naps. A nap is a perfect pleasure and it's useful, too. It splits the day into two halves, making each half more manageable and enjoyable. How much easier it is to work in the morning if we know we have a nap to look forward to after lunch; and how much more pleasant the late afternoon and evening become after a little sleep. If you know there is a nap to come later in the day, then you can banish forever that terrible sense of doom one feels at 9 A.M. with eight hours of straight toil ahead. Not only that, but a nap can offer a glimpse into a twilight nether world where gods play and dreams happen.” ― Tom Hodgkinson
124. "There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.” ― Alan Cohen
125. "I make no secret of the fact that I would rather lie on a sofa than sweep beneath it.” ― Shirley Conran
126. "I've always envied people who sleep easily. Their brains must be cleaner, the floorboards of the skull well swept, all the little monsters closed up in a steamer trunk at the foot of the bed.” ― David Benioff
127. "I could sleep forever, but it’s of her I dream. If I could sleep forever, I could forget about everything." — The Dandy Warhols
128. "Cats have it all - admiration, an endless sleep, and company only when they want it." — Rod McKuen
129. "When I wake up early in the morning, lift my head, I'm still yawning." — The Beatles
130. "The moment the alarm goes off is the first test; it sets the tone for the rest of the day. The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win — you pass the test." — Jocko Willink
