Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep — sacred illustration
✶ Our Bible Moments No. 212 / 253

Traditional Prayers

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

Traditional Prayer

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep is a children’s bedtime prayer that has been said for about three hundred years, made famous by The New England Primer, the schoolbook of colonial America.

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. Amen.

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep is a children’s bedtime prayer that has been said for about three hundred years, made famous by The New England Primer, the schoolbook of colonial America.

Prayer points from Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

  1. Say it slowly together, one line at a time.
  2. Thank God for one good thing from today.
  3. Ask Him to keep your child safe through the night.
  4. Name the people you love and ask God to bless them.
  5. Remind your child that God stays awake while they sleep.
  6. Finish with a hug and a blessing in your own words.

Other forms of this prayer

A gentler ending many children say

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.

With the angels

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.

As printed in The New England Primer (1750)

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.

About this prayer

For about three hundred years this has been the first prayer many children learn. A similar verse appears in an English book of family devotions from 1698, and The New England Primer, the little schoolbook generations of colonial American children learned to read from, printed it in the 1700s; the 1750 edition has it almost word for word as it is said today. Its four short lines rhyme, so even a toddler can remember them, and it does what a bedtime prayer should: it hands the child, body and soul, to God for the night. The third line, about dying before waking, comes from a time when many children died young. Today it can frighten a child, so many families use a gentler ending about God’s love guarding them through the night. Either way, the trust is the psalmist’s: “I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.” This prayer is for parents and children to say together at bedtime.

When to pray this prayer

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