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Now I lay me down to sleep is a classic children’s prayer from the 18th century. The version printed inThe New England Primer goes:
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Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
And if I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

There is also a version of this prayer that is more positive in outlook:

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
When in the morning light I wake,
Teach me the path of love to take.

Another recent version:

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
Guard me Jesus through the night,
And wake me with the morning light.

Entertainment references

WWE

In World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), returning performer The Undertaker entered the arena following a brief video montage of three young girls quoting an alternate version of the poem: As I lay me down to sleep, I pray my soul is mine to keep, And never step outside this bed, Into all the evil All the evil…Now back from the dead.

The Simpsons

In The Simpsons episode “Lisa’s First Word,” the clown bed that a young Bart is trying to sleep in menacingly cackles, “If you should die before you wake …” (followed by evil laughter and visions of the bed attempting to eat him), a play on the prayer’s line, “If I should die before I wake.”

Bart’s father, Homer, had built the bed, but due to Homer’s inept crafting skills, the bed has a frightening appearance, like that of an evil clown. Bart “hears” the bed utter the line in his nightmare.

Tom and Jerry

In Tom and Jerry episode “Puss Gets the Boot,” when Jerry was caught by Tom, Jerry said:

“Now I lay me down to sleep.”
“I pray the Lord my soul to keep.”
“If I should die before I wake,”
“I hope and hope my soul he’ll take.”
“”Now I lay me down to sleep.””
“”I pray the Lord my soul to keep.””
“”Be with me all, through the night””
“”Be with me in the morning light””
“Amen.”

M*A*S*H

In the episode entitled Crisis (Season 2, episode 21), Father Mulcahy recites a parody version of the prayer:

“Now I lay me down to sleep”
“A bag of peanuts at my feet”
“If I should die before I wake,”
“Please give them to my brother, Jake.”

One Big Happy”

The comic features Ruthie praying the prayer but changing it around to do with “going to the bathroom”.

Movies

* In the 1961 film The Innocents, the child Flora recites it, stumbling over the words.
* It appears in the horror film Nightmare on Elm Street, spoken by Heather Langenkamp’s character Nancy before sleeping and encountering Freddy Krueger.
* It can also be heard in the 1982 film Poltergeist.
* It is heard in a scene in the 1987 film The Untouchables, in which Eliot Ness (played by Kevin Costner) sees his daughter saying it before she goes to sleep.
* It is also heard in the 1990 movie Hard to Kill where Steven Segal prays with his son shortly before he is attacked and nearly killed.
* It is in the movie remake of the Haunting(1999). The children’s voices are saying this prayer
* It appears in the Silent Hill movie, as well as in the Silent Hill 2 survival horror game.

Music

* It is revealed in the Silent Hill 2 Original Soundtracks track “The Reverse Will” when played in reverse.
* It is also in the lyrics for the Metallica song Enter Sandman. When Pat Boone covered this song in a jazz style, he used the alternative third and fourth lines

Guard me, angels, through the night
Wake me in the morning light

* It is also in the lyrics for the Notorious B.I.G.’s song “Ready to Die”.
* It is also in the lyrics for the Snoop Doggy Dogg song “Murder Was The Case”.
* It is also in the lyrics for the Lil’ Wayne’s song “Pray To The Lord”.

Before I sleep I pray to the Lord
A soul to keep
And if I should die
Before I wake
I pray to the lord
A soul to take
For goodness sake

* It is also in ‘Soul Kitchen’ performed by The Doors on July 21, 1969, at the Aquarius Theater in Hollywood.
* A satire of this prayer is present at the beginning of 2pac’s “When Thugs Cry”

When thugs cry..
Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my guns to keep
If I die before I wake
I pray the Lord my soul to take
God as my witness, when thugs cry, too much is hard

* It is also in the lyrics for the Her Space Holiday song “The Weight of the World”.

I pray the Lord my soul to keep
But what about the rest of me?

* The Megadeth song Go To Hell features the prayer recited by a group of young girls in the beginning. Towards the end, Dave Mustaine chants this parody:

Now I lay me down to sleep
Blah blah blah, my soul to keep
If I should die before I wake
I’ll go to hell for heaven’s sake.

* ABK’s song “While you’re Sleeping has the quote in his lyrics

Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray my dreams don’t slowly creep
Caught up in a web with no escape
Something the mind can’t break unless your wide awake.

* The Helix song Long Way to Heaven also recites this prayer alternately as:

Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the lord my soul to keep
If I die before I wake
Keep me rocking for heaven’s sake.

* The Red Hot Chili Peppers song Sir Psycho Sexy features an original version of this prayer:

Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the funk will make me freak
If I should die before I waked
Allow me Lord to rock out naked.

* The Stuck Mojo song The Sky is Falling” recite the prayer alternately as:

Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
If the sky should fall before I wake
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

* The Steel Attack song Embraced By Fear quotes the last two lines of the prayer:

Yet still you’re afraid
Never to wake up again
“If I die before I wake
I pray the lord my soul to take”

* The Aerosmith song Darkness quotes the prayer, with added words at the end of the first two lines, and a complete reworking of the last line:

Now I lay me down to sleep goodnight
Pray the Lord my soul will keep tonight
If I die before I wake
In your arms, my love can’t break away

* The song You may die by Outkast has the lyrics spoken by a woman at the beginning. Yet the language it is spoken in is unsure. Speculations range from Nahuatl and Aztec to Esperanto, which seems to be the right guess.
* The song Heaven is a Halfpipe on the album Menace to Sobriety by OPM includes a play on the lyrics:

If I die before I wake
At least in heaven I can skate

* It is also the chorus in the song “Ghetto Prayer” by Master P
* Frankie Knuckles also used these vocals in his song Baby Wants To Ride
* It is also in the song 5 steps by Dru Hill

So now I lay
Me down to sleep
And I pray my Lord my soul to keep
And if I die, before I wake
Then I promise I’ll be there for you always

* The Jordin Sparks song No Air, which features Chris Brown starts:

If I should die before I wake…