10 bedtime prayers to end the day
Old prayers families have said at night for centuries, and new ones for nights when you are too tired, too worried or wide awake.
The MySavior teamUpdated · 8 min read
Behold, the Protector of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
Psalm 121:4 · BSB
I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
Psalm 4:8 · BSB
Here are ten bedtime prayers to say before sleep, from the rhyme generations of children learned by heart to Martin Luther’s evening prayer and the song the Church sings at nightfall. Each does the same three things in its own way: it thanks God for the day, hands him what is unfinished, and asks him to keep you through the night.
Night is when most of us pray most honestly. The lamp is off, the phone is face down, and whatever you carried all day gets louder. David knew that hour, and still wrote, “I will lie down and sleep in peace.”
If you want Scripture to read before sleep as well, we gathered sixteen Bible verses for sleep.
Ten seconds, every night
A prayer for when the light goes off
Lord, this day is over. Thank you for what was good in it, and forgive me what was not. Keep the people I love, and keep me, until morning. Amen.
Start here if you have never kept a bedtime prayer. It has four parts, and every other prayer on this page grows out of them: thanks, sorrow, the people you love, and trust. You can say it with your hand still on the lamp switch.
Traditional · The children’s prayer
“Now I lay me down to sleep”
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.
The New England Primer
An early form appears in George Wheler’s The Protestant Monastery in 1698, and this version was printed in the New England Primer, the schoolbook children in colonial America learned to read from.
The third line frightens some children. Keep the first two lines and end with your own, for example: “Bless the ones I love tonight, and wake me with the morning light.” Then let your child add names.
Traditional · An old English rhyme
“Matthew, Mark, Luke and John”
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, bless the bed that I lie on. Four corners to my bed, four angels round my head; one to watch and one to pray, and two to bear my soul away.
English folk prayer
The first written record is from 1656, when Thomas Ady, in a book on witchcraft, described an Essex woman who blessed herself with it every night. He called it a “popish charm.” A version close to this one was written down by Sabine Baring-Gould in 1891, and English children still said it in the twentieth century.
The picture at its heart is biblical: “For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” (Psalm 91:11).
Traditional · Lutheran, since 1529
Martin Luther’s Evening Prayer
My Heavenly Father, I thank You, through Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son, that You have protected me, by Your grace. Forgive, I pray, all my sins and the evil I have done. Protect me, by Your grace, tonight. I put myself in your care, body and soul and all that I have. Let Your holy angels be with me, so that the evil enemy will not gain power over me. Amen.
Martin Luther, Small Catechism (1529)
Luther put this prayer in his Small Catechism of 1529, in an appendix on how a father should teach his household to pray. His instructions are plain: make the sign of the cross, say the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer, add this little prayer if you wish, and then, in Robert E. Smith’s translation, “go to sleep immediately with joy.”
Once you have put yourself in God’s care, you are allowed to stop rehearsing tomorrow.
Traditional · Anglican Evensong
“Lighten our darkness”
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.
Book of Common Prayer (1662)
This is the third collect at Evening Prayer in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which says it “shall be daily said at Evening Prayer without alteration.”
Before streetlights, the dangers of the night were fire, thieves and fevers with no doctor until morning. Ours are often quieter: a test result, a teenager not yet home. The prayer covers those too.
For nights with no words
A one-line prayer to keep in view
Some nights even Luther is too long. The prayer on this phone is one of MySavior’s short prayers, and the Bible Verse widget can put prayers like it on your Home Screen: choose prayers and Bible verses, pick topics such as Deep Peace or Quiet Trust, and it moves on to another text by itself on the schedule you set.
To see the same words every night, write them over a photograph with the wallpaper maker and make it your Lock Screen. New to widgets? Here is how to add one.
Sunday, November 8
9:41
Lord, today, give me restful sleep and a quiet heart tonight. Amen.
Keep a night prayer in viewWrite a prayer over a photograph for your Lock Screen with MySavior’s wallpaper maker, and add a prayer widget to your Home Screen that changes by itself.
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Before you turn over
A prayer after a hard day
Father, I am not proud of today. I was short with people I love. Forgive me, help me put it right tomorrow, and give me grace to forgive the ones who hurt me. I will not take this anger to bed. Amen.
Paul’s advice is practical: “Do not let the sun set upon your anger” (Ephesians 4:26). Sometimes that means a short message before bed; sometimes, admitting to God what you cannot fix tonight and leaving it with him.
When the clock says 2:47
A prayer for when you cannot sleep
Lord, it is late and I am still awake. You never sleep, so you are here too. Take the thoughts that keep circling and hold them until morning. Quiet my body and my mind, and if sleep does not come, let me rest in you anyway. Amen.
God “will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4), so someone is already keeping watch, and it does not have to be you.
If this is too many words, borrow the Jesus Prayer, repeated for centuries in the Eastern Church: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Its last words come from the tax collector in Luke 18:13. Say it slowly, half as you breathe in, half as you breathe out.
For the night shift and the night watch
A prayer for everyone awake tonight
Lord, before I sleep I remember the people who will not: nurses on the night shift, drivers on empty roads, parents walking a crying baby, and everyone sitting up beside a sickbed tonight. Give them strength and company and your peace. Amen.
Bedtime prayers can turn inward fast. This one looks out of the window. Name the ones you know: the nurse in your family, the friend in hospital, the neighbor whose light is always on. When your own troubles feel huge, it helps to remember you are not the only one awake.
Scripture · The Church’s song at nightfall
Luke 2:29–32
“Sovereign Lord, as You have promised, You now dismiss Your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to Your people Israel.”
Luke 2:29–32 · BSB
Simeon had been promised he would not die before he saw the Lord’s Christ (Luke 2:26). When Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus to the Temple, he took the child in his arms and prayed these words. The Church keeps them for the end of the day: the Nunc Dimittis, named from its first words in Latin, is sung or said at Compline, the Church’s night prayer, and at Evening Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer.
At bedtime, “dismiss Your servant in peace” sounds like a soldier let off duty. You have seen enough of God’s goodness for one day. You can stop now.
A small practice for this week
Choose one prayer from this page and copy it by hand onto a card. Prop it against the lamp on your nightstand and say it every night for seven nights. On the first night you will read it; by the seventh you will know it, and miss it if you forget.
If you share a home, say it aloud together. Children learn prayers by hearing them night after night. Then, when you have said “Amen,” take Luther’s advice and go to sleep.
End the day with a prayer in view
Bible verse and prayer widgets you design yourself, on topics such as Deep Peace and Quiet Trust, and a Lock Screen wallpaper with words of your own.
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Questions
What is a good short prayer to say before bed?
Thank God for one good thing in the day, ask forgiveness for what went wrong, name the people you love, and trust him with the night. Psalm 4:8 also works as a prayer on its own: “I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.”
What is the traditional bedtime prayer for children?
The best known is “Now I lay me down to sleep,” printed in the New England Primer; in England, many children grew up with “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.” If “if I should die before I wake” worries a child, keep the first two lines and add a gentler ending.
What should I pray when I can’t sleep?
Something short, repeated slowly, such as the Jesus Prayer or a single verse like Psalm 121:4. Hand over your worries one at a time instead of solving them. If sleeplessness goes on for weeks, talk to a doctor as well.
Which Bible translation is quoted here?
Every verse in this article is quoted from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB).
