16 Bible verses for sleep
Bedtime passages for the end of a long day, a mind that will not switch off, or the hour when you wake and cannot get back to sleep.
The MySavior teamUpdated · 9 min read
I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
Psalm 3:5 · BSB
I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
Psalm 4:8 · BSB
The Bible verse most people reach for at bedtime is Psalm 4:8: “I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.” It belongs to a whole family of night-time passages, from a king lying down in danger to Jesus asleep in a storm. Sixteen of them are gathered below.
Falling asleep is one of the most ordinary things we do, and one of the most trusting: you have to stop working, stop watching, stop holding the day together. The Psalms know how hard that is. One writer confesses that all night he floods his bed with weeping (Psalm 6:6). They also know where rest comes from.
The verses follow the shape of a night: lying down, letting go, waking in the dark, and the morning after. All are quoted from the Berean Standard Bible. At the end you will find a ten-minute routine, with a few questions for looking back and a short night prayer.
If you have slept badly for weeks, or you wake exhausted however long you sleep, please see a doctor too. God often gives rest through very ordinary means.
The verse for lights out
Psalm 4:8
I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
Psalm 4:8 · BSB
Psalm 4 is an evening prayer from start to finish. People are dragging David’s name through the mud (verse 2), yet he ends the day lying down, not pacing, because the LORD alone keeps him safe. Saint Benedict’s sixth-century Rule has monks pray it every night at Compline, the last prayer of the day.
When today was dangerous
Psalm 3:5
I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
Psalm 3:5 · BSB
The heading says David wrote Psalm 3 when he fled from his son Absalom: a king on the run, betrayed by his own child. Into that night comes this calm sentence. He lies down, sleeps and wakes, and gives God the credit for all three. If your day ended badly, sleep anyway.
When you dread lying down
Proverbs 3:24
When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you rest, your sleep will be sweet.
Proverbs 3:24 · BSB
Some people dread bedtime because that is when the worry they outran all day catches up. Proverbs promises more than a quiet mind: no fear, and sleep that is sweet. It follows a call to hold on to sound judgment (verse 21), so give the last minutes of the evening to wisdom, not the news.
When work follows you to bed
Psalm 127:2
In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for bread to eat—for He gives sleep to His beloved.
Psalm 127:2 · BSB
This psalm carries the name of Solomon, who built the Temple, and it begins: unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Then it turns to whoever is still working at midnight. The extra hours do not hold your life together. Closing the laptop can be an act of faith.
When you feel you must stay on guard
Psalm 121:3–4
He will not allow your foot to slip; your Protector will not slumber. Behold, the Protector of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
Psalm 121:3–4 · BSB
Psalm 121 is a song of ascents, traditionally sung by pilgrims on the road up to Jerusalem. Travelers at night need someone to keep watch, and the psalm says Someone does. You are not the night watchman of your family, your job or your future, so you can close your eyes.
When the storm is still going
Mark 4:38
But Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke Him and said, “Teacher, don’t You care that we are perishing?”
Mark 4:38 · BSB
Only Mark mentions the cushion. Jesus sleeps in the stern while seasoned fishermen think they are going to drown, and they ask what we ask at night: don’t You care? He calms the sea, but first He slept through the storm. His rest came from trusting the Father, not from calm weather.
When you are worn out to the bone
1 Kings 19:5
Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”
1 Kings 19:5 · BSB
Elijah had just faced down the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Then Jezebel threatened him, and he fled into the wilderness and asked to die. God sent no lecture. He let him sleep, fed him, and let him sleep again (verse 6). Some nights the holiest thing you can do is eat and go to bed.
When you need to talk to your own soul
Psalm 116:7
Return to your rest, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.
Psalm 116:7 (BSB)
Earlier in this psalm the writer was tangled in the ropes of death (verse 3). Now he talks to his own soul, a habit worth borrowing: come home and rest, God has been good to you. Make it the first thing you see if you pick up your phone in the dark.
Sunday, November 8
9:41
Return to your rest, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.
Psalm 116:7 · BSBTurn this verse into your Lock Screen wallpaperWrite it over a photograph in MySavior’s wallpaper maker and save it to Photos at the size of your iPhone’s screen.
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When your mind will not settle
Psalm 131:2
Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
Psalm 131:2 · BSB
This psalm is only three verses long, and it offers a picture, not an argument: a weaned child resting against its mother, no longer fretting. David has stilled and quieted his soul, which tells you it took some doing. Lie still, breathe out slowly, and let yourself be held.
When the dark makes everything worse
Psalm 139:11–12
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light become night around me”— even the darkness is not dark to You, but the night shines like the day, for darkness is as light to You.
Psalm 139:11–12 · BSB
Night makes every worry look bigger: the bill, the test result, the argument that never got settled. David wonders whether darkness could hide him, and finds that to God it is not dark at all. Whatever you are lying awake with, He sees it clearly, and He sees you.
When you are awake at 2 a.m.
Psalm 63:6
When I remember You on my bed, I think of You through the watches of the night.
Psalm 63:6 · BSB
The heading places this psalm in the Wilderness of Judah, far from any comfortable bed. The night was divided into watches, like a sentry’s shifts, and when sleep would not come David spent them remembering God. Turn the clock face down and start with one thing He has done for you.
When night brings fear
From Psalm 91:4–5
He will cover you with His feathers; under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of the night
From Psalm 91:4–5 · BSB
Psalm 91 is another of Benedict’s Compline psalms, and it is easy to see why. God is pictured as a bird spreading its wings over its young. Bad dreams, a noise downstairs, dread with no name: “You will not fear the terror of the night” covers all of it, and none of it gets past those wings.
When you have no words left
Psalm 42:8
The LORD decrees His loving devotion by day, and at night His song is with me as a prayer to the God of my life.
Psalm 42:8 · BSB
Psalm 42 comes from someone far from the house of God, homesick for the festive crowds he used to lead there (verse 4). Even so, God’s song was with him at night. Bedtime prayers need not be eloquent; a hymn hummed under your breath can be the whole prayer.
Before the lights go out
From Psalm 4:4
Be angry, yet do not sin; on your bed, search your heart and be still
From Psalm 4:4 · BSB
Here is a whole evening examen in one line: on your bed, search your heart. Paul quotes the opening words in Ephesians 4:26 and adds, “Do not let the sun set upon your anger.” Look honestly at the day, forgive what you must, and then be still.
The Church’s prayer at nightfall
Psalm 31:5
Into Your hands I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O LORD, God of truth.
Psalm 31:5 · BSB
Jesus prayed the first words of this verse from the cross with His last breath (Luke 23:46). The Church kept them for nightfall: the response In manus tuas, “Into Your hands,” is still part of Catholic Night Prayer and Anglican Compline. Falling asleep is a small letting go, and this is the sentence for it.
For the morning after
Lamentations 3:22–23
Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!
Lamentations 3:22–23 · BSB
Lamentations grieves over a ruined Jerusalem, and these lines come from someone with every reason to despair. Mercy is new every morning, so tonight’s mercy does not have to stretch to cover tomorrow. You can stop carrying the next day tonight.
A ten-minute routine for the end of the day
None of this is a rule, just a shape to borrow. It loosely follows the review of the day that Ignatius of Loyola taught in his Spiritual Exercises: give thanks, ask for light, look back, ask pardon, resolve to do better.
- Put the phone down where you cannot reach it. If the last thing on its screen is a verse, so much the better.
- Give thanks for one specific thing. Not “my family” in general, but the way your daughter laughed at dinner.
- Look back over the day with God, gently. Where did I sense God close today? Where did I drift from Him, or from the people around me? Is there anyone I need to forgive, or ask forgiveness from?
- Hand over what is unfinished. Name tomorrow’s worries one at a time and leave each with Him. They will still be there in the morning, and so will He.
- Pray one line of Scripture, then stop talking. Psalm 4:8 or Psalm 31:5 is enough.
And a short night prayer, for evenings when you have no words of your own:
Lord, this day is over, and I give it back to You: what went well, what I got wrong, and everything I did not finish. Forgive me where I failed. Bless the people I love, and watch over this house while we sleep. Into Your hands I commit my spirit. Amen.
End the day with Scripture 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 the verse you need tonight.
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Questions
What is a good Bible verse to read before bed?
Psalm 4:8 is the classic: “I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.” Psalm 3:5, Proverbs 3:24 and Psalm 127:2 are also short enough to say with the lights off.
What does the Bible say about sleep?
That sleep is a gift and an act of trust. God “gives sleep to His beloved” (Psalm 127:2), He never sleeps Himself (Psalm 121:4), and Jesus slept through a storm (Mark 4:38). Scripture is honest about sleepless nights too: Psalms 63 and 77 were prayed by people lying awake.
What can I pray when I can’t sleep?
Keep it short. Repeat one verse slowly, such as Psalm 63:6 or Psalm 31:5, or look back over the day with God: one thing to thank Him for, one to hand over. If sleeplessness lasts for weeks, talk to a doctor too.
How can I keep a Bible verse in view on my iPhone at night?
Make it your wallpaper. MySavior’s wallpaper maker lets you write any verse over a photograph or one of the app’s themes and save it to Photos at the size of your iPhone’s screen; then choose it as your Lock Screen wallpaper in iOS. On the Home Screen, the Bible Verse widget shows short texts from the kinds and topics you choose, such as Deep Peace or Quiet Trust.
Which Bible translation is quoted here?
Every verse in this article is quoted from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB).
