[S]leep, and enough of it, is the prime necessity. Enough exercise, and good food and enough, are other necessities. But sleep—good sleep, and enough of it—this is a necessity without which you cannot have the exercise of use, nor the food. – Edward Everett Hale, “How to Get the Best of It,” c.1892

We term sleep a death by which we may be literally said to die daily; in fine, so like death, I dare not trust it without my prayers. – Sir Thomas Browne

When to soft Sleep we give ourselves away,
And in a dream as in a fairy bark
Drift on and on through the enchanted dark
To purple daybreak–little thought we pay
To that sweet bitter world we know by day. – Thomas Bailey Aldrich