Nor will the sweetest delight of gardens afford much comfort in sleep; wherein the dullness of that sense shakes hands with delectable odours; and though in the bed of Cleopatra, can hardly with any delight raise up the ghost of a rose. – Sir Thomas Browne

In its early stages, insomnia is almost an oasis in which those who have to think or suffer darkly take refuge. – Colette

Oh Sleep! it is a gentle thing, beloved from pole to pole, to Mary Queen the praise be given! She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven, that slid into my soul. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Judith slept far into the morning the sound, deep sleep of exhaustion; that sleep of the heavy-hearted from which, almost by an effort of will, the dreams are banished. – Amy Levy (1861–1889), Reuben Sachs: A Sketch, 1888