Sleepless Nights

I usually sleep pretty well.  In bed by 9, up by 5.   But last night, it didn’t work so well.  I was up by 2:30 instead!

This episode, coupled with recently watching a very long and very entertaining documentary called Elm Street Legacy has me thinking about sleepless nights. Besides the obvious classic that this post title references, what do you think are the best songs about not being able to sleep?

My pick is Keith Urban’s “You’ll Think of Me.”  The sleepless night is used as a springboard for the rest of the song: “I woke up early this morning around 4 am, with the moon shining bright as headlights on the interstate. I pulled the covers over my head and tried to catch some sleep, but thoughts of us kept keeping me awake.”

It’s such a vivid picture and really sets the tone for the rest of the song.

What’s your pick?

22 Comments

  1. Just remembered one of my favorite Gary Allan songs which seems to fit your sleepless nights theme. “Smoke Rings in the Dark”, written by Rivers Rutherford and Houston Robert, has the lines “and the night is like a dagger, long and cold and sharp, as I sit here on the front steps, blowin’ smoke rings in the dark”.

  2. The only song that came to me was the Clay Walker song. I also thought of Crystal Gayle’s “Talking In Your Sleep” but it isn’t about a sleepless night.

  3. Louise Mandrell had a song in the 80s titled “Too Hot To Sleep” (or something similar). It was a pretty good sized hit for her

  4. Staying up late is one of the less constructive solutions my mind may turn to when it has too much to process, so I tend to love songs with that theme. Favorite one offhand is the Pinmonkey version of “That Train Don’t Run”:

    “Now I’m a good boy, and I do what’s right
    Still, sometimes in the middle of the night

    I hear the whistle, I hear the rumble
    Around 2 am outside my door
    Must be her memory rattlin’ the shutters

    I lie and listen to the last box car
    Sweet dreams, baby, wherever you are”

  5. It seems like most of the ones I thought of have already been mentioned. “I Can’t Sleep” was the first one that came to my mind, but I’m shocked that I didn’t recall “Walkin’ After Midnight,” “I Should Be Sleeping,” or even “Sleeping with the Telephone.”

  6. I was thinking of a different AK song “Sleep On” tells the story of a loveless relationship. Kind of heavy stuff for a 14 year old.

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