This is one of the first songs I ever wrote that had words. It's preceeded only by "God the Unlikely", my atheist hymn, a song I'm so proud of, you won't find it anywhere on this site. "Time to Sleep" is a lullaby I wrote on piano, many years ago. I performed it at my father's 50^th birthday party.

Although it sounds like it could be about suicide, that was never the intent.

My other song about sleeping, "Overtired" is a sharp contrast. "Overtired" is, as of this writing, my most recent song, and has unusual chords. "Time to Sleep" uses just C, F, G and Amin, the most common chords. In "Time to Sleep", the chords are played the same way throughout, while in "Overtired", the chorus is played differently (strummed instead of picked) and more loudly. On the other hand, while it lacks a chorus, "Time to Sleep" does have a bridge.

There is barely any rhyme scheme in "Time to Sleep". The only rhymes are "light" with "night", in verses one and two. And every verse ends with "to sleep", just in case you weren't aware what the song is about. There is a pattern to the verses in terms of line-length: about three syllables on the first two lines, eleven on the next, six on the penultimate, and "To Sleep" at the end.

Perhaps not my most sophisticated work, but its simplicity is appropriate to a lullaby. And you have to start somewhere.

Questions, comments or suggestions about this web site? Email me at aaron.bentley@utoronto.ca