Tired nature’s sweet restorer, balmy sleep!

Edward Young (1683–1765), an English poet and Anglican clergyman, is best known for his long, meditative poem *The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality* (commonly *Night Thoughts*), published in nine “Nights” between 1742 and 1745. The line “Tired nature’s sweet restorer, balmy sleep!” occurs in the opening “Night,” where the speaker turns from the bustle and vanity of daytime life to nocturnal reflection. In this setting, sleep is invoked as a natural, soothing power that quiets human striving and prepares the mind for deeper contemplation of mortality, conscience, and eternity—central themes of Young’s moral and religious verse.

The line personifies sleep as a benevolent healer: it “restores” nature when it is “tired,” suggesting that rest is not mere inactivity but a reparative force built into human life. Calling sleep “balmy” evokes medicinal balm—cooling, soothing, and curative—so the phrase compresses physical relief and spiritual respite into a single image. In *Night Thoughts*, this praise of sleep also functions as a threshold: night and sleep suspend worldly distractions and open a space for self-scrutiny and religious meditation. The line’s enduring appeal lies in its elegant fusion of bodily experience (fatigue and relief) with a larger moral vision of human limits and renewal.

“Tired Nature’s sweet restorer, balmy Sleep!”