"In Sleep we lie all naked and alone, in Sleep we are united at the heart of night and darkness, and we are strange and beautiful asleep; for we are dying the darkness and we know no death"

Thomas Wolfe’s words unravel the psychic vulnerability and enigmatic unity experienced in sleep. Lying “all naked and alone” signals a condition stripped of social pretense, protections, or even consciousness of self. In sleep, every individual relinquishes the pressures, masks, and personas of daylight existence, returning to the most basic state of being. There is no audience, no need for defense; one is at their most elemental and defenseless.

Yet, sleep is not an abyss of isolation. Paradoxically, it holds the possibility of a profound communion. Wolfe reveals that “we are united at the heart of night and darkness.” This unity seems not merely individual, but existential, a sense that all living beings share in the nightly surrender. Sleep blurs the ordinary boundaries between people; each one journeys into the silent core of darkness, connecting with a universal rhythm that transcends waking separateness. We enter together into a realm where individuality dissolves, replaced by a collective humanity woven through the night.

In our sleeping state, we become “strange and beautiful.” Strangeness here does not connote merely unfamiliarity, but rather signifies the mysterious transformation of consciousness. Dreams, the freedom from reason and logic, and the surreal vistas of the subconscious render sleep a domain apart from everyday experience. Beauty emerges out of this strangeness: the naturalness of sleep, the vulnerability, and the silent trust it entails.

Wolfe perceives sleep as a rehearsal or simulation of death, “dying the darkness”, where we relinquish control, awareness, and even identity. However, he notes, “we know no death.” In sleep, while we touch the darkness akin to death, there is no fear, no ultimate finality, only passage and return. There is danger, but also safety; a letting go that does not end in erasure, but leads us back to life. This oscillation between surrender and safety amplifies both the mystery and the solace found in sleep.