"Ode To Sleep" is the third song on Twenty One Pilots' 2011 album Regional at Best and reappears as the first song on their 2013 album, Vessel. It tells the story of Tyler Joseph's relationship with unconsciousness as a reprieve from his personal demons and continues on to outline his disillusionment with himself and his thoughts.
(0:30 - 1:26)
He wakes up "fine and dandy" feeling good through the day but as he lays back down to sleep again at night, he sings about going "up to the ceiling," looking up as he struggles to sleep because of these dark thoughts that "rip his heart apart." His "soul starts leaving" as his good thoughts leave, and the simile of "an old man's hair receding" shows the toll these thoughts have taken on his self perception. As these good thoughts are replaced with dark ones, his strength and life does as well. He "pleads please... on his knees," implying prayer due to the imagery of him on his knees, most likely referencing his relationship to God and how he prays for these dark thoughts to leave. He continues to ask the rhetorical question "Is this living free?" I would argue that, no, he isn't free and he's a slave to his thoughts. As he weaves the metaphor of "the sun's blood on his hands" he refers to the next day and/or the day he just had, which he doesn't want to ruin with his dark thoughts. Not only does the sun show the next day, but it also brings light, which juxtaposes the darkness of his thoughts. Further juxtaposed with the sun and daytime is the night time, where he writes "I'll tell the moon, take this weapon," as he struggles with these thoughts, trying to fall asleep. But this weapon is "forged in darkness," because he has to learn to fight back at night when these thoughts assault him. He says, "some see a pen, I see a harpoon," because he writes these songs at night to avoid these feelings by fighting the dark parts of himself.
(1:26 - 2:25)
His love/hate relationship with unconsciousness further evolves as he sings "I'll stay awake, 'cause the dark's not taking prisoners tonight." He personifies the darkness as the night capturing him and his brain through his "dark" thoughts, and incorporates biblical allusions and demonic imagery. He asks the rhetorical question, "why am I not scared in the morning?" but seems to answer it in the next line, saying it's because he "can't hear those voices calling," those voices being his demons'. However, this begs the question of his reliability as a narrator and whether or not his demons are truly "kicked... out." He says he has won his fight, but that could just be his refound daytime confidence.
(2:25 - 2:55)
This part is his version of a soliloquy, containing rhetorical elements involving his questions to God. He prays again for God to tell the demons He "has no plans for [him]," thinking his "insignificance" will convince the demons to leave him alone. By saying he will "set his soul on fire," he demonstrates his will to fight back even though it may hurt him, and says to God that if He won't say anything to the demons, "[he'll] tell them," himself.
(2:55 - 4:00)
Tyler Joseph uses rhyme and rhythm to entice his audience in this next stanza of the song. He pretends he has it all together, "putting on [his] face, a mask," but he knows it's transparent, even the trees and clouds form a natural audience symbolizing his surroundings that "await and... anticipate" his return to legitimacy- "opening [his] eyes," which he says that "[he] must," just because that's how life goes. The trees and clouds are further personified by "waving their arms and... trying to plead." The whole world is in need of something- it's broken. Even nature cries out with this brokenness. But he cannot fix this, because he is "not free," and, "[he] asked forgiveness three times," which is the most important allusion of them all, referring back to the Bible wherein Peter denies he knows Jesus three times. His continuation, "I'm afraid to tell you who I adore, won't tell you who I'm singing towards," is about how he takes all of the things he struggles with and his relationship with God and puts it out there to make music, but he's making it about himself, not for what it's supposedly meant to be, which is glorifying God. He feels like sometimes he's over-glorifying himself, talking about himself too much. This "metaphorically" makes him "a whore," both a sinner, and a self-righteous one at that. And just as he and Peter denied knowing Jesus three times, Tyler Joseph views these songs and his musical lifestyle as his own sort of fourth denial.
----
The song concludes by repeating lines from the second and third stanzas, calling back to his will to fight these demons. But he realizes his asking of God's help is somewhat hypocritical considering the song, a prayer itself (ironically), denies God's existence. However, "the dark's not taking prisoners tonight," and his fight towards the nightmarish demons he faces continues as Joseph makes a full circle all the way back to the start of the song, just like the sun and moon at start of a new day, where he will "wake up fine and dandy." As the music video progresses it shows three different Twenty One Pilots' shows, starting with a small 12 person show in a basement, to a medium sized show, to a large show with over 12,000 people. His fight against the demons is shown to be gaining momentum through the increased size of the shows, but does the increasing audience expand his blasphemic message denying God?
(4:00 - 6:00)
