Metallica - Enter Sandman - Lyrics Meaning

Enter Sandman was released on the 1991 album, "Enter Sandman"

The song is about nightmares that children have when they are young. The song begins with a child saying bedtime prayers that typically end with "God bless..." and the child includes everyone they know in the prayer.

The Sandman is known in Western folklore as the one who comes to help children fall asleep. When children wake up in the morning with "sleepy dirt", adults will sometimes tell them that it is leftover from the Sandman. Parents tell children that the sandman will come and bring pleasant dreams.

The sandman in the Hans Christian Anderson folk tale takes children off to sleep and gives them either good or bad dreams, depending on their behavior.

In the song, "Enter Sandman", the Sandman brings on nightmares. The child sleeps with one eye open until the sandman comes to take him off to sleep. "Heavy thoughts tonight" in the second verse suggests that whatever thoughts you fall asleep with will determine the type of dream you will have. Heavy thoughts bring about dreams of scary things, such as wars, dragons, and any other scary beasts.