Still, it cried, "Sleep no more!" to all the house.
             "Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor
             Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more."
             Sleep is one of the most powerful and most used words in the play, Macbeth. Its use and implications span between both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Through sleep, you can see the changes that go on between the two aforementioned characters. Sleep in the play is used as a way to show how the characters evolve and transform into that which is most feared by those characters.
             Before the witches prophesize to Macbeth, they vow to whip up a storm and destroy the ship of a sailor. Interestingly the witches do not say that they want to murder the sailor. Instead, they plan to destroy his sleep:
             Sleep shall be neither night nor day
             For the witches, the inability to sleep is symbolic of a tormented soul. The man who cannot sleep lives in chaos; night is day, and day is night. To the characters in Macbeth sleep is the, "chief nourisher in life's feast" (II, ii, 48) without it one becomes mad. Characters invoke the word sleep as a symbol of order. But in the play sleep is also a complicated term because it represents a character's control over their lives. When characters cannot control their sleeping habits they have entered into the realm of chaos where the fires burn and the cauldrons bubble.
             Macbeth, his arms soaked in blood after murdering Duncan turns to Lady Macbeth. Surprisingly some of his first words to Lady Macbeth are, "Macbeth does murder sleep,' the innocent sleep,/ Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care," (II, ii, 44-45). Macbeth's first admonition that his decision to murder Duncan has destroyed him, is his recognition that he will no longer be able to sleep. Racked by guilt Macbeth instantly recognizes that the order around him is turne
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