As 2025 winds down, I’m finishing up a few things that have been lingering in my draft folder. This one started with just a title: “In a Melatonin.” If you know jazz, you’ll recognize that as a riff on Duke Ellington’s song, “In a Mellow Tone.” Once the wordplay popped into my head, there was no turning back.
One of the things I love about Duke’s song is that it starts on the II chord (or V of V), which is a Bb7 in the key of Ab. Not only that, at the end, the turnaround walks down from the final chord of Ab to the V of that Bb7 (Ab, G7, Gb7, F7–so a V of V of V!). I included some similar chord planing in my song. (If you’re not into music theory, forget this whole paragraph!)
Of course, the song had to be about Melatonin in some regard, but I decided to make it about sleeplessness in general. The first verse discusses the frustration of lying awake, and the second verse lists items people use to help them fall asleep, from noise machines to Trazodone. Believe me, it is not easy to find rhymes for Diphenhydramine!
1. In a Melatonin–
that’s the way it’s going.
If I don’t fall asleep,
I’ll lose my mind.
Counting sheep gets boring.
Where’s the snooze and snoring?
Why am I keeping watch
til morning light?
I just lie in bed awake.
Looks like I will spend my whole night ruminating.
2. I’ve tried wine and warm milk,
memory foam and ZQuil,
Noise machines, meditation,
CBD,
Ambien, Magnesium,
Trazodone and Doxepin,
Diphenhydramine,
Benzodiazepines.
Still I lie in bed awake.
Looks like I will spend my whole night ruminating.
3. In a melatonin–
When’s the sandman coming?
In a Melatonin.