Songfacts®:

• Brett Young is a country music singer-songwriter from Orange County, California. This soulful country love song is the lead single from his self-titled debut EP. He penned the tune with Justin Ebach (Craig Morgan's "When I'm Gone") and Kelly Archer (Chris Cagle's "Got My Country On").
• Young explained the story behind the song in an interview with The Boot:
  
  "I had been in LA visiting family and friends, listening to pop radio, and I heard all these songs in a row about a dude trying to sleep with a girl. I thought, "There has to be a sweet twist on that subject, somehow." I just started thinking about, my last relationship was six years. We never lived together, but we always did the goodnight phone call or text. When that becomes a habit, you find yourself restless, trying to go to sleep without the goodnight phone call or text.
  
  I thought that was way sweeter than 'let's get busy.' I brought [Ebach and Archer] the idea for 'Sleep Without You,"' and it was a quick write. And, it was my first write with either of them, so that doesn't usually happen; normally there's, like, a feeling-out process with new writers. It just happened really quick and easy.
  
  We left the write, and about two hours later, Justin sent a completely finished demo. We wrote it, he put down the guitar, and I sang it, and I left, so all I knew was the guitar vocal. He sent it pretty close to how it sounded on the radio. Kelly wrote that night, 'I'm not embarrassed to admit that I'm dancing around the kitchen now.'"
• The music video was filmed in Malibu, California and directed by Shane Drake. It co-stars Miss USA 2015 Olivia Jordan as Young's love interest.
  
  "What I like about Shane's treatment is that I really wanted the video to follow the story of the song," said Young. "All of the elements were very authentic, and I felt like I could really be myself. It didn't hurt having the sunshine and ocean breeze as a nice reminder of home either."
• Brett Young got a tattoo as a permanent remembrance of his debut hit single. "The first one is a special one. 'Sleep Without You' was such a special song, because it was the one that I got introduced to the world with, and it did so well," the singer said. "I [got this tattoo] to commemorate the fact of 14 years of really hard work and believing in something can actually work out if you stick with it."