Armor For Sleep was founded by
Ben Jorgensen in 2001 in
Teaneck, New Jersey. Nash Breen and Peter James "PJ" DeCicco later joined the band after leaving fellow New Jersey band Prevent Falls. Jorgensen stated the name of the band comes from his early experiences of writing music and not being able to sleep. As he recalls, "I guess when I started the band I was kind of, like, retreating in my room and I kind of couldn't really fall asleep, so I started playing music. I just thought of the name Armor for Sleep, because it was really, the music was keeping me from passing out! Which was something I was procrastinating on." A
Machine Shop remix of their track "Remember to Feel Real" was featured on the
Snakes on a Plane soundtrack in August 2006. The next year, the band debuted a new track entitled "End of the World" on the
soundtrack for the 2007 film
Transformers. The song appeared on their next record, but with various changes, including a reduction in vocal effects and keyboards. Armor For Sleep released their third full-length album
Smile for Them on October 30, 2007. On August 20, 2008, the band announced an extended play (EP) entitled
The Way Out Is Broken.
Disbandment and reunions On October 28, 2009, it was officially announced that the band would be parting ways. Frontman Ben Jorgensen released a statement informing fans of the inevitable, after the band had been inactive, not undertaking a tour for over a year. The band regrouped to play the 2012
Bamboozle Festival in
New Jersey, releasing the following statement: "We have no motivation for doing this other than to get up on stage and say goodbye properly to the people out there who never got the opportunity to see us one last time. Like Sam Beckett in
Quantum Leap we will strive to "put right what once went wrong"...and then just like him we will poof out of existence. But for good this time- we promise." On July 20, 2015, the band announced an eight city tour to celebrate the 10th anniversary of
What To Do When You Are Dead.
Post-disbandment projects In January 2009, Abrahamian formed the band 1984. After the group parted ways, Ben Jorgensen briefly started an electronic project called God Loves a Challenge alongside Sierra Shardae and also embarked on a brief solo career, releasing the EP
There Is Nowhere Left to Go in 2010. In October 2014, Nash Breen formed the band the Cold Seas along with Erik Rudic, Chad Sabo, and Matt Castoral. Rudic and Sabo would later join Armor for Sleep in 2024 alongside Breen and Jorgensen; Breen, Rudic and Sabo are presently active in both bands.
Return and subsequent albums On February 24, 2020, the band announced on
Facebook that they would be reuniting for a summer tour including nineteen US cities to celebrate the 15th anniversary of
What to Do When You Are Dead. The tour was later postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, and on August 13, 2020, the band announced the new tour dates for 2021. In July 2022, the band announced a new album,
The Rain Museum, which was released on September 9, 2022 on Equal Vision Records and
Rude Records. In the summer of 2022, Armor for Sleep performed on select dates of the Hello Gone Days tour, co-headlined by
Dashboard Confessional and
Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness. In the spring of 2023, the band co-headlined the Pitch Black Forever tour with
Hawthorne Heights. In the second half of 2023, the band went on tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their debut album,
Dream to Make Believe, with guests
the Early November and
the Spill Canvas. In February 2024 the band performed on the 2024 Emo's Not Dead Cruise, which was headlined by
Yellowcard. On July 18, 2024 the band released a new single, "In Another Dream". Then on October 11, 2024 they released another new single, "What a Beautiful World", along with a lyric video for the single. On November 12, 2024 the band announced a 20th anniversary tour for
What to Do When You Are Dead which began in
Boston on March 6, 2025 and featured supporting acts
Boys Night Out and
Hellogoodbye. On September 10, 2025, the band released the single "Breathe Again" and also announced their fifth studio album,
There Is No Memory, which was released on November 7, 2025 through Equal Vision Records. The band went on tour in support of the album by opening for
Senses Fail and
Story of the Year on the Scream Team Tour, which began on November 17, 2025 at The Eastern in
Atlanta,
Georgia. On October 10, 2025, the band released the fourth single from the album, "The Outer Ring". Then on November 8, they released the fifth single, "Last Days", along with an accompanying music video. The band will tour with
Spanish Love Songs in 2026. ==Band members==