The title of the episode, and the Charles Beaumont-written short story that inspired it, is taken from William Shakespeare's Hamlet's "to be or not to be" speech. "To sleep, perchance to dream-ay, there's the rub." The very next line, "For in that sleep of death what dreams may come," was used by fellow The Twilight Zone (1959) writer Richard Matheson as the title of his novel/movie What Dreams May Come (1998).
This was the first The Twilight Zone (1959) episode aired that was written by Charles Beaumont and also the first that was not written by Rod Serling.
Based upon a short story of the same name by Charles Beaumont that was first published in the November 1958 issue of Playboy magazine.
This is the first Twilight Zone episode that starts with the iconic Twilight Zone Theme Song.