Claude Debussy wrote Aimons-nous et dormons, for voice and piano, L 16 around 1881. Its text is by Théodore de Banville. During this period it is difficult to discern exact composition dates for the composer's works because he made no attempt to preserve many of these pieces. This particular song was most likely written with a specific woman in mind, Mme Vasnier, who was thirty at the time. Debussy was employed at an accompanist for a singing class in Paris. There she met Vasnier, a student who was a particularly good vocalist and very attractive. Being married and nearly twelve years older than the aspiring composer, the nature of their relationship remains unclear. Her husband was well aware of Debussy's presence and seems to have not give it much thought. The eighteen-year-old musician was welcome in their house, where he enjoyed the company of a cultured and affluent family. Though he probably did not win the particular favors he sought from Vasnier, she graciously guided him into a world of manners and literature that had not been emphasized during his upbringing. Aimons-nous et dormons displays a prestigious talent for a teenager, though not yet an adult product of genius. The influence of Massenet, among other French contemporaries, is evident.

The composer's patron, Mme von Meck, had an initial reservation about his writing; it all sounded like Massenet. She said so in a letter to Tchaikovsky. Debussy was able to imitate the styles of many other French composers (she said that as well). Aimons-nous et dormons is an unabashedly Massenet-like, sensual song. Its title continues on to include the amorous invocation "without thinking about the rest of the world." Clearly, this is a bold, provocative solicitation. What he got instead was exposure to a better grade of poets than he was currently reading, croquet matches, and a large house in which he could visit and compose. While there, he was often moody when in the company of people other than Mme Vasnier. He often received packets of tobacco to raise his spirits, and this reportedly worked. Under the nose of Vasnier's entire family, he wrote love songs to her. The Massenet sound he used for this particular song was simply Debussy's attempt to write the best song he could.

Throughout his youth, women would be of great assistance to Debussy. When he failed to win a Conservatory prize in 1880 for the third straight year, he was in a bad position because he was automatically disqualified for attempting to win more money through that institution. Before things got desperate, he got a job playing piano for the mistress to the president of France. The following year, Mme von Meck made him part of her entourage, as a pianist in her personal piano trio and as a music instructor for her eleven children. Mme Vasnier appeared the following year, and the two women looked after him in turns until he won temporary financial independence with the Prix de Rome prize in 1884. Vasnier was his first serious love, however unrequited. Until 1884, he dedicated over twenty songs to her. Because there is no recorded blow out between them or between Debussy and the Vasnier family, it is safe to say that the chaste affair eventually blew over in Debussy's heart as he perused other women more successfully in the court of von Meck. His sincerity cannot be questioned because he pursued the green-eyed singer for several years. Aimons-nous et dormons is a touching compound of talent and adolescent desire.

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