The backstory of the Sandman is much more detailed on the merged world derived from the Crisis on Infinite Earths.  Here it is known that Wesley Dodds was most likely born in the early 1910s to wealthy investor Edward Dodds and his wife, Marina. In 1917, when he was still a child, his mother died under unrevealed circumstances. Little is known of Dodds's early life, save that he spent part of his youth in the Far East and learned Oriental herbalism, martial arts, and origami. It is known that he is well-traveled, ranging from Europe to the South Seas. After college and his father's death, Dodds became the manager of a vast estate and an investor in his own right.

Sometime before 1938, Dodds became plagued by extremely vivid dreams of criminal activitiesÑdreams that would not allow him rest. Dodds used his fortune to finance a lab and developed a formula for a sedative and hypnotic gasses. He then bought several kinds of gas masks and set up an identity for himself, the Sandman, in which to pursue the criminals that haunted his dreams. In an early case, he encountered Lee Travis, a college chum, in his guise of the Crimson Avenger. The two initially fought but eventually joined forces against the Phantom of the Fair, who haunted the 1938 World's Fair. Travis gave Dodds a gun design that the Sandman ultimately perfected as his gas gun (Secret Origins vol. 2 #7). The Sandman then started his career in earnest, first confronting the Tarantula, a serial murderer (Sandman Mystery Theatre #1-4).  Whether this is the same as the Earth-Two character is not clear.    Also on this Earth, Dodds met socialite Dian Belmont, daughter of District Attorney Larry Belmont, at local ball (Sandman Mystery Theatre #1). The two became lovers and, by year's end, Dodds had shared the knowledge of his dual life with her (Sandman Mystery Theatre #24). The Sandman's dreams often compelled him to pursue the most violent of criminals, such as the Scorpion (Sandman Mystery Theatre # 17-20), Dr. Death (Sandman Mystery Theatre #21-24), and the Butcher (Sandman Mystery Theatre #25-28).  How much of this is mirror on Earth-Two is unknown.

It is thought that much of the history of this Earth’s Sandman parallels that of his Earth-Two counterpart up until the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Though a stroke forced the Sandman to restrict his activities, he participated to a limited degree in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and joined the rest of the JSA in Limbo as they fought to forestall Ragnarok (Last Days of the Justice Society #1). When the JSA returned from Limbo, Dodds had another stroke (Justice Society of America #1). The Sandman recovered in time to stop the murder of a visiting dignitary in the same hospital (Justice Society of America #6). He later returned to a quiet life, where it was revealed that the dreams of his early career had ceased to plague him (Spectre vol. 3 #20). The Sandman joined the JSA in its assault on Extant during Zero Hour. Along with the rest of the JSA, he was aged to extreme senescence (Zero Hour #3). He did, however, survive Zero Hour, and made a recent appearance at the Wake of Morpheus (Sandman: The Wake). Although in advanced old age, Wesley Dodds still ventures occasionally into the spotlight. Most recently he has joined the son of Ted Knight (Starman) in resolving the murder of a New York socialite, John Blaine (Starman vol. 2 #20-23). The adventure reawakened in Dodds the desire to have more than a quiet retired life. He and Dian liquidated their assets and resolved to the spend their last days traveling the world one last time (Starman vol. 2 #30).