Talking about SLEEP in English

When am I going to have time for sleep?

Hi. James from engVid.

New Orleans, it's a city of the United States.

It's known for Mardi Gras in February.

The town never sleeps.

People are doing stuff all the time.

And today's lesson is on, believe it or not, not New Orleans, but sleep.

A lot of you guys, it's something...

It's something we do, if you think about it.

You're awake and one-third of your life is spent sleeping.

And in your own language you have many words for "sleep", and we do, too.

And some of these words I don't think you've ever been taught.

If so, I'm going to try and help you remember them, and go through a couple phrasal verbs

and good and bad words.

So let's go to the board, shall we?

Sweet dreams are made of these.

"Sweet dreams", what does that mean?

It means... Depending.

If I say to you: "Sweet dreams", I want you to dream, have a good night's sleep and dream

or "sweet dreams", I'm having a good one.

In this case, look at Mr. E. How are you...?

Oh.

He's fast asleep, so he can't hear me.

But you'll notice he's sleeping, he's got some zzz' up here, and he's sweet dreams.

Cake, ice cream, and engVid. Okay?

If you think about our site, you'll have good dreams.

So let's start on the good side, shall we?

Because that's where we should have a good night's sleep. Right?

That's easy enough.

"Good night's sleep", you sleep all the way through the night and you feel fantastic.

If you have a little sleep, let's just say you've had a really busy day and you're a

little bit tired.

When I was a little boy we used to call it a "nap".

So for 20 minutes or maybe 30, 40 minutes you'd go upstairs quietly, go into a little

ball and go to sleep for 20 minutes and you'd take a nap.

Well, now it's the 21st century and everything's more aggressive, so you don't have a nap,

you have a "power nap".

20 minutes, total relaxation, total focus.

So today it's gone from "nap" to a "power nap".

And when you tell people you're having a power nap, you're going to sleep like a kitten and

coming out like Batman. Okay?

That's what they say now, so I'm power napping.

It's a way of making it sound more important than: "I'm tired. I need to sleep." Okay?

Number two: "dream".

A dream is basically pleasant thoughts while you're sleeping.

That's what it is.

You're travelling, having fun with your friends, kissing your favourite person.

[Kisses] That's me.

And that's a dream.

You're having pleasant thoughts as you're sleeping. Okay?

What about "bedroom eyes"?

If you like those movie stars and that, do you look in their eyes?

Yes, and you go: "Oh my gosh, he's so sexy. He's so lovely. I love his eyes."

Bedroom eyes are sexy eyes.

People have bedroom eyes.

Now, there's another one for you: "Catch some zzz'" See up here?

Mr. E is going: "[Snores]. Zzzzzz. [Snores] Zzzzzz."

Catching zzz' is get some sleep.

You'll often hear people say: "Man, I got to catch some zzz' before my airplane. I need to get some sleep."

Why we pick "z", I don't know.

Maybe it's the last letter of the alphabet and by the time you get there you're tired.

And finally let's talk about "pillow talk". What is "pillow talk"?

Pillow talk.

No, you don't go: "Yo, pillow, you are so sexy.

Look at your bedroom eyes. You're beautiful." No.

When we talk about "pillow talk" it's actually when you're in bed with your partner or lover,

and you talk about things, intimate things like how you like their hair and their eyes,

or what a good day you've had, and it's really kind of romantic, and it's quiet and it's

nice, and then it ends in cuddling, which is another word for hugging in the bed and mmm.

It's not necessarily sex.

It's the nice thing after.

Right? Sexual talk and cuddling, ladies, holding and touching after the big event.

Yeah? Yeah.

Tell your husband or your significant other person:

"I like a little pillow talk when we're done, and we'll have it more often."

Guys, listen carefully when you hear that one. Okay?

Because your bedroom eyes won't always get you there.

That's the good, and I'm sure you're all smiling, going:

"I like these. I get to nap, a little sleep.

I get to have pleasant thoughts.

I have...

Use my eyes to make myself look much more attractive.

I get to relax by getting some good sleep in there.

And finally, if I talk and cuddle everything's good." Right?

Yeah, well, all good things come to an end.

Every coin has another side.

This is the bad thing about sleep. Okay? This sucks.

"Sleepless", it doesn't mean you sleep less like four or five hours, it means no sleep,

and usually we say: "sleepless night", which meant all night long you were awake.

You tried to sleep, but you couldn't or you were unable to sleep.

What's worse than sleepless?

Has got to be "wide awake".

That's this one.

Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.

Now, I'm going to try to close my eyes, but it's just not happening.

I'm wide awake.

It means no matter what you do, you can't get to sleep.

Right?

"Sleepless", you lose some sleep; "wide awake", you can't sleep. That's it.

You're just up looking at the ceiling, maybe read a book, maybe walk, but you just can't go to sleep.

If you do too much of these two, you're going to get what we call "insomnia".

A lot of people say: "Oh, I've got insomnia."

They don't know what they're talking about, really, because it's actually a medical condition

that says you have difficulty sleeping.

That means you may have...

Be wide awake or have sleepless nights but on a very regular basis.

This isn't good for anybody.

It's not good for your mind or your body, or your weight actually.

Read up on that.

So insomnia is something you probably have to go to a doctor to get treated, so if someone

tells you they have insomnia, tell them to go see a doctor.

I know somebody who loves this one: "to toss and turn".

When you toss something it's like throwing, and turning is like this.

So imagine in bed they're like: "[Makes noises]."

You're like: "Chill out, baby, I got to sleep", and they're tossing and turning.

Usually they're worried.

Something has happened and it's on their mind, and it's like they're doing it, they're acting

in their sleep or, and that's why they toss and turn.

They're also the people who steal the covers.

You know? "[Makes noises]."

And you're like: "I'm naked here. I'm cold.

[Laughs] Stop being so worried, I'm freezing."

All right?

So to toss and turn is having a bad night's sleep.

Notice when you toss and turn you might actually be asleep, so you can't say "sleepless" or

"wide awake".

You might say: "I had a sleepless night and I tossed and turned", which meant there was

a little bit of sleep, but you kept moving too much to stay asleep.

But you wouldn't be wide awake and tossing and turning. Okay?

"Nightmare".

Do you remember a dream was pleasant thoughts or nice things you thought about?

A "nightmare" is everything you don't want to remember.

Yeah, the girl who said no to you at that dance, yeah, your boss giving you extra work.

Mm-hmm.

Being married to me.

[Laughs] Or getting killed or chased by an elephant.

All those bad things, those are nightmares.

Mm-hmm. That's right.

You don't need nightmares, but they happen when you have a bad night's sleep.

All right? Sometimes you'll have a nightmare and toss and turn.

If you're paying attention, I'm showing you how you can use these words together because

some of them don't go together. All right?

And finally, my favourite one: "snore". [Snores] Ah.

This is to make noise so other people can't sleep, and some people snore so badly they can't sleep.

[Laughs] If this has ever happened to you: "[Snores and gasps]", you need to see a doctor

because you've got some really bad snoring problems.

It's that awful noise people make when they're sleeping that wake you up, and you go:

"Please go to... Wake up, wake up, I can't sleep."

All right?

So we've looked at the good and the bad, and I'm going to say the ugly.

I've got a question mark for these ones.

You might say: "Why are these in green?"

Well, because they have with sleep, because like the good, you actually go to sleep.

You are unconscious.

I'm not going to say "asleep", because "unconscious" and "asleep" aren't exactly the same thing.

If I punch you really hard, you'll be unconscious.

I don't think you'd say: "I went to sleep."

[Laughs] Okay?

That being said, it's a bad type of sleep.

And how do we get there?

Well, let's take a look.

Okay? I'm going to start with "doze off".

I know it's in the middle, but there's a reason.

"Dozing off" is when you have one of those friends who likes to talk, and you're like:

"Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember, that was a good time. Yeah."

You probably did it in school, or during a bad movie or boring movie.

It's you get tired and you kind of slowly lose consciousness, but you're not aware of it, and you...

And you wake up: "Whoa, I just fell asleep."

So you fall asleep, you didn't mean to fall asleep.

Like you were listening to the person or watching the movie, but then you went-boom-unconscious,

so you dozed off.

I love saying that, like: "Oh yeah, when you were talking I dozed off for the last 10 minutes.

What'd you say?"

That usually ends the conversation right there.

[Laughs] Okay?

The next one is this: "to pass out".

"Pass out". Yeah, for you people who love to drink, yeah, you know, you drink a lot and you're talking,

and then-boom-you wake up the next day in your underwear outside on the front of somebody's lawn.

Yeah?

Or you're on the train and you go: "I don't know how I got here."

You passed out.

It means you got an injury, either hit or drank too much, and you fell asleep and you

didn't know.

Notice with "dozing off" you fall asleep and you wake up, you fall asleep and you wake up.

When you "pass out"-boom-that's it, you're out and you wake up later on.

Sometimes even when you doze off you do fall asleep, wake up, and then you go to sleep. Right?

But you can wake up from this.

This one is from an accident or an injury, or drinking too much and you pass out.

A lot of people pass out after too much alcohol.

"Blackout", this one.

Blackout, blackout, blackout.

This one might be fun, this one might be boring, this one's a little dangerous.

When you blackout what happens is you fall asleep...

You don't fall asleep.

You're unconscious.

You're just-boom-gone.

Blacking out occurs from injury and what's worse is you don't have memory of something.

If you take drugs or someone gives you drugs, or you're hurt or injured, you will wake up

and you'll say: "I don't remember what happened."

Blacking out is serious.

Okay? So if someone tells you something like:

"I have problems, like I got insomnia and I occasionally black out during the day",

seriously tell them to go see a doctor. Okay?

I like to joke and that, but then some of these things, like, you don't joke about.

Even if they blacked out, you want to know why because they will have memory loss.

If they pass out, they'll go: "Oh yeah, dude, I remember drinking the beer then walking,

and yeah, I fell asleep and I just passed out."

They're okay.

When they're like: "I was drinking and I don't know what happened for the last five hours",

not so good. Cool?

All right, so, we have done our sleep.

This is where we say: "Sweet dreams".

Time for us to go take a look at, you know, maybe a little bit of a quiz and two words

that are very confused by most people.

Okay? Ready?

[Snaps]

Go.

All right. But before we go, I wanted to just go over one thing.

Notice we had the word "blackout" twice.

If you got really good eyes, you'll understand why it's there.

If you don't, let me explain.

"Blackout" as one word is a noun.

He had a blackout, that's why he's on the floor.

Noun. It's a thing.

It's a phrasal verb, sort of an action, if you know what phrasal verbs are when it's

"black out", two separate words.

If you drink too much, you will black out.

Separated words.

Okay?

That's the difference between the two, so if you ever see them, one is the noun and

one is the action that's occurring. Okay?

Good?

Let's go to the board because now I have some quick notes for you.

In this case the quick note is about the difference between "sleep" and "asleep".

They seem almost identical because the word is almost the same, but they are different

and you have to use them differently, especially in a grammatical sense.

So let's go to the board and take a look.

"Sleep", it can be used as a noun: I need some sleep, like I need some money.

It can be used as a verb: He's sleeping right now.

Or it can be used as an adjective: Sleeping beauty.

All right?

Or beauty sleep.

So we're using it to describe something.

Okay, shouldn't say the other way, like beauty sleep, but sleeping beauty, an adjective.

Or we say it when we're going to bed.

Right?

I'm going to be sleeping at 9 o'clock, so we use it for going to bed or as a noun, verb, or adjective.

"Asleep" is a little different.

We can use it as an adverb, "fall asleep", an action. Right?

I'm going to fall asleep.

Or as an adjective: You are asleep, to describe your state.

You are asleep now, he is asleep.

It's different than this because here you can be going to bed, here you're unconscious,

that means you're not awake.

Not exactly the same.

That's a little different. Okay?

So when you're asleep, we're saying literally you're not conscious, you're not awake.

When you're going to bed, you are in the act, you're actually...

Maybe I'm going to be sleeping at 4 o'clock, an action that's going on. All right?

"Fast asleep".

This is interesting because we say: "Someone is fast asleep or sound asleep".

The mistake a lot of people make is "fast asleep" means you go to bed quickly.

That's wrong, actually.

If you ask anyone, when they say he's fast asleep, you might see them shaking somebody, going:

"Hey, hey, hey. He's fast asleep."

It comes from the German word which is "fasten", and it means to stick.

We, in English, say fasten something, which means add something to something to make it

stay strongly.

And in German it means to sleep...

To be sound asleep, fast asleep, to be completely asleep, hence...

Or not hence, but that's why when you're pushing someone, say:

"Hey. Get up, get up", and they say:

"He's fast asleep", it means completely asleep or completely unconscious.

Yes, he's sleeping but we say completely unconscious.

Nothing's going on.

Cool? All right.

Quick notes for a reason because we're going to do our test.

And in doing the test, if you don't know that last one, so something in here, you won't

be able to answer this.

So think carefully.

All right?

So let's do the first one for sleep.

"Mr. E __________ __________ in front of the boring teacher."

I'm going to put a period here.

Mr. E what?

What did he do in front of the boring teacher?

Now, think of all the words you used.

There's two words here.

Do you think he passed out?

No, because they ask questions.

I think he might have...

Remember boring?

Dozed off.

Ah, ah.

He dozed off in front of the boring teacher.

All right?

What about the next one?

"I was so worried about the test so I __________ _____ __________ all night long."

I was worried about the test, so I something, something all night long.

You shook me all night long, yeah you.

I wonder why I would shake you.

Because you were probably like: "[Makes noises]", and that would be

"tossed and turned".

Tossing and turning all night long.

You're not going to get a good night's sleep, are you?

All right, that's good.

How about this one?

"The baby was __________ __________ and we couldn't wake him up."

The baby was what?

Hmm.

The baby, and you couldn't wake the baby up.

Get up.

Up. No? Hmm.

The baby would have to be completely asleep I think.

Hmm, what would that be?

Hmm.

It's very difficult.

I don't know what the answer could possibly be, do you?

Did you say "fast asleep"?

I know, because you're a very smart student.

Some of you were sneaky and said "sound asleep", which would be true, too.

Yeah.

Remember we said completely unconscious?

So the baby was sound asleep.

A good thing if you're a parent. Right?

Okay, so we got two more to go, so let's go see what we have now.

"I need a quick rest"-or a short rest-"and I'll be good.

I'm taking a 20-minute (_____) _____."

If you're from the 90s, there's a 20-minute workout.

Remember?

Headbands.

I might even have a headband.

Yeah?

Okay, 20-minute workout, the 1990s.

[Sings].

You know the answer yet?

No? Okay. [Sings].

Okay, it's not a workout.

It is what?

A "power nap", that's right, it's a power nap or a nap.

I prefer a nap, but 21st century it's a power nap.

And finally...

Sorry.

"Your __________ keeps me up at night."

What would keep me up at night?

Most likely not your johnson.

Hmm, something keeps me up at night.

Ah.

Did you say "snoring"?

You did a good job, and I'm going to...

Let's see. Let's put this out there.

We had: "Your snoring", right?

We had, what was the other one?

The 20-minute, I'm not fond of this one, but power nap.

All right? A power nap.

The baby was what?

Fast asleep.

Okay. So I was...

I tossed and turned, past tense because we...

We were worried.

Right? This was last night.

And Mr. E, what did he do?

He dozed off in front of the teacher.

You didn't need me to write those because you're smart and I'm sure you figured out yourself,

but look, you can get the rest of the quiz to see how good you would...

How good.

How well you would have done.

My god, I almost said "good".

How well you would have done.

You're going to go to the website.

And where is that?

www.

Right?

eng as English, vid as in video.com (www.engvid.com),

complete the quiz, and see how well you do.

Anyway, I need to catch some zzz'.

It was a long night last night.

I'll tell you about it sometime.

Ah, see?

I'm tired. This way.