Sleep vocabulary and expressions - ESL

Get in your pyjamas, get some cocoa, it's time to do sleep vocabulary!

First, let's talk about being tired.

There're different ways to say you're tired

You can say : "I'm tired", "I'm sleepy",

or if you're very very tired, maybe from work, or being at the gym all day,

you can say "I'm exhausted".

Or, if you want to be very very British about it,

you can say "I'm knackered".

Say it with me : "I'm knackered"

And then, to say "I'm going to bed", "I'm going to sleep", "I'm going to get some shuteye" :

To go to bed, to go to sleep :

well, it depends how you go to sleep :

For example :

you could just fall asleep like a normal person, but

for example, if you come home from work and you're knackered

you fall asleep very fast,

This is called crashing, or crashing out.

"I got home and I just crashed/crashed out"

or you can say "I passed out",

or if you want to be really cool, "I PTFOd",

you can probably guess what that F means..

Or, if it's in the middle of the day,

and you're like a granddad,

and you just want to have 20 minutes of sleep,

you can say "nap" :

"I'm going to nap" "I'm going to have a nap"

or again, if you want to be very very British, you can say "I'm going to have a doze"

Or, for Spanish speakers, you're going to be very happy because we also say "have a siesta"!

Everything sounds better in Spanish!

And then, when you're asleep,

you can dream, or have a dream.

To talk about dreams :

If you have the same dream, again and again,

like the same situation, the same place, the same thing happens,

this is called a "recurring dream".

My recurring dream is I'm always in my high school,

and I'm late for class,

and I don't which class I'm going to..

Drives me craaazy, at least once a week I have this!!

Anyway, I'm rounding! What's your recurring dream?

Also, you can have a nightmare,

you can snore,

you can sleep talk,

sleep walk,

also, what kind of sleeper are you?

Heavy sleeper, never wakes up for anything :

whereas a light sleeper, even a mouse fart would wake you up!

Or if you can't get asleep, you can say you have insomnia.

You're wide awake, all the time!

Next : how about waking up?

When your alarm makes a noise, we say it goes off.

So, for example : "my alarm went off".

If you wake up at 6 A.M,

this is called "at the crack of dawn".

Too early, no one can function at this time of day!

Go back to bed, man!

When you wake up and you missed your alarm,

you're late!

This, you can say "I overslept".

I overslept loads of time...

I went to work once, and I didn't have time for a shower,

I just went to work and

everyone's really polite about it, they were like :

"Yeah, man, you don't... smell."

What about this example?

If you wake up, and you look at the clock,

and you see it's afternoon!

But then you remember : "Hey! It's Saturday, I don't work today! I'm going to sleep more!"

So you can say : "I'm going to sleep in".

Or, "you have a lie in".

Now, what's the difference between "wake up" and "get up"?

"Wake up" means to open your eyes.

"Get up" means to physically get out of bed and start your day.

Good night, sweet dreams!

See you in the next class!

Non-automatic English subtitles by Julie Descaves