Welcome to yet another English speaking lesson at Let’s Talk English Speaking Institute with Sonia. There are some really interesting phrases that we can use to say I need some sleep. Instead of following the same old way, let’s look at some easy to use phrases to talk about sleep.
Take a nap – sleep for a short period of time
Ex: I’m sure I will feel fresh after taking a quick nap.
Call it a night – to finish what one is doing and go off to bed
Ex: This party has been amazing but I think it’s time to call it a night.
Hit the sack- to indicate it’s time to go to bed
Ex: I had tough day at work; I just need to hit the sack now.
Get some shut- eye – to get some sleep
Ex: I’m tired of studying continuously I need to get some shut- eye.
Snooze for a while – casual way to say take a nap
Ex: I’ve been driving for the past four hours, so I’m going to take a break and snooze for a while.
Doze off – means to us fall asleep suddenly
Ex: The seminar was so boring that I dozed off.
Take a siesta – a brief nap or rest taken after the noon meal, especially in Spain and some Latin American countries.
Ex: I love to take a siesta once in a while, it feels so good.
So these are a few quick phrases that you can easily use in your conversation about sleep. These phrases are simple and enhance your vocabulary, so feel free to use them whenever you can.
Complete Lesson Transcript –
I’m really very tired and I can’t really take this lesson. I need some sleep, so good night. Is that how you also talk about going off to sleep? So boring, everyone says the same thing. I’m going to sleep, goodnight, that’s really boring and there are so many different and much better ways when you want to say, I need some sleep. So I’m going to make your life much more interesting now with different ways. Stay tuned with me, Sonia; make sure you watch this lesson, so you’ll learn better words.
The very first thing you could say is, take a nap, alright.so what does it mean when you say, take a nap. A nap is basically a very short period of sleep, okay. So say, for example, you’ve been at home all day but you’ve been working and you’re really tired but you still have some more work to do. So what can you do? You can take a short nap, a brief period of sleep just for maybe say half an hour, so you feel fresh. You’re rejuvenated and then you can continue with your work. So may be in an example you could say, I’m sure if I take a quick nap, I will feel really fresh.
You could also say, call it a night, okay. So what do I mean by this? Call it a night. This is basically a phrase you would use when say you’re done for the day, you’ve finished work, you’ve reached home and you’ve done whatever you had to do. You’ve finished eating, all your errands are over and you really just need to go off to sleep. So then you could use this phrase, call it a night or maybe you are at a party. The party has been amazing, you’ve had loads of fun and you’ve danced your heart out and now you’re really tired, even then you could use this phrase, which says, call it a night. So basically it is, to finish every work and go off to sleep. If you want to use it in a sentence, you could say, well the party was amazing but I’m really tired now and I think I need to call it a night.
The next one here, Okay this is interesting, sounds a little violent but it isn’t. It says, hit the sack, are you talking about hitting or punching something? No, you’re not gonna hit or punch any sack. What it means is that you are extremely tired. You know sometimes there are these days when you’ve really worked hard; you’ve stretched your hours at work. Maybe you were at work for 15 hours at a stretch. you’ve not eaten well, you’re extremely exhausted and all you can think about is a bed and how you’re gonna crash on that bed, the moment you reach home. So that when you could use something like hit the sack, okay. So that’s when you’re extremely sleepy, okay and you need to go to sleep like almost instantly. So in a sentence, you could say, well I have worked really long hours today and I’m going to hit the sack as soon as I reach home.
The next one here, it says, get some shut-eye. Now, what do I mean, when I say, shut? Shut means to close, to close something. So it means to close your eyes and go to sleep but just for a short period. Well say if you’ve been studying for many hours maybe if you’re a student and your exams, are you know going to come in the recent future. So you’ve been studying for many hours at a stretch, what do you need to do then? Take a quick break maybe and get some shuteye. So it means, to sleep for a short period. It’s a very casual phrase and it sounds really smart too. So maybe in a sentence, you could say, I’ve been studying for hours and I really to get some shut-eye.
The next one and I like this personally, it says snooze for a while. I’m sure you must’ve heard the word snooze earlier. We use it a lot for alarms, right? Like I’m one of those people, I keep an alarm for say 8 am and as soon as the alarm rings, I keep snoozing it for 5 or for 10 minutes because I need some extra sleep. but here when I say, snooze for a while, it means that I need to sleep for just a little time, just to be able to get back up on my feet, alright. So snooze for a while also means to sleep for some time., just a short period of time. So say, maybe you are on a road trip with your friends and you’ve been driving continuously for maybe say 4 hours and now you’re really tired, you can feel that you may just go off to sleep at any point in time. So what do you need to do? You need to snooze for a while. So maybe you can tell your friend, well hey I’m really tired driving so why don’t you take over the wheel and I will just snooze for a while, so I’ll feel fresh. The next one and this happens to a lot of us. It says, doze off. What do you mean by doze off? It’s something like you know, you’re just sitting and suddenly you just like fall off to sleep. Has it happened to you? You know if, maybe you’re attending a seminar or maybe even a lecture at college which was like really boring, alright and you’re sitting somewhere at the rear part of the class. No one was watching you and while sitting straight, you just suddenly like dozed off. So this means, to just sleep immediately. Alright, that’s what it means to doze off. So maybe in a sentence, you could say, well, the lecture in college was so boring, today that I just dozed off, I didn’t know what happened post that.
Finally, this is a nice one, it says take a siesta, alright. Now, what does siesta mean? This is basically a short, brief period of sleep that you take after your afternoon meal. It’s a word that’s mostly used in Spain and also in certain Latin American countries. So it’s quite a way where people tend to just sleep for maybe an hour or so, after their afternoon meal and relax, feel all fresh and then get back to their work later on. So it’s basically, sleeping for some time after say your noon meal.
Okay, so in a sentence you could say, well I love taking a siesta once in a while, it just helps me to feel much fresher and active later on. So, guys, this is how you can say, I need some sleep in so many different ways, look at them, they are so interesting, why do we want to use the same, old, boring words, right? So make sure that you practise these phrases, use them wherever you can in your day to day conversation. I’ll be back soon with something much more interesting, till then you take care, bye- bye.
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