The Real Life English with Gabby Podcast
The Real Life English with Gabby Podcast
#29- 28 Slang Words, Phrasal Verbs and Idioms for Sleep & Rest
Hi there! Welcome to episode #29 of The Real Life English with Gabby Podcast!
In this episode, I share 28 useful slang words, phrasal verbs, and idioms about sleep and rest. Learn common phrases like doze off, wide awake, a power nap, wake up on the wrong side of the bed, to sleep with one eye open and more! The vocabulary you learn in this episode will help you talk about commuting like a native English speaker. Don't miss this fun and informative lesson that will boost your English vocabulary and help you communicate better during your daily travels. Tune in now and start improving your English skills!
For more information about my course, email me at: gabby@englishwithgabby.com. The course closes on Friday at midnight, so don't miss out.
Study Guide
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[00:00:00] It's been a busy past few weeks here on the RealLife English with Gabby podcast. And today, I'm so excited to give you a sneak peek of my brand-new course that teaches you phrasal verbs, slang, and idioms that you need to speak like a native. I'm talking to you today all about sleep and rest. You'll be learning words like wiped out, to crash, drained, nod off, doze off, out like a light, and to get a second wind. Let's get to it. Hey there, welcome to the Real Life English with Gabby podcast. I'm your host, Gabby, your fun and friendly English teacher from the one and only New York City. My goal is to teach you phrasal verbs, idioms, and slang that will help you speak English confidently and understand real American conversations. Are you ready to improve your English skills? [00:01:00] Let's jump right in.
Hey, hey, hey, welcome to episode number 29. We're going to talk about a topic that I love teaching about, which is sleep and rest. Americans love talking about sleep all the time, but because we come from such a workaholic culture, we typically talk about lack of sleep and how little sleep we get. And we complain because we're tired and we don't get enough sleep. Because of this, we have so many different ways to say that we're tired. We have a lot of different ways to say that we're tired, that we have no energy, that we want to sleep, and then we also have a bunch of different words for types of sleep: deep sleep, [00:02:00] light sleep, short, long. We have different words to talk all about this topic. The reason why I chose this topic is because it's actually one of the units from my new course. So I really wanted to talk about it because I'm really excited. I've been working on this course for a long time. As you know, I've been an English teacher for over 13 years now, and as much as I love grammar, there are so many podcasts and teachers on social media that teach grammar, but there are not a lot that teach slang, idioms, and phrasal verbs. And that's why I decided to make my podcast all about real-life English. And because of the popularity of this topic, and since so many students have difficulties with real-life English, I decided to create this course. And so today, I'm giving you a [00:03:00] little piece of the sleep unit. So in the units in my new course, and I'll talk about it later, in the units in my new course, every unit has about 50 to 80 words, specifically phrasal verbs, slang, and idioms that are very necessary to know if you want to really speak like a native. And so I took half of that unit, a little less than half, and I made it into this episode. Okay, so let's get into today's topic. I took 28 words from the sleep and rest unit of my new course, and let me tell you what those words are: wiped out, crash, catch up on, wide awake, night owl, to be in your element, drained, nod off, an early bird, [00:04:00] doze off, to be out like a light, to get your beauty sleep, to take a power nap, to be out cold, to hit the sack, to get a second wind, to call it a night, to sleep like a baby, to toss and turn, rise and shine, to be beat or feel beat, to wake up on the wrong side of the bed, to sleep over, shut-eye, dead to the world, sleep with one eye open, sleep in, and roll out of bed. Just a reminder that there is a study guide waiting for you in the show notes that has a transcript, all the new words, definitions, and example sentences. And it even has some practice activities just for you. So now it's time for the story. I created a story with all 28 new words used in real-world contexts. [00:05:00] I want you to listen to the story and see what you understand. You're going to hear the words in context, like I said. After the story, we're going to talk about the new words. All right, here we go.
It was a Friday night, and Raj was feeling completely wiped out after a long week at work. He wanted to go home and go to sleep early. His friends, though, had different plans. "Come on, Raj. We're gonna crash at Kareem's place tonight." Raj didn't want to go at first because he knew they would be up late, but he figured he could catch up on sleep later. When Raj arrived at Kareem's place, Kareem was wide awake. Since he was a night owl, he was in his element. Raj was completely ready to be awake late. When they arrived at Kareem's house, Kareem was wide awake. Since he was a night owl, [00:06:00] he was in his element. Raj prepared to be up late that night. The others were equally excited, but Raj couldn't help but feel drained. "Let's play some video games," Kareem shouted, already grabbing a controller. Raj tried to keep up, but he started to nod off halfway through the first round. He wasn't the only one. Liam, who was always an early bird, had dozed off on the couch, completely out like a light. "Looks like Liam's getting his beauty sleep," Kareem joked. "Are you next?" Raj shook his head, trying to stay awake. "No way. I'm good," he lied, but he was clearly struggling to stay awake. He knew he needed a power nap to get his energy back, so he snuck into Kareem's room and lay down. He was out cold within minutes. An hour later, Raj [00:07:00] woke up feeling a little better. He checked the time and realized that it was already 2 a.m. "Guess I better hit the sack," he thought. But as he was about to, Kareem burst into the room. "Come on, man. You've got to help us win the next round." Raj hesitated a little bit but still got up, realizing that he couldn't let his friends down. After that nap, he felt more energized, almost like he got a second wind. He joined the others, and they played until they were all too tired to continue. Eventually, everyone decided to call it a night. They found spots to sleep all over the house. Raj was so tired that he slept like a baby, not tossing and turning at all, like some of the others. By the time morning came, he was the last one to wake up, with Kareem cheerfully shouting, [00:08:00] "Rise and shine!" Raj stretched and smiled. Despite feeling beat, he was glad he had stayed for the sleepover. But then he realized he had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed and really didn't want to talk to anyone. As they cleaned up, Kareem grinned and said, "Same time next week? I'd love for you guys to sleep over again." Raj laughed and said, "Sure, but next time, I'm getting more shut-eye before I come. I was dead to the world last night. Also, try not to wake me up so often. I'm too tired to sleep with one eye open." Kareem laughed. "No worries. Next time you can sleep in as long as you want." When Raj got back to his apartment, his roommate looked at him and said, "What happened to you? Looks like you just rolled out of bed." "You don't want to know," laughed Raj.
Okay, so let's talk about the meanings of these words. First, we have wiped out. We typically say, "I'm so wiped out," or "he or she was wiped out from something." This means extremely tired. You are probably familiar with the word exhausted. Exhausted means very tired. I just want to say that Americans, as a whole, in American culture, we are very dramatic about how tired we are. So we say we're exhausted for everything. I mean, to be fair, it is true because Americans are always tired. We're so busy. We have to schedule everything. And so we love to be dramatic about how tired we are, which is why we have so many different words for being tired. [00:10:00] So we have wiped out. And then we're going to skip ahead a little bit because we also have the word drained.
Drained also means extremely tired. Now, a small difference between being wiped out and being drained is that drained more often refers to physical and emotional exhaustion, tiredness. After a full day of meetings, I felt completely drained and needed to relax, so my brain has been working, and my body has been working as well. I am exhausted.
Next up, we have the word crash. Now, the word crash is very, very interesting because it has five different meanings. This is one of the reasons why I love to focus on vocabulary because English is so difficult for no [00:11:00] reason, oftentimes, where instead of creating a new word, we just add a new definition to an existing word. This is especially true for phrasal verbs. So, let's talk about crash. Firstly, in the context that it's used here, that we're all, they were all going to crash at Kareem's house, this means to sleep somewhere other than your home. So, you can crash at a hotel, you can crash at your friend's house, you can even crash in the park. This is similar to the word sleepover, except that sleepover is pretty specific that you will sleep over at someone's house, whereas crash you can do anywhere.
The most common dictionary meaning for crash is to have some type of collision or accident where two things hit each other. Like, for example, there was a lot of traffic due to the car crash on the [00:12:00] highway. In the context of sleep, crash has another meaning, and that meaning is to fall asleep suddenly because you're extremely tired. For example, after the long road trip, I crashed on the couch as soon as I got home. Or, if someone texts you or calls you, but you were asleep and couldn't respond, you could say, "I'm so sorry, I didn't respond. I crashed early last night." The other meaning of crash is when your computer stops working. We say, "My computer crashed and I have to get another one." And the fifth meaning, which is kind of funny, I don't know if people in your country do this, but this is embarrassing. A lot of Americans will crash weddings or crash parties, and what that means is that you attend a party that you have not been invited to. There's [00:13:00] a famous movie, there's a really popular movie here called Wedding Crashers, and it tells the story of people who crash weddings, and it's actually true. There are people who get dressed up and try to sneak into weddings so that they can get free food and alcohol.
So, crash. One word, five meanings, three of those meanings are slang. The next one is a phrasal verb, but it's a three-word phrasal verb, meaning it has one verb and then two particles, which you might know as prepositions, right after. To catch up on sleep is to sleep more, to compensate for lost sleep. If you had a week where you had to wake up really early and go to sleep really late, we say, "I'm backed up on sleep," meaning that I lost a lot of sleep. So, to catch up on sleep is when I sleep more because I'm trying [00:14:00] to get back the sleep that I lost.
Next up, we have the expression to be wide awake. This means to be fully awake and alert. Even though it was late, I felt wide awake after drinking coffee. When you're wide awake, you are not tired at all. You have a lot of energy.
Next up, we have two words that are opposites, and these are two ways to describe people. Firstly, we have a night owl, and a night owl is a person who tends to stay up late and is very active during the nighttime hours. They're more productive. They have more energy. It's similar to the bird, the owl, because most of them are what we call nocturnal. They are awake overnight and they sleep in the [00:15:00] day. The opposite of a night owl is an early bird. An early bird is someone who prefers to wake up early in the morning. They're more active in the morning hours, more productive. That is me. I am an early bird. My husband is a night owl. It's kind of funny. What about you? Are you an early bird? Are you a night owl? Which one?
Now, this next expression is not sleep-related, but while I was writing the story, I was like, "Hmm, this would fit perfectly here," and I didn't want to leave it out. And that is to be in your element. To be in your element is to be in a situation where you feel comfortable and where you can perform well. When she's baking in the kitchen, she's in her element and creates amazing desserts. So, to be in your element is to be [00:16:00] somewhere where you can really thrive and succeed.
Next up, we have to nod off. Nod off is a phrasal verb. Now, nod off is when you fall asleep briefly, like you keep falling asleep, waking up, falling asleep, waking up. And often, it is unintentional, meaning that you don't want to fall asleep, but you do because you're tired. The word nod is when you move your head up and down because you want to say yes to someone. And so, nodding off refers to the physical motion of your head going down, waking up, and going up, and then your head going down, and then your head going up again because you're falling asleep, but you're fighting against the sleep. For example, I started to nod off during the lecture because it was so boring.
[00:17:00] After nod off, we have another phrasal verb, which is doze off. This is very similar to nod off, but I'm going to explain the differences here. The word doze means to sleep. So, we could say, "Oh, look, she's dozing in the back of the classroom." But here, in this context, it means to fall asleep lightly or unintentionally again for a short period. But here, we're not really fighting the sleep. So, nodding off is falling asleep, waking back up, falling asleep, waking back up. But doze off, you're not really fighting that hard. You just fall asleep. You could say, "I dozed off on the train and almost missed my stop." However, you could also say, "I was watching a movie and I dozed off on the couch." You're not really fighting it; you didn't want to fall asleep, but you're not fighting against it, maybe because you're [00:18:00] tired.
The next expression is out like a light. To be out like a light means to fall asleep very quickly, like as quickly as you can turn a light on and off; that's how quickly you fall asleep. For example, after the long hike, he was out like a light as soon as his head hit the pillow.
The next expression is to get your beauty sleep. This is to get enough sleep to look refreshed and attractive. The night before a big event, you always want to sleep well because then you'll look your best. Because, as you know, one of the worst things that someone can say to you is, "Wow, you look tired." So, that's why we say to get your beauty sleep.
The next one is to take a power nap. Let's talk about a power nap for a minute, and let's talk about American culture. So, in American culture, we love taking naps. A lot of people here sleep when they [00:19:00] can. Sleep is not a priority. Money, working, and having fun is a priority in American culture. Like, a lot of people say, "I'll sleep when I'm dead." That's literally like a really common motto here. And so, we have something called a power nap. It is a very specific nap. It's a 20-minute nap that is intended to refresh you and make you feel renewed and have renewed energy. It's a very specific type of nap. I took a 20-minute power nap during lunch and felt much more energized afterward.
Next up, we have to be out cold. To be out cold has two meanings; they're pretty similar. The first one is when we are in a very deep sleep, like it's very difficult to wake us up. For example, he was out cold after working a double [00:20:00] shift at the hospital. He was out cold after working overtime at the hospital.
Of course! Here is the transcript with only the punctuation corrected and time stamps retained:
The other meaning is when you are unconscious. You have some kind of accident; maybe you hit your head, and you're unconscious and cannot wake up. For example, during the boxing match, he got punched hard and was out cold for a few minutes.
Next up, we have to hit the sack. The old expression is to hit the hay because farmers used to sleep on hay and they used to put hay inside of their pillows to make them soft. So, this is like a really old idiom. People still use it, though. It's time to hit the sack. This just means to go to bed, go to sleep. I'm exhausted. I think I'll hit the sack early tonight.
The next one is to get a second wind. This is a really common thing to say. When you're really [00:21:00] tired, but then you feel re-energized, like something just happens and it's like the wind blows and you just get renewed energy. I thought I was done for the night, but after a quick break, I got a second wind.
Next up is to call it a night. Now, we have in past episodes talked about call it a day. Call it a day is to finish whatever you're doing. Like, maybe at the end of a class I'm teaching, I can say, "Alright guys, it's time to call it a day." Now, we're being more specific: call it a night. That's when you decide to stop an activity for the rest of the night, typically because you want to go home and go to sleep. We've been studying for hours. Let's call it a night and continue tomorrow.
The next one is to sleep like a baby. To sleep like a baby means to sleep very peacefully and very soundly, which might seem ironic to those of you that have children and know that a [00:22:00] lot of times babies do not sleep peacefully and do not sleep soundly. But that is what it means. For example, we would say, "After a day at the beach, I slept like a baby and woke up feeling refreshed."
Next up, we have toss and turn. Toss and turn is when you're not able to sleep. Oftentimes, you're moving around, you're restless, you just can't get comfortable, you can't be at peace while you're sleeping. I couldn't stop tossing and turning last night, so I barely got any sleep.
Then we have rise and shine. This is a phrase that's used to wake someone up and tell them to get out of bed and start the day. So, it's something very common that parents say to children, and so a lot of us grow up in the U.S. hating this expression because our parents say it to us all the time when we [00:23:00] don't want to wake up. "Come on, rise and shine. It's time for school. It's time to clean." So, it's kind of funny because when we say it, we add a lot of energy because we know that we're annoying the person we're talking to.
Next up is to feel beat or be beat. This is very similar to feeling drained and feeling wiped out. So, this just means to be extremely tired or exhausted. Like, "Wow, after moving all those boxes, I'm beat and I just want to rest."
Next up, we have to wake up on the wrong side of the bed. This means to be in a bad mood, often without a clear reason. He must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed because he's been grumpy all morning. So, a lot of times we say this when someone wakes up and they're really grumpy, meaning they're in a bad mood, they're not happy, [00:24:00] and we're like, upset, and we're like, "Ugh, did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?"
Next up, I mentioned it earlier: sleep over. And, I mentioned that it's similar to crash, but sleep over again is just to spend the night at someone's house. So, you have a set destination. You can do it like here in New York; the Museum of Natural History has a night where you can sleep at the museum, and it's really cool. So, you can say that if it's like in a building, but you wouldn't say, "I slept over Central Park." No, but you could say, "I crashed in Central Park."
Next up is to get some shut-eye. Shut-eye means sleep. So, to get some shut-eye, shut-eye just means to sleep and get some sleep. I need to get some shut-eye before my early morning flight tomorrow.
Number 25: dead to the world. The next one is to be dead [00:25:00] to the world. This means to be in a very deep sleep, unaware of what's happening. It's very difficult to wake someone up who is dead to the world. It's kind of like when you're out cold. He was dead to the world after working his 16-hour shift, and nothing could wake him up.
The next one is to sleep with one eye open. This is a really cool expression. It means to sleep very lightly, or it also means to be alert while you're sleeping. Here's the example: When I'm staying in an unfamiliar place, I tend to sleep with one eye open. You don't trust things, so you're going to sleep very lightly and be very alert while you're asleep. Imagine if a criminal escaped from prison in your neighborhood, you're probably not going to sleep peacefully. You're going to sleep very uncomfortably and you're going to [00:26:00] be able to be woken up very quickly. This is what it means to sleep with one eye open. We also say this as a joke. Like if all my friends are sleeping over at my house, maybe when I was younger, we would play jokes on each other. And so, if someone played a joke or prank on me, I would say, "You better sleep with one eye open." You better watch out because I'm going to do something to you while you're sleeping.
The next one is to sleep in. This means to sleep later than usual in the morning. I love Saturdays because I can sleep in and don't have to rush anywhere. This is a really, really common thing to say. Like, I normally wake up for work at 5 a.m., but on the weekends, I'm able to sleep in a little bit.
And then the next one is to roll out of bed. To roll out of bed is to get out of bed, but you get out of bed with a lot of difficulty and laziness [00:27:00] and you're still extremely, extremely tired. And so, sometimes you look like you're still asleep. So, your friend might say, "Wow, did you just roll out of bed?" 'Cause maybe like your hair is messy, maybe you're just wearing your pajamas still. I'm sure you remember in school, there was always a kid who looked like extremely tired, like he was still half asleep. And so, we say, "Wow, did you just roll out of bed?"
Well, there you have it. You just learned 28 awesome words about sleep, and now you are prepared for the many times that you're going to hear Americans talking about this topic.
Well, that's a wrap for today's episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast. Be sure to download today's study guide so that you can learn how to use this vocabulary [00:28:00] confidently. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe for more weekly adventures in English learning. Also, I'd love to hear from you, so please leave me a review.
Thanks so much for tuning in.
