2023-08-07 16:06:32
Unless you’re someone who stays out dancing the whole weekend, sleep is an activity that most of us do every day.
It helps us prepare for the day ahead and sift through events in our lives, or alert us to something we’re worried about with a dreaded anxiety dream. When we’re deprived of it, it’s absolute hell, but nothing is more heavenly than a blissful lie-in.
Unsurprisingly, sleep is a topic that comes up regularly in conversation in Austria, so it’s essential that these words are part of your German vocabulary (vocabulary).
Here’s our guide to some of the key terms that may crop up, whether you’re coaxing a child to finally go to sleep or enjoying some kip yourself.
The basics
As you probably know, the German word for sleep is the sleepwhich can be turned into the verb sleepmeaning to sleep.
If you want to announce to whoever will listen that it’s bedtime for you, you can use the phrase: “I go to bed” (I’m going to bed), “Ich muss schlafen.” (I need to sleep) or “It’s bedtime” (It’s bedtime) to make it clear that you’re ready to sleep.
For a slightly less direct way of indicating how tired you are, you can also reach for lay downwhich means to lie down. As an example, you might say, “It’s probably bedtime now – I think I’ll lie down.” (It’s probably bedtime, I think I’ll lie down.)
If you’re dealing with a child who’s determined to stay up past their bedtime, you’ll probably require the following phrases (and you may need to use them a number of times):
“It’s almost time for bed” – It’s slowly getting to your bedtime.
“You should have been in bed by now!” – It’s way past your bedtime.
Your sleep habits
When it comes to talking about your sleep habits, a lot can be done by simply adding prefixes to the word sleep.
For example, if you want to talk about falling asleep, you can use the word fall asleep. For example, you can say: “I went to bed at 10 p.m. but fell asleep at 11 p.m.” (I went to bed at 10pm but fell asleep at 11pm.)
This might be a little confusing for English speakers, because fall asleep instinctively sounds like “sleeping in” – so try not to confuse the two.
If you do want to talk about having a lie-in and getting your fill of sleep, the word you need instead is sleep in. Generally, when “aus” is at the start of the word – i.e. excuses (to finish talking) or read out (to finish a book) – it means you’ve done an activity to completion, and the same is true of sleeping.
READ ALSO: Eight of the most common (and funniest) mistakes German learners make
A child sleeps. Photo: Daniela Dimitrova/Pixabay
But what about those awkward moments when you snooze through your alarm and wake up far later than you should? For those you’ll need the word oversleepwhich means to oversleep.
Of course, some of us have problems falling asleep in the first place, and that can be helpfully described by referring to the insomniawhich means sleeplessness or insomnia.
Over a long period of time, this may develop into a fully blown sleep disturbanceor sleep disorder, which you may want to talk to a doctor about.
One important thing to note is that, as in English, sleep can also have a double meaning, so if you say, “I slept with someone.” (I slept with someone), people will usually assume you’ve done a lot more than having a snooze.
Starting the day
The opposite of being fell asleep (asleep) is being awake (awake), and when you want to talk about waking up, the word you need is awaken.
The thing that wakes you up is called the alarm clock (the alarm) and after you wake up, the next thing you may do is get out of bed, or stand up (stand up). Like fall asleep and awakenthis is a separable verb, which means you say: “I get up” (I’m getting up) rather than “Ich aufstehe” when using it in the present tense.
However, the two parts of the verb come back together when you use it in the past tense.
An an example, you might tell a friend: “I woke up at 8am today because of my alarm clock and I got up at 8:30am.” (I woke up at 8am today because of my alarm clock and got up at 8:30.)
READ ALSO: The local dialect you need to know in Vienna
Dreams and feelings
Sometimes we may not be so keen on describing our sleep regimen, but we do want to communicate with colleagues and friends that we’re desperately in need of it.
For these situations, you may find the following adjectives useful:
Tired: Tired
Exhausted: Exhausted
Broken: Broken / Exhausted (colloquial)
And what if you want to talk about your dreams? Well, luckily, the word for this isn’t too different from the English: the dream (the dream) or the dreams (the dreams).
An alarm clock. Photo: Congerdesign/Pixabay
The verb form of this is dreamwhich can be helpful if you want to describe your dreams or say that you don’t often have them. For example, you could say:
I dreamed about you yesterday. (I had a dream about you yesterday)
or,
I sleep very deeply and dream very seldom. (I sleep very deeply and dream very rarely)
As we know, not all dreams are particularly pleasant, so the word nightmare (m.) – meaning nightmare – may come in handy. This apparently dates back to Germanic mythology, in which mythical other-wordly beings called albums were believed to be responsible for dreams.
As in English, you can also use this word metaphorically to describe a particular unpleasant experience or situation.
For example:“I hope I don’t miss my flight. That would be a real nightmare!” (I hope I don’t miss my flight. That would be a total nightmare!)
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