Do some of these expressions ring a bell?
We often hear them as they are part of our daily “dictionary” of rest, but do we really know their meaning or where they come from? Some of them are the following:
- Sleeping like a log: Do you like to sleep a lot? If the answer is yes, then I’m sure you’ve been told that on more than one occasion. We all know that a log is the part of the tree that supports the branches. That’s why we sometimes say that someone sleeps like a log, referring to the log lying motionless on the ground for a long time, just like when we sleep soundly without moving from the bed. In addition, it is said that a young woman put a log in her bed at night so that her father would not know of her absence, while she fled with her beloved.
- Sleeping tight: If you slept very well tonight, then you slept tight. This expression comes from the time when prisoners were shackled around their ankles during the day so that they could not escape. Some, for good behavior, had as a reward to be able to spend the night without being subject to a chain or another prisoner, then it could be said that that night had slept freely.
- Sleep like a dormouse: Do you know what a dormouse is? Have you ever seen one sleeping? Well, it is a rodent very similar to a mouse, it is popularly known as a dormouse but its real name is glyriid. It has the peculiarity that it sleeps in winter up to 7 months, a good winter sleep, on the contrary, when it is awake in spring and summer, it can sleep up to 16 hours a day, now you understand about sleeping like a dormouse, right?
In addition, according to a mythological legend, the dormice were 7 Christian brothers who in 251 during the persecution of Christians by the Roman Caesar Decius, fled to a cave near Ephesus and were walled up alive there. In 446, the hole in the rock was opened and it is said that they slept there for 195 years. - Sleeping like a stump: If you’ve ever been told that, it’s because there was no one to wake you up. The expression comes from the agricultural world, the ceporro is a piece of old stump that is used to make fire as fire in the fireplace and is buried remaining motionless. Therefore, if you are in a deep sleep, you sleep like a ceporro.
- Sleepless: How did you sleep today? If the answer is that you slept badly, then you probably didn’t sleep a wink. To understand this expression, we have to think about how we wake up when we sleep a lot, yes, with our eyes a bit stuck together because of the eyelashes. So, if we can’t sleep well and sleep well, then we probably won’t wake up with eyelashes.
- Sleepless night: A pain, a worry or any other reason can make us spend a sleepless night without being able to sleep. Its origin is related to the night that those who, during the Middle Ages, wished to be part of some knights used to ritually spend without sleeping a wink. The night before becoming knights, they made a vigil of the weapons that would honor them, wearing as attire a tunic or any other white garment that symbolized spiritual purity. The white color of the clothes and the length of the wait until dawn gave rise to the expression “pasar la noche en blanco” (spend the night in white).
- Falling into the arms of Morpheus: It is one of the most romantic expressions that exist to refer to sleep or sleep, abandon yourself in the arms of Morpheus, and do not worry, Morpheus is not the neighbor or a new friend of your partner. In Greek mythology, he was the son of Hypnos (sleep) and Nix (night), the one in charge of inducing dreams to those who slept, being able to adopt human form to enter and appear in them. Nowadays, when someone is sleeping or is seen to be enjoying a sweet dream, he or she is said to be in the arms of Morpheus.
- The cinema of the white sheets: Have you been there? Without a doubt, and most of the times in the night session, when we talk about this cinema we are referring to the bed. Parents often tell their children “sure, let’s go to the white sheets cinema” when the little ones want to go somewhere being too late for them.
