sleep

See Also: DREAMS, SNORES

1. Asleep and dreaming, like bees in cells of honey —Thomas McGuane

   The simile completed McGuane’s novel, The Sporting Club,

2. As near to sleep as a runner waiting for the starter’s pistol —J. B. Priestley
3. As sound asleep as a coon in a hollow log —Borden Deal
4. Awoke … like some diver emerging from the depths of ocean —Francis King
5. (Paul lay in his berth) between wakefulness and sleep, like a partially anesthetized patient —John Cheever
6. (Mr. Samuel Pickwick) burst like another sun from his slumbers —Charles Dickens
7. Came out of a deep sleep slowly, like a diver pausing at each successive level —Norman Garbo
8. Come from sleep as if returning from a far country —Mary Hedin

   The simile which begins the story, Blue Transfer, continues with, “A stranger to myself, a stranger to my life.”

9. Doze and dream like a lazy snake —George Garrett
10. Drowsy as an audience for a heavy speech after an even heavier dinner —Anon
11. Emerges from slumber like some deep-sea creature hurled floundering and gasping up into the light of day by a depth-charge —Francis King
12. Fell into a sleep as blank as paving-stone —Patrick White
13. Felt himself falling asleep like gliding down a long slide, like slipping from a float into deep water —Oakley Hall
14. Heavy with sleep, like faltering, lisping tongues —Boris Pasternak
15. I shall sleep like a top —Sir William Davenant

    This simile has outlived the play from which it is taken, The Rivals, as a colloquial expression. A somewhat different version, “Slept like any top” appeared in the German children’s story, Struwelpeter, by Heinrich Hoffman.

16. I want sleep to water me like begonias —Diane Wakoski
17. Kept falling in and out of it [sleep] like out of a boat or a tipping hammock —Rose Tremain
18. Lies asleep as softly as a girl dreaming of lovers she cannot keep —F. D. Reeve

    Reeves, a poet, is describing a river.

19. Lying awake like a worried parent —Robert Silverberg
20. Nodding, like a tramp on a park bench —Robert Traver
21. Not sleeping but dozing awake like a snake on stone —Malcolm Cowley
22. Sleep as smooth as banana skins —Diane Wakoski

    See Also: SMOOTHNESS

23. Sleep came over my head like a gunny sack —Ross Macdonald
24. Sleep covered him like a breaker —Harris Downey
25. Sleep fell on her like a blow —Hortense Calisher
26. Sleeping like a lake —Theodore Roethke
27. Sleeping like a stone in an empty alcove of the cathedral —Clive Cussler
28. Sleep like a dark flood suspended in its course —Percy Bysshe Shelley
29. Sleep like a kitten, arrive fresh as a daisy —Slogan, Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad
30. Slept like a cocked pistol —Émile Zola
31. Slept a great deal, as if years of fatigue had overtaken him —Peter Matthiessen
32. Slept almost smiling, as if she had a secret —William Mcllvanney
33. (He usually) slept like a corpse —Ring Lardner
34. (While the Weary Blues echoed through his head, he) slept like a rock or a man that’s dead —Langston Hughes
35. Slept like he’d gone twelve rounds with a pro —Geoffrey Wolff

    See Also: WEARINESS

36. Slumber fell on their tired eyelids like the light rain of spring upon the fresh-turned earth —W. Somerset Maugham
37. Sunk into sleep like a stone dropped in a well —John Yount
38. Wake abruptly, with an alarm clock which breaks up their sleep like the blow of an ax —Milan Kundera

drive one’s pigs to market To snore loudly, to log ZZZs. The allusion is probably to the snorting noises of swine being herded to market. This expression is apparently an elaboration of the phrase to drive pigs ‘to snore,’ dating from the early 19th century.

forty winks A brief nap; a short period of relaxation. This expression, clearly derived from the closed-eye position assumed during sleep, nevertheless implies that the resting person will not fall sound asleep. It is reputed that the first literary use of the phrase appeared in the November 16, 1872, issue of Punch, in which the writer surmised that the reading of the Thirty-nine Articles of faith by the communicants of the Anglican Church was indeed a somniferous ordeal:

hit the deck See EXCLAMATIONS.

hit the sack To go to bed; to retire for the night; also, hit the hay. During World War II, sack was substituted for “bed” among American soldiers as an allusion to the sleeping bags or blankets they used as beds. J. J. Fahey used the expression in Pacific War Diary (1943):

Variations of the phrase include sack time, sack drill, and sack duty, all military slang for time spent asleep; sack artist, a soldier who is adept at obtaining extra sleep; and sack out, a common term for sleeping until fully refreshed.

in the arms of Morpheus In deep sleep; overcome with the desire to sleep. In Greek mythology Morpheus was the god of dreams. The narcotic morphine, which dulls pain and induces sleep, gets its name from the same deity.

in the Land of Nod Asleep; in dreamland. After Cain killed Abel, he was banished to wander in the Land of Nod (Genesis 4:16). Land of Nod did not mean sleep until Swift made a pun on the Biblical phrase in his Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation (1730). Today Nod retains the meaning of sleep.

saw wood To sleep soundly; to snore. This expression came into popular use in the early 20th century primarily as a result of the commonly employed cartoonist’s technique of representing sleep with a drawing of a saw cutting through wood, alluding, of course, to the sound of snoring.

shut-eye Sleep. A 20th-century American colloquialism.

sleep like a top To sleep soundly, like a log; to be dead to the world. The rationale for the seemingly anomalous reference to a top is explained by Anne Baker in Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases (1854):

Likewise, when a Yo-Yo spins swiftly at the end of its string, it is said to “sleep,” without apparent motion. By extension, then, though a person in a deep, peaceful sleep may seem totally motionless, his internal systems are actually working at a high level of efficiency.