ENGLISH
REFERENCE

beauty sleep

idiom
Meaning

Originally, sleep taken before midnight, on the belief that early sleep hours conduce to beauty and health; now (chiefly humorous), sleep at any time needed by one to stay beautiful; (countable) an instance of such sleep.


Origin

disputed origin

From beauty (noun) + sleep (noun).

Examples
SIMPLE

I need some beauty sleep before my big day tomorrow.

CONTEXTUAL

After working late all week, I am going to bed early to catch up on my beauty sleep.

COMPLEX

She excused herself from the party early, claiming she required a generous amount of beauty sleep to recover from the week's exhaustion.

Anchors to
Related idioms8entries
  1. 01

    age before beauty

    A phrase said to allow older people to go before younger ones.

  2. 02

    beauty queen

    The female winner of a beauty contest.

  3. 03

    big sleep

    Death.

  4. 04

    cry oneself to sleep

    To cry until or to fall asleep.

  5. 05

    eat, breathe, and sleep

    To devote one's time obsessively to.

  6. 06

    eternal sleep

    Death

  7. 07

    fox sleep

    Feigned sleep while actually alert.

  8. 08

    go to sleep

    To be affected by paresthesia; to go numb.

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