# beauty sleep

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/beauty-sleep
Updated: 2026-08-10

## 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.

## Examples

- I need some beauty sleep before my big day tomorrow.
- Please be quiet because my sister is getting her beauty sleep right now.
- After working late all week, I am going to bed early to catch up on my beauty sleep.
- He jokes that he needs at least ten hours of beauty sleep to look that good in his morning meetings.
- The actor refused to start the interview until he had finished his beauty sleep following the long flight.
- She excused herself from the party early, claiming she required a generous amount of beauty sleep to recover from the week's exhaustion.

## Origin

Formed from the compound of the nouns beauty and sleep, the term has been present in English since at least the mid-19th century. Early usage suggested that sleep taken before midnight was uniquely beneficial for one's appearance, a theory that prioritised the clock over the quality of the rest.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.