beauty sleep

American

noun

Informal.

sleep before midnight, assumed to be necessary for one's beauty.
any extra sleep.

beauty sleep British

noun

informal sleep, esp sleep before midnight

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of beauty sleep

First recorded in 1855–60

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Vanessa Feltz has announced she is leaving BBC Radio 2 next month, saying it's time to catch up on a decade of beauty sleep.

From BBC • Jul. 28, 2022

"Get at least eight hours of beauty sleep, nine if you’re ugly," she said in 2011.

From Fox News • Dec. 12, 2021

This year, Cinderella stayed home to get some beauty sleep.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 27, 2019

The Doctors A man who weighed 639 pounds returns to show his dramatic weight loss; faking beauty sleep.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 14, 2017

“Is this for some school project? You’ve got to get some beauty sleep tonight, Dumplin’.”

From "Dumplin'" by Julie Murphy

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023