sleepless

[sleep-lis]

adjective

1. without sleep.

   a sleepless night.

2. watchful; alert.

   sleepless devotion to duty.

3. always active.

   the sleepless ocean.

sleepless

/ ˈsliːplɪs /

adjective

1. without sleep or rest

   a sleepless journey

2. unable to sleep

3. always watchful or alert

4. poetic,  always active or moving

   the sleepless tides

Other Word Forms

• sleeplessly adverb
• sleeplessness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of sleepless¹

late Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425; sleep, -less

Example Sentences

Patients describe sleepless nights, compulsive news checking and physical agitation.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

"I've been having sleepless nights because I was trying to work out how I could get him in the team because he's that good," Guernsey boss Tony Vance told BBC Radio Guernsey at the time.

Read more on BBC

My earliest memory of coffee dates back to sleepless nights spent at the campus library in college.

Read more on Salon

Mr Vine told the trial the posts left him having "sleepless nights" and feeling "scared and upset".

Read more on BBC

Yet in here the singer is “buzzing,” as he puts it — too amped to relax even after having just flown in from a fairly sleepless stint in Japan.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• fidgety