Summary: Upper Intermediate vocabulary lesson and poem. This week I tell you about my sleeping habits. Also includes Lesson Transcript and Vocabulary notes Sleep ESL mp3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm really not a morning person (someone who wakes up easily in the morning, with a big smile on their face). I always wake up at the very last minute. I usually have just enough time to shower, dress, and eat breakfast before my first English lesson of the day. But, around once a week - I confess that I stay in bed too long. I feel so sleepy. I can't wake up. When my alarm rings -- beep beep beep - I somehow turn it off without even realising. I don't even seem to wake up. My sleeping body turns off the alarm clock. This is a problem. Suddenly, I wake up 10 minutes before my first lesson begins. There is no time to shower, to dress or to eat breakfast! Yes - I confess - when this happens I teach my first lesson in my pyjamas - in my sleeping clothes. You can do that when you work from home, and the best thing is, nobody knows! People who prefer to stay up late at night and dislike waking up early are 'owls'. An owl is a nocturnal bird - a night time bird - twit twoo, twit twoo. I am definitely an owl. It is no problem for me to be awake at 1am or 2am when most people are asleep. On the other hand, people who love mornings are 'larks'. A lark is a different kind of bird that sings in the morning. A lark is someone who naturally wakes up in the early morning, and usually likes to be in bed by 10pm. I don't understand the ways of the larks. I cannot imagine what it is like to feel fresh and awake in the early morning. Unfortunately for me, I am an owl living in a lark's world. (A world where most people have to wake up early every day for work or school). You lucky larks. Of course, sometimes even larks have to stay up late. When someone has to stay up late to finish some work or to study for an exam, we say that they are burning the midnight oil. I often burnt the midnight oil while I was a student. Once, I remember, working until 6am - 6am!) to finish an essay. I really was ready to hit the sack, ready to get a few hours sleep, at last. So I shut down my computer, I turned it off. Only then did I realise (that) I hadn't saved my essay. I had to start more or less from scratch - nearly from the beginning. I rewrote the essay very quickly - as if I was in an exam - because the essay had to be finished by the morning and I really didn't have much time - and somehow, to my complete surprise, it was the best essay I ever wrote. I got my highest ever mark, ever. At the weekend, many people enjoy a lie-in. A 'lie-in' is when you stay in bed a few hours extra. Of course, I occasionally have a lie-in (for example if I was partying the night before). However, I feel really guilty and lazy if I get up after 11am. I feel like I have wasted the day by sleeping too much and too late. I also try not to nap - not to sleep in the afternoon. However, as I work from home, it is possible for me to nap. And sometimes I do, because the idea of a short sleep is irresistible. Around 4pm in the afternoon is when I feel tired. I don't know why but it is so hard for me to stay awake. I usually yawn a lot - yarn - and try not to surrender to my desire to nap. This tired feeling passes after an hour and then I feel energetic. [excited] I have a lot of energy and can be very, very productive. I like doing creative things like working on my podcasts, at this time of day. I don't usually have a problem falling asleep, thankfully I don't suffer from insomnia (insomnia is when someone can't sleep even though they're tired). The only time I can't sleep is when I hear a repetative noise - something like the tick tock, tick tock, of a clock. I have to remove clocks from the room because it drives me crazy to listen to them. I can sleep in cars, on planes,
