Home » Mind & Soul » Sleep Disorders » "SLEEPINESS": What Does It Mean?

"SLEEPINESS": What Does It Mean?

© Kerrin Leon White

"Sleepiness?" Can there be any confusion about the meaning of such a common word?

In fact, when you try to apply a precise, scientific definition, the commonest words make for the worst confusion.

Take one example: "Depression." That is an everyday word, and an almost universal human experience, at least when it refers to a low mood. But in medical diagnostic terms, depression refers to not merely a low mood, but the coexistence of certain symptoms persisting over a certain period of time, representing a highly prevalent, but by no means universal, mental disorder.

When we talk about "sleepiness" in a medical context, as a symptom of a possible disorder or disease, we need a more precise definition than casual conversation requires. As usual, when we commence close inspection of a superficially simple issue, it becomes bewilderlingly complicated.

Before we venture further into the jungle of medical jargon, let's back up and look at the "lay" definitions of sleepiness.

Did you notice with alarm that suspicious plural form in which I referred to "lay definitions"?

Commendably, my "dictionary for ordinary people," The Newbury House Dictionary of American English (1996), defines "sleepy" in one way, with only a few words: "needing sleep, tired, (syn.) drowsy." Let us put aside for the moment the fact, evident on reflection, that the three terms used are not necessarily equivalent.

Let's proceed to the opposite extreme, my "dictionary for the excessively erudite," the Oxford English Dictionary, which in my "compact" version occupies merely two volumes, comprising 4,116 pages, legible only with a magnifying glass!

This vast tome doesn't really bear comparison with the first-mentioned dictionary. Its definitions of "sleepy" cite quotations illustrating the word's use in works from each of seven consecutive centuries (14th through 19th)! I will not burden you with these, but only with the summary phrases describing each main category of meaning.

Meanings attributed to the word "sleepy" by the Oxford English Dictionary include the following:

1a. Inclined to sleep, having a difficulty [sic] in keeping awake; drowsy, somnolent. These terms--I hope you will agree--seem more of a kind than those used by the Newbury Dictionary.

1b. Given to sleep; lethargic, heavy. This seems only a faint variation on 1a.

2. Characterized by, appropriate or belonging to, suggestive of, sleep or repose. Lest you think this only more of the same minute differentiation, consider the phrase offered by the dictionary: "a little sleepy trade in salt." This is, of course, a metaphorical use of the word.