When you have a short sleep you have a cat nap. Perhaps you do this at work during a boring day at the office. But be careful or you might be caught napping by your boss. However caught napping doesn’t just mean being caught sleeping but it can refer to be being caught unprepared for any particular emergency.

“The police were caught napping when the thieves broke into the bank through the toilet window.”

Another expression for a short nap is forty winks.

“I am going to grab forty winks before we go out to the party. I think it will be a late night.”

Sometimes you can’t sleep at all and then you haven’t slept a wink.

“There was a party going on downstairs all night long. I didn’t sleep a wink!”

A wink is different from a blink. When you wink you open and close only one eye. This can be used to convey a message.

“My friend gave me a knowing wink when I told my parents I had been studying all evening. He knew I had been at the KTV.”

You blink using both eyes and the average person blinks sixteen times a minute. You do it to keep your eyes moist and clean.

In many cultures it is customary to take a short sleep in the afternoon. This is especially true of warmer countries and we use a Spanish word to describe this nap, we call it a siesta. In Northern industrial cultures people often have to work too hard to be able to spare the time to have a siesta. Instead they might have power naps. These are short sleeps which will revitalise the subjects from drowsiness and they last about 15 to 20 minutes. Many effective and influential business people recommend them and take them in their offices.

When you finally get home and turn in for the night, to get your beauty sleep with a good night’s kip, you hope, before you finally nod off, that you will have good dreams not nightmares. As you slumber you might begin to snore and that might well wake up your partner. If that doesn’t, the alarm clock in the morning certainly will. When it rings, you will probably hit the snooze button, so you can have a short doze before finally having to get up and go to work.

Cat nap Short sleep

Caught napping Taken unawares or off guard

Forty winks Short sleep

Didn’t sleep a wink Didn’t sleep at all

Wink Open and close one eye

Blink Rapidly open and close both eyes

Moist Damp, humid

Siesta Afternoon sleep

Power nap Short sleep taken by a business person

maybe after a power lunch

Drowsiness Sleepiness

Turn in for the night Go to bed

Beauty sleep Early to bed and sleep, before midnight

Kip Sleep

Nod off Go to sleep

Nightmares Bad dreams

Slumber Sleep well

Snore Nasal noise made while sleeping

Snooze Brief, light sleep

Doze Light sleep

（英国使馆文化教育处）