Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to go to bed with the sun

to go to bed with the sun

5.3
To sleep early in the evening when the sun goes down
  • idiom
  • Archaic
translation icon : irse a la cama con el sol
  • After a long day of work, many families go to bed with the sun to enjoy a good night's sleep.

Examples

  • Lamps flared briefly in most houses, then went out: farmers rose and went to bed with the sun.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • At night, the town is dark and quiet; most people go to bed with the sun and so miss the circling.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • In the summer, I like to go to bed with the sun since it gets light so early.

  • As evening fell and the sky turned orange, the children went to bed with the sun.

Synonyms

to sleep early
vsto go to bed with the sun
  • Indian
3 1.0

To go to bed earlier than usual

is tied to evening sunset timing, not just earlier than usual
to go to bed with the chickens
vsto go to bed with the sun
  • Archaic
1 8.8

To sleep very early, often soon after sunset

is early in the evening as daylight fades rather than very early

Antonyms

to stay up
  • Informal
253 2.4

To be awake later than usual

to burn the midnight oil
  • Informal
6 5.1

Work or study late at night to finish something

How Early

to go to bed with the sun
  • Archaic
5.3
to go to bed
485 1.0
to stay up
  • Informal
253 2.4

Surface Forms

go to bed with the sun infinitive
went to bed with the sun past
gone to bed with the sun past participle
going to bed with the sun present participle
goes to bed with the sun third person singular

Morphology

go + to + bed + with + the + sun

The phrase composes the transparent verb phrase 'go to bed' (to sleep) with the temporal prepositional phrase 'with the sun' (at the same time as the sun sets), so the meaning 'to go to sleep early at sunset' is directly inferable from the parts. This compositional, cross-linguistically common pattern follows standard English syntax, making it understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.

Etymology

Go to bed with the sun comes from life before electric light, when people finished work at sunset and literally went to bed as the sun went down. That's why it means 'to sleep early in the evening'.