twilight sleep
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈtwaɪlaɪt sliːp/
- Archaic
:
sueño crepuscular
- Of course, even in my twilight sleep, I wanted to immediately comply with each command so as not to appear to be The Ugly American, so I attempted to sit lower.
Examples
-
"Oh, please, let me in." By the fire, he'd fallen into the twilight sleep he was allowed, and had dreamed in the flames he'd set to blaze of his dark-haired maid coming to him.
Fiction book (2000) -
Spend all your time in a twilight sleep.
-
This will put you in twilight sleep.
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We'll just put you into a twilight sleep.
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In fact, she had opened her eyes at last from a long twilight sleep and was, with this release, only now fully awake for the first time in years.
Fiction book (1992) -
And while it's used medicinally in very minute amounts for a variety of conditions, when it's combined with morphine, it produces a state called "twilight sleep."
-
For instance, "twilight sleep anesthesia" shifted the effort of labor from the now-unconscious mother to the doctor; formula feeding made infant nutrition quantifiable and enabled anyone to nourish the infant.
Academic text (2012) -
The doctor explained that the procedure would involve a state of twilight sleep to help ease the pain of childbirth.
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During her delivery, she experienced twilight sleep, which allowed her to remain semi-conscious and relaxed.
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In the early 20th century, many women chose twilight sleep during labor to reduce the intensity of their experience.
Synonyms
10
5.5
A calm, sleepy feeling after taking medicine that makes a person relax
Antonyms
How Conscious
1
5.4
- Specialized
10
5.5
- Archaic
1
9.9
- Specialized
10
3.9
- Specialized
259
5.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
The component 'twilight' evokes a transitional or in‑between state and paired with 'sleep' this reasonably suggests a bordering or partial sleep state, so a learner could infer a non‑full sleep meaning. However, the specific medical/anesthetic sense (drug-induced semiconsciousness used historically in childbirth) and historical usage are not predictable from the constituents and could be misinterpreted as simply 'sleep at dusk', so full comprehension is unlikely without exposure.
Etymology
The term twilight sleep comes from early 1900s childbirth care, when doctors used drugs that left women like twilight, between light and dark, and like sleep, so they were 'half asleep' and often forgot the pain. That's why twilight sleep now means a 'partly asleep' state used to ease pain.