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Phrase: Keep you up at night
Do you ever find yourself tossing and turning at night, unable to shut off your brain?
It could be because you have a lot on your plate or something specific keeps you up at night.
Whatever the reason, it’s an excellent opportunity to use the phrase keep you up at night.
But what does it mean?
The phrase keep you up at night means to cause someone to worry or be unable to sleep.
It is often used to describe a significant source of stress or anxiety.
For example, you might say, “This project keeps me up at night.
I can’t stop thinking about it.”
Why use this phrase to describe our worries?
Some sources suggest that it originated when people had to stay awake at night to guard against danger, such as predators or thieves.
In that sense, anything that kept you up at night could be seen as a threat to your safety or security.
Nowadays, we don’t have to worry about wild animals prowling around outside our homes.
But plenty of things can keep us up at night.
It could be a looming deadline at work, a difficult conversation you must have with a loved one, or daily life’s general stress and uncertainty.
But hey, it’s not all doom and gloom!
Sometimes we use the phrase keep you up at night in a more lighthearted way.
For example, you might say, “That new video game keeps me up at night. I can’t stop playing!”
Don’t worry too much – tomorrow is another day.
Until then, try not to let whatever’s on your mind keep you up at night.
Pleasant dreams!
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 79.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.