1
: not able to sleep
lay sleepless with fever
2
: affording no sleep
sleepless nights
3
: unceasingly active or operative
sleepless casinos
sleeplessly
adverb
sleeplessness
noun
Examples of sleepless in a Sentence
He lay sleepless in bed.
Recent Examples on the Web
Her troubles—sleepless nights, endless exhaustion—could simply be the result of young parenthood.
—
Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 6 Nov. 2025
Alice, a middling student at a state university in Oklahoma, drifts from adolescent confusion into sleepless paranoia.
—The New Yorker, New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2025
With terrifying makeup that resembled the character’s sleepless, scarred face, the talk show host looked truly possessed with her blue nightgown and possessed demeanor.
—Kate Hogan, PEOPLE, 30 Oct. 2025
Alice Cooper discovered his love of entertaining in the Cortez High School cafetorium, returning to the Valley in the ’80s after finding fame and fortune as the rock star most likely to inspire sleepless nights for sheltered parents of Boomers Gone Wild.
—Ed Masley, AZCentral.com, 23 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for sleepless
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Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 6 Nov. 2025
Alice, a middling student at a state university in Oklahoma, drifts from adolescent confusion into sleepless paranoia.
—The New Yorker, New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2025
With terrifying makeup that resembled the character’s sleepless, scarred face, the talk show host looked truly possessed with her blue nightgown and possessed demeanor.
—Kate Hogan, PEOPLE, 30 Oct. 2025
Alice Cooper discovered his love of entertaining in the Cortez High School cafetorium, returning to the Valley in the ’80s after finding fame and fortune as the rock star most likely to inspire sleepless nights for sheltered parents of Boomers Gone Wild.
—Ed Masley, AZCentral.com, 23 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for sleepless
Cite this Entry
“Sleepless.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sleepless. Accessed 12 Nov. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
sleepless
adjective
sleep·less
ˈslē-pləs 
1
: not able to sleep
2
: marked by the absence of sleep
a sleepless night
3
: unceasingly alert or active
sleeplessly
adverb
sleeplessness
noun
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