as in awake
not sleeping or able to sleep
the mother remained wakeful until her child returned home
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Recent Examples of wakeful
Tips to Break the Bedtime Screen Habit Dr. Verma, who was not involved in the research, offers the following tips to prevent wakeful effects from smartphones and get better sleep:
Avoid screens 30 to 60 minutes before bedtime.
—
Emily Kay Votruba, EverydayHealth.com, 31 Mar. 2025
Lauren Goode: Who among us doesn't want to have a nap gently guided by our wakeful rhythm?
—Lauren Goode, WIRED, 16 Jan. 2025
Low to medium doses show a reduction in the alpha frequency of brain waves (which correspond to relaxed and wakeful states), along with rising entropy, a signature finding of sober brains sinking deeper into a trip.
—Oshan Jarow, Vox, 4 Nov. 2024
Having the right pillow can make a big difference between a peaceful night’s sleep and a restless, wakeful one.
—Casey Clark, Peoplemag, 9 Sep. 2024
If bed and only bed will do, change up the environment for sleep vs. wakeful time.
—Lisa Strauss, Washington Post, 28 July 2024
Even in these moments of wakeful rest, your brain continues to rehearse and replay the past.
—Yasemin Saplakoglu, Quanta Magazine, 21 May 2024
That wakeful process is an essential part of creating a permanent memory.
—Linda Carroll, NBC News, 29 Mar. 2024
The team then applied zap and zip with this threshold value (of 0.31) to a distinct set of patients with severe disorders of consciousness—those either in a minimally conscious state or in an unresponsive wakeful one.
—Christof Koch, Scientific American, 1 Nov. 2017
Emily Kay Votruba, EverydayHealth.com, 31 Mar. 2025
Lauren Goode: Who among us doesn't want to have a nap gently guided by our wakeful rhythm?
—Lauren Goode, WIRED, 16 Jan. 2025
Low to medium doses show a reduction in the alpha frequency of brain waves (which correspond to relaxed and wakeful states), along with rising entropy, a signature finding of sober brains sinking deeper into a trip.
—Oshan Jarow, Vox, 4 Nov. 2024
Having the right pillow can make a big difference between a peaceful night’s sleep and a restless, wakeful one.
—Casey Clark, Peoplemag, 9 Sep. 2024
If bed and only bed will do, change up the environment for sleep vs. wakeful time.
—Lisa Strauss, Washington Post, 28 July 2024
Even in these moments of wakeful rest, your brain continues to rehearse and replay the past.
—Yasemin Saplakoglu, Quanta Magazine, 21 May 2024
That wakeful process is an essential part of creating a permanent memory.
—Linda Carroll, NBC News, 29 Mar. 2024
The team then applied zap and zip with this threshold value (of 0.31) to a distinct set of patients with severe disorders of consciousness—those either in a minimally conscious state or in an unresponsive wakeful one.
—Christof Koch, Scientific American, 1 Nov. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wakeful
awake
Adjective
-
Kat’s goal was to keep me awake but unstimulated, so that when lights-out finally came, I’d be primed for deep, solid sleep.—
Rowan Jacobsen,
Harpers Magazine,
24 Oct. 2025
-
That may seem early, but by that time, Ragan has already been awake for over three hours and accomplished more than most.—
Alyce Collins,
MSNBC Newsweek,
24 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Wakeful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wakeful. Accessed 28 Oct. 2025.
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