# sommeil en dents de scie



## lucia9

What does en dents de scie mean in this phrase: elle cederait a son sommeil en dents de scie?

Thank you!


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## Donaldos

Any information on the  context ?


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## mannenhitsu

alternate phases of sleep-no sleep, 
mais c'est le c*é*derait qui m'interpelle, contexte ?

aussi "*à *son sommeil".


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## lucia9

it is about the daily habits of a woman called Felicite!


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## OLN

My dictionary says : _uneven_

does sawtooth sleep (litteral translation) make sense?


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## lucas-sp

No, sadly, because it's such a cool metaphor. Perhaps "zigzagging in and out of sleep" might work.


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## mannenhitsu

zig-zag is going left-right, as a metaphor for up-down try roller coaster sleep.


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## lucas-sp

Zig-zags can go any way you want. Just like lines and squiggles, they have no one given orientation.


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## mannenhitsu

lucas-sp said:


> Zig-zags can go any way you want. Just like lines and squiggles, they have no one given orientation.



A zigzag course is one with many sharp turns, I see it well fit to describe a movement in a horizontal plane.
Can you say turn up-turn down? 
Or as in the present case, turn on-turn off (her sleep)?


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## Huryaa

How about 'scattered bits of sleep' ?


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## Uncle Bob

Hello,
How about "in fits and starts"? (= stop/go).


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## lucas-sp

I think the question is if there's any metaphor in English for intermittence that maintains the sawtooth imagery.

We do commonly say "restive sleep," "uneasy sleep," "broken sleep," etc. but none of them have the sawtooth that makes this metaphor special.


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## The MightyQ

I would avoid the term "restive sleep", as you will find many people confusing _restive_ with _restful_.
You could also say that she drifted in and out of sleep before finally falling asleep.

Does the use of the verb céder suggest that she slept badly at first but did finally fall deep asleep?


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## doinel

Yes  MightyQ, she slept badly then flnally fell asleep. She gave in to sleep ?
The question is why : elle céder_ait_? We need more context here.


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## Itisi

She would give in/succumb to a fitful sleep ?


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## edwingill

"Full of ups and downs"


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## lucas-sp

It could be the conditional of doubtful occurrence: "She supposed she must have succumbed to sleep, but only fitfully." Or just "[...] after which she would pass into a fitful sleep." More context is needed to figure that out.


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## The MightyQ

A question of the grammar here:
Does "en dents de scie" modify the verb _céderait_, or the noun _sommeil_?  
That is, is it an adverbial or adjectival phrase?


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## Mauricet

The MightyQ said:


> A question of the grammar here:
> Does "en dents de scie" modify the verb _céderait_, or the noun _sommeil_?
> That is, is it an adverbial or adjectival phrase?


It might be used adverbially in some contexts, but not here. _Un sommeil en dents de scie_ is a stop-and-go/intermittent sleep, I guess.


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## Keith Bradford

*She dipped in and out of sleep.*


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## OLN

> _She dipped in and out of sleep._


Mais comment en faire un adjectif pour traduire "[Si ...?], elle cèderait a son sommeil (habituel ?) en..." ?


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## Mauricet

"She would surrender to her stop-and-go sleep" ?


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## The MightyQ

Thanks Mauricet.


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## Aoyama

The lady has an irregular sleep (maybe some apnea ...), then there is the word "céder" (give in) which implies that she doesn't sleep well but will "give in to sleep" (will finally end up sleeping, though will probably not get a good rest because her sleep is irregular).


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## lucas-sp

Keith, do you "dip in and out of sleep" in BE? In AE we "drift in and out of sleep." It sounds bizarre to me with "dip"!


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## Itisi

lucas-sp said:


> Keith, do you "dip in and out of sleep" in BE? In AE we "drift in and out of sleep." It sounds bizarre to me with "dip"!



But then 'en dents de scie' sounds pretty bizarre here!


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## Aoyama

"En dents de scie" is very possible if you imagine this "sleep" (slumber) as a graph, with ups and downs, but that would be a very modern usage ...


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## Itisi

Maybe, Aoyama, but (IMO) it's a poor image, bad writing...


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## Donaldos

_un sommeil en dents de scie_ me semble un peu incongru à moi aussi puisque l'expression _en dents de scie_ évoque de façon imagée une évolution continue au cours de laquelle alternent des phases croissantes et des phases décroissantes . Je crois qu'en général le dormeur moyen est davantage sensible à d'éventuelles alternances entre périodes de sommeil et d'éveil sur un mode proche du "tout ou rien" (_je dors, je ne dors pas, je dors, je ne dors pas_) qu'à des variations du type dents de scie (_je dors profondément, un peu moins profondément, je me réveille presque, je suis réveillé, je m'endors, je dors d'un sommeil léger, d'un sommeil plus profond, je dors profondément..._) L'utilisation de l'expression me semble donc imprécise voire abusive et mériterait bien une gifle.


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## Keith Bradford

OLN said:


> Mais comment en faire un adjectif pour traduire "[Si ...?], elle cèderait a son sommeil (habituel ?) en..." ?



I don't see where the "si" comes from.  But you can easily say "she habitually dipped in and out of sleep".

It's true, as Lucas-sp says that "drift" is more common, and I'd have no problems with "she habitually drifted in and out of sleep".  It all depends on how sharp you keep the teeth of your metaphorical saw.


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## Itisi

she would sleep in fits and starts.  I throw in the towel!


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