Gàidhlig / English
Cadal a' Gheòidh

Cadal a' Gheòidh

Posted by Edit on 23 June 2016

This week’s expression is cadal a’ gheòidh – goose sleep. The expression originates in South Uist and means sleeping lightly or being half asleep. It appears, for example, in Am Faclair Beag in the sentence ’S e cadal a’ gheòidh a tha aig Calum – “Calum is a light sleeper.”

It is also likely that it could mean pretending to be asleep: in this recording on Tobair an Dualchais, it is mentioned that cadal a’ gheòidh means sleeping with one eye open and the other closed but in fact paying attention to everything that is happening around you.

The expression originates in the particular sleeping habit of geese and other birds: they have the ability to sleep with one eye open and the other closed and as a result one part of the brain is asleep while the other is keeping watch. As is mentioned here, the ability to sleep while simultaneously keeping watch or doing other things seems to be quite common among birds and also appears in other animals - seals and dolphins, for example, are known to be able to swim and come up to the surface of the water to breathe while sleeping. It is only birds, however, that have control of this ability: they can choose to sleep with one half of the brain or both, depending on the situation. Perhaps this ability would be helpful to us humans: if we felt sleepy, it would be quite convenient to be able to sleep with one part of the brain and work with the other, for example!

If you are familiar with cadal a’ gheòidh or other words or expression related to being half asleep, please leave a message under this blog or on our Facebook or Twitter pages.
 
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