Slugabed

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s---

No, it’s a word: slugabed.

One who stays in bed until a late hour; a sluggard is the definition. I shouldn’t be surprised.

Fortunately, definitions such as these are open to interpretation. What, precisely, is “a late hour”? I know people who feel as if they have wasted the day if they sleep in until seven. I knew college students who defined “early” as anytime before lunch. I prefer to leave exact times open-ended. Setting an alarm clock is a tiresome task; instead, I sleep my full eight (or nine or ten) hours.


Surely I am no sluggard; I need plenty of sleep for health reasons. Getting enough sleep is supposed to help with weight loss as well as stress and pain reduction. Should it matter what time I get up?

I have to admit, though, that I’d rather be called a slugabed than a sluggard. Slugabed makes me think of my lovely memory foam bed with its mattress pad warmer that soothes my aching muscles and helps me relax. It brings up fond associations of midday naps as well as nighttime sleep.

I’m going to steer clear of slugabed’s other, slimier, connotations . . . speaking of which, I have been seeing more of the green slugs than brown slugs lately. But, no matter the color, I’ll never mistake a slug for Superman.