In this Real English Conversations podcast, you'll hear Lori and her mom talking about their bedtime routines and what they do to get good night's sleep. The conversation includes lots of idioms and phrases related to going to bed, sleeping, waking up, and daily routines. Make sure to go to www.betteratenglish.com/003 to download the PDF for the vocabulary notes. The vocabulary notes focus on multi-word verbs (phrasal verbs) and idioms.

Before you start listening, it's a good idea to warm up and prepare your brain for vocabulary related to the topic. You can do this by thinking about the following questions:

How many verbs (action words) can you think of related to sleep?

How would you describe your daily routines for going to bed and getting up?

How well do you sleep?

What helps you sleep well, or makes you sleep worse?

Do you use electronic devices (phones, tablets, computers, TV's) right before bed, or maybe even IN bed? How do you think this affects your sleep quality?

What advice would you give a friend who wanted to sleep better?

Now you are ready to listen. As you listen, try to notice new or interesting language items. Noticing new language is super important for you learning progress. It makes sense — before you can learn and use new language, you have to notice it! As you read and/or listen, look for words, phrases or grammatical patterns that interest you. Make a note of them. Test yourself later to see how much you can remember. Making flashcards or using a spaced repetition program like Anki can help you learn new items faster.

The next step is to try to use the new language items. Good luck!