English Help Online's Blog

Today I have two idioms for you which are very similar and which have the same meaning. They are to “hit the sack” and to “hit the hay”. The meaning for them is to go to bed. For example:

I have to get up early tomorrow, so I’m going to hit the sack now.

It’s after midnight, so I think it’s time for us to hit the hay.

If I don’t want to be too tired tomorrow, I’d better hit the sack now.

I’m going to hit the hay now. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.

A: Where’s Jake?

B: He hit the sack about an hour ago. He was really tired.

We usually use these expressions to talk about our intention to go to bed now or if we think we should go to bed now. It’s possible to use them in the past tense, as in the last example, but, in my opinion, this is less common.