「midnight」と「the middle of the night」の違い

I often stay up late. Sometimes I'm working on teaching materials. Sometimes I'm correcting the writing of students. Sometimes I'm programming. It depends, but it's not uncommon for me to be awake at 2am.

I was talking with someone about it, and she said:

× Oh, you were still awake at midnight.

Well, it's true. I was awake at midnight, but I was still awake after midnight. What she had wanted to say was:

○ Oh, you were still awake in the middle of the night.

"Midnight" means 12am, the hour after 11pm. "The middle of the night" means the general time when most people are sleeping, often thought of as between 1am and 4am. The dictionary might list other meanings for "midnight", but I think most people these days think of midnight as 12am.

• midnight 夜の12時
• in the middle of the night 真夜中に、深夜に、夜中に、夜半に、夜更けに (definition from Eijiro on the Web)

I've got an important presentation to give tomorrow, but I'm going to try to go to bed at a decent hour tonight.

• at a decent time = at a decent hour わきまえた時間に (definition from Eijiro on the Web) (? Is this right? Someone let me know if this Japanese is correct, please.) = not too late

I don't want to be up until the middle of the night since it might make me too sleepy tomorrow. I think I'll try to sleep just after midnight tonight.

The other day I went to my friend Akimasa's performance in Roppongi. That's Akimasa in the photo above. It was a great show, and it even finished a little before midnight. Sometimes I go to hear techno DJs playing in the middle of the night, though. Maybe I can go to hear one after my presentation.