Shadowing Practice: How to sleep better by knowing your chronotype - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hey everyone, Dr. Michael Bruce, the sleep doctor here.

I figured out since I wrote a book about chronotypes, I might as well explain to you exactly what they are.

A chronotype is your genetic predetermined sleep schedule.

Many people have heard of this concept, but not actually heard the term chronotype.

What we're talking about here is if anybody out there has ever been called an early bird or a night owl.

So why would this be important?

If you understand what your chronotype is, then you know what your hormone schedule is,

which becomes critically important for any and all activities that you do throughout the day.

As an example, it turns out there's a perfect time of day to do just about everything based on your chronotype.

And yes, I'm talking about everything from intimacy, to drinking a cup of coffee, to even working out.

You can do all of them better if you know your chronotype.

What are the four chronotypes?

First, we have lions.

They replace early birds.

These are the folks that make a list every single day and go from step one to step two to step three.

High energy people, very interested in exercise and fitness, and again, early risers.

Unfortunately, socially, they don't do so well.

I mean, let's be honest, dinner and a movie is kind of out for a lion because they've been up since 5 .30 in the morning.

So pros and cons in either direction.

Next come the bears.

That represents the people in between the early birds and the night owls.

Believe it or not, they make up almost 55 % of the population.

Honestly, I wish I was a bear.

The nine to five work schedule works perfect for a bear.

A lot of my bears have a tendency to be the people that get the work done.

Sometimes they're extroverted, sometimes they're introverted.

They're always fun to be around and usually a great friend.

Next are the night owls, and I call them wolves.

I personally am a night owl, hardly ever go to bed before 11 .30 or 12, and that's very characteristic of wolfish characteristics.

One of the things we know about people who fall into this category is these have a tendency to be my creatives,

my artists, my actors, my authors, people of that nature.

I mean, let's be honest, when you meet somebody who's really creative and you say, when did you get your inspiration?

They usually say two o 'clock in the morning.

The final category, which is the new category, which I discovered is called the dolphin.

Dolphins actually represent people with very erratic genetic sleep schedules.

So these people actually come to me oftentimes, and that's really who I wrote the book for,

with a schedule where they look like a lion wanting to wake up early and meet the day,

but unfortunately they get such poor sleep at night, it's incredibly, incredibly difficult.

Now, you might be saying, okay, well, I've listened to what you said, Dr. Bruce, but how do I know what my personal chronotype is?

You can learn your chronotype by visiting thesleepdoctor .com and take my chronotype quiz.

Now, another question people say is, well, once I took the quiz, I learned I was a lion.

Can I change my chronotype?

Well, to be honest with you, no, it's genetic.

However, there's something out there called chronolongevity, which I think is pretty interesting.

Believe it or not, we all go through all of the different chronotypes.

So when we're an itty -bitty baby, we're a lion, waking up early and going to bed early.

Once the children hit that toddler through middle school phase,

you're a bear going to bed and waking up right around the time that the sun comes up.

Then what happens?

You go into adolescence, and then you become a wolf.

I mean, remember when you were 14, 15 years old, all you wanted to do was stay up late and sleep late.

When you hit about 20, 22 years old, your body sets for about 30 to 40 years, And then something else happens.

You actually start to go backwards.

You ever notice how your grandparents want to eat dinner at 4 .30 in the afternoon?

That's because their phase is moving backwards because of that change in melatonin.

So actually, you actually get a second chance to be a lion if you ever wanted to be.

Now, what if I just don't feel like I fit inside one chronotype?

This is something that's pretty common, and we oftentimes think these people are the dolphin or the insomnia chronotype.

But if you want to get a better sense for your chronotype, try following a consistent schedule for two weeks, then retake the quiz.

What do I mean by consistent schedule?

I want you eating at the right times, which means stopping food by about two hours before bed, avoiding caffeine after 2 p .m.,

and following a consistent wake -up schedule.

The thing that affects your circadian rhythm the most turns out to be the hormone melatonin.

To learn more about melatonin and whether it's right for you, check out our video.

This is Dr. Michael Bruce, the sleep doctor, wishing you...

Sweet dream.

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121 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “How to sleep better by knowing your chronotype”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: chronotype, schedule, lion, sleep, bear. This video has 66 sentences and 872 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:22. The speaker talks fast, about 200 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
lion noun	/ˈlaɪən/	A big cat, Panthera leo, native to Africa, India and formerly much of Europe.
consistent adjective	/kənˈsɪs.tənt/	Of a regularly occurring, dependable nature.
genetic adjective	/d͡ʒəˈnɛt.ɪk/	Relating to genetics or genes.
quiz noun	/kwɪz/	A competition in the answering of questions.
dolphin noun	/ˈdɑlf.ɪn/	A carnivorous cetacean, typically with a beak-like snout, famed for their intelligence and occasional willingness to approach humans.
incredibly adverb	/ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/	In an incredible manner; not to be believed.
wolf noun	/wʊlf/	Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily.
characteristic noun	/ˌkæɹ(ə)ktəˈɹɪstɪk/	A distinguishing feature of a person or thing, a part of mental or physical behavior.
tendency noun	/ˈtɛn.dən.si/	A likelihood of behaving in a particular way or going in a particular direction; a tending toward.
owl noun	/aʊ(ə)l/	Any of various birds of prey of the order Strigiformes, families Strigidae and Tytonidae, that are primarily nocturnal and have forward-looking, binocular…
hormone noun	/ˈhoɹmoʊn/	Any substance produced by one tissue and conveyed by the bloodstream to another to effect physiological activity.
backward adjective	/ˈbækwɚd/	Situated toward or at the rear of something.
clock noun	/klɑk/	A chronometer, an instrument that measures time, particularly the time of day.
inspiration noun	/ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/	The drawing of air into the lungs, accomplished in mammals by elevation of the chest walls and flattening of the diaphragm, as part of the act of breathing.
discover verb	/dɪˈskʌvə/	To find or learn something for the first time.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
wake up verb	/ˌweɪk ˈʌp/	To stop sleeping; to awake.
check out verb		To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
come up verb		To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.
figure out verb		To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
go through verb		To travel from one end of something to the other.
make up verb	/ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/	To constitute, to compose.
stay up verb		To remain awake; to not go to bed.
turn out verb		To end up; to result.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

Bruce, but how do I know what my personal chronotype is?
Can I change my chronotype?
What do I mean by consistent schedule?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have heard · has ever been called · they've been
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	people who fall · category, which is · times, which means
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	been called · is called

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 12 contractions and reduced forms, such as they're, we're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, socially /ˈsoʊʃəli/, wolfish /ˈwʊlfiʃ/
Long words — get the stress right: incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, characteristic /ˌkæɹ(ə)ktəˈɹɪstɪk/, inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, critically /ˈkɹɪt.ɪ.kə.li/, intimacy /ˈɪn.tɪ.mə.si/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like lion, consistent, genetic.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: How to sleep better by knowing your chronotype - Learn English Speaking with Video

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