Take this emoji, for example: 😴 When something is shown to be sleeping, little Z’s appear over the head. When/how did that come to be?
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I can’t a confirm this, but I think it became the standard in comics and other images because the sound of Z is *very vaguely* onomatopoetic of the sound that someone might make while breathing in their sleep. “Sleep breathing” is not a pure S sound, or the sound of a sigh/open mouthed breathing all the time (which are both called fricatives) but it can have a tiny bit of breathy vocalization depending on the positioning of the tongue and airways. S is an unvoiced fricative, and its voiced counterpart is Z; F and V form a similar unvoiced/voiced fricative pairing, as is the “th” in “the” (the unvoiced) contrasted with the “th” in “think” (the voiced).
I feel like I did read this at one point (about why we use Z) but honestly I can’t remember the source.
https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=why+are+zs+associated+with+sleeping
First two results for me are other reddit threads asking the same question, and receiving the answer.
The next 8 results from other sources explain why also.
Have people srsly forgotten google exists or what?
The letter “Z” is associated with sleep because of the sound it makes when people imitate snoring. “zzzz” is used to represent the sound of someone sleeping and snoring. Over time, it became a common symbol for sleep in cartoons, comics, and other media. So, when you see “Zzz” in writing or drawings, it’s a fun and easy way to show that someone is asleep.
When you go to sleep it’s the end of the day, that’s why when you sleep it’s the letter zay
i don’t think Z is associated with sleep. it is associated with high dizziness. think of sound of fast moving vehicles like f1. this is my guess
It’s onomatopoeic for snoring; not the loud snorting type, but the light hissing of breath. A whispered “zzzz”
I thought it came from Japanese manga. Maybe when you breathe out through your teeth it makes the zzzzsss sound.
onomatopeia for snoring. bet it’s different per country, just like with dog barks or humans sneezing.
It’s the letter at the end of the alphabet like sleep is the end of your day?
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