Jeg plejer at vågne tidligt, men i dag var jeg så søvnig, at jeg blev i sengen lidt længere.

Plejer at means usually or tend to when talking about habits.

So:

• Jeg plejer at vågne tidligt = I usually wake up early
• literally, it is something like I am in the habit of waking up early

It is a very common Danish way to talk about routines:

• Jeg plejer at drikke kaffe om morgenen = I usually drink coffee in the morning
• Hun plejer at tage bussen = She usually takes the bus

Notice that plejer is normally used for present-time habits. If you want to talk about a past habit, you usually use plejede at:

• Jeg plejede at vågne tidligt = I used to wake up early

Because at is followed by the infinitive in Danish, just like to in English.

So:

• vågne = wake up / to wake up (infinitive)
• vågner = wake up / wakes up in the present tense

Compare:

• Jeg plejer at vågne tidligt = I usually wake up early
• Jeg vågner tidligt hver dag = I wake up early every day

After at, Danish uses the base infinitive form:

• at spise = to eat
• at sove = to sleep
• at gå = to walk / go

This is a very common question.

• vågne = to wake up oneself / to become awake
• vække = to wake someone up

So vågne is intransitive and vække is transitive.

Examples:

• Jeg vågner klokken seks = I wake up at six
• Min alarm vækker mig klokken seks = My alarm wakes me up at six

In your sentence, vågne is correct because the subject jeg is the one becoming awake.

Because Danish uses verb-second word order in main clauses.

When a time expression like i dag comes first, the verb usually comes right after it, and the subject comes after the verb.

So:

• I dag var jeg så søvnig = Today I was so sleepy

Structure:

• I dag = first element
• var = verb in second position
• jeg = subject after the verb

This is very typical in Danish:

• I går gik jeg tidligt i seng = Yesterday I went to bed early
• Om morgenen drikker jeg kaffe = In the morning I drink coffee

If the sentence starts with the subject, then the normal order is:

• Jeg var så søvnig i dag

Both are possible, but they emphasize different things. Starting with i dag highlights today.

This is the same verb-second rule, but it is worth noticing on its own because English speakers often expect i dag jeg var.

In Danish main clauses, the finite verb must come in the second position.

So:

• Jeg var så søvnig i dag
• I dag var jeg så søvnig

Both are grammatical, but once i dag takes the first slot, var must come next.

This is one of the biggest word-order differences between Danish and English.

Because i dag means today, but the speaker is still talking about something that already happened earlier today.

So the tense is past because the event is completed:

• i dag var jeg så søvnig = today I was so sleepy

This is completely natural in both Danish and English. For example, in English you can also say:

• Today I was really tired, so I stayed in bed longer

If the speaker were talking about the situation right now, they might say:

• I dag er jeg så søvnig = Today I am so sleepy

So i dag does not automatically mean present tense. It just tells you when.

Så ... at means so ... that.

So:

• så søvnig, at ... = so sleepy that ...

This is a very common pattern in Danish:

• Hun var så træt, at hun gik tidligt hjem = She was so tired that she went home early
• Det var så koldt, at vi blev inde = It was so cold that we stayed inside

So the sentence is built like this:

• jeg var så søvnig = I was so sleepy
• at jeg blev i sengen lidt længere = that I stayed in bed a little longer

Because Danish often uses a comma before subordinate clauses, and here at jeg blev i sengen lidt længere is a subordinate clause.

So the pattern is:

• main clause: jeg var så søvnig
• subordinate clause: at jeg blev i sengen lidt længere

That is why you see:

• ..., at jeg blev ...

You will often see commas before words like:

• at = that
• fordi = because
• hvis = if
• som = who/which/that

Comma use in Danish can feel more visible than in English.

Yes, blive often means become, but it can also mean remain or stay in some contexts.

Here:

• jeg blev i sengen = I stayed in bed

So blive has more than one common meaning:

• Han blev lærer = He became a teacher
• Jeg blev hjemme = I stayed home
• Vi blev der hele dagen = We stayed there all day

In your sentence, blev means stayed/remained, not became.

Because i sengen means in the bed / in bed, focusing on being physically in the bed.

• seng = bed
• sengen = the bed

So:

• i sengen = in the bed / in bed

There is also an important expression:

• gå i seng = go to bed

That expression usually uses seng without the definite ending:

• Jeg går i seng klokken ti = I go to bed at ten

But when talking about already being in the bed, Danish often uses i sengen:

• Jeg blev i sengen = I stayed in bed

So the difference is partly idiomatic.

Lidt længere means a little longer.

Breakdown:

• lidt = a little
• længere = longer

So:

• jeg blev i sengen lidt længere = I stayed in bed a little longer

Even though longer is a comparative form, Danish does not always need to state the full comparison explicitly. The comparison is understood from context:

• longer than usual
• longer than planned
• longer than I normally do

This works like English:

• I stayed a little longer

The base form is lang or længe, depending on how it is being used.

In this sentence, længere is the comparative form connected to længe/long in the sense of duration.

Useful forms:

• længe = for a long time / long
• længere = longer
• længst = longest

Examples:

• Jeg sov længe = I slept for a long time / I slept late
• Jeg blev lidt længere = I stayed a little longer

Danish learners often meet both lang and længe, and they are related but not used in exactly the same way:

• en lang dag = a long day
• jeg ventede længe = I waited a long time

Because tidligt is the adverb form here, meaning early.

• tidlig = early (adjective form)
• tidligt = early (adverb form)

In the sentence, it describes how the person wakes up, so Danish uses the adverb:

• vågne tidligt = wake up early

Compare:

• en tidlig morgen = an early morning → adjective
• jeg stod tidligt op = I got up early → adverb

A lot of Danish adverbs look like the -t form of the adjective.

Not exactly.

• søvnig = sleepy, drowsy, feeling like you want to sleep
• træt = tired, fatigued

They are related, but not identical.

Examples:

• Jeg er søvnig = I’m sleepy
• Jeg er træt = I’m tired

You can be:

• søvnig because you need sleep
• træt because you worked hard
• both at the same time

In this sentence, søvnig is a very natural choice because the result is that the speaker stayed in bed longer.

Yes, but it is not exactly the same.

• Jeg plejer at vågne tidligt = I usually wake up early
• Jeg er normalt tidligt oppe = I’m normally up early

The first focuses on the moment of waking up. The second focuses on the state of already being up.

So they are similar, but not interchangeable in every situation.

Other similar expressions are:

• Jeg plejer at stå tidligt op = I usually get up early
• Jeg vågner normalt tidligt = I normally wake up early

Each one highlights a slightly different part of the morning routine.

Yes, this sentence is natural and correct.

A native speaker could absolutely say:

• Jeg plejer at vågne tidligt, men i dag var jeg så søvnig, at jeg blev i sengen lidt længere.

In casual speech, some people might also say slightly different versions, such as:

• Jeg plejer at vågne tidligt, men i dag var jeg så træt, at jeg blev liggende lidt længere.
• Normalt vågner jeg tidligt, men i dag blev jeg i sengen lidt længere.

A very common spoken variant is blev liggende:

• jeg blev liggende = I stayed lying down

That sounds especially natural when talking about staying in bed instead of getting up.