Learn Hardcore Polish: Przed egzaminem czuję duży stres i czasem trudno mi spać. - Before an exam I feel a lot of stress and sometimes it is hard for me to sleep.

In Polish, the preposition przed (before / in front of) normally takes the instrumental case when it refers to a static situation in time or space.

Nominative: egzamin (an exam / the exam)
Instrumental: egzaminem

In Przed egzaminem czuję duży stres, przed answers “when?” (before the exam), so it needs the instrumental: egzaminem.

Compare:

Przed egzaminem powtarzam materiał. – I revise the material before the exam.
Przed domem stoi samochód. – A car is standing in front of the house.

For movement towards a place you can sometimes find przed with the accusative (e.g. wyjść przed dom – go out in front of the house), but in time expressions like przed egzaminem you stick with instrumental.

What’s the difference between czuję duży stres and jestem zestresowany?

Both communicate a similar idea but with a different nuance and structure:

czuję duży stres – literally I feel a lot of stress.
- Focus on the emotion/sensation itself.
- Slightly more formal or neutral, often used in written language or careful speech.
jestem zestresowany (masc.) / jestem zestresowana (fem.) – I am stressed.
- Describes your state or condition.
- Very common in everyday speech.

You could say:

Przed egzaminem jestem bardzo zestresowany/zestresowana.
Przed egzaminem czuję duży stres.

Both are correct; the first sounds more like talking about your current state, the second emphasizes the feeling of stress as something you “feel”.

Could you also say stresuję się przed egzaminem? How is that different?

Yes, Stresuję się przed egzaminem is very natural and common.

stresuję się = I am getting stressed / I am stressing (myself)

Nuances:

stresuję się przed egzaminem – focuses on the process; you are in a state of stress, you are worrying.
czuję duży stres przed egzaminem – focuses on the feeling of stress as something you experience.
jestem zestresowany – labels your overall state.

All three are acceptable; in everyday speech, stresuję się or jestem zestresowany/zestresowana are probably the most common.

How does the structure czasem trudno mi spać work? Why mi and an infinitive?

The pattern here is very typical in Polish:

(jest) + przysłówek (adverb) + komu? (dative) + bezokolicznik (infinitive)
(it is) + difficult/easy + for whom + to do what

In the sentence:

trudno – an impersonal adverb (hard, difficult)
mi – dative of ja (to me / for me)
spać – infinitive (to sleep)

So trudno mi spać literally means (it is) hard for me to sleep, just like English:

It’s hard for me to sleep.

Other examples:

Łatwo mi to powiedzieć. – It’s easy for me to say that.
Ciężko mu wstawać rano. – It’s hard for him to get up in the morning.
Dobrze nam się tu mieszka. – It’s nice for us to live here.

Polish often uses this impersonal structure instead of I am finding it hard to sleep.

Why is it mi and not mnie in trudno mi spać?

Both mi and mnie are dative forms of ja (I, me), but:

mi – short, unstressed form, used in the middle of a sentence when the pronoun is not emphasized.
mnie – full, stressed form, used for emphasis or when the word stands alone or near the beginning.

In trudno mi spać, the pronoun is weak and unaccented, so the short form mi is natural.

You might use mnie for emphasis:

To mnie boli. – That hurts me (emphasis on me).
Mnie jest trudno spać, a nie tobie. – I find it hard to sleep, not you.

In everyday speech, trudno mi spać is the default choice here.

Why is czasem before trudno mi spać? Can I move it?

Yes, you can move czasem; Polish word order is flexible. In the original:

… i czasem trudno mi spać. – and sometimes it’s hard for me to sleep.

You could also say:

… i trudno mi czasem spać. (slightly different rhythm)
Czasem przed egzaminem trudno mi spać.
Przed egzaminem czasem trudno mi spać.

All are grammatically correct. The usual “neutral” positions for czasem are:

just after i or at the very beginning:
Czasem trudno mi spać.
before or after the verb/adverb combination:
Trudno mi czasem spać.

Small changes in position can slightly shift emphasis, but the meaning stays the same.

What’s the difference between czasem and czasami?

Both czasem and czasami mean sometimes and are interchangeable in most contexts.

czasem – a bit shorter and very common in speech and writing.
czasami – also very common; some speakers might feel it’s slightly more “careful” or neutral, but this is subtle.

You can say:

Czasem trudno mi spać.
Czasami trudno mi spać.

Both are natural and correct.

Why is it duży stres and not dużo stresu?

Both are possible, but they have slightly different structures and nuances.

duży stres (adjective + singular noun)
- duży – big, large
- stres – stress (singular)
- Feels more like talking about a big amount / strong level of stress as a single thing.
- Czuję duży stres. – I feel a lot of stress / strong stress.
dużo stresu (quantifier + genitive noun)
- dużo – a lot (of)
- stresu – genitive of stres
- More literally: I feel a lot of stress.
- Czuję dużo stresu przed egzaminem.

In practice:

czuję duży stres – slightly more idiomatic in this exact sentence.
czuję dużo stresu – also correct and understandable.

Polish often uses duży with abstract nouns like problem, stres, ból:

mam duży problem – I have a big problem.
czuję duży ból – I feel a lot of pain.

Could I say mam duży stres instead of czuję duży stres?

Yes, Mam duży stres przed egzaminem is understandable and often heard in colloquial speech.

Nuance:

czuję duży stres – more literally “I feel great stress”, slightly more formal/neutral, focuses on the feeling.
mam duży stres – “I have a lot of stress”, very conversational and casual.

All of these are usable:

Przed egzaminem czuję duży stres.
Przed egzaminem mam duży stres.
Przed egzaminem bardzo się stresuję.
Przed egzaminem jestem zestresowany/zestresowana.

Why is there no subject ja (I) in czuję duży stres?

Polish is a pro‑drop language: the personal subject pronoun is often omitted because the verb ending already shows the person.

ja czuję – I feel
ty czujesz – you feel
on/ona czuje – he/she feels

So:

(Ja) czuję duży stres. – Ja is optional.
The 1st person singular ending ‑ę tells us it means I.

You usually add ja only for emphasis or contrast:

Ja czuję duży stres, ale ona nie. – I feel a lot of stress, but she doesn’t.

Why is there no comma before i in … duży stres i czasem trudno mi spać?

In Polish punctuation, you usually don’t put a comma before i when:

it connects two parts that share the same subject, and
the second part is not a clearly independent clause with its own subject.

Here:

(Ja) czuję duży stres – I feel a lot of stress
(Ja) czasem trudno mi spać is actually an impersonal construction, but it’s strongly connected semantically as one combined statement about the same person and the same situation.

Native writers typically do not put a comma here:

Przed egzaminem czuję duży stres i czasem trudno mi spać.

You would use a comma before i when joining more distinct clauses, especially with different subjects or a clearer separation, e.g.:

Byłem zmęczony, i dlatego poszedłem spać wcześniej. (here i means “and therefore,” more like “so”)

Is spać the right verb here? What about zasnąć?

Yes, spać is exactly right here. It’s an imperfective verb meaning to sleep as an ongoing state.

trudno mi spać – it’s hard for me to sleep (in general / to be sleeping).

zasnąć is perfective and means to fall asleep (the moment you start sleeping):

Trudno mi zasnąć. – It’s hard for me to fall asleep.

Both are possible but express slightly different problems:

Trudno mi zasnąć. – I have trouble falling asleep.
Trudno mi spać. – Either falling asleep or staying asleep is difficult; sleep in general is hard.

In the given sentence, trudno mi spać is natural and broad enough.

Could I say Przed egzaminem czasem trudno mi spać instead? Does the meaning change?

Yes, that’s perfectly correct:

Przed egzaminem czasem trudno mi spać.

Meaning is essentially the same: Before an exam, sometimes it’s hard for me to sleep.

Differences:

Original: Przed egzaminem czuję duży stres i czasem trudno mi spać.
Two effects: you feel stress and you sometimes can’t sleep.

If you say only:

Przed egzaminem czasem trudno mi spać.

you’re just stating the sleep problem, without explicitly mentioning the feeling of stress. If you keep both parts and only move czasem, it’s still the same idea, just a different rhythm:

Przed egzaminem czuję duży stres i trudno mi czasem spać. – also correct.