Learn Hardcore Swedish: Den som sover lite och har mycket stress i kroppen får ofta många negativa tankar. - The one who sleeps little and has a lot of stress in the body often gets many negative thoughts.

Den som sover lite … får ofta många negativa tankar.
= The one who sleeps little … often gets many negative thoughts.
(More naturally in English: Anyone who sleeps too little …)

Grammatically, den is a demonstrative pronoun (that / the one), and som is a relative pronoun (who/that). Together, den som + verb works a lot like English whoever / anyone who.

You could also say:

De som sover lite … = Those who sleep little …

That makes it sound more explicitly plural, focusing on groups of people, but the meaning is very similar. Den som is more like talking about any individual person in general.

Is Den som sover lite och har mycket stress i kroppen the subject of the sentence?

Yes. The whole chunk Den som sover lite och har mycket stress i kroppen functions as the subject.

Structure:

Subject: Den som sover lite och har mycket stress i kroppen
Verb (predicate): får
Adverb: ofta
Object: många negativa tankar

So you can think:

Den som sover lite och har mycket stress i kroppen = Anyone who sleeps little and has a lot of stress in their body
får ofta = often gets
många negativa tankar = many negative thoughts.

Why is it sover lite and not something like sover lite grann or sover lite tid?

The phrase sova lite is a very common, natural way to say sleep little / not sleep much.

lite here is an adverb meaning a little / not much (for an uncountable thing like time or sleep).
You don’t need a noun like tid (time) after it; the verb sova already implies time.

Compare:

Jag sover lite. = I sleep (very) little / I don’t get much sleep.
Jag sover mycket. = I sleep a lot.

You can say sova lite grann (sleep a little bit) for nuance, but sova lite is the normal, neutral expression.

What’s the difference between lite and liten, and why is it sover lite here?

liten is an adjective: small (used with nouns).
- en liten bil = a small car
- en liten pojke = a small boy
lite is:
- an adverb: a little / not much (with verbs or uncountable things)
  - sover lite = sleeps a little / sleeps too little
  - äter lite = eats little
- or a form of the adjective for neuter/“general” use, but that’s not the case here.

In sover lite, lite modifies the verb sover (how much someone sleeps), so it has to be the adverb form lite, not the adjective liten.

Why is it mycket stress but många negativa tankar? What’s the difference between mycket and många?

Swedish distinguishes between uncountable and countable nouns:

mycket = much / a lot of (for uncountable nouns)
- mycket stress = a lot of stress
- mycket vatten = a lot of water
- mycket problem (here problem behaves as uncountable)
många = many (for countable plural nouns)
- många tankar = many thoughts
- många böcker = many books

In this sentence:

stress is treated as an uncountable mass noun → mycket stress.
tankar (thoughts) are countable items → många negativa tankar.

What does i kroppen add to the meaning? Why not just say har mycket stress?

i kroppen literally means in the body.

har mycket stress = have a lot of stress (general).
har mycket stress i kroppen = have a lot of stress in the body (emphasises the physical, bodily aspect of stress: tension, racing heart, etc.).

You can say har mycket stress on its own; it’s correct. Adding i kroppen specifies that the stress is not just mental or situational, but is physically present and felt in the body.

Why is it kroppen and not just kropp?

kroppen is the definite form: the body.

In Swedish, the definite article is usually added as an ending:

en kropp = a body
kroppen = the body

English often uses phrases like in the body, while Swedish mirrors that structure:

i kroppen = in the body
Saying i kropp is ungrammatical.

So mycket stress i kroppen = a lot of stress in the body (not in body).

Why is får used here for “gets” thoughts, instead of har (“has”)?

få means to get / to receive / to come to have. It’s often used when something appears, starts, or comes to you, including thoughts and feelings:

få många negativa tankar = get many negative thoughts (they arise, come into your mind).
få ont i huvudet = get a headache
få panik = panic / get panic

ha means to have (to possess something more statically):

ha negativa tankar = have negative thoughts (already there, as a state)

In this sentence, får ofta många negativa tankar focuses on the process or result of sleeping too little and being stressed: you end up getting a lot of negative thoughts.

Why is ofta placed after får (as in får ofta)?

Swedish has a fairly strict word order rule in main clauses: the finite verb usually comes in second position (the V2 rule), and common adverbs like ofta follow the verb.

Here:

Whole subject: Den som sover lite och har mycket stress i kroppen (1st position)
Finite verb: får (2nd position)
Adverb: ofta (comes right after the verb)
Rest: många negativa tankar

So får ofta is the standard order:

Den som… får ofta många negativa tankar. ✅
Den som… ofta får många negativa tankar. ❌ (sounds wrong in neutral speech)

This pattern is very general in Swedish main clauses:

Jag äter ofta frukost tidigt. = I often eat breakfast early.
Barnen får ofta godis på lördagar. = The children often get candy on Saturdays.

Why is it många negativa tankar and not de negativa tankarna?

många negativa tankar is indefinite plural: many negative thoughts (in general, not specific ones).

tankar = thoughts (indefinite plural)
negativa = negative (plural adjective)
många = many

If we said de negativa tankarna, that would be the negative thoughts, referring to a specific, known set. That’s not what we want here; the sentence describes a general tendency:

People in that situation often get many negative thoughts (in general).
Not: those particular negative thoughts we already talked about.

So the indefinite plural fits the general, generic meaning.

Why is the adjective negativa and not negativ or negativt?

Swedish adjectives agree with the number and definiteness of the noun.

For tankar:

en tanke = a thought (common gender, singular)
- en negativ tanke = a negative thought
flera tankar = several thoughts (plural)
- negativa tankar = negative thoughts

So:

Singular, common gender: negativ → en negativ tanke
Singular, neuter: negativt → ett negativt ord
Plural (both genders): negativa → många negativa tankar

Here the noun is plural (tankar), so the adjective must also be in the plural form: negativa.

Could you rewrite the sentence using man instead of Den som? Would it mean the same thing?

Yes, you can express a similar idea with the generic pronoun man (meaning one / you / people in general):

Om man sover lite och har mycket stress i kroppen får man ofta många negativa tankar.
= If you sleep little and have a lot of stress in your body, you often get many negative thoughts.

Differences:

Den som … får … = The one who … gets … (focuses on any individual who meets the condition).
Om man … får man … = If you/one … then you/one … (more explicitly conditional with om = if, and uses man both times).

Both sound natural and express a general rule about people.

Why is the present tense (sover, har, får) used, even though this is a general statement?

Swedish, like English, uses the present tense for general truths, habits, and typical consequences:

Den som sover lite … får ofta många negativa tankar.
= Whenever someone sleeps little and is very stressed, this generally happens.

This is called a gnomic or general present. It doesn’t refer to one specific time; it states a general pattern.

Other examples:

Röker man mycket, blir man sjuk. = If you smoke a lot, you get sick.
Vatten kokar vid 100 grader. = Water boils at 100 degrees.