Word
Вчера мне было страшно. Я выпил снотворное, а сегодня совсем не работается.
Meaning
Yesterday I was scared. I took a sleeping pill, and today I can't get any work done at all.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Вчера мне было страшно. Я выпил снотворное, а сегодня совсем не работается.
не
not
а
and (contrastive)
я
I
вчера
yesterday
Questions & Answers about Вчера мне было страшно. Я выпил снотворное, а сегодня совсем не работается.
Why does the sentence use не работается instead of я не работаю?
This is the involuntary state construction you are currently learning. Я не работаю just states a fact: 'I am not working' (perhaps it is your day off). Не работается uses the reflexive form to mean 'I can't get any work done' or 'work just isn't going well.' It shows that you are trying to work, but your current groggy state is preventing it.
Where is the 'I' or 'me' for не работается? Shouldn't it be мне не работается?
You are exactly right; the full phrase is мне не работается. However, Russian often drops pronouns when they are already obvious from the context. Since the speaker already established they are talking about their own state with мне было страшно and я выпил, repeating мне at the end is completely optional.
Снотворное looks like a neuter adjective. How does it mean 'sleeping pill'?
In Russian, certain adjectives are commonly used as nouns, usually because the actual noun they described got dropped over time. Снотворное literally means 'sleep-inducing.' The implied noun is средство (remedy or medication), which is neuter. Over time, снотворное средство simply shortened to снотворное.
As a refresher, why is it мне было страшно instead of я был страшный?