How can I say that I went to bed quite late?
Hi guys! My question here is like that: Let's suppose I went to bed at 3 am. In Portuguese, we have the word "madrugada", which is basically the period between 12am to 6am. So what I mean here is that in PT it is not necessary to say the time we went to bed if it's later than midnight, got it? I'm not sure if "late night" is the right expression here. So how can I say something like that in English?
Well, and I have another question. It is possible to say "madrugar" as an action if we do something until quite late. For example: If I have a test tomorrow and I study hard the day before, we could say in PT that I "madruguei" to study for the test. That basically means that I spent the night (which includes after midnight, ok?) studying. Do you guys have an expression for that?

Thank you in advance!

Question

How can I say that I went to bed quite late?
Hi guys! My question here is like that: Let's suppose I went to bed at 3 am. In Portuguese, we have the word "madrugada", which is basically the period between 12am to 6am. So what I mean here is that in PT it is not necessary to say the time we went to bed if it's later than midnight, got it? I'm not sure if "late night" is the right expression here. So how can I say something like that in English? 
Well, and I have another question. It is possible to say "madrugar" as an action if we do something until quite late. For example: If I have a test tomorrow and I study hard the day before, we could say in PT that I "madruguei" to study for the test. That basically means that I spent the night (which includes after midnight, ok?) studying. Do you guys have an expression for that?

Thank you in advance!

Answer

There is no exact phrase to mean this.  If I went to bed at 3 A.M. I would just say "I went to bed really late last night."  Even saying "I went to bed after midnight" implies to me that you went to bed around 1 A.M. or so, not REALLY late.  "Late night" as a phrase is only really used to describe TV schedules or maybe "I had a late night snack" or something, but it isn't a distinct specific time of day like you seem to have in Portuguese.

College kids/medical students might say "I pulled an all-nighter" if they spent all night studying, but this literally means all night, as in they didn't get any sleep at all, not just they stayed up to 3 A.M. Truck drivers might "drive through the night" to mean that they drove for the entire night, but again it doesn't mean they drove until 4 A.M. and stopped.

There just isn't a phrase with the exact same meaning.

Answer

The English equivalent is to burn / burning the midnight oil. If you "google" this you will see several explanations about this expression. Someone working late into the night would be "burning the midnight oil" . The origin goes back to a time when people would use oil lamps and have to use these to work through the night.

Answer

Olá, você pode dizer: "Fui dormir de madrugada". Madrugar pode ser usada mesmo como um verbo, você pode usar as conjugações que a língua possui, juntamente com os tempos verbais.
Mas usando o madruguei deixa a conversa mais informal.