How to say "less" in Japanese (I want to do X less)

Question

How to say that I (or someone else) wants to do something less (for example I want to sleep less) in Japanese? What about I want to have less of something? (For example I want to eat less, or I want to have fewer problems.)

Answer 1

Literal translations such as 「(もっと/より)少なく + verb + したい」 would sound unnatural... There would be several ways to say that, but off the top of my head right now, I think you could probably use 「～を少なくしたい」 or 「～を減らしたい」, as in:

睡眠時間/寝る時間を減らしたい。
睡眠時間/寝る時間を少なくしたい。
I want to sleep less. (lit. I want to decrease sleeping time.)

食べる量を減らしたい。
食べる量を少なくしたい。
I want to eat less. (lit. I want to decrease eating amount.)

問題を減らしたい。
問題を少なくしたい。
I want to have fewer problems. (lit. I want to decrease problems.)

Answer 2

less is a powerful English word which doesn't have a direct equivalent in Japanese for all cases. It depends on the action you're talking about. For sleep, you could say:

[毎日]{まいにち}もっと[短]{みじ}かく[寝]{ね}たいな。

Gloss: Every day - more - shortly - want to sleep - eh

TL: "Man, I wish I could sleep less every day."

Here we see "more + adverb" that fits the verb (referring to time here).

Another way to get around this is to say something grammatically different but functionally the same (re: to have less of something):

服をちょっと[減]{へ}らした[方]{ほう}がいいんだな

Gloss: Clothing - a little - ought to reduce - eh

TL: I should really get rid of some of this clothing. (while inspecting one's overflowing closet, for instance)