fitful

adjective2

1. •
   Characterized by sudden bursts of activity with periods of inactivity in between; intermittent, irregular, unsteady.

   • His breathing was fitful.
   • Troubled by her unfinished work, she fell into a fitful sleep.
2. •
   (no longer used) Characterized by fits (convulsions or seizures).

   • Duncane is in his Graue: After Lifes fitfull Feuer, he sleepes well, Treason ha's done his worst: not Steele, not Poyson, Mallice domestique, forraine Leuie, nothing, Can touch him further. — 1606