fitfully

adv

1. In a fitful manner; irregularly or unsteadily.

   “He slept fitfully, plagued by bad dreams and a persistent cough.”

   “The cabin lamp—taking long swings this way and that— was burning fitfully, and casting fitful shadows upon the old man’s bolted door […]”

   “The train for Marmion left Boston at four o'clock in the afternoon, and rambled fitfully toward the southern cape, while the shadows grew long in the stony pastures […]”

   “We shivered miserably throughout the night. Now and again fitfully slept, but the pain of the cold always aroused me.”