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But I'm Not Sleepy!

Mum closed their book, smoothed the blue blanket and kissed eight-year-old Lili on the forehead.

“Why do I have to sleep at all?” Lili protested, wriggling up against her pillow. “I don't DO anything when I'm asleep!”

“You can dream,” Mum whispered. “Good night, love.” She switched off the lamp, and the cream walls turned soft and grey.

“Good night,” Lili replied, though she folded her arms under the blanket as if she meant to stay awake all night, just to prove her point.

A Guide the Size of a Sock

Ping!

A fluffy cream sprite with lilac wings appeared on her pillow, no bigger than one of Lili's yellow socks. His round amber eyes blinked at her, and a curled tuft stood up on his head.

“I'm Snoozle, your night-time guide!” Snoozle chirped. “Hold on!”

“Hold on to you?” Lili exclaimed. “You're the size of a sock!”

“Fair point!” Snoozle chuckled.

Whoosh! With a flutter of his lilac wings he shrank them both, smaller and smaller, until they were tiny as crumbs. Then they flew up over the blanket and straight into sleeping Lili's head.

The Night Shift

They landed in a glowing control room with curved consoles and panels that blinked in every colour. In the middle stood Captain Brain, a round peach-coloured commander in a navy coat with gold buttons. He was watching three screens: one showed a heartbeat, one showed breathing, and one showed temperature.

“Night shift, begin!” Captain Brain announced grandly.

“But I thought my brain switched OFF when I slept!” Lili exclaimed.

“It keeps working!” Snoozle explained. “Sleep comes in stages, and the stages repeat through the whole night.”

Before Lili could ask what that meant, she was floating on a fluffy cloud of light sleep. Then she sank down, down, into a soft pillow of deep sleep. Then she drifted up again among shimmering dream bubbles.

“It's busy in here!” Lili laughed.

Growing and Remembering

The next door led into a warm, busy workshop with a sign that read NIGHT SERVICE. Mechanics bustled between wooden workbenches, tending to muscle-shaped models and charging up a big pretend battery beside a tall height chart.

“Sleep helps your body recover, grow and develop,” Snoozle said.

“Grow?” Lili's eyes went wide. “Into a giant?” She pictured herself shooting up and up until she burst right through the bedroom ceiling. Boom!

“Not THAT fast!” Snoozle chuckled.

The Memory Storeroom

Through a broad wooden doorway lay a room marked MEMORIES: rows and rows of low shelves, with tiny round-faced elves in pointed moss-green hats and rust tunics carrying small labelled boxes. One elf shelved a box called SCHOOL. Another tucked away RIDING MY BIKE.

“Now, where does WHERE DID I LEAVE MY SOCK go?” a Memory Elf wondered, turning the box over.

As a box labelled TIMES TABLES was lifted onto its shelf, Lili giggled.

“Sleep helps learning and memories stick,” Snoozle added. “That's why staying up all night before a test won't help.”

“So you store what I learned?” Lili asked.

“More or less!” the Memory Elf squeaked, and dropped twenty boxes at once.

The Dream Factory

Beyond a sparkling arched entrance lay the Dream Factory, and nothing in it stayed still for long. An elephant roller-skated past. A flying fish sailed by holding an umbrella. Then Lili was suddenly sitting in a classroom corner, and at the front stood a grey tabby cat in a plum waistcoat and small brass spectacles.

“Today's test,” the Cat Teacher declared very seriously, “is about tins of tuna!”

Run!

Before Lili could answer a single question, the classroom melted away. Now she was strapped into a rounded spaceship seat, zooming between the stars. Now she was dancing in a bright yellow banana costume. And now she was riding on the back of a turquoise dragon with coral horns, its broad wings carrying her gently through the clouds.

“Why is it all so STRANGE?” Lili asked.

“Dreams mix memories, feelings and made-up things,” Snoozle called, flying alongside. “We dream in several sleep stages, but the vivid stories often happen in REM sleep.”

BOING. BOING. BOING.

A giant coral toothbrush with thick cream bristles came bounding after them.

“What made THAT?” Lili cried.

“Don't ask. Run!” Snoozle squealed.

The Vanishing Dragon

Lili woke up beneath her blue blanket. The room was dark and quiet, and above her a last dream bubble was fading away.

“I dreamed of a dragon…” Lili murmured. “Or was it a sandwich?”

Pop! Snoozle appeared beside her on the pillow.

“Where did my dream go?” Lili asked.

“Dreams fade easily,” Snoozle said softly. “Especially if we don't wake straight after them, or if we start thinking about something else.”

Lili thought for a moment. “Could I write it down?”

“That might help,” Snoozle agreed.

So Lili reached for the notebook on her bedside table and wrote, in big wobbly letters: DRAGON + BANANA + FLYING TOOTHBRUSH???

“Try explaining THAT in the morning!” Lili giggled.

A Tired Morning

At breakfast, the kitchen clock ticked and the sun came in through the window, but Lili had not slept nearly enough. She slumped at the wooden table, rumpled and heavy-eyed, as Mum set a bowl in front of her.

“Good morning!” Mum greeted her.

“What's good about it?” Lili grumbled, and the cereal she was pouring spilled over the side of the bowl.

“Welcome to Not-Enough-Sleep Land!” Snoozle murmured from the sugar bowl.

Captain Brain staggered across the table, clutching a mug that said SLEEP.

“What… what was I saying?” Captain Brain muttered, and stared into his mug as if the answer might be in there.

Little Troubles Feel Bigger

A bubble floated up over the table, and inside it Lili saw a tower of blocks toppling over. In the bubble, a well-rested Lili just shrugged and started to build again. But a tired Lili burst into tears.

“My tower! I've had ENOUGH!” Lili wailed.

Snoozle snapped open a tiny umbrella against the imaginary tears raining down.

“Too little sleep can make learning, attention, quick thinking and managing feelings harder,” Snoozle explained gently. “Little troubles can feel much bigger than they are.”

Lili looked at the spilled cereal, and then at the tower in the bubble, and she understood exactly what he meant.

Busy All Night

That evening, Lili did something new. She set her notebook, now labelled MY DREAMS, on the bedside table, and laid a pencil neatly on top of it.

“My body rests,” Lili murmured, pulling up the blue blanket, “but my brain works.”

“And sleep helps memories stick,” Snoozle added from the pillow.

“Then I'll be busy tonight,” Lili yawned, and snuggled down without a single protest.

All Systems Working

Soon she was dreaming of her turquoise dragon again, soaring through the clouds. Captain Brain flew past them, dressed from head to toe in a yellow banana costume.

“All systems working!” Captain Brain cheered.

BOING. BOING. BOING.

The giant toothbrush came bounding after them.

“Except THAT one!” Captain Brain cried.

They ran together, laughing, with the dragon's wings beating and the toothbrush bouncing along behind.

In the quiet bedroom, Snoozle fluttered away from the pillow. Lili slept peacefully under her blue blanket, and above her head floated one tiny bubble, holding a dragon, a banana, and a toothbrush, all chasing each other round and round.