Matt Amsterdam
Portrayed By: Tyler Kyte (TV)
The protagonist of Don't Go to Sleep! He's tired of being bullied by his older siblings and getting the worst of everything, including his tiny room in the attic, so he decides to move into the guest room against his mother's consent. This leads to him waking up as someone else each time he falls asleep.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Has light blond hair in the book, has darker hair in the episode.
- Animals Hate Him: Even the family dog, Biggie, who likes absolutely everyone else, despises Matt passionately and even attacks him when Matt does NOTHING to him.
- Animorphism: One moment has him wake up as a squirrel.
- The Baby of the Bunch: Something he resents, since his mother expects him to look up to his older siblings since they're in charge of taking care of him when she's busy, when in reality they try their hardest to make him miserable.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Twice. He wishes he wasn't the youngest so he had more stuff to do, only to wake up as the oldest child and realize it's not much better. He also tries to convince his mother to let him sleep in the guest room, and she does... at the end of the book, after he learns what happens when you fall asleep in it.
- Butt-Monkey: He hates getting the worst of everything in his life due to how his siblings and mother treat him.
- Cassandra Truth: When he tries to explain to his teacher that he was twelve yesterday and woke up as a sixteen-year-old.
- Chekhov's Skill: His sister states he's the best sleeper and can sleep through a hurricane. It also ends up saving him a permanent sleep from the Reality Police as he transforms into a small creature to make him able to escape from their grasp.
- Circus Brat: In one of his realities, he's the member of a circus family and the star of the show.
- Disappeared Dad: His father died when he was a baby.
- Heavy Sleeper: His sister claims that he could "sleep through a hurricane." He uses this to his advantage when wanting to transform to get out of a cell.
- Oh, Crap!: Has this reaction when he realizes that her mother has now made the dreaded guest bedroom into his new room. His mother asks him what he thinks, and he responds by screaming his head off.
- Overnight Age-Up: The first time he goes to sleep, he wakes up as a sixteen-year-old when he used to be twelve.
- Took a Level in Cheerfulness: At the end of the book, where he learns to appreciate the life he has after all the alternate realities he was forced through.
- The Un-Favourite: His mother takes Greg and Pam's side whenever they torment him, believing they're wonderful siblings who take good care of him.
- Ungrateful Bastard: You'd think he'd be much happier with a mother who actually treats him better than his actual mother, a father in his life, and a cat who doesn't hate him during his second reality warp, not to mention no siblings to pick on him.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: By falling asleep in the guest room, he inadvertently changes the laws of reality each time he wakes up. This is why the Reality Police decide they have to put him to sleep forever.
Greg and Pam Amsterdam
Portrayed By: Amanda Zamprogna and Kyle Welton (TV)
Matt's older brother and sister.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: While not really considered "nice", Greg and Pam are nowhere near as much of ruthless bullies towards Matt in the TV adaptation as they were in the novel.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: They have curly brown hair in the book, to which Matt jokes that they have brillo pads on their heads. In the tv episode, Greg has wavy blond hair and Pam has straight black hair.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: In the reality where Matt is sixteen and they're younger, they pester him just as much as when the roles were reversed.
- Babysitter from Hell: Both of them are left in charge to look after Matt and torment him for no good reason.
- Big Brother Bully: They constantly gang up on Matt and tease him for being a geek.
- Circus Brat: Along with Matt, they're members of the circus family in one of the alternate realities.
- Disappointing Older Sibling: Mrs. Amsterdam expects Matt to look up to his older siblings, but he dislikes them due to how badly they treat him.
- Jerkass: Neither one of them are kind to Matt and have not a single moment of even caring for his safety.
- Lack of Empathy: They were all the more willing to let the family dog attack him in his sleep after placing the dog on Matt's bed.
- Promotion to Parent: With their father dead and their single mother working two jobs, they have to look after Matt while their mother is busy, though they do a horrible job of it.
- Teens Are Monsters: They make sure that Matt lives as miserably as possible and torment him in cruel ways, such as putting the family dog on his bed prepared to bite him while he's asleep.
Lacie
A girl who keeps appearing in the various alternate realities Matt goes to, she turns out to be part of the "Reality Police".
- Adapted Out: She's not present in the TV episode.
- Adaptational Villainy: The Reality Police in the TV episode (which, as mentioned, don't include Lacie) are a lot more sinister and evil seeming. In the book they are rabid cops at worst, whereas in the show they are more like Orwellian Knight Templar types.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Pretends to befriend Matt, but secretly is working with the two thugs who keep showing up (and who are also Reality Police Officers).
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: The good cop to her colleagues' bad cop - friendly, gentle and calm.
- Inspector Javert: She's not really evil, she just wants to stop Matt from irrevocably damaging the time-space continuum due to him switching universes every time he sleeps. She doesn't even really want to hurt him, just to put him into some sort of permanent sleep/coma.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Both she and the two punks are just doing their jobs to keep reality intact.
- Rabid Cop: She and the other two want to put Matt to sleep permanently, to stop him from ruining reality. Oddly at the end Matt just goes to sleep in his normal bed and the dimension switching stops but they never think of just having him try that.
