Postman Pat's Sleepy Days is an easy-reader picture book released in The '80s based on the Postman Pat animated series. It was written by the show's creator, John Cunliffe.
In this story, Pat is having trouble sleeping at night, which is hindering his work as a postman. All of his friends have different suggestions on how he can combat his insomnia.
Tropes:
- Blush Sticker: Sara always has little blushies on her face.
- Calming Tea: Sara's suggestion to help Pat sleep is to have a cup of tea. However, it doesn't work.
- Catapult Nightmare: After taking Dr Gilbertson's sleeping pills, Pat has a nightmare and wakes up sat up shouting in the middle of the night, waking up the whole house.
- Counting Sheep: Peter Fogg's suggestion to help Pat sleep is to count sheep. Pat ends up counting five hundred sheep and not a wink of sleep.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In this book, Sara has curly black hair. When the animated series picked back up in The '90s, her hair was changed to straight and brunette.
- Growling Gut: Miss Hubbard suggests rhubarb wine to help Pat sleep. Instead, it makes his stomach rumble, which keeps both him and Sara awake.
- Insomnia Episode: The main conflict of the story is that Pat can't sleep at night, which is slowing him down at work.
- Out of Focus: Normally, Jess is Pat's main companion who aides him in the story. Here, Jess mostly hangs around in the background not affecting the plot, and Sara takes his place as Pat's main confidant.
- Truth in Television: When Pat feels too sleepy to drive, he pulls over for a quick nap before continuing on his rounds. British safety officers highly recommend doing this in real life when one feels drowsy while driving, as driving tired increases the likelihood of crashing, and neither a loud radio nor coffee is enough to help.
