"Pixel is staying up too late at night playing video games, and Sportacus encourages him to get to sleep on time, explaining that sleep is the source of his own energy. Robbie overhears this and hatches a plan to deprive Sportacus of sleep by changing the time on his clock. When Sportacus starts losing energy, Stephanie and the kids uncover Robbie's plot and they make sure to get lots of sleep so they can beat Robbie in an all-or-nothing baseball game."
Prologue
Sportacus is exercising, then he realizes it's 8:08PM, which is his bedtime. He activates the bed and gets in it to sleep. Day becomes night in Sportacus' airship.
Main Episode
Late at night, Pixel is up playing video games, while the other kids are getting their sleep. When morning dawns, Pixel is still playing video games, and he remembers that he's supposed to meet his friends for baseball. Robbie, who couldn't fall asleep, finds a spot on the bench and sleeps there, but a fly is buzzing around him and he catches it in the rubbish bin. Sportacus, Stephanie and Ziggy are setting up the baseball game and they practice a shot. Ziggy misses the ball, which wakes Robbie up. Pixel finally arrives, and due to lack of sleep, he falls down while trying to catch the ball. Sportacus tells them about sleeping, which is his secret energy source.
Meanwhile, in Robbie's lair, he builds a “noisy ball” out of noisy things, and Pixel brings his Remote Controlley 6000, a machine that controls the body of a person, to a baseball game. When Pixel sleeps again, Robbie introduces himself as the new pitcher, and gives Sportacus the “noisy ball”. While all the other kids except Pixel get their sleep, Sportacus is kept awake by the ball, as he tries to search for it.
The next day, Sportacus is unusually late to baseball, so Stephanie sends him a letter, and he arrives tired. Stephanie and Ziggy try to wake him up with several things, such as a bass drum, alarm clock and saxophone, but none work. They then hatch a plan to get the Remote Controlley 6000 to help him move. Ziggy controls it, then Pixel does it, nearly crashing Sportacus into a tree. On the night, Pixel finally gets his sleep to help Sportacus.
Back in the airship, Sportacus discovers that the “noisy ball” kept him awake. The next day, Pixel wakes up and tells the others to do so with the song “Wake Up”. Sportacus arrives and shows the ball to Pixel, revealing to him that Robbie was trying to keep him awake. Sportacus then pretend goes to sleep on the bench when Robbie arrives and plays baseball. Robbie misses every shot, so he puts Sportacus on the pitchers place. Two strikes are done without Sportacus responding, then on the third strike, Sportacus wakes up and hits the ball all the way into Robbie's lair. They then congratulate their victory with a lesson learned: “Sleeping is everything.”
Epilogue
Robbie is trying to get some sleep, but the “noisy ball” wakes him up.
Allusions
The title of the episode is a reference to the 1993 movie Sleepless in Seattle.
Robbie orders Pixel to "make his pitch." This is a reference to the film Dirty Harry in which Harry, the character played by Clint Eastwood stated "Go ahead. Make my day."
Books
Cover of Maggi Mjói: Borðar Ekki Mat
Cover of Sleepless in LazyTown
Cover of Pixel: Sleep Troubles
A page from Borðar Ekki Mat compared with one from Sleep Troubles
This episode's storyline was partially based upon Magnús Scheving's 1999 book Maggi Mjói: Borðar Ekki Mat. Both the book and the episode focus on a LazyTown child being told by Sportacus to get more sleep. The book focuses on Jives; the episode substitutes Jives for Pixel.
Two books based on this episode were released after its premiere. The first was released in 2006, published by Simon Spotlight and Nick Jr. It was illustrated by Artful Doodlers. The second was released in 2013. Titled Pixel: Sleep Troubles, it was an ebook illustrated by Katherine Burnett and an updated version of the book Maggi Mjói: Borðar Ekki Mat. Some of its pages very closely resemble those in the original book.
Quotes
Robbie: Hey, your turn, Sportasnore. Look alive, huh?
Robbie: I'm ready. Pitch the ball, Poodle.
Pixel: That's Pixel.
Robbie: Oh, whatever. Ha ha ha.
Robbie: Hello. Oh, someone didn't get his beauty sleep last night. (laughs evilly)
Pixel: You just wake up
Pixel, Stephanie and Computer: Wake up
Stephanie: No one ever knows what the day will bring / Just face it with a smile and sing!
Pixel: (singing "Wake Up") There's a lot to do and see / Just come along with me / You know it's true
Pixel and Stephanie: You'll dance and sing and clap your hands / Run and jump with all your friends
Pixel: You just wake up
Pixel and Stephanie: Wake up
Pixel: It's a great big beautiful day...
Pixel: Okay, okay. You're right. Video games are good. But friends are better. And my friend Sportacus needs me to go to bed. Now. (sighs) Computer, lights out.
Pixel: You have to turn the amplitude up a little higher.
Ziggy: Ampli what?
Robbie: One more night and Sportacus will be so tired from my noisy ball, ha ha ha ha, he won't know his bat from his glove. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Robbie: 8:08. Sportacus is going to sleep. Time for my noisy ball to wake him up. Ha ha ha ha ha.
Robbie: Now, whoever hits it farthest wins. And to make more interesting
Ziggy: Yeah?
Robbie: (to Sportacus) If I win, you leave town forever.
Sportacus: (nonplussed) The usual, right?
Robbie: I move all the time. I can hit the ball farther than anyone here.
Robbie: Let's see how much energy Sportacus has when this noisy ball keeps him up all night! Ah ha ha ha ha.
Sportacus: Sleeping. That's the secret to my energy. When I get enough sleep, I can even learn (hits a baseball really far) a whole new sport.
Kids: Wow!
Robbie: So, he gets his energy from sleeping? Well, then I'll just make sure he doesn't sleep. (laughs meanly)
Ziggy: Pixel, you were up all night playing video games, weren't you?
Pixel: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Ziggy: Sportacus, don't you go to bed at 8:08?
Sportacus: Yep.
Sportacus: A good night's sleep will give me the energy I need tomorrow.
Robbie: Okay, go ahead. Make my pitch.
Stephanie: Pixel, you really need to get some sleep tonight. We're counting on you if Sportacus is out again.
Trivia
Moral: It's important to be punctual and part of that is getting plenty of rest.
Adam Peltzman provided the story for this episode, along with Magnús Scheving (Sportacus.) Adam Peltzman wrote episodes in several seasons of the show Blue's Clues and was also the voice of Green Puppy on that program.
This episodes features the first time that Pixel starts a song. He performs the song "Wake Up" along with Stephanie and his Computer. This is also one of the few songs in the series performed mostly by Pixel. This song is Track 8 on the "LazyTown" album.
The credits list Sarah Burgess, Amanda Maddock, Jodi Eichelberger, David Matthew Feldman & Julie Westwood as Trixie, Stingy, Milford and Bessie voices and puppeteers even though they're all absent.
This is the first episode not to feature Trixie, Stingy, Milford and Bessie.
The noisy ball that Robbie uses to deprive Sportacus of sleep bears the insignia "Made by Rotten-LTD."
Sleeping Habits of the Characters of LazyTown: Sportacus goes to bed every night at 8:08 P.M. He calls a good night's sleep his secret source of energy. Ziggy likes to sleep with a lollipop resting on his pillow. Pixel often doesn't get enough sleep because he plays video games all night long.
Based on his time that he goes to bed, Sportacus either gets up really early or gets more sleep than is usual. Assuming that Sportacus generally gets seven-to-eight hours of sleep, the general average for a human male, he gets up in the morning at around 3 to 4 A.M.
The script was finalized on May 14, 2004.
Sportacus doesn't wear his pyjamas to bed.
During the last song Stephanie changes from wearing her baseball shirt to her normal dress.
A timeline hole exists between this episode and Defeeted: In this episode Sportacus doesn't know how to play softball and Stephanie is teaching that to him, but in Defeeted the Mayor references the last year's Sportacular Sports Day when Sportacus did a baseball trick.
It is possible that Sportacus did a trick with a baseball, without actually playing the game itself, just as kicking the football as he did in Defeeted requires no knowledge of the soccer rules.
It is also possible that Sportacus knew how to play all along and is merely humoring Stephanie in this episode by letting her explain the game to him.
A clip from this episode is used in the online game, "Pixelspix".
In this episode, Robbie insults Pixel by calling him Poodle.
In this episode, the title card takes place at nighttime.
