Leona and Sleeping

In his profile Leona’s talent is listed as “falling asleep in 3 seconds,” which we see happen on screen in Book 3. Leona is often talking about taking naps (images: Leona sleeping, talking about sleeping, other people talking about Leona sleeping).

It has yet to be explained why Leona seems to need more sleep than others (another lion-like trait, similar to being a carnivore?), but we might have seen one example as to why in his fifth birthday vignette: Leona stays up all night, deciphering the content of a history book written in a dead language until morning, and which point he finally tries to sleep but struggles in the bright light.

Leona says that he uses moisturizer because his skin feeling uncomfortable interferes with the his quality of sleep.

Jack says that Ruggie wakes Leona up every morning but Ruggie himself says, “with how heavy of a sleeper he is, my success rate is only around 60 or 70 percent.”

Leona falls asleep during the trial of Cater’s dream in Book 7, not waking up even after Deuce chooses him as a witness as the person he assumes will be best at improvisation and drags him to the witness stand.

Silver says, “Leona must be a very deep sleeper, if being handled that roughly isn’t enough to wake him.”

Sebek and Idia suspect that Leona is merely pretending at the time, but he starts sleep-talking about Ruggie and sandwiches.

Grim talks about Leona falling asleep during a ceremony, “Shamelessly snorin’ away in that special housewarden chair of his in the front row where everyone could see. The others kept trying to get him to wake up, and he just ignored ’em.”

When Cater asks where Leona would go if he could use flight magic to go anywhere Leona responds, “a first-class hotel,” not a popular place for sightseeing but the “type of place most folks never think to go,” explaining, “Eat when I’m hungry, take a bath whenever I feel like it…Surround myself with peace and quiet. With no one botherin’ me for stuff, I could finally get some decent sleep.”

We hear another reason for why Leona might sleep so much in his fourth birthday vignette: “When my sleep quality drops, it affects my thinking. Wouldn’t wanna get played by some sly jerk just ’cause my wheels aren’t turning as fast as they ought to.”

Leona says that is why he does things like lay out a rug under his bed in his dorm room, to absorb sounds from the floor below.

After Leona loses his patience with the Fairy Gala group he decides to go to sleep despite all the people who have filed into his bedroom.

Ruggie says, “now he’s in Maximum Comfy Mode. Forget about rousing him now—guy might as well be a bear hibernating for the winter,” but Leona inadvertently inspires Vil, who comes up with a pose for Leona’s runway performance that is reminiscent of Leona pulling his blanket over himself in bed.

Vil explains, “One of Leona’s precious few fortes is the sheer power of his presence. That’s what Leona’s pose was missing previously: his intensity.”

Leona’s napping gets him into trouble during Vargas Camp when he decides to sleep rather than help his team complete the tasks they have been assigned, getting himself kidnapped by Vargas as a result.

Leona may have been one of few people who did not struggle to sleep in Halloweentown: waking up after their first night Jamil observes, “Leona was complaining more than anyone about the hard bedding and moldy smell, but now he’s sleeping like a log.”

It seems that Leona prefers sleeping in the botanical gardens when he can, saying that it has the perfect temperature for napping. Both Ruggie and Jack have voice lines about Leona sleeping there, with Jack saying, “Leona chased me outta the botanical garden sayin’ not to disturb his nap. As if it’s his territory!”

When Kalim and Cater go to the botanical gardens to seek him out, Leona greets them with, “Any reason you decided to waltz into my territory like you own the place?,” while Ruggie says he treats the gardens like a second home.

Leona says he spends a lot of time there because it “doesn’t get a lot of foot traffic,” it’s quiet and climate-controlled, but students from savanaclaw and members of the spelldrive club know to look for him there. Leona says, “I’ve been changing up my hiding spots lately just so they won’t find me.Lately I like to go behind the Hall of Mirrors.”

When Jade happens upon Leona in a shaded area rather than a sunny spot within the gardens Leona explains, “’Cuz I’d rather not let the guys from my dorm find me.”

When asked about his tent during Vargas Camp Leona responds that he prefers the gardens, and when the students are insisting upon Idia returning to school at the end of Book 6 Leona says, “fix up the botanical garden too. That’s the best napping spot on campus.”

When Trey worries about Riddle in Book 7 Ortho says, “Leona’s right. There’s nothing we can do about it as things stand,” but then begins to panic himself due to having lost contact with Idia. Cater says, “When you’re feeling rushed, that’s when it’s most important to stop and take a step back,” and points out that Leona has fallen asleep under a tree despite the circumstances.

Ortho says, “Of course. Leona’s accumulated heavy aetheric structure damage from all the back-to-back battles he’s fought,” and Grim points out that the same can be said for Ortho himself. The entire dream-infiltration group then follows Leona’s example, taking a nap together on the beach of Ace’s dream.