#im sorry about the length which ironically is the reason i personally am not sleeping right now

[marsupial-tapir]

☾ voltron crew

sleep headcanons for the space kids LETS GO

pidge: Sleep Is For the WEAK. pidge asserts they’ve optimised their sleep schedule into a complex system of power naps, which produce maximum mental output for minimal sleep time and thus skillfully eliminate the need for “”beds””. the fact that they fall asleep in the middle of the day on inconvenient semi-perilous surfaces is an unfortunate side-effect, and one that will be WORKED OUT if u just give them time to TEST THEIR HYPOTHESIS,, shiro,, listen,, its an unperfected theory,,, theyre still mapping out their circadian rhythm but theyve nearlly got it now….  they donnt need to go to bed rig htnow they DONT they can stay up a litlle… longer… nno theyre not falling asleep on their keyboard theyre just… powernapppign… shiro lissten,,., 

oh um also when they were kids pidge and matt shared a room (byproduct of their parents putting them together for convenience when they were tiny, and as they grew up they liked it too much and protested whenever their parents tried to give them their own rooms) and theyd stay up late into the night talking abt science or trying to outdo each other with dumb made-up stories about aliens or making intricate structures out of bedroom items (piece of cake during the day; much more fun in the dark). pidge stopped sleeping properly the day matt disappeared. one day theyre gonna get him back and theyre gonna stay up late again and probably set up prank traps on the ship at 2 in the morning and give shiro grey hairs together and its gonna be great

shiro: u know nobody’s gonna sleep well after 3 years as a prisoner on a galra ship. im sorry space dad. i wish u could rest too. luckily after a few weeks of sleepless nights coran or allura probably notices and then altean tech steps in to help. (theyve got stasis pods or brain-calming alien fruits or something). also helpful are his Pidge Retrieval Missions. some nights when sleep is bad he does a top-bottom search of the ship and the pidge-sized nooks therein. carrying a weakly-protesting 14-year old back to bed is aq surprisingly calming activity. he is lulled to sleep by the fulfilling sense of Dadness

keith: hasn’t had a full night’s sleep since he came out of the galra womb. poor kid. i would like to say that it’s because peaceful sleep messes with his Constantly-Vigilant Cryptid-Spotting Tortured Fashion Icon aesthetic and that he stays up all night watchign illuminati confirmed videos and trying to replicate shiro’s eyeliner technique while listening to mcr albums on repeat,, and not because he lived alone in a freezing shack in a hostile desert,, probably angsting abt whether shiro was alive,, and where his family was,, and how old and isolated he was gonna get before he found out whether bigfoot would ever love him back,,, but regardless of the cause he’s a fitful sleeper and has lived his whole life pretty much getting short snatches of rest here and there throughout the day. he’s never really felt safe enough to know what deep sleep feels like. UNTIL, of course, he boards the castle of the lions, and then suddenly.. its like…. he has a bed?? a?? roof?? the comforting ambience of noises from people who arent gonna try to eat him in the night?? shiro right next door and not in need of rescue?? i mean he still keeps his knife under his pillow but as time goes on he starts getting this weird like. unconsciousness. its kind of like napping but it involves almost no nightmares and goes on for HOURS. he can feel this happening and he is UNCOMFORTABLE like nnO i cant rest i gotta stay VIGILANT i gotta.. i gotta… until he is lulled soundly to sleep by the sound of hunk snoring and coran singing space opera on some far corner of the ship and pidge tapping on their laptop as they perch on the end of keith’s bed (handy hiding place from meddling shiros). he feels safe. its weird. 

lance: i mean the first thing that comes to mind is that scene with lance swanning out of his bedroom draped in a silk bathrobe, nourishing facemask and custom blue lion slippers, glittering with the otherworldly radiance of the ultra-rare Well-Rested Youth, and based on this evidence youd think lance would be the World’s Number One Beauty Sleep Expert. HOWEVER. u remember that post that zoomed right in on lance’s sleep earmuffs and they had green on them?? and looked suspiciously like pidge’s nerdy headphones from episode 1?? ya pidge gave him their headphones because lance has trouble sleeping. hashtag confirmed my dudes. certainly back home lance could sleep 11 hours through the apocalypse in the middle of a storm with a dance party happening next door (when u have to juggle 6 siblings, hunk as a roomie and an obligatory 12 hours beauty sleep u learn to Adapt) but now, lightyears away from home, sleep doesnt come so easily. the ship is quiet in unfamiliar ways, and when ur supposed to be sleeping u cant fill those weird silences with ur own comforting noise. he doesnt talk abt it to anyone, of course. that would be Lame. (but pidge notices him sleeplessly fidgeting one night and quietly lends him their headphones. just to shut him up, of course. sleep well, you fucker.) also important: lance keeps up with a strict nightly skincare routine and adorns himself with luxurious sleepwear each night, partly because u have to look fab to have good dreams,, obviously,, but also bc this doubles as a comforting bedtime ritual. facemask, nourishing space spa-bath, tai-chi before bed, smooch each lion slipper on its little nose. just little bedtime things. he’s not great at going to sleep at first but every night he drops off a little faster. its getting easier.

hunk: sleeps like a log. takes 30 seconds for him to fall asleep and then he’s out like a light for 9 hours. even when he’s anxious. he’ll fall asleep like “oohhh man im so far from home what if we dont MAKE IT BACK what’s zarkon gonna do oh ma - [snoring, 10 hour version]. oh ya he snores. i think this is canon probably?? if it’s not it should be. the depth of his sleep is too profound to be contained within his body. also, hunk is at the nucleus of every communal sleep pile. this works because 6 people can pile onto his huge soft belly and he doesn’t feel a thing. first sleep pile happens because hunk falls asleep in the middle of the training deck; lance drapes himself over him in a show of theatrics and just forgets to get up, probably; shiro tries to extract them but is ambushed by hunk’s remarkable Sleep Hugging reflexes; keith meets a similar fate, not entirely unvoluntarily, and makes a very unconvincing show of protest; pidge pretends to use them all as a comfortable backrest while tapping away at a tablet and promptly falls into the deepest calmest sleep theyve had since they were 6. even when he is asleep hunk spreads wholesomeness and love. god bless my sweet son

coran and allura: i put them together because?? do alteans even need sleep??? have they evolved beyond simple biological constraints?? was 10 000 years of stasis enough and now they’ve stored up enough rest to stay awake for years?? somehow i cant imagine either of them sleeping regularly. HOWEVER coran enthusiastically jumps on the new paladin trend, which “reminds me of viskralian bio-stasis!!” (this he demonstrates by flopping into a gracile position with one eye squeezed shut, humming violently in the key of F). allura remains baffled and slightly disapproving of all the wasted time, despite the flood of positive reviews (HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM JOIN IN PRINCESS HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM ITS VERY RELAXING) but one time she walks in on the paladins collapsed in a pile together and shes like… u know what. im gonna let this one slide. this is also the day she learns of the remarkable comfiness of hunks.