Headcanons About Meliodas' Sleep
(Brought to you by this post and encouraged by @7-ratsinatrenchcoat)
Okay. First of all, demons are nocturnal. You cannot convince me otherwise. It's literally canon that they are at least twice as strong at night. You expect me to believe they just sleep through that? No chance. Demons are nocturnal; their sleepy time is the daytime.
Of course this doesn't mean they can only sleep during the day. Demons are as flexible with their sleep as any other race. They're also forced to be so more than any other race, given the war with races who very much are not nocturnal. But the best and most natural option for them is to sleep during the day.
Demons also need less sleep than humans.
Now Meliodas has always had a crappy sleep schedule. Between his father, Chandler, leading the Ten Commandments and the constant conflict with the goddesses, Meliodas doesn't have the time (or takes the time) to take care of himself properly.
His sleep especially suffers from this. Because not only does it not match the expectations placed on him, it also means leaving himself more open and vulnerable than he's comfortable with.
Because of this, Meliodas is also a very light sleeper; always alert in the case of a threat. The only times he actually sleeps deeply is when he feels completely safe (around people he trusts).
The first time it happened was with Elizabeth at Heaven's Theater. It wasn't something he planned to do, of course, but it was the first time in a long time that he actually felt at peace. (And even he can only go so long without any proper sleep). When Elizabeth noticed that he'd fallen asleep, she just let him sleep, keeping watch over him. It ended up being the best sleep he'd had in years.
After Meliodas joins Stigma, his sleep does not get any better. He doesn't have any more reason to feel safe there than he did in the Demon Realm, and with Stigma's members being diurnal, his opportunities to sleep during the day is significantly decreased (Ludociel is not about to accommodate for a demon's needs).
He technically could sleep during the night instead, but it's not something that comes naturally to him, and frankly, he doesn't like it. So when he can get away with it, he doesn't. Instead, he gets his sleep mostly through naps of varying lengths during the day.
Elizabeth, Gloxinia and Drole all work together to make sure that Meliodas gets the sleep that he needs. They do this by giving Meliodas time to sleep, distracting Ludociel, keeping non-demon friendly Stigma members away, and just watching over him.
As much as possible, they try to make sure at least one of them is by his side as he sleeps. Because he sleeps a lot better around people he trusts, but also because otherwise they'd have to trust him to take care of his own sleep (and as we've already established, he sucks at this).
After the curse, things get a lot worse before they get better. During that first time (before he meets Elizabeth's first reincarnation), Meliodas just goes through the motions. Sometimes he's awake/walks until he collapses, sometimes he sleeps for days; caught up in his grief and burdened by his newfound immortality.
Starting with the Elizabeths, Meliodas finally regains some regularity back into his sleep. Mostly because he needs to keep her safe, needs to figure out a way to break the curse; but also because she's always Elizabeth, she always cares about him and his well-being.
Adjusting to a human sleeping schedule is hard. Over the years, Meliodas develops some hybrid sleep pattern. He sleeps some during the nights, but also stays awake through most of them and sleeps during the day whenever he can.
Meliodas' sleep is at its best when he's with Elizabeth and/or have something that requires him to keep to a proper schedule.
Meliodas still sucks at taking care of himself though and will often mess up his sleep up. Something Merlin has been on his case about many times over the years; there have been threats of violence.
For that she is grateful for more than one reason when they gather the rest of the Seven Deadly Sins. With how close they are all living, how close they are all working, Meliodas has less openings to fuck upp his sleep. Especially since the other Sins don't know that he is a demon, meaning they expect him to keep to a human sleep schedule. If he fucks it up, they notice, and they care.
Meliodas also feels a lot of responsibility for the other Sins, so he's more careful about making sure he gets his sleep, so not to mess up their chances at a better life.
He still doesn't like sleeping at night, however, so he works around that whenever he can. For example, insisting on keeping watch during the night while the others sleep.
This also means he frequently takes naps during the day. It's something that the others think is weird at first, but over the years they just accept it as a quirk of their captain.
Meliodas has the habit of falling asleep randomly and pretty much anywhere, when around the other Sins. He knows that even if these people don't know the truth about him, they will have his back. So he feels safe around them, and relaxes enough to fall asleep. And when I say anywhere, I mean ANYWHERE. Just as long as someone else of the Sins is nearby.
Mostly it happens when they're alone, just the Seven Deadly Sins. But sometimes it has happened in more public situations. If anyone would dare to say anything about the captain of the legendary Seven Deadly Sins falling asleep "inappropriately", well, they'd be quickly shut down by the rest.
After the Seven Deadly Sins are framed and forced into hiding, Meliodas struggles not to fall back into bad habits. It's mostly keeping to his routines (running the tavern, being around Hawk, etc.) that keeps him from slipping too badly.
It's hard though, not being around the people who he feels most safe with. Thankfully, the Boar Hat gives him privacy at least, letting him be more relaxed.
Being away from Elizabeth is the hardest. The not knowing what's going on with her. He knows she's alive, because the curse says she'll die in front of him. But that's only a small comfort, and over the decade her fate and well-being sometimes keeps him awake both night and day.
After his secret/race is properly revealed, Meliodas is more open with his sleep. His sleep doesn't really change much compared to before, but the way he deals with it does. He's all lot more honest about it - yeah, he hasn't slept yet, it's night, he doesn't really feel like sleeping.
The others approach it differently now too. It's not just an odd quirk of their captain, it's part of his nature. This means that if he wants to sleep during the day, he should sleep during the day. Of course, they've always let him do that, but now they're more adamant about it (not even Meliodas is allowed to get in the way of Meliodas' natural sleep kind of adamant).
As king of Liones, Meliodas doesn't always have the luxury of sleeping whenever he wants to - but he still keeps to more of a hybrid sleep pattern. He loves falling asleep with Elizabeth, so he will sleep some during the night. But will also stay awake most of it and take some nap during the day - depending on the day and the state of the kingdom/his duties that day.
When Tristan was little, he and Meliodas used to nap together during the day (you know, something like this).
