In this cumulative tale, a wakeful flea atop a number of sleeping creatures causes a commotion, with just one bite. On board pages.

Rhyming text describes some of the young animals--from a gray wolf pup and a horned puffin to a cougar kit and a small brown bat--as they settle down to sleep.

One night in an isolated college town in the hills of Southern California, a first-year student stumbles into her dorm room, falls asleep, and doesn't wake up. She sleeps through the morning, into the evening. Her roommate, Mei, cannot rouse her. Neither can the paramedics, nor the perplexed doctors at the hospital. When a second girl falls asleep, and then a third, Mei finds herself thrust together with an eccentric classmate as panic takes hold...

Sam's sheep must find a way to keep him awake long enough to count them, so that he will not open the door to let in what he thinks is a stray sheep, but might be an enemy in disguise.

A mother tiger entices her child to sleep by telling of all that can been seen with one's eyes closed.

"Nat the Cat is trying to take a nap. Will he be able to rest?"--

While other animals sleep at night, some quietly and others noisily, some alone and others huddled together, a wide-eyed owl watches.

When Henry cannot sleep, he takes the night jar and tries to capture the song of the night bird.

A flea with a cold startles all the animals in the barn when it sneezes unexpectedly.

Rhyming text suggests other options when one tries to count sheep but discovers that they are all asleep.