History Main / CatapultNightmare

** Used and subverted in an episode where Buster has a dream in which Arthur and Alan "Brain" are actually aliens, and are pulling him toward them with telekinetic powers as he screams. He wakes up quietly and near-motionlessly, calmly says, "That was scary," and goes back to sleep. Meanwhile, Arthur has a dream in which his sister Dora Winifred "D.W." comes into their tent to deliver the news that her and Arthur's mother said they have to let her sleep in the tent, too. ''He'' does the catapult with scream, which his mother takes for being caused by a nightmare about aliens.

[[folder:Animation]]
* ''Animation/AboutDressySally'': After having a dream about Mr. Kadabra remembering their deal about Sally telling her mother about the gloves he replaced (which she never did), Sally wakes up jolting out of her bed.
* ''Animation/BoonieBears'': In Season 3 episode 30, Tiki has a nightmare where some force steals his crown, and he wakes up jolting upright.
* ''Animation/{{Clinic}}'' is a Russian MedicalHorror short film in which an old man staying in a hospital has a series of nightmares that frequently cause him to wake up screaming.
* ''Animation/FlowerFairy'': In Season 2 episode 34, An'an has a nightmare where her best friend Qianhan totally forgets who An'an is, followed by An'an falling through a hole forming in the ground. An'an jolts upright in bed when she wakes up from the dream.
* ''Animation/HappyHeroes'':
** In Season 8 episode 7, Careful S. sits right up in bed when he wakes up from a nightmare about [[spoiler:the death of his friend Kalo]].
** In a few early episodes of Season 14, Smart S. does the same thing after having nightmares about [[spoiler:Happy S. being defeated at the hands of the Dark Demon (an event from the end of Season 13)]].
* ''Animation/{{Lamput}}'': In "Meet the Shrink", the docs have a dream where they're struggling to keep up with Lamput and jolt into an upright position when they wake up.
* ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'':
** In ''Joys of Seasons'' episode 2, after having a nightmare about Wolffy attacking him, Paddi wakes up and flings himself upward on his bed into a sitting position.
** In ''Joys of Seasons'' episode 39, Wolffy and Wolnie wake up screaming after having a nightmare.
** ''Happy, Happy, Bang, Bang!'' episode 30 has Slowy having this reaction after waking up from a nightmare where Wilie [[spoiler:betrays the goats if he lets him into the Goat School]].
* ''Animation/YamuchasKungFuAcademy'': Nao's episode-beginning dream in episode 4 about Jubby fighting and eating her ends with her jolting upright in bed, relieved that it's just a dream.
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* In ''ComicBook/TheScorpion'', Armando experiences one at the start of the album ''The Stone Cross''.

* Played with in the fifth season premiere of ''Series/{{Castle}}'', "After the Storm". The show starts with a PreviouslyOn segment that ends with a clip of the man who nearly killed Beckett in the fourth season finale, "Always", promising to finish the job. This cuts immediately to Castle bolting up from a nightmare. The editing makes it look like he dreamed of Beckett's assailant threatening to kill her. He then notices that he's alone in bed, which has him worried. Enter Beckett, [[SexyShirtSwitch wearing his shirt]], a cup of coffee in each hand, assuring him that [[RelationshipUpgrade last night was not a dream.]]

* Creator/DerekRobinson's ''Literature/PieceOfCake'': Squadron Leader Barton, at the height of the Battle of Britain, has a recurring nightmare of piloting a plane, without a propeller, at unmanageably fast speeds, with controls that do not do what his experience as a pilot expects of them. He is trapped in an uncontrollable aircraft moving at high speeds with unresponsive controls and no means of escape. He inevitably awakes sweating and in high anxiety

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'', in which the title character sentences an enemy to the curse of "eternal waking," a neverending coma where he dreams he is waking from a horrible nightmare, only to find he is in an even worse one. This causes him to wake up again, only to be confronted with another nightmare. The curse sentences him to live this way for eternity, with each nightmare a little worse than the last.

* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':

** During ''ComicBook/SupermanBrainiac'', the Man of Steel is captured by ComicBook/{{Brainiac}}. As he is unconscious, Clark has a nightmare in which Brainiac abducts more cities and obliterates more planets. He flings himself up when he comes around, inadvertently breaking the restrains strapping him to Brainiac's operating table.

** And again with Gerald after having a dream-turned-nightmare where his father pushed Gerald (who is riding a bike) off a steep hill in the middle of “Gerald’s Secret”.

* In ''Literature/ThePurpleCloud'', Adam's FemmeFatale Fiancée Clodagh poisons her nephew, [[RepetitiveName Peter Peters]], so Adam can have a place in an expedition to the North Pole. During the voyage, Adam dreams about Clodagh giving Peters poisoned water. He jerks upright screaming, 'Clodagh! Clodagh! ''Spare the man!'''

* Creator/AndreNorton's novel ''Literature/PostmarkedTheStars'' begins with Dane Thorson dreaming that he's crawling through steamy, greasy mud. He wakes up with a gasp and pushed himself up to a seated position.

** And again with Gerald after having a dream-turned-nightmare where his father (who morphed into Harold) pushed Gerald off the hill in the middle of “Gerald’s Secret”.

** Both Helga and Arnold do this a few times in some episodes.

** Sid wakes up like this in the episodes “Sid the Vampire Slayer” and “Sid and Germs”.

* Both Helga and Arnold do this a few times in some episodes of ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold''.

** Sid in the episodes “Sid the Vampire Slayer” and “Sid and Germs”.

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10303398/1/The-91st-Annual-Hunger-Games The 91st Annual Hunger Games]]'': Ava has one of these after a particularly chilling nightmare about District 4.

* ''Webcomic/DragonBallZElsewhere'': Yamcha has one when he dreams of the time C20 almost killed him, and wakes up jumping, sweating, and with the hands on his chest, suffering from phantom pains.
* I''Fanfic/BoysUndSenshado'': [[OriginalCharacter Akio]] has this when he has a nightmare about when his father died.

* In chapter 5 of ''Fanfic/FirstAidKitsAndDeepSecrets'', May jolts up from a nightmare about her childhood.

* ''Fanfic/MeetingALoud'': Due to traumatic events involving his birth family's deaths and his previous foster home, Lincoln suffers from these for a while.

* In the ''Manga/OnePiece'' PeggySue[=/=]{{Harem}} fic ''Fanfic/LuffysRenewedAdventure'', Ace has one of these in Chapter 79 about Luffy standing at his grave and mourning him, while Blackbeard mocks him for dying. It serves as a harsh reminder of Luffy's warning to him in Alabasta to be careful when he fights Blackbeard.

* ''Fanfic/SOE2LoneHeirOfKrypton'':
** In an omake Asuka does this after having a nightmare where she is wearing a ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} outfit which can only be described like a tiny bikini.
** Subverted in chapter 14's omake. Shinji is actually having an excellent dream (Asuka is about to kiss him right after she and Misato have agreed to share him), and all of sudden Pen-Pen warks and he jolts awake. He did not take the penguin's interruption well.
--->''Shinji jolted awake, finding himself sitting in his bed. Dazed, he cast his gaze around the room, soon finding Pen-Pen at the foot of his bed.''

* In ''Fanfic/NeonGenesisEvangelionSenshiNoMichi'', Shinji "sits up in his hospital bed with a start" when he wakes up from a nightmare where he meets an evil-looking, murderous version of himself.
* In ''Fanfic/ThePriceOfFlight'', leakage between worlds across an unstable border is felt keenly by magic users in Ankh-Morpork. Witch-pilots of the right ethnicity in the Air Watch become subject to seriously bad dreams about a place called UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} in various wars where, inevitably, they die in combat in the air or are killed by attacks coming out of the air. Olga Romanoff, after a dream of flying in an unbelievably fast aircraft which is hit by some sort of missile, has the catapult awakening in her own bed in Ankh-Morpork. Asking around, she discovers ''all'' her [[UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} Rodinian]] pilots have had this too.
* In ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' fanfic "[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27084541/chapters/66133225 Something Wicked This Way Comes]]" Spock wakes up this way after a nightmare. Then again, not only is he not human and used to lucid dreaming, there is also a good chance that the nightmare in question was actually a psychic attack by the MonsterOfTheWeek.
* In ''Fanfic/{{Wake}}'', Asuka sits by Shinji's side as he is tossing and turning in his bed. Finally Shinji jolts up screaming, and noticing Asuka's concerned presence, Shinji explains he was having a nightmare about Third Impact.
* ''Fanfic/MyDreamIsYours'': Both Oren and O'Malley wake up in this manner after having dreams that are different from their usual ones. O'Malley's dream had something to do with creatures, while Oren's dream was him doing massive amounts of paperwork that wouldn't stop coming.
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12544153/1/Endgame Endgame]]'' Harry shoots up and scans the room for threats after dreaming that Ginny resurrected Voldemort.
* ''Manga/SpyXFamily'':
** PlayedForDrama in [[https://twitter.com/amesbloom/status/1587268557339086849 this]] ''Manga/SpyXFamily'' doujin. Yor merrily arrives home with a gift for Loid and Anya, and then breaks down in tears and lets out a RapidFireNo when she sees her blood-soaked [[ProfessionalKiller Thorn Princess]] persona standing over the murdered Loid, Anya, and Bond. When Yor wakes up screaming, Loid comes into her room to see what's going on, and he gives her a CoolDownHug when she tearfully says that she's scared.
** PlayedForLaughs in [[https://twitter.com/fragonana/status/1519991452885217280 this doujin]], where Damian has an EroticDream featuring Anya ([[AgeLift both in their late teens]]) and wakes up in a cold sweat only to realize he had a wet dream. At school, Anya reads Damian's mind, where he expresses outrage that Anya of all people gave him a wet dream. When Anya gets home, she asks Loid if Damian is mad at her because she gave him a wet dream, [[TheIngenue a term she doesn't know the meaning of]]. [[BoyFriendBlockingDad Cue an enraged Loid loading a gun]].
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkiMEIEagF0 This fan dubbed doujin]], originally [[https://twitter.com/fragonana by fragonana]], [[AgeLift features an adult Anya and Damian, as in their mid to late twenties]]. Damian is called in from the waiting room at a maternity ward, where a nurse tells him his daughter's been born. When Damian enters the delivery room, he exitedly tells anya he can't wait to meet their baby, who calls him "papa" and makes the same smug face Anya makes, causing Damian to snap awake from his dream, which stirs up Anya as well. When Damian regrets not taking precations because they could end up having baby, Anya reads his thoughts and [[AmIJustAToyToYou gets mad thinking he's just playing with her emotions]], and hits him.

* Yvette has these in the ''Series/SmartGuy'' episode "Perchance to Dream," after each time she dreams about her and [[DropInCharacter Mo]] getting married (even during a DreamWithinADream that occurs after she realizes the reason behind the dreams). At the end of the selfsame episode, a different dream -- where Yvette professes her love for [[CoolLoser Mackey]] -- takes place. It turns out Mackey is the one dreaming about it, but he plays with this trope in that, while he does catapult himself awake, he's ''thrilled'' with how the dream turns out.

* In ''VideoGame/NoUmbrellasAllowed'', the protagonist wakes up with a jolt at the start of a new week after having nightmares of [[DreamingOfTimesGoneBy the past he doesn't remember.]]

* ''Film/{{Lifeforce}}''. While Carlson is asleep, he has a nightmare where he sits up in bed and the space girl visits him. Then he wakes up (for real) and sits upright in bed screaming.

* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders'', after being menaced by [[DreamWeaver Death 13]] for the first time, Kakyoin wakes up like this.

* Used in one of the endings of ''VideoGame/AoOni'': [[spoiler:in version 5, Takeshi has a nightmare about being back inside the house, hiding in the cabinet you first found him in, and getting discovered by the monster instead]].

* Shepard starts having these during ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''. They involve [[spoiler: following a kid s/he saw die in the opening through a forest, hearing the voices of dead characters from earlier in the series.]]
** However, it's more of an aversion, as Shepard doesn't catapult so much as simply gasp and jerk awake.
* Zero is prone to these in ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' due to his DarkAndTroubledPast and apparently sleeps with his capsule open to facilitate them.

* Happens to Thrall in the opening cutscene of ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} 3''.

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* Happens in the Unlimited Blade Works route of ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', after Shirou dreams of walking through a FieldOfBlades and looks down at his arm, only to see that it's turned into a sword.
[[/folder]]

* It's happened twice so far in ''Webcomic/{{Crankrats}}''.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': All of the time. Here are some early examples: