History Main / DreamWithinADReam

* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', written by NeilGaiman, Dream (the eponymous character) punishes the son of his captor by condemning him to "eternal waking," basically a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream... ad infinitum, with each dream quickly turning into a nightmare.

* ''Film/BodyDouble'': At least one entire theater full of moviegoers left in frustration when BrianDePalma's ended with multiple instances of this.

* Used in [[http://www.savagechickens.com/2010/07/inception.html this]] SavageChickens comic on ''Inception''.

** Another "Treehouse of Horror" episode shows Lisa and Bart parodying SherlockHolmes and Doctor Watson to be part of a Dream within a Dream of Ralphie Wiggum.

* ''WakingLife'', naturally for a film about dreaming, has the main character repeatedly waking up from a dream, while still dreaming. Hence, the film begins with a [[RecursiveReality dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream]], or perhaps even further down the line.

* "{{Leprechaun In the Hood}}": Postmaster P. awakes from a dream about the Leprechaun maiming his grandmother. He then gets up to answer the door and finds his dead friend covered in blood, waking him up the second time.

* ''TheTwilightZone'': An episode of the '85-'97 ''Twilight Zone'' revival featured a prison where the inmates were stuck in a never-ending dream-within-a-dream sequence.

* Subverted in ''TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe''. The Pevensies are chasing the White Stag at the end of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. When they see the Lamp Post, it seems vaguely familiar- as if it were from "a dream within a dream". But it turns out that the Lamp Post was real, and so was the "Spare Oom", and now they were heading back to England- to the exact same moment in time they departed it.

* In ''CollegeRoomiesFromHell'', [[http://www.crfh.net/d/20091104.html this page]] and the following one.

* This ''QuestionableContent'' [[http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1169 comic]] provides a particularly disturbing example.
* [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1849#comic This]] strip of ''SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal''.
* Happens on [[http://thinkbeforeyouthink.net/?comic=20100813 this page]] of ''ThinkBeforeYouThink''.
* Used in ''UnwindersTallComics'', "[[http://tallcomics.com/?id=118 One of These Characters Is a Brony]]".

* ''Film/TheDiscreetCharmOfTheBourgeoisie'': Perhaps the best examples come from Luis Bunuel's surreal masterpiece.

* At the end of one ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'' episode, Francis wakes up from a nightmare and a tonne weight lands on his head. Then he wakes up and the weight lands on his head again...and again...and again...

** In Season Four episode "Doppelganger" [[spoiler: Sheppard willingly shares MсKay's nightmare induced by alien entity who's trying to kill him. The nightmare ends badly and Sheppard wakes up to learn MсKay's dead. It turns out later on in the scene that the alien entity went into Sheppard's brain and sequence about MсKay's death was his nightmare.]]

* ''TheDeathsOfIanStone'' begins with the hockey player Ian Stone having a bad night due to a biased referee. On the way home, he gets run over by a train, and wakes up and realizes he's the office worker Ian Stone. He lasts a day before getting [[spoiler:stabbed by his girlfriend]], and wakes up just in time to avoid crashing the taxi he's driving. And it only continues from there...

* The main focus of ''{{Inception}}''. The protagonists are professional dream-manipulators, hired to alter people's behaviour by altering their dreams, and more subtle manipulation requires multiple recursive levels of dreaming. For this job, they attempt to create a dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream. [[spoiler: Later, a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream, hitting a [[BeyondTheImpossible henceforth believed impossible]] fourth layer.]]

* ''SuckerPunch'' has women in an insane asylum imagining that they are in a mob brothel. From there, they then imagine they are ass-whomping ninjas or commandos in fantasyscapes.

* In a ''CalvinAndHobbes'' comic, Calvin puts on his clothes, walks out the front door, falls from an inexplicably great height, and wakes up in CatapultNightmare fashion - then does it all over again. Naturally, he's afraid to get up afterwards.

* ''{{The X-Files}}''

* An episode of ''TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'' has Will being hexed by a psychic. The end of the episode has him waking up from the events as if they were a dream to [[GroundHogDayLoop the morning before]] in which the dialogue from the beginning of the episode is heard.

* Try ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb''. Candace finally busts her brothers, that ends in disastrous results. In said dream, she sees Perry as an agent, causing her to wonder that whats Perry's been doing at breakfast. Suddenly, agents carried off the family, saying Perry has to relocate, than it turns it out it was just the platypus's dream.

* ''The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie'': Perhaps the best examples come from Luis Bunuel's surreal masterpiece.
* ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'' series: This is a common staple of the movies, where the villain Freddy Krueger killed people in their dreams. He's chasing someone, and they wake up! They're safe! Oops, no, they aren't, waking up was a dream too!

* At the end of one ''{{Taz-Mania}}'' episode, Francis wakes up from a nightmare and a tonne weight lands on his head. Then he wakes up and the weight lands on his head again...and again...and again...

* ''Film/SilentHillRevelations3D'' starts out with one of these. After a gruesome dream that ends with Heather being burned alive, she wakes screaming to be comforted by her father. Just when she's starting to relax, he's stabbed through the chest and she wakes again rattled.

* The main focus of ''{{Inception}}''. The protagonists are professional dream-manipulators, hired to alter people's behaviour by altering their dreams, and more subtle manipulation requires multiple recursive levels of dreaming. For this job, they attempt to create a dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream. [[spoiler: And later, a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream, hitting a [[BeyondTheImpossible henceforth believed impossible]] fourth layer.]]

* ''{{Inception}}'' really has too much fun with this. The protagonists even attempt to do a dream within a dream within a dream. [[spoiler: And later, a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream. [[UpToEleven Four layers!]]]]

* In ''BittersweetCandyBowl'', Lucy wakes from [[http://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c49/p1.html In The End]] into [[http://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c50/p1.html Wonderland]]. Rather unsurprisingly given its title, the events of "Wonderland" are just another dream.

* Exaggerated in ''Webcomic/SquareRootOfMinusGarfield'' in [[http://www.mezzacotta.net/garfield/?comic=493 Recursive Nightmare]] and [[http://www.mezzacotta.net/garfield/?comic=1188 Y Combinator Garfield]], which enter an infinite loop. Whenever Garfield wakes from his dream, he has the same dream again, then wakes again.

* Exaggerated [[http://www.mezzacotta.net/garfield/?comic=1188 in this]] ''Webcomic/SquareRootOfMinusGarfield'' one, which goes on indifintely.