History Main / DreamingOfTimesGoneBy

* ''Anime/FateStayNightUnlimitedBladeWorks'': Rin continuously has dreams of Archer's life when he was alive. This is presumably a side effect of their contract. Because Archer has amnesia, it takes Rin a while to piece together and realize what she's seeing: [[spoiler:Archer is in fact a FutureBadass version of Rin's boyfriend Shirou, and the memories she's been seeing show how [[TraumaCongaLine his life went to shit, he was betrayed by everyone he tried to save, and his ideals were dragged through the mud]]]].

* ''VisualNovel/{{AIR}}'': Misuzu dreams of the time of Kannabi-no-Mikoto [[spoiler:which was her "[[OurSoulsAreDifferent full-self]]". As the dream becomes more vivid, her body deteriorates because no human body can contain the entirety of Kanna's soul, eventually leading to her tragic death]].

* In the ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'' fanfic ''Fanfic/MirrorMirrorMyNextLifeAsAVillainess'', Sophia had more dreams of her past life than in the source material, and ImCryingButIDontKnowWhy is a relatively frequent occurrence to her and often some comforting from Nicol.

* ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'': [[spoiler:One of the ways Sophia's PastLifeMemories comes to her is through her dreams. While she forgets most of it when awake, she gets a feeling that she's dreaming of her past, before her own birth.]] In any rate, the readers/viewers do see the content of one of those dreams, which portrays that person's past with the person who became Catarina.

* In the YuriGenre VisualNovel ''VisualNovel/AkaiIto'', [[TheChick Kei]] dreams of the time of the Mizuki Tribe and their coalition with the human exorcists from the Capitol in their quest to vanquish [[BigBad Nushi]]. [[spoiler:She also dreams of the fall of the Mizuki at the hands of their human ex-allies, and the subsequent suffering of [[TheLastOfHisKind Sakuya]]]].

* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', Madoka dreams of [[spoiler:things that have happened in the ''previous iteration'' of the GroundhogDayLoop]].

* ''Manga/ShamanKing'': Happens several time to different characters.

* ''Anime/HeartCatchPrettyCure'' begins with Tsubomi dreaming of [[LadyOfWar Cure Moonlight's]] defeat.
* In ''Anime/SailorMoonCrystal:''

* ''Anime/FateStayNightUnlimitedBladeWorks'': Rin continuously has dreams of Archer's life when he was alive. This is presumably a side effect of their contract. Because Archer has amnesia, it takes Rin a while to piece together and realize what she's seeing: [[spoiler:Archer is in fact a FutureBadass version of Rin's boyfriend Shirou, and the memories she's been seeing show how [[TraumaCongaLine his life went to shit, he was betrayed by everyone he tried to save, and his ideals were dragged through the mud]]]].
* One chapter of ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'' begins with Shirogane dreaming of decades in the past, when he was worshiped as a god, and conversed with a little girl who says no one else believes he exists. By the end of the same day he reunites with her, who turns out to be Reo's grandmother.

* In later parts of ''Bringing Me To Life'' Max starts dreaming about events of ''Film/TheMatrix'' over seventy years ago, since he is one of the reincarnations of the main cast.
%%* Miku has these in the ''Music/Vocaloid'' fanfic ''Fanfic/RottingCamellias''.
* Kathryn in ''Fanfic/TheHeartTrilogy'' sometimes sees the past in her dreams, other times the future, due to her being a {{Seer|s}}.
* In ''Fanfic/KarmaInRetrograde'', [[FishOutOfTemporalWater Touya]] is slowly regaining his memories of his time as Dabi in his dreams. While they're [[DreamingOfThingsToCome from his perspective]], all of the events he's remembering already happened.

* In ''Fanfic/TheDevilOfZero'', Louise has frequent dreams of Vergil's past. She's witnesses his childhood, his battles with his brother (as both himself and Nelo Angelo), and his journey through Hell.
* In ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'', Jaune starts having dreams of Darth Nihilus's past as a Jedi after finding his mask.

* After her very bad first day in San Francisco, Riley from ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'' begins to have a nightmare. Joy, being the AnthropomorphicPersonification of Riley's... well, [[ShapedLikeItself joy]], is determined to keep her happy at all times, and quickly shuts the dream down, declaring, "We are ''not'' ending the day like this." She then replaces the dream with a happy memory of Riley and her family ice skating back home in Minnesota, allowing her to sleep peacefully.

* Creator/AndreNorton:
** In ''Literature/TheOpalEyedFan'', the heroine dreams of a centuries ago HumanSacrifice on the island where she was shipwrecked.
** In ''[[Literature/WitchWorld Horn Crown]]'' the hero dreams of himself at a long-ago banquet -- [[TalkingInYourDreams where a woman talks with him and realizes he's from the future and gives him some aid]].

** This is a frequent trope in many of Howard's stories.

* In ''[[Literature/ShamanOfTheUndead The Mirror Demon]]'', after Ida's [[ThePromise immortal oath]] starts acting up, the girl starts seeing the past of the eponymous creature. It's mostly because the oath wants to be fulfilled, so it helps Ida (although Ida would probably prefer it didn't).
* In Creator/TerryPratchett and Creator/NeilGaiman's ''Literature/GoodOmens'', Witchfinder Shadwell has a dream about seventeenth-century witch and prophet Agnes Nutter. Because of her prophetic ability, he ''is'' detected by her, leading to a BrickJoke; in the first account the book gives of her burning at the stake, it says that her last act was to look up at the sky and say "That goes for you as well, you daft old fool," and it's implied that she's talking to God. When Shadwell dreams about it, it becomes clear that she was actually saying it to him.
* Several characters in Creator/HPLovecraft stories are unfortunate enough to [[TheDarkTimes dream of the times]] when [[EldritchAbomination Gods and their servants]] walked the Earth. Those dreams are usually harmful to mind, body, sanity, or all three.
* In Creator/BarbaraHambly's ''Literature/BrideOfTheRatGod'', a character dreams of the ancient ritual in which the cursed necklace was used.
* In Creator/StephenHunt's ''The Rise of the Iron Moon'', Purity's dreams are identified as telling of the long-distant past.
* ''LightNovel/ImAVillainessSoImTamingTheFinalBoss'': Unlike most protagonists in [[RebornAsVillainessStory the subgenre]], Aileen only gets her PastLifeMemories through her dreams. This makes her particularly prone to FlashbackFail.
* In Creator/RickRiordan's ''[[Literature/TheKaneChronicles The Throne of Fire]]'', Sadie dreams of Ra being forced from his position.

* In ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'', Silas and Sarah Heap dream of Nicko and Snorri as the latter are walking across a snow-covered forest ... 500 years before then.
* Creator/JackLondon's ''Before Adam'' is about a boy who somehow inherited GeneticMemory of his caveman ancestor and relives the caveman's life in his dreams. [[BlessedWithSuck Every night, since his infancy]], and the prehistoric world [[EverythingIsTryingToKillYou is not friendly]].

* ''Music/EvilliousChronicles'': In addition to his [[DreamingOfThingsToCome visions of the future]], Gammon Octo has dreams about events that happened hundreds of years in the past.
* As Hannah Snow of ''Literature/NightWorld'' nears her seventeenth birthday she starts dreaming of events experienced by her [[PastLifeMemories previous incarnations]], dating back to the Stone Age. This includes her interactions with her soulmate, Thierry, and Maya, allowing her to recognize them in the present day. The fact she has nightmares about being murdered in every one of her past lives sets her on edge and leads her to seek out psychological help, initially fearing she's becoming unhinged.
* ''Literature/GhostsOfTheTitanic'': [[TheProtagonist Kevin Messenger]] has a dream while he's out at sea that he is on the Titanic right after it hit the Iceberg that sunk it. He spends his time there trying to save Annie [=McConnell=] and her son Michael from drowning when it goes down.

* ''Series/DeadtimeStories'' has this as part of a NightmareSequence in "A Grave Secret", showing the lead character how the ghost girl became a ghost in the first place.

%%* Happens to Aya Brea in ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve2''. It's not so much sleeping as it's fainting from exhaustion.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', Fei and Elly experience visions of themselves in the distant past. It's not until near the end of the game that the reason for these visions is revealed.

* In ''[[VideoGame/TearsToTiara2 Tears to Tiara 2]]'', Hamil dreams of the forging of the swords of Melqart and Tanit over a thousand years ago.
* In the InteractiveFiction game ''Videogame/{{Curses}}'', sleeping in the Servant's Room gives the player a vision of the Dark Ages, with a Celtic army preparing to fight a hopeless battle against the invading Saxons. [[spoiler: It's also DreamingOfThingsToCome; at the climax, the player travels back in time and visits the same location in person.]]
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfInnocence'': The R version of the game added many, many optional dream sequences to the characters' past lives while sleeping at inns. Notably, all of them are fully voiced, unlike most of the game's skits.

* In ''Webcomic/{{RetroBlade}}'', the events during the Prologue surrounding Magnus, the Guardians, the 4th Dimension and the mysterious devil dude are visions from a dream Alexis has [[spoiler: before dying]].
* Webcomic/{{Pibgorn}} is sent back in time by the ghost, into a dream.
** Much later [[http://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn/2010/02/16/ Dru's attempt to enter her dream finds her in a memory.]]
* In ''Webcomic/{{Strays}}'', [[http://www.straysonline.com/2011/03/page-163/ Meela has one of a murder,]] and more after.
* In Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}, an important Troll historical figure known as the Signless had dreams of [[spoiler:life before he Scratched his universe, causing everyone's lives to be reset]], inspiring him to spread anti-caste-system messages.
* In ''Webcomic/{{UC}}'', all four main characters have repeated [[http://www.wanderingchaos.com/uc/120103.html shared dreams]] of a ritual involving a candle and a mysterious figure yelling "What have you done!" There is no in comic explanation about these dreams yet, but it is strongly hinted that they are showing a ritual that occurred before the story began.

* ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'': [[spoiler:One of the ways Sophia's PastLifeMemories comes to her is through her dreams. While she forgets most of it when awake, she gets a feeling that she's dreaming of her past, before her own birth.]] In any rate, the readers/viewers do see the content of one of those dreams, which portrays that person's past with the person who became Catarina.

See PastExperienceNightmare for dreams of the character's past and ExpositionOfImmortality for when the character actually lived through the past they're dreaming about.

* In ''VisualNovel/{{AIR}}'', Misuzu dreams of the time of Kannabi-no-Mikoto [[spoiler:which was her "[[OurSoulsAreDifferent full-self]]". As the dream becomes more vivid, her body deteriorates because no human body can contain the entirety of Kanna's soul, eventually leading to her tragic death]].

* Happens several time to different characters in ''Manga/ShamanKing''.
* A different take happens between Koyuki and Snow in ''Manga/{{MAR}}'', they are essentially the counterparts of the same person, and so they share dreams of what's happening between their worlds. Snow dreams of Koyuki's memories of her and Ginta's past, while Koyuki dreams of Snow's interactions with Ginta, and relates them to his worried mother to confirm to her that her son is alright, though in another world. Given that both girls love Ginta, this level of interaction helps to solidify them as his 'One True Love', [[spoiler:yes, both of them]].

* An [[DreamWeaver old man's]] astral form entered Ranma's, from Manga/RanmaOneHalf, dream showing him a date that had happened when the man was young.

* In later parts of ''Fanfic/BringingMeToLife'' Max starts dreaming about events of ''Film/TheMatrix'' over seventy years ago, since he is one of the reincarnations of the main cast.

* In ''Webcomic/{{UC}}'', all four main characters have repeated [[http://www.wanderingchaos.com/uc/120103.html shared dreams]] of a ritual involving a candle and a mysterious figure yelling �What have you done!� There is no in comic explanation about these dreams yet, but it is strongly hinted that they are showing a ritual that occurred before the story began.

* As Hannah Snow of Literature/NightWorld'' nears her seventeenth birthday she starts dreaming of events experienced by her [[PastLifeMemories previous incarnations]], dating back to the Stone Age. This includes her interactions with her soulmate, Thierry, and Maya, allowing her to recognize them in the present day. The fact she has nightmares about being murdered in every one of her past lives sets her on edge and leads her to seek out psychological help, initially fearing she's becoming unhinged.

* Kathryn in ''Fanfic/TheHeartTrilogy'' sometimes sees the past in her dreams, other times the future, due to her being a {{Seer}}.

* In addition to his [[DreamingOfThingsToCome visions of the future]], Gammon Octo from the ''Franchise/EvilliousChronicles'' has dreams about events that happened hundreds of years in the past.

* In the story mode of ''VideoGame/MarvelVSCapcomInfinite'', Franchise/IronMan manages to see the past where [[spoiler: [[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} Jedah Dohma]] and Mistress Death conspire to work together and Death uses Thanos' love for her to start her plans. Thanos can't believe it and attacks Stark, taking the Time Stone to see if he was telling the truth. Unfortunately for Thanos, Stark was right which then pushes Thanos' BerserkButton.]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Strays}}'', [[http://www.straysonline.com/2011/03/page-163/ Meela has one of a murder]], and more after.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ninjago}}'': In the "Tales from the Monastery of Spinjitzu" short [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u06dl4OZoaY "Green and Gold"]], Lloyd's dream shows his last day with the Ultra-Dragon and explains where it went after Season 2.