History Main / PlaguedByNightmares

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13473286/1/Gaz-Taster-of-PTSD Gaz, Taster of PTSD]]'': With the one year anniversary of [[Recap/InvaderZimS2E8GazTasterOfPork the time]] she was cursed to only taste pork (and got locked up as a media freak for it) approaching, Gaz starts having repeated nightmares of being back in that situation, leaving her unable to get any sleep as result. With her [[TherapyIsForTheWeak refusing to talk out her issues]], they only get worse, and she starts suffering sleep deprivation-induced SanitySlippage [[spoiler: until she has a total breakdown. After a brief stay in a mental hospital, she starts accepting help]].

* ''Fanfic/TheRigelBlackChronicles'': Professor Snape is upset and worried to hear that Rigel is still reliant on Dreamless Sleep potions, albeit only partial doses, even many months after [[spoiler:being buried alive for two weeks]]. The fact that she has to return to the scene of her trauma doesn't reassure him.
--> '''Snape:''' You should not be going back into that forest.

* ''Series/FraggleRock'': In "The New Trash Heap in Town", all the Fraggles have been having a recurring nightmare since Gobo got his leg thumped after a particularly violent encounter in the Gorgs' garden. The NightmareSequence shows Junior [[DropTheHammer sledgehammering his way into the Rock]], crawling in amidst screams of terrified Fraggles, and beginning, on all fours, to [[ThePursuingNightmare chase them]].

* The ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "Shadow Play" shows main character Adam Grant trapped in a recurring nightmare. The episode starts with him on trial for murder and being sentenced to death and concludes with him being executed in the electric chair. The recurring nature of the dream is revealed at episode's end, when [[GroundhogDayLoop the nightmare starts all over again]], this time with different people serving in roles such as the judge and public defender.

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* ''Fanfic/AdviceAndTrust'': Shinji and Asuka had nightmares constantly about their mothers dying and their fathers abandoning them afterwards. Sleeping together effectively banishes those nightmares, allowing them to sleep more peacefully than ever before.
-->'''Asuka''' ''(talking about both)'' You have nightmares all the time about it. The memory keeps coming after you when you try to sleep.
* ''FanFic/TheApprenticeTheStudentAndTheCharlatan'' opens with the titular trio (Nova Shine, Twilight Sparkle, and Trixie Lulamoon) all experiencing these over an extended period. The first chunk of the story is devoted to them finding out what the dreams mean and who is causing them. [[spoiler:Nova Shine two years older, after an expedition into the past, is causing them as a warning because he knows it gets the events of the story moving.]]
* ''Fanfic/BrokenSpirit'': Discord has several nightmares stemming from [[spoiler: his guilt over inadvertently killing Celestia and Luna's parents. His nightmares only stop when he confesses to the princess's what he did and reconciles with them.]]
* ''Fanfic/TheChildOfLove'': Asuka often has nightmares where she dreams about her mother, her madness, her suicide, and how Kyoko wanted her dying together with her.
* ''Fanfic/ACertainDrollHivemind'': It's mentioned that the entire [[HiveMind Network]] has constant nightmares of their many deaths against Accelerator. [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror Misaka-11111 says this very casually, only musing that it might be nice to dream about something else]].
* ''Fanfic/ACrownOfStars'': Asuka has suffered recurring nightmares for ''sixteen'' years. They were pretty bad when they "only" consisted of her mother's madness and suicide, but they got worse during the Angel War and the post-TI years. However they stopped after she and Shinji started to sleep together.
* ''Fanfic/{{Dangerverse}}'': Sirius has these for a while in ''Living with Danger'', [[spoiler:a result of his guilt over Lily and James finally catching up with him after Azkaban]].

* ''Fanfic/{{Enlightenments}}'': Wander has severe and persistent trauma nightmares. He starts out trying to avoid them by pushing himself to exhaustion before sleeping; this rarely works. One thing Dormin does for him as they start to become friends is show him how to mix a medication that interrupts his recall of the dreams, allowing him to sleep more easily.
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13473286/1/Gaz-Taster-of-PTSD Gaz, Taster of PTSD]]'': With the one year anniversary of [[Recap/InvaderZimS2E8GazTasterOfPork the time]] she was cursed to only taste pork (and got locked up as a media freak for it) approaching, Gaz starts having repeated nightmares of being back in that situation, leaving her unable to get any sleep as result. With her [[TherapyIsForTheWeak refusing to talk out her issues]], they only get worse, and she starts suffering sleep deprivation-induced SanitySlippage [[spoiler: until she has a total breakdown. After a brief stay in a mental hospital, she starts accepting help]].
* ''Fanfic/GettingBackOnYourHooves'':
** Twilight's been having recurring nightmares about [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E2TheReturnOfHarmonyPart2 Discord's brief reign]], and the effect he had on her friends. Trixie helps her find a way to cope with them, as an early sign of her CharacterDevelopment.
** According to Applejack in chapter 11, ''all'' of the Mane Six have been having nightmares since then. Trixie, who by this point considers them all TrueCompanions, offers to teach them the Lucid Dreaming trick she taught Twilight to help.

* In ''Fanfic/HarryAndTheShipgirls'', Ehren has nightmares about getting dragged back into the [[WarIsHell zombie infested spirit of Verdun]]. Those ones are easier to bear than her [[HisOwnWorstEnemy other nightmares]] where she is a proud member of the SS serving as an officer in one of the extermination camps. She hides this very well behind her cool demeanor save to Claire, Niobe, and Draco, who have seen under the mask.
* In ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainKnightOfTheOrangeLily'', Ryoken Kougami has been getting nightmares of seeing Specter going through rounds of ElectricTorture with an ominous green glow. What makes it even ''more'' terrifying is that 1) Specter is on the Infinity Train (Ryoken has no idea about it), 2) the fact that this is the same Specter who took 6 ''months'' of torture as a young kid that is screaming and begging for mercy and 3) the fact that Ryoken is ''specifically'' having this dream since, again, ''he has no idea about the Train''
* In ''Fanfic/JonathanJoestarTheFirstJoJo,'' It's revealed that Jotaro repeatedly has extremely vivid dreams of [[spoiler: the other crusader's deaths]].
* ''Fanfic/TheKingsWhoCared'': Aegon begins to get bad dreams after the first time he kills during the Battle of Castle Black, with his victim, the wildling [[spoiler:Ygritte]], hauting his nights.
* ''Fanfic/LiveAHeroMHA'': Izuku has so many nightmares that he stays awake a lot, and thus is a victim of SleepDeprivation.
* ''Fanfic/LeviathanMyHeroAcademia'': Izuku suffers from these fairly frequently, having a particular NightmareSequence that he's very familiar with. It consists of him being all alone while clinging to a streetlight on a dark, foggy night as the Leviathan looks him dead in the eyes and roars. Normally, he's able to comfort himself with the fact that it was AllJustADream. [[spoiler:But Izuku has a different nightmare the night after Aizawa's test, in which Blade stumbles towards him as an eviscerated walking cadaver that's falling apart at the seams, as if to remind Izuku of the fact that he has killed people, before the Leviathan barrels towards Izuku and swallows him whole. It turns eerily prophetic when Izuku starts flipping through the news channels and finds that Blade has escaped custody, causing Izuku to run to the bathroom and vomit in disgust and terror.]]
* ''Fanfic/TheLoneDragonEmperor'': Issei begins experiencing nightmares on a regular basis ever since [[spoiler:eating members of Genesis alive in chapter 9]], but these nightmares get even worse after his return to Kuoh.

* ''Fanfic/TheSagaOfAvatarKorra'': In the first chapters of Book Two, Korra has recurrent nightmares about the deaths of the Red Lotus.
* ''Fanfic/ScarTissue'': [[OfficialCouple Shinji and Asuka]] had been suffering from awful nightmares during the series. Then [[DespairEventHorizon the]] [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt events]] of the movie happened and their nightmares got way, WAY worse. Shinji's nightmares consisted of him letting Asuka dying and getting the whole of humanity killed. Asuka's nightmares features her mother's insanity and suicide, her MindRape, her extremely bloody death, and later the abuse that she heaped on Shinji after Third Impact.
* ''Fanfic/ATaleOfTwoSuns'': Sunset has one in the first chapter, imagining Celestia [[TakenForGranite turning her to stone]] as punishment for her misdeeds. Later chapters reveal that she has been constantly suffering nightmares about the different kinds of punishments Celestia would subject her to if she ever returned back to Equestria. [[spoiler: Thankfully for Sunset, Celestia isn't planning that at all]].
* ''FanFic/TarnishedDiamonds'': Diamond Tiara is implied to have had them since Checker Monarch's defeat, including the one that starts the fic, due to being terrified of becoming a second Checker. She's showing signs of sleep deprivation at the beginning of the story.

* In ''Fanfic/WhatTomorrowBrings'', Jake mentions that he has a recurring nightmare where [[KillTheOnesYouLove Tom]] talks to him while dying gruesomely.

* ''Literature/SonnysBlues'': The narrator mentions that Isabel has recurring nightmares about their deceased daughter Grace.

* ''LightNovel/Overlord2012'': Nemu is haunted in her dreams each night by [[PastExperienceNightmare memories of her parent's death]], forcing her to sleep with her sister.

* ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': When Naofumi buys Raphtalia, she suffers from recurrent night terrors stemming from the trauma of her parents' deaths.

* ''Literature/TheBelgariad'': The same nightmare has plagued Zakath since his teens, after he was forced to execute his lover and her family for plotting his assassination for the Murgo King. Discovering too late that she was framed transforms him from a kind, wise man into a cold-blooded monster hell-bent on destroying Taur Urgas' entire family and race. By the time he meets Garion's group in ''The Mallorean'', grief, guilt and self-loathing have reduced him to an insomniac EmptyShell who seeks world domination in the secret hope of finding someone [[DeathSeeker strong enough to kill him]]. [[spoiler:After a fatal poisoning forces Polgara, Sadi and an [[NotSoStoic unusually worried]] Cyradis to pool their medicinal knowledge to save him, he privately admits to Garion that this brief encounter with Cyradis has left him with a strange sense of peace, curing his nightmares and insomnia, but leaving him baffled and unsettled by whatever mysterious power she wields over him... ThePowerOfLove, it turns out.]]

* ''Literature/TheBelgariad'': The same nightmare has plagued Zakath since his teens, after he was forced to execute his lover and her family for plotting his assassination with the Murgo King. Discovering too late that she was framed transforms him from a kind, wise man into a cold-blooded monster hell-bent on destroying Taur Urgas' entire family and race. By the time he meets Garion's group in ''The Mallorean'', grief, guilt and self-loathing have reduced him to an insomniac EmptyShell who seeks world domination in the secret hope of finding someone [[DeathSeeker strong enough to kill him]]. [[spoiler:After a fatal poisoning forces Polgara, Sadi and an [[NotSoStoic unusually worried]] Cyradis to pool their medicinal knowledge to save him, he privately admits to Garion that this brief encounter with Cyradis has left him with a strange sense of peace, curing his nightmares and insomnia, but leaving him baffled and unsettled by whatever mysterious power she wields over him... ThePowerOfLove, it turns out.]]

* ''Literature/TheBelgariad'': The same nightmare has plagued Zakath since his teens, after he was forced to execute his lover and her family for plotting his assassination with the Murgo King; Discovering too late that she was framed transforms him from a kind, wise man into a cold-blooded monster hell-bent on destroying Taur Urgas' entire family and race. By the time he meets Garion's group in ''The Mallorean'', grief, guilt and self-loathing have reduced him to an insomniac EmptyShell who seeks world domination in the secret hope of finding someone [[DeathSeeker strong enough to kill him]]. [[spoiler:After a fatal poisoning forces Polgara, Sadi and an [[NotSoStoic unusually worried]] Cyradis to pool their medicinal knowledge to save him, he privately admits to Garion that this brief encounter with Cyradis has left him with a strange sense of peace, curing his nightmares and insomnia, but leaving him baffled and unsettled by whatever mysterious power she wields over him... ThePowerOfLove, it turns out.]]

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* ''Fanfic/XCOMTheHadesContingency'': It is revealed that the Commander has nightmares of [[spoiler:his late wife and comrades, accusing him of getting them killed]]. These nightmares also imply that deep down, the Commander regrets his actions during the War on Terror in some way; however, this isn't properly expanded on until ''Advent Directive''.

* ''Fanfic/XCOMTheHadesContingency'': It is revealed that the Commander has nightmares of [[spoiler:his late wife and comrades, accusing him of getting them killed]]. These nightmares also imply that deep down, the Commander regrets his actions during the War on Terror in some way.

* ''Literature/{{Kane}}'': In "Raven's Eyrie" Klesst has a recurring nightmare of a huge black hound with fiery red eyes that is hunting her. This is actually a {{Foreshadowing}} of the fate [[spoiler: her mother Ionor]] has intended for her.

* William Bishop from ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon'' is plagued by recurrent nightmares of getting shot down over Miami by a Russian jet with a shark mouth painted on its nose. This turns out to be a case of PropheticDreams, as Bishop later learns that that plane belongs to a RenegadeRussian ace, giving an otherwise stoic Bishop a bad case of anxiety when the two of them ''do'' duke it out over Miami.

* During ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Anakin has a recurring nightmare of his wife, Padme, [[DeathByChildbirth dying in childbirth]], something that Anakin believes to be a [[DreamingOfThingsToCome prothetic dream]]. Sure enough, this ends up being the case, [[SelfFulfillingProphecy largely because of the actions he took to prevent it]]. The film's {{Novelization}} goes more in depth with this, revealing that Anakin has this nightmare ''every time he sleeps'', leading to him swearing off sleep entirely just to avoid it. The reason he was so certain that his dreams were prophetic is because during ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' he had similar dreams of his mother being tortured to death and found her just in time for her to die in his arms.

* ''Fanfic/XComTheHadesContingency'': [[spoiler:The Commander is plagued by nightmares of his late wife and comrades, accusing him of getting them killed.]]