History Main / TheSandman

* Creator/DCComics had used this mythological character in various of his characters:

This trope is about Sandman and all his representations in the different media. Not to be confused with the Franchise/SpiderMan enemy (literally a sandman) or SentientSands (although some examples overlap).

* "Enter Sandman" by Music/{{Metallica}} is a song about to deal with the concept of a child's nightmares and as the name says, plays with the mythical figure of Sandman. The videoclip goes further with a young boy being chased in nightmares by various dangers and in one scene where he's praying, an old man appears being Sandman himself as TheMan behind the nightmares (ported by R. G. Armstrong).

This trope is about Sandman and all his representations in the different media. Not to be confused with the Franchise/SpiderMan enemy (literally a sandman), SentientSands (although some examples overlap).

* "Mr. Sandman" is an iconic song composed by Pat Ballard in 1954 and recorded in the same year by by Vaughn Monroe & His Orchestra, The Chordettes and The Four Aces (the last two are the more known versions). The song is about a man/woman (depends of who sings the song) that asks Mr. Sandman to "bring me a dream" of a beautiful partner so he/she won't be alone anymore. Having a lot of covers in next decades, some of the original versions are a distinctive trait of TheFifties that also [[MisterSandmanSequence has its own trope]], being this song the TropeNamer.

This trope is about Sandman and all his representations in the different media. Not to be confused with the Franchise/SpiderMan enemy (literally a sandman), SentientSands (although some examples overlap) or the MisterSandmanSequence, which is about multiple cultural references from a specific time period being used to establish when a work is set.

* "Mr. Sandman" is an iconic song composed by Pat Ballard in 1954 and recorded in the same year by by Vaughn Monroe & His Orchestra, The Chordettes and The Four Aces (the last two are the more known versions). The song is about a man/woman (depends of who sings the song) that asks Mr. Sandman to "bring me a dream" of a beautiful partner so he/she won't be alone anymore. Having a lot of covers in next decades, some of the original versions are a distintive trait of TheFifties that also [[MisterSandmanSequence has its own trope]], being this song the TropeNamer.

* ''WesternAnimation/RiseOfTheGuardians'': The Sandman, or Sandy for short, the Guardian of Dreams is the oldest of the Guardians and the first Guardian chosen by Man in the Moon which is also [[SentientSands made entirely of sand]]. He does not speak, but communicates through sand images that he conjures above his head. He's also a GuardianEntity of children's dreams as well part of The Guardians, a legendary league led by [[SantaClaus Nicholas St. North]] with other child entities like the Easter Bunny and the Fairy Tooth.

* Sylvester “Sylvie” Ashling of ''WesternAnimation/EpithetErased'', thanks to his Epithet of “Drowsy.” He can create a golden dust that lulls people to sleep and brings their dreams to life, either as a cloud around him or a flock of CountingSheep minions. He can also make himself fall asleep to unleash one of his own dreams, [[ALoadOfBull Doctor Beefton]].

# In his good form he's considered the Guardian of Dreams, but in his bad form, he's an interpretation of the Boogeyman (who might otherwise be his nemesis).

* ''Series/{{Charmed}}'': In the episode "[[Recap/CharmedS5E14SandFranciscoDreamin Sand Francisco Dreamin']]", the Sandman is a creature that makes people sleep and have dreams. The Tracer Demons go after Sandmen so people won't sleep, which is the main reason why the Charmed Ones are chased by their nightmares.

# In his good form he's considered the Guardian of Dreams, but in his bad form, he's an interpretation of the Boogeyman.

* in ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'', the Sandman, despite being the God of Sleep, was also unable to sleep, so he stole Muriel's magic sand that every living being possesses in order to. Courage had to get it back, and discovered that the Sandman had lost his teddy bear, which funnily enough was the reason for ''his'' insomnia, and when he found it stuck under the Sandman's giant bed, the Sandman gave the sand back so that both he Muriel could sleep again.

* in ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'', the Sandman was also unable to sleep, so he stole Muriel's magic sand so that he could. Courage had to get it back, and discovered that the Sandman had lost his teddy bear, and when he found it, the Sandman gave the sand back so Muriel could sleep again.

* In the second and third ''Film/TheSantaClause'' films, Sandman (Creator/MichaelDorn) is a respected member of the Council of Legendary Figures, along with Santa, Father Time, Mother Nature, Jack Frost, The Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy.

* In ''[[Literature/DerSandmann]]'' (The Sandman) by Creator/ETAHoffmann, Nathanael not only believes that the story of the Sandman is real, but also that Coppelius is the Sandman. However, in this short story, the Sandman doesn't simply throw sand into children's eyes. He steals their eyes if they don't go to bed. Part of the conflict is Nathaneal's inability to realize there is no real Sandman.

* In ''Der Sandmann'' (The Sandman) by E.T.A. Hoffmann, Nathanael not only believes that the story of the Sandman is real, but also that Coppelius is the Sandman. However, in this short story, the Sandman doesn't simply throw sand into children's eyes. He steals their eyes if they don't go to bed. Part of the conflict is Nathaneal's inability to realize there is no real Sandman.

* In ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'', there're an alien race called the Galyari that fight [[TheNthDoctor the Doctor]] in various times (against the [[Creator/ColinBaker Sixth]] and [[Creator/SylvesterMcCoy Seventh Doctor]]) as well some of his companions (Franchise/BerniceSummerfield). They're anthropomorfic chameleon-like aliens who had a shared story with the Doctor, whose see him as "The Sandman".

!!Examples

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* The Sandman most are familiar with is a figure from Scandinavian folklore who sprinkles sand and grit into children's eyes to bring on sleep and dreams.
* The lesser-known [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek]] god of dreams, Morpheus, is sometimes conflated with the Sandman (as in the Neil Gaiman example). The drug morphine is named after him.

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* ''WesternAnimation/RiseOfTheGuardians'': The Sandman, or Sandy for short, the Guardian of Dreams is the oldest of the Guardians and the first Guardian chosen by Man in the Moon which is also [[SentientSands made enterely of sand]]. He does not speak, but communicates through sand images that he conjures above his head. He's also a GuardianEntity of children's dreams as well part of The Guardians, a legendary league leadered by [[SantaClaus Nicholas St. North]] with other child entities like Easter Bunny and the Fairy Tooth.
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* Wrestling/JimFullington, known as The Sandman (and previously Mr. Sandman) was a famous wrestler in TheNineties, most known for his career in Wrestling/{{ECW}}. First based on the Sandman, later he evolved into a Hardcore legend (and AlternateCompanyEquivalent of Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin), known also for having "[[Music/{{Metallica}} Enter Sandman]]" as his entrance song.

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* ''WesternAnimation/RiseOfTheGuardians'': The Sandman, or Sandy for short, the Guardian of Dreams is the oldest of the Guardians and the first Guardian chosen by Man in the Moon which is also made enterely of sand. He does not speak, but communicates through sand images that he conjures above his head. He's also a GuardianEntity of children's dreams as well part of The Guardians, a legendary league leadered by [[SantaClaus Nicholas St. North]] with other child entities like Easter Bunny and the Fairy Tooth.

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'' the episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E9SleepNoMore Sleep No More]]" featured Sandmen as the MonsterOfTheWeek, which were literally [[HumanoidAbomination humans made from sand]]. It's later revealed they were made from "sleep dust" (the crusty substance in your eye) and that Sandmen could be created from any human after being exposed to an electronic signal.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': The ''Fiend Folio'' supplement (1981) introduces the sandmen. A sandman is a humanoid monster made up of sand held together by magic. Any creature that comes within 20 feet of it must save vs. spell or be put to sleep for at least 30 minutes.

* A sinister Sandman appeared in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'', who wanted to put the entire world to sleep, creating a city populated by slumbering people and drams run amok.

* ''WesternAnimation/NilusTheSandman'' was a 1990s cartoon where the Sandman helped kids overcome their fears and similar. He was a pretty well-meaning, grandfatherly type, albeit a bit of a doofus.

The Sandman (or Mr. Sandman) is a mythical character in Western and Northern European folklore who puts people to sleep and brings good dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto the eyes of people while they sleep at night. Usually depicted as good, in some stories is also depicted as bad, as well as neutral. The Sandman as Entity of Dreams receives many names (like Morpheus in Myth/ClassicalMythology), but this character has specific traits that distinguish from other Entities of Dream:
# Could be a human or an AnthropomorphicPersonification of a human. In some cases, only has the powers and has nothing to do with being an entity.

# No matter the form or alignment he has, he always uses a magical sand to put to sleep sentient beings.

This trope is about Sandman and all their representations in the different media. Not to be confused with the Franchise/SpiderMan enemy (literally a sandman) as well SentientSands (even when some versions overlap this). Either has to do with MisterSandmanSequence, which is about pop culture references when it's refered to a time in specific.

** Probably the most known version is ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' written by Creator/NeilGaiman and published by Creator/VertigoComics and being enterely based on the mythology of the original Sandman than the Golden Age superhero (even when he's also mentioned). The story in general is about Sandman, also known as Dream, one of the Endless, and his adventures on Earth and other realms.

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* ''WesternAnimation/RiseOfTheGuardians'': The Sandman, or Sandy for short, the Guardian of Dreams is the oldest of the Guardians and the first Guardian chosen by Man in the Moon which is also made enterely of sand. He does not speak, but communicates through sand images that he conjures above his head. He's also a GuardianEntity of children's dreams as well part of The Guardians, a legendary league leadered by [[SantaClaus Nicholas St. North]] with other child entities like Easter Bunny and the Fairy Tooth.

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''A new draft by Basara-kun. Partly based on [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=aqka2t7by6gszyiq2ki9yy7n this draft]] and [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=ldvmt4y2ht0q36dgpk8zl4do this other one]], I noticed there's no mention to this mythical character, so I think a trope about him could be necessary. As always, any help is welcome, in examples as well in description and other crossing tropes.''

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