History Main / TheSleepless

'''Stella''': No, what do *normal people* do when they can't sleep?

* Vampires in ''Literature/{{Twilight}}''.

** Thri-kreen ''cannot'' sleep naturally, though in some editions they can be put to sleep with magic (a traumatic experience). They refer to humans and other races that need to sleep with the name drajna/drasna, and find it very difficult to relate to their bad habit of "lazily lying on the ground". Thri-kreen can get exhausted and may need to rest their bodies, but their minds do not naturally ever fall asleep. In the original TabletopGame/DarkSun setting, elves (natural food/enemies of thri-kreen) also don't need to sleep, making them NotSoDifferent.

** After Palpatine/Darth Sidious killed his Master, Darth Plagueis, in his sleep, he became paranoid that the same thing would happen to him. Palpatine vowed to never repeat his Master's mistake, and never slept again, presumably relying on TheDarkSide to sustain himself.

* Margarita Blankenheim from the ''Franchise/EvilliousChronicles'' was born with a rare condition that is actually referred to as "Sleepless". She has never been able to sleep in her life and she didn't need it either, being incapable of succumbing to fatigue or exhaustion. [[spoiler:Except not really--Margarita is actually a living doll and the ''real'' reason she can't sleep is because dolls are incapable of sleep]].

* Most video games that have time passing, such as many ''Zelda'' games result in this when there's no need (and often no mechanism) to sleep. While many of these start with the character sleeping, once the game begins, said character can go the rest of the game without resting.

-->'''Wolverine:''' Shouldn't you be asleep?\\

* Likewise in ''Film/ScreamersTheHunting'' the Screamers can [[TheyLookLikeUsNow take human form]] so everyone is paranoid about who might be one. One character is accused of being a KillerRobot because he never seems to sleep. As the accuser is insane, the heroine doesn't take this seriously until she wakes from her [[HumanPopsicle hypersleep capsule]] on their return to Earth and finds the man's capsule is empty...

* ''Webcomic/Aurora2019'': Gods do not need to sleep, in large part because they do not need their bodies to live. Kendal, a consciousness who arose within the discarded body of the god Vash, likewise assumed that he didn't have to sleep because Vash didn't, but after eleven days without sleep he ends up on the verge of collapse. He can go much longer without it than a mortal, but ultimately he does need to rest.

* ''Anime/YashahimePrincessHalfDemon'': Due to an encounter with the Dream Butterfly, Setsuna is unable to fall asleep or dream. There don't seem to be many side-effects from this however.

** Also from ''Stormlight'', spren, as PureMagicBeings, don't need to sleep. ''Rhythm of War'' does establish that they do have periods of rest in which they are less active, even if they don't sleep the way humans do.

* Abigail from ''Webcomic/{{BACK}}'' doesn't sleep, on account of her being TheUndead. Unfortunately the Southern Witches neglected to tell her about sleep (along with many other things), and so the first time [[MoralityChain Daniel]] goes to sleep in front of her, Abigail think that he's just stopped talking to her. For several hours.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': Amazons don't need to eat while they're on Paradise Island/Themyscira, though they certainly prefer to and feel better if they do. This comes in handy when Circe displaces the whole island into a hellish dimension and they need to fight for their survival against the demonic natives in ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987''. In ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'' Diana is annoyed with how lazy she feels like she's become while living in D.C. since she's not only sleeping she also occasionally sleeps in a bit.
* The ''ComicBook/XMen'' villain Sebastian Shaw has the power to [[FeedItWithFire absorb energy from whatever strikes him to increase his strength]]. As a side effect, when he is powered up, he doesn't have to sleep until the energy is used up..

** Lord Vetinari probably sleeps sometime, but no one ever catches him at it. No matter what time you come by his office, he'll be working in there. This is part of why many characters believe him to be a vampire. [[spoiler:He is seen sleeping when under arrest in ''The Truth'' when he is safe inside a Watchhouse]].

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_familial_insomnia Fatal familial insomnia]] is an extremely rare genetic disorder which progressively destroys a person's ability to sleep, and even simple things like short-term memory and maintaining proper orientation in your environment AKA balance, and it also induces hallucinations. 7 or more months after its onset, sleep becomes totally impossible, with insanity and death following shortly after.