History Main / TheSleepless

* Evan Michael Tanner, from a series of novels by Creator/LawrenceBlock, suffered a shrapnel wound in the Korean War that removed both his ability to sleep and the need to do so.

** ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': The same [[TheShangriLa unspecified Tibetan masters]] who taught Batman how to meditate, astral project, and [[HeroicWillpower resist mind control]] also taught him how to replace a full night's sleep with half an hour of meditation. This allows him to maintain his [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob playboy lifestyle]] and [[VigilanteMan crime-fighting activities]]. The only time we really see him sleep is when he's been severely injured.

** Also in ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' is a murder suspect with "fatal familial insomnia" (see Real Life below) [[spoiler: He didn't do it.]]

*** The (genetically engineered) Tosk race.
*** The genetically engineered Jem'Hadar. Althought never directly stated, WordOfGod has it that the Tosk were also created by the Dominion.

* ''Series/TheXFiles'':
** Agent Mulder, who is of the 'cannot sleep' variety. but he can function fairly well. His partner Scully or his boss Skinner often tell him that he should get some sleep. When he does sleep, it is often on a couch with a television turned up loud. Or he looks agitated while sleeping and is troubled by nightmares.
** The first case Mulder worked with Krycek on was in an episode entitled "Sleepless" was about soldiers of the 'cannot sleep' variety.
** The SuperSoldiers from season 6 or 7 can't sleep as it would have been a weakness.

* The Music/BarenakedLadies song ''Who Needs Sleep?'', natch.

** Similarly, Series/{{Buffy|the Vampire Slayer}} is said to barely sleep during season 7. It doesn't help her decision-making.

*** Android Data, before his dream-program kicked in. Interestingly, Data was still subject to the standard watch cycle of Starfleet (8 hours on duty, 16 hours off), implying that species that are TheSleepless (or need significantly more or less than 8 hours per 24-hour cycle) are uncommon in Starfleet, or else there would be rules in place to accommodate (or take full advantage of) their physiology.
*** Of course, it could just be Data wanting to be treated like every regular human on the ship instead of like a machine that doesn't need to relax or have off-hours.
*** It's implied Data (and presumably any other species that don't sleep) just is treated that way as a matter of fairness. When Commander Shelby was on board she wished to task Data with continuing to work throughout the night on her plan since he didn't need to stop to rest and while Data was willing to oblige her because the situation involved the Borg, but Riker shot it down.

** Elves:
*** Since the early editions, elves have held a resistance, if not outright immunity, to magically induced sleep effects.
** In 3rd Edition, elves picked up the ability to "trance." Instead of falling unconscious, they can spend four hours meditating and doing mental exercises, which gives them the benefits of eight hours of rest.
** The 5th Edition sourcebook ''Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes'' expands upon this. Elves ''can'' sleep, but they normally choose not to. When a young elf trances, he or she experiences PastLifeMemories, and is considered to have entered adulthood when they begin having memories from their current life. After this point, an elf learns how to control which memories are experienced during a trance, and choose those that complement their current activity or give them solace during a difficult time, at the cost of losing those memories of past lives. Dreams are thus disorienting and alarming things to most elves, since they are the uncontrolled products of their subconscious mind rather than echoes of past events. [[EvilCounterpartRace Drow]] are an exception to this - they experience nothing but darkness and silence when they trance, suggesting that their souls do not reincarnate, and scrutinize dreams for omens from Lolth or their other dark gods.

* As part of his inverted PinocchioSyndrome, [[spoiler:Cavil]] from ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' has engineered away his need for sleep. His mother implies it had more to do with the fact that he suffered horrible nightmares about blank-headed dogs chasing him through the fog.

Subtrope of TheNeedless. Contrast TheInsomniac, who really ought to sleep but doesn't; people who ''cannot'' sleep might actually fall under both. The TripleShifter will be one or the other, either [[RequiredSecondaryPowers implicitly]] or explicitly.

* The same [[TheShangriLa unspecified Tibetan masters]] who taught Franchise/{{Batman}} how to meditate, astral project, and [[HeroicWillPower resist mind control]] also taught him how to replace a full night's sleep with half an hour of meditation. This allows him to maintain his [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob playboy lifestyle]] and [[VigilanteMan crime-fighting activities.]] The only time we really see him sleep is when he's been severely injured.
* ComicBook/DoctorStrange foe [[DreamWeaver Nightmare]] is terrified of the Gulgol because it never sleeps and thus never dreams, making it immune to Nightmare's powers.
* In ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' neither Savah nor Winnowill require sleep.
* In ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'', Judges use devices called "sleep machines", which provide the mental and physical refreshment of a full nights sleep in about half an hour, allowing them to operate around the clock. Eventually the Justice Department became worried that never actually sleeping might be a factor in why so many Judges go crazy and started mandating at least one night of real sleep per week.
* ''ComicBook/LobsterRandom'' hasn't slept since he and his squad were modified to not need it so as not to dream or have a subconscious, making them immune to Skeaxxian mindspheres. He openly admits that it's had a detrimental effect on his psyche, but [[SociopathicHero doesn't seem to care]].
* In a ''Comicbook/RichieRich'' story, Mr. Rich's researchers develop an experimental drug to boost productivity by eliminating the need for sleep. However, after a few days on the drug, the normally gentle Mr. Rich becomes paranoid and [[AbusiveParents abusive]], locking Richie in his room after he urges his father to stop taking it. After managing to stun-gun him and his guards, Richie [[AllJustADream wakes up]] to discover his father napping at his desk after having destroyed the drug and its formula.

* The ComicBook/{{Sleepwalker}}s are a race of aliens that inhabit [[DreamLand the Mindscape]], and are tasked with protecting the minds of sleeping humans from demons and nightmares. They never sleep, and as a side effect of this they're immune to anything that would put another race to sleep, like sleeping gas, songs that induce hypnotic trances, etc.
* In an interesting twist, Kryptonian bodies don't need to sleep -- yellow sunlight gives them so much energy as they need, as well as quick cellular regeneration and healing -- but their minds ''have'' to. The mental health of Franchise/{{Superman}}, Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}, Comicbook/PowerGirl, Comicbook/{{Superboy}}... deteriorates if they don't sleep and dream. In ''Superman Vol 1 #365'', a villain prevents Supergirl from sleeping, and dream-deprivation makes Kara move quickly from irrational to insane. In ''Superman Family #200'', sleep-deprivation makes Supergirl cranky and irritable.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': Amazons don't need to sleep 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.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' once tried to impress a potential employer at a job interview by claiming that he's such a workaholic, he makes himself ill by never pausing to eat or sleep for days at a time. [[spoiler:They rejected his job application because he "wasn't hungry enough".]]

** Elves have long held a resistance, if not outright immunity, to magically-induced sleep effects, and in 3rd Edition they picked up the ability to "trance." Instead of falling unconscious, they can spend four hours meditating and doing mental exercises, which gives them the benefits of eight hours of rest. There are some downsides to this - in one of the 3rd Edition ''D&D'' novellas, Mialee regrets her own elvish inability to sleep, as she's got a terrible hangover and wishes she could sleep it off like a human.
*** The 5th Edition sourcebook ''Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes'' expands upon this. Elves ''can'' sleep, but they normally choose not to. When a young elf trances, he or she experiences PastLifeMemories, and is considered to have entered adulthood when they begin having memories from their current life. After this point an elf learns how to control which memories are experienced during a trance, and choose those that complement their current activity or give them solace during a difficult time, at the cost of losing those memories of past lives. Dreams are thus disorienting and alarming things to most elves, since they are the uncontrolled products of their subconscious mind rather than echoes of past events. [[EvilCounterpartRace Drow]] are an exception to this - they experience nothing but darkness and silence when they trance, suggesting that their souls do not reincarnate, and scrutinize dreams for omens from Lolth or their other dark gods.
** In the TabletopGame/{{Eberron}} setting the [[MechanicalLifeforms Warforged]] cannot sleep at all.

** 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.

* ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'''s Hayate sleeps less than an hour a night: He goes to sleep at 4 AM, and is dressed and preparing breakfast at 5 AM. He's apparently been like this [[UpToEleven since he was six]]. Apparently justified due to having to work jobs repeatedly to pay off his parent's debt.

* In the second season of ''Series/{{Tyrant}}'', Jamal stops sleeping due to his ever-worsening paranoia, depression, and guilt, which only makes those problems worse and causes him to make increasingly bad decisions.

* ''ChangelingTheLost'': Jack of the Lantern has as one of his Frailties that he can only rest when invited to do so by someone of higher station. He's figured out that ExactWords apply, and as such has refused to join any Court - that way, ''anyone'' who belongs to a Court is technically of "higher station" and have the authority to let him sleep. If he doesn't get an invitation, he can't even take a nap (though he doesn't need to be constantly moving, just conscious).

* The Sandman from ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' is tasked with putting people around the world to sleep, and can't go to sleep himself until he finishes the job, however since there are always people needing to be put to sleep round the clock he never gets any himself, and unlike most on this list he clearly wants to and needs it.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Brigador}}'', FTL travel is really, really hard and really, really dangerous. Computers simply can't handle it due to the sheer processing power required, so the only alternative was to have a person with some WetwareCPU and copious amount of drugs inject into them to handle FTL navigation. Problem is, pilots are required to fly the ship for days or weeks at a time with no rest. A lack of sleep means a lapse in awareness, which meant fatal accidents. Making multiple short jumps was too expensive, and so was daisy-chaining several highly skilled pilots to one ship. The only good solution was to eliminate the need for sleep out of the equation. Enter the Cyclolucidites, a breed of genetically modified humans whose brains are in a perpetual state of REM sleep but still have access to their senses. They're essentially permanent but functional sleepwalkers, making them the perfect FTL pilots. Since there's no need for them to get some shut-eye, [[EyelessFace they don't need eyes]].

* In ''Roleplay/DawnOfANewAgeOldportBlues'', Jenna's physical body is composed of a [[TheWormThatWalks swarm of insects]]. Said swarm still needs to rest, but a chunk of them are nocturnal, so Jenna's consciousness is never fully in a state of sleep.

** And in ''Majora's Mask'', there's a mask that makes you unable to sleep, allowing you to earn a heart container by staying awake through said boring story. And apparently, that mask was originally a ''torture device''.

* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'': Unlike the other gang members who have all programmed 'go to sleep/wake-up' times, Micah Bell is always awake. [[LampshadeHanging Arthur Morgan even points it out]]:
-->'''Arthur:''' You know... I don't think I've ever seen you sleep.\\
'''Micah:''' It's overrated.
** That said, there are times where he ''does'' sleep, albeit occasionally. At times he can be found sleeping while sitting with his feet on the table and strangely enough, he does this at daytime. The only time he sleeps at night is when he gets drunk with Javier Escuella and he sleeps with his head on the table.

** In ''VideoGame/TheSims4: Vampires'', sleep is optional for vampires, who can recharge their powers through Dark Meditation.\\
\\
A reward trait for non-vampires, "Never Weary", effectively freezes a Sim's Sleep need so they can stay up all night.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Brigador}}'' FTL navigation is really, really hard and really, really dangerous. Computers simply can't handle it due to the sheer processing power required, so the only alternative was to have a person with some WetwareCPU and copious amount of drugs inject into them to handle FTL navigation. Problem is, pilots are required to fly the ship for days or weeks at a time with no rest. A lack of sleep means a lapse in awareness, which meant fatal accidents. Making multiple shorter jumps was too expensive, and so was daisy-chaining several highly skilled pilots to one ship. The only good solution was to eliminate the need for sleep out of the equation. Enter the Cyclolucidites, a breed of genetically modified humans whose brains are in a perpetual state of REM sleep but still have access to their senses. They're essentially permanent but functional sleepwalkers, making them the perfect FTL pilots. Because of their constant state of sleep, they have [[EyelessFace no need for eyes]].