History Main / TimeLoopFatigue

* [[TheAmazingWorldOfGumball Gumball]] gets hit by this hard in [[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/7647419/1/ The Loop.]] At first they're relatively benign hijinks, but as he gradually loses his hope and sanity the longer he spends in the Loop, it escalates in violence and desperation. At its peak, he's physically attacking his own family, his schoolmates and finding new and creative ways to kill himself in front of the school during the pep rally (such as setting himself on fire and eating rat poison).

* ''Series/{{XenaWarriorPrincess}}'': Xena was stuck in a time-loop, at one point, she got so sick of it that when Joxer enters the barn - which starts the day - she just kills him and goes back to sleep.

* ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'': In "Here I Go Again", after Zari does a "fun montage," she ends up locking herself in the main bridge with the bomb that sets off the whole reset. Turns out, this was a fake-out masterminded by the ship's AI, in order to make her feel at home on the ship.

Note that this usually only happens if you can [[RippleEffectProofMemory ''retain'' the memories of each loop]]. Sometimes you might be one of the lucky (or some would say, unlucky) ones who don't know if there's even a time loop in the first place, as they may not realize that they have done "similar things" before.

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'': Homura ''definitely'' has this going on, going through who knows how many self-inflicted time loops trying and failing to save Madoka, and watching the same people die over and over again. She becomes a far cry from the sweet, innocent schoolgirl she was in the beginning. By the time of the main story, she's at her wit's end and Kyubey, who eventually realizes what's happening, gives her a BreakingSpeech before her lone battle against the witch that'll destroy the city. When she can't even scratch it despite her planning and weaponry, she can't even bring herself to start over again and on the verge of turning into a witch herself. [[spoiler:Luckily Madoka likewise finds out what's going on and TakesAThirdOption to help break the loop...and the laws of reality with it.]]
* The Endless Eight Arc in the second season of ''[[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' has the world go through the same two weeks over and over thanks to an unwitting Haruhi Suzumiya...''15,532 times''. That's about 595 years of doing the same things over and over. And Yuki Nagato is the only one aware of what's happening from the beginning, but is forbidden by her superior the Data Overmind from any interference because her job is to observe. For a character who would be the poster child of the EmotionlessGirl trope if we didn't already know she has emotions that are just heavily suppressed and difficult for her to express, the fact that even casual viewers can see visible fatigue on her face is enough to tell us that she's right up against the DespairEventHorizon at her situation and if she had a regular human's emotiveness she would probably be a sobbing mess crumpled into a fetal position on the floor. [[spoiler:This is almost certainly the reason why Yuki steals Haruhi's powers and alters the world so that everyone has normal lives and Haruhi is PutOnABus in the ''Disappearance'' story arc after "Endless Eight" -- she is ''that'' sick and tired of what she had gone through.]]

* In the [[ComicBook/RegularShow comic book miniseries]] for ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'': "Skips", Skips ends up finding himself stuck in a time loop whenever Mordecai and Rigby drop soda and pop rocks down a geyser in the park that he, Benson, and the duo are visiting. He teams up with a time cop named Ted to try to stop it, but it results in a lot of failed attempts, meaning weeks pass as they work to figure out a solution. Some days they don't even bother and just take a break before the loop resets. Skips nearly hits a DespairEventHorizon until some inspiration from Benson leads into a solution [[spoiler:and the ''real'' cause of the time loops: a Destruction Lord.]]

* The ''Literature/HarryPotter'' story ''Fanfic/GettingTheHangOfThursdays'' is about all of Hogwarts being stuck inside a single-day timeloop with a few fixed details, including [[spoiler:Hermione]] dying and a time-turner being smashed. The loop has been going on for a long time before a few characters start to be aware of it, but horrible despair sets in pretty quickly as all attempts to prevent the death make it happen in worse and worse ways. Suicide only lets her choose the method and how painful it will be, because she will die anyway, every day, ''[[NightmareFuel and she remembers every time.]]'' It's not much better for [[spoiler:Professor Snape]] watching it happen and failing time after time to prevent it, either.

* ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow'': Major William Cage, a [=P.R.=] director gets demoted to private in time for the final battle against [[AlienInvasion the Mimics]]. After dying in the doomed frontal assault, he finds himself alive before the battle again. This happens several times, then he meets Rita Vrtaski, who was forced to become a war hero after she also gained the ability reset time from a dead Alpha mimic and realised that the only way to prevent the resets was to win the battle. However after spending the equivalent of several months, well over a year, reliving the same day over and over again, he goes from a scared greenhorn recruit, to a stone faced veteran, and even a deserter a few times, before they [[spoiler:figure out that to win the war they have to kill the Omega Mimic]].

* ''Film/SourceCode'': Captain Colter Stevens grows increasingly exhausted and traumatized as the film goes on, while trying and failing to search a train full of people in eight minutes' time before a bomb destroys him with the train. And every time he fails, [[MissionControl Goodwin]] sends him back to the beginning.

* In ''Series/{{Haven}}'', Audrey becomes [[Recap/HavenS2E6AudreyParkersDayOff trapped]] in a GroundhogDayLoop of a man with OCD trying to prevent the hit-and-run death of his daughter. Being immune to the Troubles, she is the only one besides the Troubled man who even notices, and is the only one affected after spending close to a week in the time loop. She retains injuries she sustains in previous loops and is exhausted, because the loop resets just as her alarm clock goes off and she hasn't slept in five days.

* ''Series/MashinSentaiKiramager'': [[MonsterOfTheWeek Reset Button Jamenshi]] has the power to rewind time and he uses it every time time he's defeated by the heroes so he can back to try again knowing everything that happened. The heroes turn his power against him by forcing him to reset before he can learn anything. Driven insane after countless resets, the Jamenshi simply surrenders and hands over his reset button to the protagonists while storming off. He runs into his boss Galza to whom he admits there's no way for him to defeat the heroes. Galza promptly destroy him [[YouHaveFailedMe for failing his mission]].
* Happens to Nadia in ''Series/RussianDoll''. She dies after getting hit by a taxi on her birthday, only reappear at her party a few hours earlier. She hates constantly dying and it doesn't take long for this to start taking its toll on her. At one point, she worries that each loop might create an alternate universe where her deaths are permanent, leaving her loved ones mourning each time. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with Alan. Even though he's reliving the worst day of his life -- when his girlfriend confessed to an affair and dumped him the same night he planned to propose -- he finds comfort in always knowing what to expect]].

-->'''Teal'c:''' O'Neill, should we not be assisting Daniel Jackson with the translation?\\

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Sam suffers this in the episode "Mystery Spot", after the loop forces him to watch his brother die over and over again in increasingly strange ways. What's worse is that Sam is never able to stop his brother's death.

* This forms the core motivation for Mercurius whole plan in ''VisualNovel/DiesIrae''. He has been stuck in his eternal recurrence for who knows how long, endlessly repeating the entire life of the universe millions, perhaps billions, of times and has learned everything that there is to know about everything. As a result he has grown sick and tired of it all and simply wants the sweet release of death and cooks up a plan to have someone kill him and become his replacement as the God of the multiverse.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'' episode "[[Recap/CodeLyokoS2E4 A Great Day]]", [[BigBad XANA]] manages to to take control of the Return to the Past capability of the supercomputer it is trapped in. It ends up restarting the same day over and over. This drives the heroes who have [[RippleEffectProofMemory ripple effect-proof memories]] nuts, as they are forced to live the same day over and over again while trying to figure out how to stop XANA from resetting time. [[SubvertedTrope XANA isn't doing this to spite the heroes, however]] -- each time reset increases the supercomputer's processing power, which makes XANA more powerful too. Annoying the heroes is a side benefit.
* ''WesternAnimation/NateIsLate'': In "The Pocket Watch", Nate and Malika happen upon a magic watch that rewinds time to the start of their morning after a set amount of time passes. They eventually discover that the solution is to get to a watch repair man to fix it, but experience multiple obstacles that get them sent back to the start of the loop. Eventually, they get fed up and plow through the quest as fast as they can, all while yelling at the top of their lungs.

** Also a ShoutOut to ''Film/GroundhogDay'', because she mentions she's in said timeloop to Nate.

* ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'': In "Here I Go Again", after Zari does a "fun montage," she ends up exhausted and tries to commit suicide. Luckily, the gun she tries to shoot herself with isn't loaded.

* Stephen Strange in ''Film/DoctorStrange2016'' exploits this against Dormammu. The Dark Dimension Dormammu rules/[[AnthropomorphicPersonification is]] doesn't have time, so Strange makes sure to bring it with him from earth with the Eye of Agamotto. Endless, looped, time. He intentionally traps himself and Dormammu in a potentially infinite time loop. While Strange can bear it, no matter how many times he is painfully tortured to death, Dormammu, who has no concept of time, cannot.

[[folder:FanWorks]]

* Stephen Strange in ''Film/DoctorStrange2016'' exploits this against Dormammu. The Dark Dimension Dormammu rules/[[AnthropomorphicPersonification is]] doesn't have time, so Strange makes sure to bring it with him from earth with the Eye of Agamotto. Endless, looped, time. He intentionally traps himself and Dormammu in a potentially infinite timeloop. While Strange can bear it, no matter how many times he is painfully tortured to death, Dormammu, who has no concept of time, cannot.

* Stephen Strange in ''Film/DoctorStrange2016'' exploits this against Dormammu. The Dark Dimension Dormammu rules/[[AnthropomorphicPersonification is]] doesn't have time, so Strange makes sure to bring it with him from earth with the Eye of Agamotto. Endless, looped, time. He intentionally trap himself and Dormammu in a potentially infinite timeloop. While Strange can bear it, no matter how many times he is painfully tortured to death, Dormammu, who has no concept of time, cannot.

* ''Series/LoisAndClark'' has a twist in "'Twas The Night Before Myxmas", in which this happens to people who ''don't'' remember the previous loops. Every time Mr Mxyzptlk [[ChristmasEveryDay resets Christmas]], everyone has a little less joy. While we only see the direct effect on the main characters, this appears to be happening to everyone, implied by the fact that in every loop, the world is one step closer to war.

** In second arc, he finds he keeps mysteriously dying in his sleep before resetting (later discovered to be due to a curse placed on him). In one loop he finally manages to avoid his fate, but Rem contracts the curse instead. With everyone devastated, Subaru ends up committing suicide in order to reset time and have a chance to save Rem, despite not knowing for sure if he would return.

* Stephen Strange in ''Film/DoctorStrange2016'' exploits this against Dormammu. The Dark Dimension Dormammu lives in/[[AnthropomorphicPersonification is]] doesn't have time, so Strange makes sure to bring some with him from earth with the Eye of Agamotto. [[spoiler:He ends up trapping Dormammu in a timeloop. While Strange can bear it, Dormammu, who has no concept of time, cannot.]]

* ''Film/HappyDeathDay'': Tree suffers this, especially after [[spoiler:killing Tombs, who she believes is her killer, doesn't end the loop.]] It doesn't help that she keeps her injuries from previous loops.

* ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow'': Major William Cage, a sleazy [=P.R.=] director gets demoted to private when he tries to weasel his way out of covering the final battle against [[AlienInvasion the Mimics]] by [[BlackmailBackfire trying to blackmail the general]]. After dying in the doomed frontal assault several times, he meets Rita Vrtaski, who also gained the ability reset time from a dead Alpha mimic. However after spending the equivalent of several months, to well over a year, reliving the same day over and over again, he goes from a scared greenhorn recruit, to a stone faced veteran, to a deserter a few times before they [[spoiler:figure out that to win the war they have to kill the Omega Mimic]].

* ''Literature/ElevenTwentyTwoSixtyThree'': [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]]. The protagonist can take advantage of a time portal to go back in time to approximately five years before the JFK assassination. However, every time he returns to the present only a few minutes have gone by, and if he goes back then everything resets like he was never there. So if he prevents JFK's assassination, if he goes back it resets so he'd have to stop it all over again. He goes back and lives there five years in order to prevent JFK's murder, but loses the woman he loves and preventing JFK's murder resulted in a CrapsackWorld. He can go back, but then he'd have to live the five years again, but he's already five years older, he's tired, he doesn't want to go through those five years in the past again, and he was already older than the woman he loved in the first place and doesn't know if she'll still be attracted to him as an even older man.

Compare WhoWantsToLiveForever, i.e "Immortality Fatigue", and TemporalSickness, where TimeTravel in general results in ailments beyond fatigue.

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'': Homura ''definitely'' has this going on, going through who knows how many self-inflicted time loops trying and failing to save Madoka, and watching the same people die over and over again. She becomes a far cry from the sweet, innocent schoolgirl she was in the beginning. By the time of the main story, she's at her wit's end and Kyubey, who eventually realizes what's happening, gives her a BreakingSpeech before her lone battle against the witch that'll destroy the city. When she can't even scratch it despite her planning and weaponry, she can't even bring herself to start over again and on the verge of turning into a witch herself. [[spoiler: Luckily Madoka likewise finds out what's going on and TakesAThirdOption to help break the loop...and the laws of reality with it.]]

* In the [[ComicBook/RegularShow comic book miniseries]] for ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'': "Skips", Skips ends up finding himself stuck in a time loop whenever Mordecai and Rigby drop soda and pop rocks down a geyser in the park that he, Benson, and the duo are visiting. He teams up with a time cop named Ted to try to stop it, but it results in a lot of failed attempts, meaning weeks pass as they work to figure out a solution. Some days they don't even bother and just take a break before the loop resets. Skips nearly hits a DespairEventHorizon until some inspiration from Benson leads into a solution [[spoiler: and the ''real'' cause of the time loops: a Destruction Lord.]]

* ''Fanfic/TheBestNightEver'' starts with [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Prince Blueblood]] waking up after the Grand Galloping Gala, only to find he's gone back to the morning before it. At first he tries to play along, thinking it's a prank, but as it becomes clear time is repeating itself he tries avoiding it, then starts exploiting it to indulge himself, and then starts trying to kill himself when that gets boring. Eventually he figures out that he has to get the day right to escape. [[spoiler:His first attempt fails because he's miscalculated - while everyone technically got what they wanted, nopony ''enjoyed'' it. He seriously considers [[GodzillaThreshold breaking Discord free]] just to get out.]]

* ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow'': Major William Cage, a sleazy [=P.R.=] director gets demoted to private when he tries to weasel his way out of covering the final battle against [[AlienInvasion the Mimics]] by [[BlackmailBackfire trying to blackmail the general]]. After dying in the doomed frontal assault several times, he meets Rita Vrtaski, who also gained the ability reset time from a dead Alpha mimic. However after spending the equivalent of several months, to well over a year, reliving the same day over and over again, he goes from a scared greenhorn recruit, to a stone faced veteran, to a deserter a few times before they [[spoiler: figure out that to win the war they have to kill the Omega Mimic]].
* ''Film/TheEndless'' has [[spoiler: most of the region the brothers visit caught in time loops of varying lengths, and one man refuses to help until he's provided a gun - the suicide doesn't work]]. Special mention goes to one poor bastard [[spoiler: whose time loop lasts all of five ''seconds'', and he's likely been stuck in that loop since the Gold Rush era]].

* ''Film/HappyDeathDay'': Tree suffers this, especially after [[spoiler: killing Tombs, who she believes is her killer, doesn't end the loop.]] It doesn't help that she keeps her injuries from previous loops.
* ''Film/PalmSprings'': Sarah suffers this, especially after [[spoiler: Sarah and Nyles sleep together for the first time (for Sarah).]] Nyles is also implied to have suffered it in the loops before Sarah entered the cave.

* ''Literature/BeforeIFall'': Sam suffers this a few times, but especially during the loop when [[spoiler: Juliet and Elody both die, from suicide and a car crash, respectively.]] It really hits hard since [[spoiler: Elody was sitting in the car seat that Sam was supposed to be sitting in.]]
* ''Literature/{{Repeat}}'': the plot of the novel features Brad Cohen being trapped in a loop beginning with him [[BornAgainImmortality waking up in the womb]] and ending on the night before his fortieth birthday. Over time, he's beset with both this trope and WhoWantsToLiveForever: his advanced mental age leaves him emotionally numbed and makes it difficult for him to relate to people, while the time loop itself leaves him feeling like everything he does is meaningless. Once he's run out of ambitions to achieve, Brad's sanity begins circling the plughole, at one point prompting him to [[NakedNutter strip nude and begin screaming heavenwards]]; by the climax, he's experienced so many lifetimes that he can no longer tell them apart, leaving him a psychological wreck. [[spoiler: In the end, Brad finally breaks the loop by living his life ''exactly'' as he lived it the first time, allowing him to achieve satisfaction and finally awaken on the morning of his fortieth birthday.]]

* Happens to Nadia in ''Series/RussianDoll''. She dies after getting hit by a taxi on her birthday, only reappear at her party a few hours earlier. She hates constantly dying and it doesn't take long for this to start taking its toll on her. At one point, she worries that each loop might create an alternate universe where her deaths are permanent, leaving her loved ones mourning each time. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with Alan. Even though he's reliving the worst day of his life -- when his girlfriend confessed to an affair and dumped him the same night he planned to propose -- he finds comfort in always knowing what to expect]].

* ''Videogame/BlazBlue:'' For those who are aware of the time loops in the first game - Rachel and Terumi - they found their lives being filled with massive boredom. Terumi, being the villain, is trying to find the way to break the loop so he can continue with his EvilPlan - and the plot of the first game ends with the loop being broken, allowing him to be more active in pursuing his goals.
* ''VideoGame/NoOneHasToDie'' has [[spoiler:Troy. His confession to having killed the guards and started the fire is a lie - he's [[DeathSeeker actively trying to get killed]] because he's gone through the events of the game ''five times'' before the game started, and after failing to save anyone else on any of the previous loops, he no longer has any will to live.]]

* In the [[ComicBook/RegularShow comic book miniseries]] for ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'': "Skips", Skips ends up finding himself stuck in a time loop whenever Mordicai and Rigby drop soda and pop rocks down a geyser in the park that he, Benson, and the duo are visiting. He teams up with a time cop named Ted to try to stop it, but it results in a lot of failed attempts, meaning weeks pass as they work to figure out a solution. Some days they don't even bother and just take a break before the loop resets. Skips nearly hits a DespairEventHorizon until some inspiration from Benson leads into a solution [[spoiler: and the ''real'' cause of the time loops: a Destruction Lord.]]

[[folder:Light Novels]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/ElevenTwentyTwoSixtyThree'': [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]]. The protagonist can take advantage of a time portal to go back in time to approximately five years before the JFK assassination. However, every time he returns to the present only a few minutes have gone by, and if he goes back then everything resets like he was never there. So if he prevents JFK's assassination, if he goes back it resets so he'd have to stop it all over again. He goes back and lives there five years in order to prevent JFK's murder, but loses the woman he loves and preventing JFK's murder resulted in a CrapsackWorld. He can go back, but then he'd have to live the five years again, but he's already five years older, he's tired, he doesn't want to go through those five years in the past again, and he was already older than the woman he loved in the first place and doesn't know if she'll still be attracted to him as an even older man.
* ''Literature/BeforeIFall'': Sam suffers this a few times, but especially during the loop when [[spoiler: Juliet and Elody both die, from suicide and a car crash, respectively.]] It really hits hard since [[spoiler: Elody was sitting in the car seat that Sam was supposed to be sitting in.]]
* ''Literature/{{Repeat}}'': the plot of the novel features Brad Cohen being trapped in a loop beginning with him [[BornAgainImmortality waking up in the womb]] and ending on the night before his fortieth birthday. Over time, he's beset with both this trope and WhoWantsToLiveForever: his advanced mental age leaves him emotionally numbed and makes it difficult for him to relate to people, while the time loop itself leaves him feeling like everything he does is meaningless. Once he's run out of ambitions to achieve, Brad's sanity begins circling the plughole, at one point prompting him to [[NakedNutter strip nude and begin screaming heavenwards]]; by the climax, he's experienced so many lifetimes that he can no longer tell them apart, leaving him a psychological wreck. [[spoiler: In the end, Brad finally breaks the loop by living his life ''exactly'' as he lived it the first time, allowing him to achieve satisfaction and finally awaken on the morning of his fortieth birthday.]]
[[/folder]]

Being trapped in a [[GroundhogDayLoop time loop]] is... [[OhNoNotAgain Ugh, not again]]...

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue:'' Church experiences this as he tries to correct the past and prevent, among other things, the demise of himself and Tex.

* ''Fanfic/EakinsHardReset'': The main Twilight doesn't encounter too much of this, but the sequels show that in the AlternateHistory where she wasn't able to break out of the loop, she was stuck repeating it for ''billions of years'', going completely and utterly insane and back again, [[spoiler:until the universe finally broke down before she could die and reset it]].