Line #29 Main/DreamTropes


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4	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dreamsv2.png]]
5	[[caption-width-right:350:''[[Music/TheCranberries And oh, my dreams\
6	It's never quite as it seems\
7	Never quite as it seems]]'']]
8
9	->''"To sleep, perchance to dream."''
10	-->--'''Hamlet''', ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''
11
12	Dreams and dreaming are [[OmnipresentTropes ubiquitous]] in storytelling. There are many, many dream-related tropes: here are several. See also SleepAndWakefulnessTropes.
13
14	----
15	!!Tropes
16	[[index]]
17	* AcidRefluxNightmare: Nightmares brought on by TheFoodPoisoningIncident or eating too much.
18	* ActingOutADaydream: A character acts out what he's imagining.
19	* AdventuresInComaland: Dreaming while in a coma rather than regular sleep.
20	* AllJustADream: The events of all, or most, of an episode are revealed to have all been a dream at the end.
21	* AnxietyDreams: A character dreams that something they worry about happens.
22	* AwkwardlyGayDream: A character has a homoerotic dream despite being straight -- awkwardness ensues.
23	* {{Baku}}: A tapir-like {{Youkai}} that eats bad dreams.
24	* BasedOnADream: A work that was based on a dream.
25	* BedtimeBrainwashing: Communicating with a person in sleep-like state to influence their dreams or actions.
26	* BizarreDreamRationalization: Character tells themselves they're dreaming to explain away the weird things they're seeing.
27	* BlankBook: A character picks up a book, but it's blank or just has gibberish in it.
28	* ButYouWereThereAndYouAndYou: Dream characters look like and/or act like the waking-life characters, even if they are not.
29	* CannotDream: An inability to dream.
30	* CatapultNightmare: After a nightmare, a character falls out of bed or sits up abruptly.
31	* CrapsackWorldEscapistSanctuary: The real world is objectively awful, so a character finds refuge in an imaginary world.
32	* CrashingDreams: A dream and a real-world event that happen at the same time are similar.
33	* DaydreamBeliever: A character believes that a ShowWithinAShow is reality.
34	* DaydreamSurprise: Viewers think that something was happening, but it turns out to be a character daydreaming.
35	* DeliciousDaydream: When a character has a daydream about food.
36	* DelusionConclusion: Audience members believe that the supernatural elements of a story are due to it taking place in a dream.
37	* DreamApocalypse: An apocalypse happens because the world was AllJustADream and the dreamer woke up.
38	* DreamBallet: Dreaming about ballet.
39	* DreamDeception: A character lies to another that they're dreaming.
40	* DreamEmergencyExit: Doing this in a dream will automatically wake you up.
41	* DreamEpisode: An episode centered around one or more characters dreaming.
42	* DreamIntro: The intro was AllJustADream.
43	* DreamLand: AnotherDimension where all the dreams are taking place.
44	* DreamPeople: Characters within dreams.
45	* DreamRealityCheck: If this is just a dream, then one may wake up and get out.
46	* DreamSequence: A character's dream takes up a scene.
47	* DreamSpying: Dreaming about something that is happening somewhere else.
48	* DreamStealer: Somehow stealing or destroying someone else's dream.
49	* DreamSue: Dreaming about being TheAce.
50	* DreamTellsYouToWakeUp: When dream characters [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin tell the dreaming character to wake up.]]
51	* {{Dreamville}}: Dreams, VR scenarios, artificial realities and other imaginary events set in suburbia or small towns.
52	* DreamWalker: A dreaming character becomes part of another person's dream.
53	* DreamWeaver: Being able to do cool things via lucid dreaming.
54	* DreamWithinADream: A character dreams about dreaming.
55	* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Dreaming the future.
56	* DreamingOfTimesGoneBy: Dreaming about past events, despite not having experienced them.
57	* DreamingTheTruth: Dreaming allows a character to realise something.
58	* DreamsOfFlying: Flight in dreams.
59	* DreamsVsNightmares: Heroic individuals who support good dreams fighting evil individuals who spread nightmares.
60	* DyingDream: Someone has a dream before they die.
61	* DyingToWakeUp: Dying in a dream instantly wakes you up.
62	* ElderlyFutureFantasy: Character has a dream where they and other characters are elderly in the future, often with having a current conflict in the story that's still going into old age.
63	* EroticDream: Dreams about sex and/or other erotic stuff.
64	* FantasyKeepsake: An item that came from a dream or a daydream.
65	* FantasySequence: Daydreaming.
66	* FeverDreamEpisode: Nightmares or hallucinations caused by fever take up a whole episode.
67	* FlashbackNightmare: Nightmares of bad memories.
68	* GirlOfMyDreams: Meeting your future LoveInterest in a dream.
69	* AGlitchInTheMatrix: A hint that an event is a dream.
70	* GuiltInducedNightmare: A nightmare caused by guilt.
71	* {{Hatsuyume}}: The first dream a person has in the new year is prophetic.
72	* InTheDreamingStageOfGrief: Devastated character copes by convincing themselves it is/was just a bad dream.
73	* IrritationNightmare: Someone has a nightmare about something which annoys them.
74	* IWasHavingSuchANiceDream: Someone is annoyed to be woken up from a good dream.
75	* LivingDream: A character exists because someone dreamt them up.
76	* LotusEaterMachine: A dream world meant to trap someone from reality.
77	* MadAtADream: A character is mad at something that happened in a dream.
78	* MadDreamer: An insane person mistakes dreams for reality.
79	* MarshmallowDream: A character dreams they are eating something, which leads to them chewing on their pillow.
80	* MentalWorld: A place that exists in a person's mind.
81	* MindVirus: A bug like a ComputerVirus but it infects peoples' minds.
82	* NearDeathClairvoyance: Someone astral projects before they die and look around. Alternatively, an already-dead person looks around.
83	* NightmareOfNormality: A supernatural character is made to believe they are mundane, popularly through an illusion of an ordinary life.
84	* NightmareSequence: A character has a nightmare.
85	* NightmareWeaver: Tormenting people in their sleep with bad dreams.
86	* NotWearingPantsDream: Nudity or ComedicUnderwearExposure in dreams.
87	* OpinionChangingDream: A dream changes the dreamer's opinion.
88	* OrWasItADream: It looks like the character only dreamed the events of the story, but then it's hinted that what they supposedly dreamed about had actually happened.
89	* PastExperienceNightmare: Nightmares about bad past events.
90	* PlaguedByNightmares: A character is tormented by repeated nightmares.
91	* PrefersTheIllusion: Character chooses to keep living in an illusion or dream.
92	* PsychicDreamsForEveryone: Anyone, including non-psychics, can have psychic dreams.
93	* ThePursuingNightmare: A nightmare or other imaginary threat that operates by stalking or chasing down dreamers.
94	* RealDreamsAreWeirder: In fiction, dreams aren't "supposed" to be surreal.
95	* RecurringDreams: Dreams that happen more than once, which (usually) make them important.
96	* RecursiveReality: Reality or non-reality has different "layers".
97	* TheSandman: The mythical Lord of Dreams, nothing less.
98	* SchrodingersButterfly: The distinction between reality and non-reality is left ambiguous.
99	* SharedDream: Two or more characters share the same dream or nightmare.
100	* ShatteringTheIllusion: A character is under an illusion, but then the illusion breaks.
101	* SleepParalysisCreature: People who suffer from the nightmarish hallucinations associated with sleep paralysis often imagine seeing some sort of creepy monster.
102	* SimulatedFantasyPostApocalypticReality: After the apocalypse, virtual reality becomes a haven for survivors - or a hell.
103	* TakenFromADream: A character brings something from a literal dreamworld into reality.
104	* TalkingInYourDreams: Communicating via dreams.
105	* ThatWasNotADream: Character talks about a dream they had and is then told that they weren't dreaming and what they described actually happened.
106	* TragicDream: A character has a wish-fulfillment dream that cannot come true.
107	* VirtualRealityInterrogation: You invoke AllJustADream via virtual reality.
108	* VirtualRealityWarper: Controlling virtual worlds, the digital cousin to the DreamWeaver.
109	* VisionQuest: A character visualises their thoughts in order to discover themselves.
110	* VisionsOfAnotherSelf: The same actors play different characters in the past and future vision scenes.
111	* WeakerInTheRealWorld: A being can do anything in dreams, but not so much in reality.
112	* WinToExit: Characters must win somehow in order to exit a virtual reality.
113	* YourMindMakesItReal: If you do something in your imagination, it comes true.
114	* YourWorstMemory: A character revisits the worst moment of their life, often through dreams.
115	[[/index]]

Context Main / DreamTropes