The best way to underline that a character has just been through a particularly harrowing experience is to have them wake up in a bed and be told that they've been AsleepForDays. If you want to throw some ShipTease into the scene as well, you can also have the character's LoveInterest sleeping next to his or her bed, [[UnbrokenVigil having exhausted him/herself watching over the sleeping character]].

There is a kernel of TruthInTelevision to this, as recovery from any particularly grievous injury or sickness (or simply fatigue) can occasionally demand [[DeepSleep tens of hours of sleep]]. Sometimes writers can get a little [[YouFailBiologyForever off mark]] though, unceremoniously describing characters as having slept for weeks or months on end when such long periods of unconsciousness would most likely get a person admitted to an intensive care unit for coma treatment in RealLife. Even if a character isn't literally unconscious the entire time but was merely bedridden or delirious, they would require extensive rehabilitation due to muscle atrophy before they were able to chase the Big Bad across the world or spring back into action defeating the evil vizier's mooks in hand-to-hand combat again. A person who cleanly awakens from this without the benefit of a nursing staff and a bedpan is certainly invoking the trope of NobodyPoops.

Usually a form of DeepSleep. When they wake up, they'll likely comment on the UnfamiliarCeiling.

RipVanWinkle is the extended version of this trope.
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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]
* Saito sleeps for three days after his first duel with Guiche in ''LightNovel/ZeroNoTsukaima''.
* When Kyon [[spoiler:resets the universe]] in ''[[SuzumiyaHaruhi The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', he awakens in a hospital room, having apparently been sleeping away a bad concussion for days. [[spoiler:He finds Haruhi asleep in a sleeping bag next to his bed, having insisted on staying by his side the entire time.]]
* Athena in ''SaintSeiya'' spends most of the series fliping in and out of this state.
* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', Luffy sleeps for three days after defeating Crocodile. After he's told this, he calculates that he missed [[BigEater 15 meals]]. This apparently has been happening to him so constantly he learned to eat whilst unconscious in order to not miss those meals again.
** Zoro, after [[HeroicSacrifice taking in Luffy's pain]], combined with his own injuries against Oz, was asleep for quite a few days.
* Happens to Keroro in the 100th chapter of ''KeroroGunsou'', "The Frog That Lost New Year's", after partying a little too hard on New Year's Eve.
* Happens a few times in ''Manga/{{Saiyuki}}'' after major injuries; the longest would probably be Hakkai after Gojyo shoves his guts back in.
* This happens with a bit of frequency in ''Manhwa/CielTheLastAutumnStory'', as a result of witches overusing their magic powers. Yvienne, the main character, undergoes it at least three times over the course of the series.
* [[{{Kamichu}} Yurie]] often falls unconscious after overdoing things with her powers; she was once out for days after [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor granting a huge stack of school improvement wishes]] ''[[GoneHorriblyRight simultaneously]]''.
* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' Ichigo ends up asleep for a month after [[spoiler:losing his powers]].
* In Manga/{{Claymore}} this happens to Clare twice. First time it was two days after a fight against a particularly strong yoma. The second time she was asleep for a whole week after her first fight against Ophelia.
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[[folder: Comic Books]]
* A humorous example from FoxTrot has Paige perform her ritual of sleeping in on the first day of summer vacation. She wakes up around noon on the third day.
* Spider in ''{{Transmetropolitan}}'' got knocked out, came to and demanded a machine so he could write a promised column, and was told he'd been out for four days. Yelena goes on to say that she'd written it for him and submitted it, flinching as she expected his wrath. He kisses her on the forehead instead and thanks her.
* Occurs fairly often in ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'', either due to surviving a grueling journey or encounters with poisons, monsters, and demons.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: FanFiction]]
* In 'Blessing in Disguise' Peter awakes in a hospital bed after five days of being in a coma, and proceed to FreakOut when he found that he was [[spoiler:now a girl]].
* In [[RescuingDara Rescuing Dara]], the titular Dara sleeps for 3 days straight after her kidnapper drugs her with Sleep Seeds.
* In the Chobits MegaCrossover(?) [[FanFic/EternalFlowers Eternal Flowers]], Amber Lee-Young collapses into this trope from magical exhaustion after battling an [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain opposing mage]] named Kupari.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film -- Animated]]
* In the ''LupinIII'' movie ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro'', Lupin sleeps for three days after being severely wounded in a fight with the BigBad. He's distressed to find that this is the case, because it means he might be too late to save the day, and demands [[HealthFood large amounts of food]] so he can get his strength back quickly.
* In the movie version of ''Film/HowToTrainYourDragon'' Hiccup wakes up several days after the final battle with Toothless watching over him.
** ...And then is so excited that Hiccup is finally awake that he bounds around the room, one of his leaps being on Hiccup's stomach. This is funny when a twelve-pound cat does it. Toothless, I'm willing to bet, weighs a heck of a lot more than twelve pounds.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]
* In ''MysteryScienceTheater3000: TheMovie'', Crow jokes that the departure of [[ThisIslandEarth Cal Meachum]] prompts Joe to sleep off his depression: "I'm gonna curl up in his sock drawer and sleep for days."
* In ''Film/{{In Harms Way}}'', Admiral Rockwell Torrey is badly wounded in a sea battle and wakes up in a hospital ship next to his love, Maggie Haynes, as head nurse. (Who, somehow, always seems to be assigned to where he is.)
* In the first ''Film/HarryPotter'' movie, Oliver Wood tells Harry he was knocked out for a week after taking a Bludger to the head during his first Quidditch game.
* Jason after his [[spoiler: gunshot wound]] in ''MysteryTeam''; this is merely implied.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature]]
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures novel ''The Adventuress of Henrietta Street'', the Doctor's [[HeartTrauma heart]] [[AndShowItToYou is torn]] [[OrganTheft out]]. ([[NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow It's okay]], he has [[BizarreAlienBiology another one]].) He consequently sleeps for a week, and wakes up still visibly wounded but mostly healed, with his friends by his bedside and "an enormous smile on his face".
* Happens to Frodo twice in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': once in Rivendell, and once after being rescued from Mount Doom.
* During his encounter with Quirrell at the end of ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'', Harry falls unconscious and wakes up in the hospital wing three days later.
* In ''[[Literature/CircleOfMagic Shatterglass]]'', Tris exhausts her store of magical power (not such a great idea, btw) and as a result sleeps for a week. Literally. This is pretty consistent across both of TamoraPierce's universes - exhaust your magic, and fall asleep for quite awhile.
* In ''[[TortallUniverse Trickster's Choice]]'', Kyprioth keeps Aly asleep for five days, then again for three more in ''Trickster's Queen''.
** Her mother Alanna, like Tris in the above example, ''very'' often overuses her magic and knocks herself unconscious. She usually prefers the nonmagical solutions, but when she does bust out her magic, she ''really'' busts out her magic.
* At the beginning of the book ''Force 10 From Navarone'', Miller tells the bosun of the ship they had just boarded after escaping from Navarone to not wake them until they reached Cairo. The bosun points out that they won't reach Cairo for another two days. Miller replies "I know."
* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''[[ProsperosDaughter Prospero Lost]]'', Miranda passes out before they reach the North Pole and sleeps for three days. Mab wishes she could have slept one more.
* Occurs a couple of times in {{Mistborn}}, when Vin uses pewter to compensate for fatal blood loss.
* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' Katniss sleeps for days after getting stung by tracker jackers.
* Happens to Harry more than once in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', usually after climactic combat sequences in novels like ''Literature/DeadBeat'' and ''Literature/{{Changes}}''. Usually someone, typically [[TrueCompanions Murphy]] or [[ThickerThanWater Thomas]], keeps an eye on him while he does.
* Happens to Rachel of ''TheHollows'' in one book, Al mentions ah....having to cast a spell on her to ah, [[NobodyPoops clean her up]] while she's sleeping. Other trope, averted.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV]]
* Inverted on ''Series/TheATeam'' whenever they drugged BA in order to fly anywhere. They would tell him he's been asleep for two days and they had driven the whole way.
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[[folder: Mythology]]
* Towards the end of the epic of Gilgamesh, he was challenged to go without sleep for seven days and six nights as the first trial in proving he was worthy of godhood. Instead he ended up ''sleeping'' the seven days, with his host's wife baking a loaf of bread and leaving it by his side every day he slept as proof. Gilgamesh was then told that if he couldn't conquer sleep, he had no chance of conquering death.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games]]
* ''DisgaeaHourOfDarkness'' ramps this UpToEleven, with Laharl planning for a ten-day "nap" and being asleep for two YEARS. [[spoiler: He had help, though.]]
* ''Portal2'' also takes it UpToEleven, with Chell apparently being asleep for many years after the events of the first Portal. Well, actually the computer that tells her how long she's been snoozing for glitches out, but we can clearly see that [[spoiler: the Test Chambers have become a CrapsackWorld and some [[WordofGod Word of Gabe Newell]] says that it takes place way after Portal.]]
* Used in both ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' games. In the first, the PlayerCharacter was injured while fleeing in an EscapePod which crashed. S/he has been "in and out of consciousness for days" with Carth watching over them and tending to their wounds. The EstrogenBrigade ''really'' liked the scene. The second, like everything else in the game, is more sinister. [[spoiler: The HK-50 unit poisoned the Exile, killed everyone else, and was waiting for G0-T0 to show up and collect the unconscious Jedi]].
* Celes in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' has been asleep for a whole year taken in care by Cid after [[spoiler: Kefka tore the world apart.]]
* Tifa in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' has been asleep for a week following the escape from the crater and the impact from the [=WEAPONs=]. She and Barret are awaited for execution in Junon.
* In ''{{Persona 3}}'', the main character's awakening to their Persona ability puts him/her out for a week.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:WebComics]]
* In ''NipAndTuck'', [[http://www.rhjunior.com/NT/00613.html the effect of the medicine.]]
* In another R.H. Junior example, ''TalesOfTheQuestor'', Quentyn gets a couple days' sleep on two occasions after physically traumatic feats of heroism.
* In [[RescuingDara Rescuing Dara]], the titular Dara sleeps for 3 days straight after her kidnapper drugs her with Sleep Seeds.
* in ''{{Sinfest}}'', [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2757 played with here]] as God nags {{Jesus}} to rise from the dead, starting with the observation that he's been out cold for three days.
* Baam from ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'' was out for 5 days after his 1-on-1 with Hwa Ryun.
* In ''DragonMango'', [[http://www.dragon-mango.com/comic/chapter07/dm07-67.htm Mango sleeps for two days, recovering.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]
* Parodied on ''DannyPhantom'':
-->'''Danny:''' What happened?
-->'''Tucker:''' [[PostVictoryCollapse You passed out.]] We took you home. You've been asleep for four days.
-->'''Danny:''' Four days?!
-->'''Tucker:''' ''(laughs)'' Nah, it's only been a couple hours.
* After her failed attempt to rescue the pixies from Lord Darkar at the beginning of the second season of ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'', Aisha was asleep for four days.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''. Aang is knocked unconscious by Azula's lightning bolt so long that his hair had enough time to grow back. He definitely isn't well when he first wakes up, and only Katara's extensive [[HealingHands healing]] let's him recover so quickly.
** He wasn't knocked unconscious; he was actually ''killed'' and brought back to life by [[MacGuffin magic spirit water.]] He then fell into a coma for several weeks.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleine-Levin_syndrome Kleine-Levin Syndrome]], although in this case the cause isn't stress or injury.
* Some centenarians, particularly those who make it to 110 and over, tend to sleep for a few days at a time as they get on towards the end.
[[/folder]]
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