Guilt-Induced Nightmares in Literature.
- Air Awakens: Vhalla has (inadvertently) caused her friend Sareem's death. After finding his heavily mutilated body, she is plagued by nightmares in which he accuses her of killing him (which is actually not true, she just wasn't there with him when the city was attacked).
- In an Arthur book, titled "Arthur in a Pickle", Arthur lies to Mr. Ratburn that his dog Pal ate his homework and Mr. Ratburn tells him he's "in a pickle". He has a nightmare that night about being trapped in a world full of literal pickles.
- The Berenstain Bears: In "The Green-Eyed Monster", Sister feels envious about Brother's new bicycle and desperately wants it. Mama tells her that she wouldn't be able to ride it anyway since her feet can't reach the pedals. That night, Sister dreams about the eponymous Green-Eyed Monster (who looks just like Sister, except she has green fur and horns) coming to visit her. The Green-Eyed Monster convinces her to try to ride Brother's bike. The bike suddenly grows while Sister is on it, making it impossible for Sister to steer. She collides into a rock, destroying the bicycle instantly. Sister screams, "What have I done?!" When she wakes up, she deeply regrets being envious.
- In the Dreamblood Duology, healing magic works through resolving some symbol of the injury through Dream Weaving. One wounded soldier has nightmares that link his injury to his Survivor Guilt, so Hanani heals him by reshaping the dreams so he can forgive himself for not dying with his comrades.
- The House in the Hole in the Side of the Tree: Squire Squirrel constantly yells at his neighbors to leave him alone. However, he knows how much his attitude distances himself from others, and he is very lonely as a result. He cries himself to sleep and has a nightmare wherein he's being chased by a saw and a hammer, and all his neighbors refuse to let him in their houses. It culminates in him hiding in his own house, weeping even more about having no one to turn to. When he wakes up, he apologizes to his neighbors (who, incidentally, have built him a new house).
- In Frostie Minus Two by Olga Kolpakova, two conmen who masquerade as Father Frost and the Snow Maiden (the traditional Russian giftbringers on winter holidays) and visit children with cheap gifts in order to steal the parents' valuables (which they keep in a fridge), have a nightmare like that. In it, they are chased by a crowd of children who are riding a living, moving fridge and throwing gift bags at the conmen. Though the nightmare doesn't make them repent at once, it does contribute to their eventual decision to give themselves up to the police and stop stealing.
- The Little Critter book "The Bear who Wouldn't Share" sees the bear confronted by his conscience when he lets in a group of other cold, hungry creatures but claims (falsely) that he has no food. She sarcastically wishes him sweet dreams when he resists. Understandably, he instead dreams about the hungry creatures. When he wakes up, he lets them eat the food he's stored up.
- In A Song of Ice and Fire, Jaime has a nightmare of the late Prince Rhaegar Targaryen and the Kingsguard who scolded him for failing his duties that he has sworn to do such as not protecting Princess Elia Martell and her children, who are brutally murdered (and in Elia's case raped and murdered) during the Sack of King's Landing.
- In one of the Sweet Valley High books, Elizabeth gets so fed up with Jessica's antics that she wishes she didn't have a sister. She then falls asleep and has a lengthy and detailed nightmare in which Jessica is killed in a car accident, leaving her feeling hideously guilty for ever wishing such a thing. The nightmare is so realistic that she doesn't realize it was All Just a Dream until after she wakes up in a panic, and apologizes to Jessica for losing her patience.
- Swindle: In "Zoobreak", the kids have infiltrated Mr. Nastase's zoo and freed the animals. They are secretly hiding the animals in their houses. Darren, who knows about this, has a nightmare that he's put on trial and then imprisoned. His mother, who has heard him shouting in his sleep that he's innocent, accurately guesses that it's because he feels guilty about something. Since Darren is too groggy to come up with an excuse on the spot, he just tells her what the kids have done.
- Touching Spirit Bear: While lying in a skiff injured on his way back to Minneapolis, Cole has a dream where everyone he knows helps him in some way, which Cole likes. He likes using people. Then everyone turns into vicious monsters and points out that he’s a liar.The Monsters: You Fool! Why should we do anything for you? You’re nothing! You’re a baby-faced con!
