History Main / NeverSleepAgain

See also ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight, SleepParalysisCreature and YourMindMakesItReal. Not to be confused with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_familial_insomnia Fatal Familial Insomnia,]] a RealLife prion disease that progressively erodes a patient's ability to sleep until they [[InvertedTrope die from not sleeping]].

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E9PerchanceToDream Perchance to Dream]]", a man is afraid to go to sleep because he has a weak heart and his nightmares could give him a heart attack.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E132NinetyYearsWithoutSlumbering Ninety Years Without Slumbering]]", a man is afraid that if his grandfather clock runs down, he will die, so he has to stay awake to keep it wound up.

* The host segments in the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode "[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S08E10TheGiantSpiderInvasion The Giant Spider Invasion]]" feature an extended parody of ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers'', with Mike, Crow, and Tom Servo trying to stay awake to avoid being replaced by pod people. Crow has no trouble staying awake, but he nearly overdoses on caffeine and sugar.

[[folder:Tabletop RPG]]
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''
** The night hag monster would visit NeutralEvil characters while they slept. The hag would force the victim into the Ethereal plane and ride them until dawn, permanently reducing their Constitution by one point each time.
** ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' setting supplement ''The Nightmare Lands''. The Nightmare Court and their agents target people who have nightmares or who try to thwart them by sending them into madness-inducing dreamscapes. (The Abber Nomads, the primitive human natives of the place, don't have to worry about this; they don't dream.)

* This trope is [[PowerBornOfMadness the central premise]] of the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin aptly-named]] ''TabletopGame/DontRestYourHead''.
* ''Shattered Dreams'', a small-press [=RPG=] from the late 90s, was all about this trope.

* ''Literature/BruceCovillesBookOf Nightmares II'': ''The Gravekeeper'' revolves around a madman who, every year during the three nights of the Harvest Moon, returns from the grave to kidnap and eat children. He won't come after children who are awake though, or who have parents or guardians who stand guard over them in their sleep (as Gabriel's mother had). [[spoiler: Or, as Gabriel does the last night, who hide in the closet while leaving a decoy in the bed.]]
* Bains, a character from Creator/WilliamHopeHodgson's ''The Hog'', is nearly drawn into a hellish otherworld - source of his chronic nightmares - because he falls asleep while undergoing one of Literature/CarnackiTheGhostFinder's occult experiments.
* Dreamsnatchers from the ''Literature/DoraWilkSeries'' can attack you in your dreams, hurting you in real life. And [[spoiler:Albin's]] charms turn on when an infected vampire is asleep, making him/her go out in the deadly daylight.
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': ''Literature/GravePeril'' has the Nightmare (aka [[spoiler:Leonid Kravos]]), who kills by entering his victims' dreams.
* Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's ''Literature/{{Earthsea}}'': In ''Literature/TheOtherWind'', the wizard Alder is plagued by dreams of his wife in the land of the dead.
* The ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' book ''Literature/DontGoToSleep'' had the main character be shunted to a different alternate universe whenever he fell asleep.

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear: City of the Dead'' has Zak Arranda repeatedly plagued by [[SurvivorsGuilt guilty]] {{Past Experience Nightmare}}s about his dead parents, sometimes seeing them as zombies, and not wanting to sleep... aaaand then while he's asleep an actual zombie starts trying to pry open his window.
* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' epic series, there is Tel'aran'rhiod, the World of Dreams. Careful Dreamers can navigate this world while they sleep to gather information or meet with each other. It's never a safe place though, because any wound or physical damage carries over to the real world, and any object can be created just by imagining it, including weapons. Occasionally ordinary people accidentally pop in while dreaming normally, usually to disappear after just a few minutes or seconds, unaware that they'd been there at all. On the other hand, sometimes hitting the ground in your dreams can end up being fatal after all...

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "It's About Time", Twilight Sparkle gets a cryptic warning from her future self, and grows increasingly neurotic trying to identify and stop the vaguely-defined disaster about which she was trying to warn herself. She eventually resorts to staying up for a week straight trying to "monitor ''everything''" in Equestria.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' [[HalloweenEpisode Treehouse of Horror]] story "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace" (a WholePlotReference to ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet''), Bart and Lisa try to not sleep because the vengeful spirit of Groundskeeper Willy will kill them in their dreams. They realize quickly that they simply can't do it and resolve to fight Willy off themselves.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' dealt with a recurring villain named Morphio the Dream Demon (related to the Greek god of dreams InNameOnly) who could attack victims in their sleep and inflict them with eternal nightmares, simply ForTheEvulz.

* The host segments in the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode "[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S08E10TheGiantSpiderInvasion The Giant Spider Invasion]]" feature an extended parody of ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers'', with Mike, Crow, and Tom Servo trying to stay awake to avoid being replaced by pod people. Crow has no trouble staying awake, but he nearly overdoses on caffeine and sugar.
* A ''Series/{{Sliders}}'' episode depicts a world ruled by a sinister cabal that can kill people in their dreams.
* The ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "[[Recap/StargateSG1S10E2Morpheus Morpheus]]" has the curse of Morgan Le Fay (which is really a parasite that creates and feeds on melatonin and serotonin, which makes one very sleepy and then kills you).

* The host segments in the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'': episode "[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S08E10TheGiantSpiderInvasion The Giant Spider Invasion]]" feature an extended parody of ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers'', with Mike, Crow, and Tom Servo trying to stay awake to avoid being replaced by pod people. Crow has no trouble staying awake, but he nearly overdoses on caffeine and sugar.