History Main / PassedInTheirSleep

* In the ''Series/NCIS'' episode “[[Recap/NCISS21E02 The Stories We Leave Behind]]”, Ducky (after his actor Creator/DavidMcCallum dies in September 2023) dies peacefully of natural causes while sleeping, with his protege Palmer finding his body the following morning when he comes by his house to discuss an old case.

* Discussed in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', which is where the page quote comes from.

* Used in ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E9PerchanceToDream "Perchance to Dream"]]. A man thinks that if he falls asleep he'll die. At the start of the episode, he goes to a doctor's office, lies down and closes his eyes for a moment, then jumps up and explains his situation to the doctor. At the end it's revealed that it was all a DyingDream; the doctor reports to his nurse that the man came into his office, lay down, and never woke up.
* An episode of the Singaporean comedy, ''Series/PhuaChuKang'' have Chu Kang offering a friend's mother to stay at his place (mistaking his friend to have thrown his mother out - in actuality the old lady had a quarrel with her son and daughter-in-law before deciding to flee on her own), with Chu Kang's sister-in-law Margaret offering the old lady her room to sleep in after discovering their shared love of vegan food (much to her husband Anthony Phua's chagrin). Alas, by the time Chu Kang's friend arrives one morning to retrieve his mother several days later (after causing a ton of problems for the Phua household) she somehow died in her sleep in Anthony's and Margaret's bedroom. Being a comedy, it's all PlayedForLaughs, especially considering this is the ''only'' instance of a CharacterDeath happening in the entire series.
* On an episode of ''Series/RedDwarf'', Rimmer found a letter saying that his father (who of course died thousands of years ago) died peacefully in his jeep...er...sleep.

* ''Series/{{Creepshow}}'': In the season 2 premiere “[[Recap/CreepshowS2E1ModelKid Model Kid]]”, Joe and his cancer-striken single mother June watch ''Film/AbbottAndCostelloMeetFrankenstein'' together, and June’s cancer takes its final, fatal toll on her as she falls asleep.

* ''Series/{{Creepshow}}: In the season 2 premiere “[[Recap/CreepshowS2E1ModelKid Model Kid]]”, Joe and his cancer-striken single mother June watch ''Film/AbbottAndCostelloMeetFrankenstein'' together, and June’s cancer takes its final, fatal toll on her as she falls asleep.

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Zuko receives a message telling him to research his great-grandfather's death. Later he asks Azula about it, who tells him that Firelord Sozin, their father's grandfather, died peacefully in his sleep, an old man. But Iroh wanted him to know about his mother's grandfather, Avatar Roku, who was betrayed by Sozin and left to die at an erupting volcano. As for Sozin, while him dying in his sleep may have been true, [[HeelRealization the "peaceful" part is much less so]].

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Zuko receives a message telling him to research his great-grandfather's death. Later he asks Azula about it, who tells him that Firelord Sozin, their father's grandfather, died peacefully in his sleep, an old man. But Iroh wanted him to know about his mother's grandfather, Avatar Roku, who was betrayed by Sozin and left to die at an erupting volcano.

* One of Subaru's [[TheManyDeathsOfYou many deaths]] from ''LightNovel/ReZero'', involved him simply going to bed as usual and waking up the following day only to realize that Return By Death had activated making it clear that he somehow ended up dying during his sleep.

* In ''Literature/TheCityOfEmber'', this is how Lina and Poppy's grandmother dies. After she starts succumbing to an unknown illness, she tells Lina to go to sleep, and the next morning, Lina finds her body still in bed.

* ''Franchise/{{Discworld}}'': This how [[BigGood Granny Weatherwax]] dies in ''Literature/TheShepherdsCrown'', [[BaitAndSwitch despite the prologue and first chapter]] implying she'd die in the coming battle with the elves.

Death is usually compared to sleep. We have a DeepSleep, where a character sleeps like they're dead, but there's also those times when a character has Passed In Their Sleep. This, of course, occurs when a character dies of a natural cause such as a disease, old age, or of an injury. And many people argue [[PeacefulInDeath that this might be the best way to go.]]

Oftentimes this kind of death is portrayed for mystery (death in your sleep, while natural, has no directly visible causes) or exoticness/symbolism (a form of PeacefulInDeath).

* ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'': The novelization of the film shows that Edmunds settled into hypersleep to await NASA response after confirming that the planet was inhabitable; while he was asleep a rockslide destroyed his shelter, giving him what's most likely the most painless death of all the scientists.

* In ''Film/HappyDeathDay'', Tree finds herself in a GroundhogDayLoop where she keeps getting murdered by someone. After a lot of trial and error she kills Tombs the serial killer, then celebrates afterwards by eating a birthday cupcake given to her from her roommate Lori. She then wakes up and is bewildered by the fact that she's ''still'' stuck in her time loop, confused as to why until she realizes that she died in her sleep. From a poisoned cupcake that in no previous loop she had eaten. From her roommate Lori. [[ExplainExplainOhCrap With whom she is alone with in the same room when she realizes thebtrue culprit.]]

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': A variation occurs in the cinematic for ''Dragonflight''. As the Flights leave the Dragon Isles in the aftermath of the Sundering, they entrust the Watchers (essentially animate statues) to reactivate the beacon that will lead them back one day. In the mean time, the Watchers enter a kind of stasis to await the time they will be needed. TenThousandYears later, the time comes to reactivate the beacon, but the Watchers have crumbled during their long slumber, except for one, Koranos. As he goes to reactivate the beacon, he passed the inanimate remains of his brethren who never woke up. In the game itself, the lifeless watcher are seen standing silently in various locations.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': A variation occurs in the cinematic for ''Dragonflight''. As the FLights leave the Dragon Isles in the aftermath of the Sundering, they entrust the Watchers (essentially animate statues) to reactivate the beacon that will lead them back one day. In the mean time, the Watchers enter a kind of stasis to await the time they will be needed. TenThousandYears later, the time comes to reactivate the beacon, but the Watchers have crumbled during their long slumber, except for one, Koranos. As he goes to reactivate the beacon, he passed the inanimate remains of his brethren who never woke up. In the game itself, the lifeless watcher are seen standing silently in various locations.

* An episode of the Singaporean comedy, ''Series/PhuaChuKang'' have Chu Kang offering a friend's mother to stay at his place (mistaking his friend to have thrown his mother out - in actuality the old lady had a quarrel with her son and daughter-in-law before deciding to flee on her own), with Chu Kang's sister-in-law Margaret offering the old lady her room to sleep in after discovering their shared love of vegan food (much to her husband Anthony Phua's chagrin). Alas, by the time Chu Kang's friend arrives to retrieve his mother several days later, she had somehow died in her sleep in Anthony's and Margaret's bedroom. Being a comedy, it's all PlayedForLaughs, especially considering this is the ''only'' instance of a CharacterDeath happening in the entire series.

* An episode of the Singaporean comedy, ''Series/PhuaChuKang'' have Chu Kang offering a friend's mother to stay at his place (mistaking his friend to have thrown his mother out - in actuality the old lady had a quarrel with her son and daughter-in-law before deciding to flee on her own), with Chu Kang's sister-in-law offering the old lady her room to sleep in after discovering their shared love of vegan food (much to her husband Anthony Phua's chagrin). Alas, by the time Chu Kang's friend arrives to retrieve his mother several days later, she had somehow died in her sleep in Anthony's and Margaret's bedroom. Being a comedy, it's all PlayedForLaughs, especially considering this is the ''only'' instance of a CharacterDeath happening in the entire series.

->'''Lisa:''' Bart, do you realise what this means? The next time we fall asleep we could die!\\

* In the "Mobius: 25 Years Later" comic arc in ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'', Knuckles mentions that this trope is how his father, Locke, died, while he was admitted to hospital.

* ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'': While the Avengers are discussing the Sokovia Accords, Steve gets a text which says, "She's gone. In her sleep." The next scene is him at the funeral for Peggy Carter.

* ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern'': In the climax of ''All the Weyrs of Pern'', [[spoiler:retired Masterharper Robinton has a final talk with Aivas. After saying goodbye when the A.I. suicides, he falls asleep in a chair, along with his fire-lizard Zair, and neither of them ever wake up.]]

* ''Series/FullHouse'': Played straight in the Season 7 episode "The Last Dance." Jesse's grandfather, whom also becomes very close to Michelle, dies in his sleep while staying at the Tanners.

* Music/SplitEnz has the classic "Charlie", where the man who has been banished to the couch for a monumental argument comes into his significant others bedroom to wake her up and say sorry to her - only to find, slowly and disbelievingly, with a rising sense of horror, that she has died in the night. WordOfGod says this actually happened to a friend of theirs in RealLife.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'' shows the final plague this way; since it happens in the middle of the night, the firstborn of one Egyptian family is shown dying in his sleep, and presumably this is the case for most of the others too.

* ''Fanfic/{{Destiny}}'': Tiana was ill with the flu when one night she went to bed and never woke up.