History Main / BedtimeBrainwashing

* In one ''ComicStrip/{{Drabble}]'' strip, Norman whispers into his sleeping father's ear "You will buy Norman a Trans-Am. You will buy Norman a Trans-Am." The second panel, set the following day, shows his father presenting him with a canned ham. Norman then thinks he has to learn to enunciate.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQjFyQbwLn4 This advert]] for the UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem has a boy plant a tape recorder near his sleeping father and have it play a message he recorded telling him to buy a Master System with a game built in for $99, as well as a get a free game by joining the Sega Club.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Blondie}}'' [[http://tinyurl.com/pwhhwmp strip for July 12th 2014]]. While Dagwood is sleeping on a couch, neighborhood kid Elmo Tuttle whispers "Just wanted to wish you a restful and happy Hot Dog Month" in his ear. When Dagwood wakes up he has a hot dog cookout. Elmo is shown eating one and calling himself a "career button-pusher".

* ''Anime/OruchubanEbichu'': Ebichu does both Pleasant and Troubling. He does Pleasant to her beloved master (normally depressed and desperate "Christmas Cake") who ends up waking up the next morning feeling completely refreshed and in good spirit. Soon after, she tries to do Troubling to said's master undesirable boyfriend by pretending to be the boyfriend's boss at work and calling him useless and all that. This attempt is subverted by the fact that the target was actually awake the entire time and hiliariously beats Ebichu bloody.

* Kaguya tries to pull this on Shirogane in chapter 10 of ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'', whispering that she loves him in order to get him to admit his feelings for her (although [[SpannerInTheWorks Fujiwara]] barges in before she can say it and it's revealed at the end of the chapter that he was only pretending to be asleep in an attempt to manipulate ''her''). [[spoiler:A similar scene would pop up 134 chapters later, the key difference being that neither of them were pretending.]]
* ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'': Urokodaki repeatedly told a demon-turned Nezuko to protect and care for humans during the two years that she slept through while Tanjiro was training, to strengthen her already unusual resistance to eating humans. Tanjiro wasn't very happy about this as he felt it was like brainwashing, but felt better after Nezuko proved she alone would decide who to protect.

* ''ComicBook/GastonLagaffe'': Fantasio and Spirou sneak up on Gaston as he's sleeping. Fantasio then whispers into Gaston's ear to demonstrate his basic philosophy: "eat": big grin, "work": big frown, "sleep": big grin... Then Spirou whispers "Fantasio": big grin and happy sounds.

* Calvin from ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' does this to Hobbes [[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2c/12/ce/2c12ce166a18ecb0e2bd178ae300a68c.gif with the use of a cookie]].

* The Command version was a recurring gag in ''[[ComicStrip/BloomCounty Outland]]'', with Milquetoast the Cockroach whispering in people's ears as they slept. Opus was usually the recipient, but one strip was all about celebrities' crazy decisions being influenced by behind-the-scenes whispering cockroaches.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Foxtrot}}'' has one where Jason tries to convince his mother to increase his allowance by getting her to dream of all the ridiculously expensive stuff he's buying for her.
* In one ''Drabble'' strip, Norman whispers into his sleeping father's ear "You will buy Norman a Trans-Am. You will buy Norman a Trans-Am." The second panel, set the following day, shows his father presenting him with a canned ham. Norman then thinks he has to learn to enunciate.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Blondie}}'' [[http://tinyurl.com/pwhhwmp strip for July 12th 2014]]. While Dagwood is sleeping on a couch, neighborhood kid Elmo Tuttle whispers "Just wanted to wish you a restful and happy Hot Dog Month" in his ear. When Dagwood wakes up he has a hot dog cookout. Elmo is shown eating one and calling himself a "career button-pusher".

* In one ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' strip, a dog whispers through a crack in the window to their sleeping owner to put the cat out so that it can attack the cat. Made even better because the cat is awake and watching the dog do this.

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[[folder:Film- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService'': Blofeld is using this to brainwash the women at his clinic, so he can use them as couriers for the deadly virus he's developing.
* In ''Film/TheSixthSense'', the protagonist does this to his wife in the end.

* ''Film/{{Inception}}'' takes this to its logical end: literally invading someone's dream to plant an idea deep in his subconscious. In theory this shouldn't work, but the protagonist knows otherwise because he's seen it happen in practice.

* ''Literature/StarWarsPhasma'' reveals that First Order stormtroopers start their brainwashing as children, listening to propaganda as they sleep. Creepily enough, they're fully aware of this and find it comforting, as it's the closest they have to a mother figure. Cardinal even compares it to a lullaby.

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E7TheMacraTerror The Macra Terror]]" features the villains trying this on the Doctor and his companions, mixed with a bit of pheromones for added effect, but only ends up affecting Ben.
* One episode of ''Series/SaluteYourShorts'' had Budnick telling a ghost story about Zeke the Plumber, a custodian who was killed in a gas explosion. The gist of the story is that whoever touches his plunger will be haunted by them in their dreams, and since Telly was one of them, she has a sleepless night which causes her to nod off in the mess hall, after which Budnick comes up and starts whispering in her ear, "Zeke the Plumber, Zeke the Plumber..." Guess who she starts dreaming about?
* In an episode of ''Series/{{Jonas}}'', Kevin becomes addicted to Nick's cookies and keeps insinting on more. When Nick refuses to bake him anymore cookies, Kevin tries to brainwash him by murmuring to him in his sleep. It seemingly works, but it is then subverted as Nick was actually awake that night and baked the cookies on purpose to teach Kevin a lesson (justified that Kevin was having a {{Sugar Rush}} as a result of eating too many cookies).

* ''Series/JonathanCreek'': The solution to "The Eyes of Tiresias" hinges on this, with an old woman [[spoiler: hearing details of a planned murder that had been recorded on to a CD that played while she slept]], causing her to have what she believed was a prophetic dream about the coming murder.

* ''Series/MorkAndMindy'': As part of his attempts to convince Mindy to marry him, Mork sneaks a tape player into her room while she's asleep which plays the message "You will marry Mork. You love Mork. Mork loves you". Mindy immediately wakes up and turns the player off.
* When Eric needs to quickly learn to ice skate in ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld,'' Jack gifts him a tape to play while he's sleeping. Jack's mother had used it to lose weight, and Jack dubbed over a few words (soothing female voice "You are a strong, confident woman who can" Jack's voice "ICE SKATE.") Somehow, it actually works.

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* ''Film/TalesFromMuppetlandTheFrogPrince'': After Robin is captured by the witch Taminella, Kermit tries to trick Sweetums into freeing Robin by imitating Taminella's voice while Sweetums is sleeping and ordering him to "stay asleep let frog go." It almost works, but then backfires.
* In the ''Series/FraggleRock'' episode "The Trash Heap Doesn't Live Here Anymore," Wembley whispers into a sleeping Junior Gorg's ear, getting him to sleepwalk and move the Trash Heap to another part of the garden instead of throwing her in the river.
* One episode of ''Series/FeralTV'' has Derryn the dog start using sleep education tapes, [[ComedicSociopathy at which point the others start sabotaging him by substituting other tapes]]. They get stopped before they can use ''101 Uses for a Dead Cane Toad'', much to the relief of their cane toad boss.
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* In the ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' short "A Jorb Well Done", Strong Sad's attempt to cure Coach Z's inability to say the word "job" is to effectively play a recording of him saying "job" properly 285,194 times while Coach Z sleeps. It works... at the expense of Coach Z able to say Homestar's name.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', [[Recap/AdventureTimeS4E22IgnitionPoint "Ignition Point"]], after Finn and Jake retrieves Flame Princess' scented candle from the Fire Kingdom, they give it back to her while she's sleeping and lit the candles with her hair. Her father, Flame King, appears and starts whispering "evil" into her ear to make such she remain evil after discovering Finn wants to convert her to good. But Flame Princess wakes up surprising him and herself and he quits for now.
* ''WesternAnimation/KidVsKat'': In "I'm Okay, You're a Kat", Coop discovers a self-help tape in the House of Swap and uses it to make himself far more cheerful by playing it while he's sleeping. Kat gets annoyed by how Coop's optimism makes it much harder to annoy him and edits the tape to make Coop pessimistic, making him scared of his own shadow and literally cry over spilled milk. Afterwards, Kat uses another self-help tape on Burt to brainwash him into his servant. When Coop finds out, he decides to use a self-help tape to become a tough guy, which turns him into a thug and he almost drops his entire family in a pool of [[PsychoElectricEel electric eels]] before he is snapped out of it.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'', the culprit disguises himself as the Dreamweaver in order to manipulate his victims in their sleep to do criminal acts in order to have them arrested or be humiliated in public.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981'' episode "Papa's Flying Bed", Papa Smurf's new bed causes whoever sleeps in it to be transported to wherever it is they are dreaming about. After the bed takes Papa Smurf, Brainy, Clumsy, and Baby to a pirate ship and then a child's bedroom with toys, it ends up traveling to Gargamel's lair when Clumsy dreams of being taken there. Papa Smurf whispers in Clumsy's ear to dream about his home in the Smurf Village with his beautiful rock collection, and soon enough Clumsy's dreaming takes them away from Gargamel before he gets their hands on them and straight into Clumsy's house.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': In "Driving Miss Hazy", Lori tries to sabotage Leni's driving test by planting headphones playing a tape with bad driving instructions on her head while she's asleep. Lincoln calls Lori out, telling her that not only is she being selfish, but her bad driving instructions could get Leni hurt.

* The ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' episode "Jukebox Jon" had Jon trying to hypnotize himself in his sleep into not biting his nails with help of a special device in order to appeal himself to a comic book executive who despises said habit. However, it backfires when Garfield accidentally breaks the record that was playing on the device, so he substitutes it with some "Learn to Speak Spanish" records, records of 50's doo wop music, and cartoon sound effects instead. {{Hilarity Ensues}}.

* In ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}} Perfect'' (Slayers the Motion Picture), it's played for laughs as Lina awakens and sees the King and the Queen chanting too loudly at her. The laughs are made even more potent by the fact that Lina already has mysterious dreams, but this one turns to be a fake.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': In "Micro Managing" (DC issue #68), the Micro-Puffs (three troublemaking sprite avatars of the girls) brainwash Bubbles and Buttercup in their sleep into thinking she is the leader of the Powerpuffs. It doesn't work on Blossom as she's already the leader. When Bubbles' and Buttercup's Napoleon complexes don't subside, Blossom seeks [[EnemyMine help from Mojo Jojo]] in turning the tide.

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[[folder: Film- Live-Action]]

[[folder: Literature]]

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[[folder: Myths & Religion]]

[[folder: Puppet Shows]]

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[[folder: Western Animation]]

* In ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'', this effect is called Hypnopaedia. A combination of Pleasant, Troubling and Command (especially Troubling and Command) is used to condition children according to their place in the caste system. One of the protagonists, Bernard Marx, is actually one of the writers behind the hypnopaedia, and takes a perverse pleasure, when someone says one of the aphorisms learned through it, exactly which ages they heard that hypnopaedia.

* In ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'', this effect is called Hypnopaedia. A combination of Pleasant, Troubling and Command (especially Troubling and Command) is used to condition children according to their place in the caste system.

-->-- '''King Dedede''' in episode 50 of ''Anime/KirbyRightBackAtYa''

Compare CrashingDreams (that's about dreams and real life coinciding, like dreaming you're kissing someone while being licked by your dog in real life, this is a MindManipulation trope about manipulation by suggestions given to a sleeping subject) as well as SleepLearning and SubliminalSeduction.

* ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'': [[http://www.mangareader.net/337-23554-11/historys-strongest-disciple-kenichi/chapter-48.html Watch it here.]] Kenichi's martial artists masters use the Command version of this in the attempt to convince Kenichi to accept the TrainingFromHell they want to give him to prepare for an opponent he was having trouble with. The actual attempt doesn't work though.

* A rare positive example in ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba''. Urokodaki repeatedly told a demon-turned Nezuko to protect and care for humans during the two years that she slept through while Tanjiro was training, to strengthen her already unusual resistance to eating humans. Tanjiro wasn't very happy about this as he felt it was like brainwashing, but felt better after Nezuko proved she alone would decide who to protect.

* In ''ComicBook/TheUnknownSupergirl'', Lesla-Lar brainwashes ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} in her sleep into believing she is Lesla herself in order to replace her.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "Papa's Flying Bed", Papa Smurf's new bed causes whoever sleeps in it to be transported to wherever it is they are dreaming about. After the bed takes Papa Smurf, Brainy, Clumsy, and Baby to a pirate ship and then a child's bedroom with toys, it ends up traveling to Gargamel's lair when Clumsy dreams of being taken there. Papa Smurf whispers in Clumsy's ear to dream about his home in the Smurf Village with his beautiful rock collection, and soon enough Clumsy's dreaming takes them away from Gargamel before he gets their hands on them and straight into Clumsy's house.

[[folder: Newspaper Comics]]
* Calvin from ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' does this to Hobbes [[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2c/12/ce/2c12ce166a18ecb0e2bd178ae300a68c.gif with the use of a cookie]].
* In ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'', Opus tries to get in to see Steve Dallas after an operation. He is refused because the doctor is "debriefing" the patient.
-->'''Dr. [=LeGrunt=]''': You will not sue. You will not sue. You will not sue. You...
-->'''Steve''': Mmblgh...
** In another series of strips, the boarding house's resident cockroach uses this tactic to get people to start leaving out food for him.
* The Command version was a recurring gag in ''[[ComicStrip/BloomCounty Outland]]'', with Milquetoast the Cockroach whispering in people's ears as they slept. Opus was usually the recipient, but one strip was all about celebrities' crazy decisions being influenced by behind-the-scenes whispering cockroaches.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Foxtrot}}'' has one where Jason tries to convince his mother to increase his allowance by getting her to dream of all the ridiculously expensive stuff he's buying for her.
* In one ''Drabble'' strip, Norman whispers into his sleeping father's ear "You will buy Norman a Trans-Am. You will buy Norman a Trans-Am." The second panel, set the following day, shows his father presenting him with a canned ham. Norman then thinks he has to learn to enunciate.
* In one ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' strip, the PHB did this to a higher up to try an increase his department's budget while Wally tried to whisper a command for the higher up to kill the PHB.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Blondie}}'' [[http://tinyurl.com/pwhhwmp strip for July 12th 2014]]. While Dagwood is sleeping on a couch, neighborhood kid Elmo Tuttle whispers "Just wanted to wish you a restful and happy Hot Dog Month" in his ear. When Dagwood wakes up he has a hot dog cookout. Elmo is shown eating one and calling himself a "career button-pusher".
* A fairly common occurrence in ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}''. One particularly noteworthy example had Garfield's alarm clock describing him wandering through a pasta factory and coming across a gigantic [[TrademarkFavoriteFood lasagna]], before loudly waking him up just as Garfield was about to dig in.
* In one ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' strip, a dog whispers through a crack in the window to their sleeping owner to put the cat out so that it can attack the cat. Made even better because the cat is awake and watching the dog do this.
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