History Main / NeverWakeUpASleepwalker

* The 1997 film ''The Sleepwalker Killing'' (starring Creator/HilarySwank) tells the story of a man who killed his mother-in-law while he was sleepwalking and when she tried to wake him out of it. His wife (played by Swank) notices that his version of events keeps repeating the phrase "and when I woke up..." and his legal team argues that while his killing of his mother-in-law did happen, it wasn't premeditated and he wasn't even aware that it happened till well after the fact ''because'' he was sleepwalking.

* ''Literature/{{Cujo}}'': During the first night they spend at her sisters' house, Charity finds her son Brett sleepwalking. Although she has enough common sense to know that all those horror stories about the dangers of waking up a sleepwalker are just myths, she still can't bring herself to wake him up and instead watches him untill he goes back to bed. She also recalls how she took Brett to the doctor when he was six because of his frequent sleepwalking, and the doctor blamed [[CriticalResearchFailure poorly researched movies]] for the wrong ideas people still have about sleepwalking.

* Averted in the Russian series ''Wolf Messing: Seeing through Time''. Wolf's mother is concerned that he walks in his sleep and doesn't respond to her voice. When she speaks of it to her rabbi, he explains that Wolf is a sleepwalker and tells her to fill a container with water and place it by the window, where Wolf sleepwalks to every night. This should snap him out of it. It works, although Wolf is confused why he's standing ankle-deep in water.

* The old Flash game ''Good Night, Mr. Snoozleberg'' tasks players with protecting the title character, a sleep-deprived diplomat with a bad habit of sleepwalking.

* One of the play modes in the old NES game ''[[VideoGame/RoboticOperatingBuddy Gyromite]]'' involves moving pistons up and down to protect a sleepwalking scientist.

As the RealLife section below details, while the above adage may be incorrect, it's still generally not a good idea to wake a sleepwalker abruptly, and in certain circumstances the better option is to simply shadow the sleepwalker and ensure they don't injure themselves. Sufferers of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_terror night terror]]s - a variant of sleepwalking categorised by the sufferer essentially experiencing a full-scale fight-or-flight reaction while asleep - have been known to lash out at people attempting to calm them down while screaming or crying hysterically, making this trope especially apropos; don't wake the sleepwalker, or rather, wake them in a way that doesn't increase their somnolent anguish.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw,'' [[UnfazedEveryman Melissa]] actually ''does'' say that this is an old wives' tale, but [[AudienceSurrogate Zack]] insists that it's not, so they chase [[BornUnlucky Milo]] around the woods anyway.

* In ''Film/StepBrothers'', both lead ManChild characters are mischievous, almost sentient, sleepwalkers. Nancy warns Robert to not wake them up, but after their sleepwalking gets out of hand on Christmas Eve (including bringing the tree in their parents' bedroom), Robert finally tries to shake them awake; they promptly beat him up, carry him, and toss him down the hallway stairs.

* Downplayed example in a book in ''Literature/TheBabysittersClub'' that featured a giant sleepover as a reward for a fundraiser; one of the kids starts sleepwalking and one of the supervisors follows him around until he goes back to sleep. All in all, it was one of the less annoying things that happened during the event.

* Also averted in an episode of ''Series/HannahMontana''. When Miley starts sleepwalking, her friends and brother repeatedly try to wake her up so that she stops, but for the most part she keeps doing it (and when they ''do'' succeed in waking her, she's perfectly fine--though she gets into a LOT of trouble given that she just badmouthed her teacher in her sleep). At one point, her brother Jackson comments that you're "supposed to wake a sleepwalker ''gently''".

* The 90's platformer ''VideoGame/{{Sleepwalker}}'' would have been far, far shorter if this wasn't in effect. Ralph the dog has to lead around his sleepwalking master Lee without the latter getting fatally hurt or waking up. If Lee wakes up, he ''dies''.

** One short involved a Fox disguising itself as a Guard Dog using this trope to smuggle chickens out, counting on the real Guard Dog's fear of causing him to his advantage.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' has Dexter's dad wandering into his secret lab which was filled with dangerous machines and experiments. The most amusing part is that his dad claims he is a light sleeper yet all the machinery and lasers don't wake him up -- a simple thing like Dexter shutting a door does. Interestingly, this episode has a legitimate justification for Dexter not waking up his dad: He doesn't want him to see his secret laboratory.

* The ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' episode "Don't Wake Patrick" has [=SpongeBob=] following a sleepwalking Patrick around Bikini Bottom to try and bring him home. In this case, [=SpongeBob=] actually did try to wake him up, but Patrick is a HeavySleeper.
* ''WesternAnimation/PJMasks'': In the episode ''Gekko and the Snore A Saurus'', the heroes have to defend a sleepwalking Cameron against Luna Girl. Naturally, they are convinced that they shouldn't wake him up".

* In RealLife, the myth originally began from the belief that the soul separates from the body during sleep, and waking up a sleepwalker would separate them from their soul, potentially with all kinds of horrible results. While the myth has been debunked in practice several times over, it does still apply in situations where a sleepwalker ends up in dangerous locations, like an edge of the roof, in which case the shock may well end up killing them, albeit indirectly, as they stumble in panic. Which only goes to underscore the importance of waking the sleepwalker before they get into such a dangerous situation in the '''first''' place.

* Daisy Duck once had to race ahead of her somnambulist boyfriend [[DonaldDuck Donald]] to remove obstacles out of his way, which considering he was doing gravity-defying tricks such as climbing up walls, was quite a feat.

* In RealLife, the myth originally began from the belief that soul separates from the body during sleep, and waking up a sleepwalker would separate them from their soul, potentially with all kinds of horrible results. While the myth has been debunked in practice several times over, it does still apply in situations where a sleepwalker ends up in dangerous locations, like an edge of the roof, in which case the shock may well end up killing them, albeit indirectly, as they stumble in panic. Which only goes to underscore the importance of waking the sleepwalker before they get into such a dangerous situation in the '''first''' place.

* In the ''VideoGame/ClubPenguin'' short, "Never Wake a Sleeping Sensei", four penguins, being warned that waking up Sensei while he is sleepwalking will [[SpontaneousHumanCombustion make him explode]], try to put him out of danger while sleepwalking for a great distance, such as forming a bridge across two cliffs and making a barrier out of pizza dough to turn him around from a fireplace.

[[folder:Comics]]
* Played with in ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'', as Calvin knows better than to wake a sleepwalking Hobbes because startling a high-strung creature with deadly teeth and claws is dangerous to the one ''waking'' them.

[[folder:Film]]
* In ''Film/SecondhandLions'', the warning is more for the safety of the person waking the sleepwalker, than that of the sleepwalker himself. When Walter tries to wake his sleepwalking great-uncle Hub, his other great-uncle Garth pulls Walter's hand back and says, "Don't. Last time I tried to wake him he nearly tore my head off."
* In ''Film/StepBrothers'', both lead ManChild characters are mischievous, almost sentient, sleepwalkers. Nancy warns Robert to not wake them up, but after their sleepwalking gets out of hand on Christmas Eve (including bringing the tree in their parents' bedroom), Robert finally tries to shake them awake; they promptly beat him up, carry him, and toss him down the hallway stairs.

-->"[[ButtMonkey The Bursar]] sleepwalks most nights, you know."
-->"Does he? Tempting..."

* ''{{Literature/Cujo}}'': During the first night they spend at her sisters' house, Charity finds her son Brett sleepwalking. Although she has enough common sense to know that all those horror stories about the dangers of waking up a sleepwalker are just myths, she still can't bring herself to wake him up and instead watches him untill he goes back to bed. She also recalls how she took Brett to the doctor when he was six because of his frequent sleepwalking, and the doctor blamed [[CriticalResearchFailure poorly researched movies]] for the wrong ideas people still have about sleepwalking.

[[folder:Live Action Television]]

* In ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho'', Doña Clotilde and Doña Florida are seen sleepwalking and Don Ramon refused to wake them up or even disturb them recalling that it'd be bad for them. El Chavo later abuses this by pretending to sleepwalk in Kiko's house to take some bread.

* In the ''VideoGame/ClubPenguin'' short, "Never Wake a Sleeping Sensei", four penguins, being warned that waking up Sensei while he is sleepwalking will [[SpontaneousHumanCombustion make him explode]] (as seen in the above image), try to put him out of danger while sleepwalking for a great distance, such as forming a bridge across two cliffs and making a barrier out of pizza dough to turn him around from a fireplace.

* One ''[[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Merrie Melodies]]'' short involved a Fox disguising itself as a Guard Dog using this trope to smuggle chickens out, counting on the real Guard Dog's fear of causing him to his advantage.
** Another, "The Unbearable Bear" featuring Sniffles the Mouse, involves a policeman chasing a burglar in his own home, but both parties trying to stay quiet because the policeman's wife is sleepwalking. Though it's more because they're both afraid of what she'll do to them if she wakes up.

* In the ''VideoGame/ClubPenguin'' short, "Never Wake a Sleeping Sensei", four penguins, being warned that waking up Sensei while he is sleepwalking will [[SpontaneousHumanCombustion make him explode]], try to put him out of danger while sleepwalking for a great distance, such as forming a bridge across two cliffs and making a barrier out of pizza dough to turn him around from a fireplace.

Did you know that waking up a [[{{Sleepwalking}} sleepwalker]] will cause severe shock and even ''death'' to the person?