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[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebVideo/Gamechamp3000'': [[https://youtu.be/4ylEp-uu3EU?t=834 VG Myths - Can You Beat Pokemon Without Getting Hit?]]: The stress of the NoDamageRun caused this.
[[/folder]]
* ''WebVideo/Gamechamp3000'': [[https://youtu.be/4ylEp-uu3EU?t=834 VG Myths - Can You Beat Pokemon Without Getting Hit?]]: The stress of the NoDamageRun caused this.
[[/folder]]
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* In ''ComicBook/{{Maus}}'', Vladek apparently has them every night, as he's always moaning in his sleep. Art says to Francoise: "When I was a kid I thought that was the sound that all grown-ups made while they sleep."
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* In ''ComicBook/{{Maus}}'', Vladek (a Holocaust survivor) apparently has them every night, as he's always moaning in his sleep. Art says to Francoise: "When I was a kid I thought that was the sound that all grown-ups made while they sleep."
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* In ''Fanfic/WhatTomorrowBrings'', Jake mentions that he has a recurring nightmare where [[KillTheOnesYouLove Tom]] talks to him while dying gruesomely.
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* In ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainKnightOfTheOrangeLily'', Ryoken Kougami has been getting nightmares of seeing Specter going through rounds of ElectricTorture with an ominous green glow. What makes it even ''more'' terrifying is that 1) Specter is on the Infinity Train (Ryoken has no idea about it), 2) the fact that this is the same Specter who took 6 ''months'' of torture as a young kid that is screaming and begging for mercy and 3) the fact that Ryoken is ''specifically'' having this dream since, again, ''he has no idea about the Train''
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[[folder:Fanfiction]]
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* ''Fanfic/{{Enlightenments}}'': Wander has severe and persistent trauma nightmares. He starts out trying to avoid them by pushing himself to exhaustion before sleeping; this rarely works. One thing Dormin does for him as they start to become friends is show him how to mix a medication that interrupts his recall of the dreams, allowing him to sleep more easily.
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-->--'''William Bishop''', ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon''
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* In ''Fanfic/JonathanJoestarTheFirstJoJo,'' It's revealed that Jotaro repeatedly has extremely vivid dreams of [[spoiler: the other crusader's deaths]].
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--> ''In the middle of the night I woke up in terror.''
--> ''In my dreams, I was back within my helmet.''
--> ''In my dreams, I was back within my helmet.''
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--> ''In the middle of the night I woke up in terror.''
-->''\\
''In my dreams, I was back within my helmet.''
-->
''In my dreams, I was back within my helmet.''
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* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'': [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2400/fc02344.htm Strip 2344]]: Final panel:
--> I have a recurring nightmare that I'm never going to get a good night's sleep and then I wake up to find it's a recurring reality.
--> I have a recurring nightmare that I'm never going to get a good night's sleep and then I wake up to find it's a recurring reality.
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* ''Series/Lucifer2016'': In the episode "Quintessential Deckerstar", Charlotte is still plagued by nightmares of losing her family, and now Dan is in them as well.
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* ''Series/Lucifer2016'': In Charlotte Richards has a recurring nightmare based on the episode way she was tortured during her time in Hell. In her nightmares she's having breakfast with her family when a criminal she defended during her AmoralAttorney days bursts in and kills them in front of her. Each time the scenario repeats the gun is wielded by a different criminal. "Quintessential Deckerstar", Charlotte is still plagued by nightmares Deckerstar" opens with the nightmare being shown to the audience with the addition of losing Dan Espinoza, who just started dating Charlotte, to the scenario alongside her family, and now Dan is in them as well.children.
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* ''Series/BehindHerEyes'': Louise suffers from night terrors, which Adele tries to help her control. Adele has experienced these in the past, as has her friend Rob, whose journal gives advice on controlling dreams.
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* ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'': JustBeforeTheEnd, Árni Reynisson from the prologue works for an Icelandic coast guard that has resorted to bomb refugee boats to stop the spread of ThePlague. The segment focuses on Árni quitting his job because he has been getting, per his own words "horrible dreams" for an unspecified number of night in a row.
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* ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'': JustBeforeTheEnd, Árni Reynisson from the prologue works for an Icelandic coast guard that has resorted to bomb refugee boats to stop the spread of ThePlague. The segment focuses on Árni quitting his job because he has been getting, per his own words "horrible dreams" for an unspecified number of night nights in a row.
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* During ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Anakin has a recurring nightmare of his wife, Padme, [[DeathByChildbirth dying in childbirth]], something that Anakin believes to be a [[DreamingOfThingsToCome prothetic dream]]. Sure enough, this ends up being the case. The film's {{Novelization}} goes more in depth with this, revealing that Anakin has this nightmare ''every time he sleeps'', leading to him swearing off sleep entirely just to avoid it. The reason he was so certain that his dreams were prophetic is because during ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' he had similar dreams of his mother being tortured to death and found her just in time for her to die in his arms.
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* During ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Anakin has a recurring nightmare of his wife, Padme, [[DeathByChildbirth dying in childbirth]], something that Anakin believes to be a [[DreamingOfThingsToCome prothetic dream]]. Sure enough, this ends up being the case.case, [[SelfFulfillingProphecy largely because of the actions he took to prevent it]]. The film's {{Novelization}} goes more in depth with this, revealing that Anakin has this nightmare ''every time he sleeps'', leading to him swearing off sleep entirely just to avoid it. The reason he was so certain that his dreams were prophetic is because during ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' he had similar dreams of his mother being tortured to death and found her just in time for her to die in his arms.
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* ''FanFic/TheApprenticeTheStudentAndTheCharlatan'' opens with the titular trio (Nova Shine, Twilight Sparkle, and Trixie Lulamoon) all experiencing these over an extended period. The first chunk of the story is devoted to them finding out what the dreams mean and who is causing them. [[spoiler:Nova Shine two years older, after an expedition into the past, is causing them as a warning because he knows it gets the events of the story moving.]]
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moves from Past Experience Nightmare, for which the situation was deemed to not qualify by someone cleaning up
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* ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'': JustBeforeTheEnd, Árni Reynisson from the prologue works for an Icelandic coast guard that has resorted to bomb refugee boats to stop the spread of ThePlague. The segment focuses on Árni quitting his job because he has been getting, per his own words "horrible dreams" for an unspecified number of night in a row.
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* ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'': Abby has recurring nightmares of [[spoiler:finding her father's corpse. It's only once she saves Yara that she has a peaceful dream of her father alive.]]
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* ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'': ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPartII'': Abby has recurring nightmares of [[spoiler:finding her father's corpse. It's only once she saves Yara that she has a peaceful dream of her father alive.]]
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[[folder:Multiple Media]]
* In the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse, any treatment of Zoe's life post "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames The War Games]]" will include recurring nightmares caused by the interaction between her PhotographicMemory and the LaserGuidedAmnesia inflicted on her by the Time Lords. The [[AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho Big Finish]] story "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoCCS6E3TheMemoryCheats The Memory Cheats]]" has her suffering from nightmares even before then, thanks to her education by the [[BoardingSchoolOfHorrors Elite Programme]]. Jamie, who also left in "The War Games", also comes in for some of this.
[[/folder]]
* In the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse, any treatment of Zoe's life post "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames The War Games]]" will include recurring nightmares caused by the interaction between her PhotographicMemory and the LaserGuidedAmnesia inflicted on her by the Time Lords. The [[AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho Big Finish]] story "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoCCS6E3TheMemoryCheats The Memory Cheats]]" has her suffering from nightmares even before then, thanks to her education by the [[BoardingSchoolOfHorrors Elite Programme]]. Jamie, who also left in "The War Games", also comes in for some of this.
[[/folder]]
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* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In "Kiki's Pizza Delivery Service", her letting Jenny push off her responsibilities onto her give her recurring nightmares about being dragged by cheesy hands down into pizza and drowning.
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* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In "Kiki's Pizza Delivery Service", her Kiki letting Jenny push off her responsibilities onto her give her causes recurring nightmares about being dragged by cheesy hands down into pizza and drowning.
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* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'': [[spoiler:Miles Edgeworth]] eventually reveals that they've suffered recurring nightmares about their father's death for the past fifteen years. [[spoiler:He uses this dream as a confession later in the case, believing he was the one responsible.]]
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* ''Series/{{Carnivale}}'': throughout both seasons, Ben Hawkins has repeated visions and nightmares about a man with a black tree tattooed across his chest. Eventually, these dreams begin merging with others about Brother Justin Crowe, a charismatic preacher who is undergoing his own visions and developing strange powers; [[spoiler:Ultimately we learn Justin and the tattooed man are one and the same, the Usher of Destruction destined to end the world.]]
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* ''Series/{{Carnivale}}'': throughout both seasons, Ben Hawkins has repeated visions and nightmares about a man with a black tree tattooed across his chest. Eventually, these dreams begin merging with others about Brother Justin Crowe, a charismatic preacher who is undergoing his own visions and developing strange powers; powers. [[spoiler:Ultimately we learn Justin and the tattooed man are one and the same, the Usher of Destruction destined to end the world.]]
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* ''VideoGame/AnotherCode'': It's established early on that the nightmares Ashley has of her third birthday are going to be important when Jessica implies she's been having them for a while.
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* Cristóbal "Chris" Rios in ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' is a former Starfleet officer turned freighter captain. He says that every night for the past ten years he's had the same nightmare about his former captain's "blood and brains splattered all over a bulkhead", and he doesn't want to work with another "heroic" captain like the one he saw die [[spoiler: as a result of suicide after he was ordered by Starfleet to kill two artificial life forms, which Rios covered up.]]
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* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'': The first time Princess Edelgard von Hresvelgr opens up to Byleth is when they wake her up from a nightmare while making the nightly rounds at the campus. She then reveals it was about the time when she and her siblings were vivisected in an attempt to give them a second Crest -- she was the [[SoleSurvivor only success]], while all her brothers and sisters [[ForcedToWatch died in front of her eyes]]. She has been reliving this trauma regularly in her dreams ever since.
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* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'': ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'':
** The first time Princess Edelgard vonHresvelgr Hresvelg opens up to Byleth is when they wake her up from a nightmare while making the nightly rounds at the campus. She then reveals it was about the time when she and her siblings were vivisected in an attempt to give them a second Crest -- she was the [[SoleSurvivor only success]], while all her brothers and sisters [[ForcedToWatch died in front of her eyes]]. She has been reliving this trauma regularly in her dreams ever since.since.
** On his own route, Dimitri implies that his dreams are constantly plagued by the voices of those he lost in the Tragedy of Duscur, all pleading with him to exact revenge on those that killed them.
** The first time Princess Edelgard von
** On his own route, Dimitri implies that his dreams are constantly plagued by the voices of those he lost in the Tragedy of Duscur, all pleading with him to exact revenge on those that killed them.
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* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': Though it's not every night, Shirou has nightmares about the fire that killed his biological parents and would have killed him if Kiritsugu hadn't found him in the nick of time.
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* ''Series/TheDefenders'': In "The H Word", Danny appears to be plagued by night terrors about [[MyGreatestFailure K'un-L'un]]. According to Colleen, it's not the first time he's been heard screaming in his sleep.
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* ''Series/TheDefenders'': ''Series/TheDefenders2017'': In "The H Word", Danny appears to be plagued by night terrors about [[MyGreatestFailure K'un-L'un]]. According to Colleen, it's not the first time he's been heard screaming in his sleep.
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* During ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Anakin has a recurring nightmare of his wife, Padme, [[DeathByChildbirth dying in childbirth]], something that Anakin believes to be a [[DreamingOfThingsToCome prothetic dream]]. Sure enough, this ends up being the case. The film's {{Novelization}} goes more in depth with this, revealing that Anakin has this nightmare ''every time he sleeps'', leading to him swearing off sleep entirely just to avoid it.
to:
* During ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Anakin has a recurring nightmare of his wife, Padme, [[DeathByChildbirth dying in childbirth]], something that Anakin believes to be a [[DreamingOfThingsToCome prothetic dream]]. Sure enough, this ends up being the case. The film's {{Novelization}} goes more in depth with this, revealing that Anakin has this nightmare ''every time he sleeps'', leading to him swearing off sleep entirely just to avoid it. The reason he was so certain that his dreams were prophetic is because during ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' he had similar dreams of his mother being tortured to death and found her just in time for her to die in his arms.
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* Low-Light in ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'' is plagued with nightmares every night due to a abusive childhood at the hands of his father. When Dr. Mindbender invents a device that gives the other Joes nightmares, Low-Light is able to shrug them off because they are ''much'' tamer than his usual ones.
-->'''Low-Light:''' You gotta be tougher than that! I'm not a wimp anymore! I'm a G.I. Joe! And nothing stops a G.I. Joe! NOTHING!
-->'''Low-Light:''' You gotta be tougher than that! I'm not a wimp anymore! I'm a G.I. Joe! And nothing stops a G.I. Joe! NOTHING!
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* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Downplayed with Aang He becomes deeply stressed as the Day of Black Sun approaches. He begins having nightmares akin to those of a kid the night before an exam, where his battle goes comically wrong, such as him showing up without pants and Ozai making fun of Aang, causing him to become sleep deprived and neurotic.
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* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Downplayed with Aang Aang. He becomes deeply stressed as the Day of Black Sun approaches. He begins having nightmares akin to those of a kid the night before an exam, where his battle goes comically wrong, such as him showing up without pants and Ozai making fun of Aang, causing him to become sleep deprived and neurotic.
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* Downplayed with Aang in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirBender''. He becomes deeply stressed as the day of the invasion approaches. He begins having nightmares akin to those of a kid the night before an exam, where his battle goes comically wrong, such as him showing up without pants and Ozai making fun of Aang, causing him to become sleep deprived and neurotic.
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* ''Manga/WorldWarBlue'': Gear keeps getting reminded of the [[spoiler:death of his best friend in his dreams]].
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* ''Manga/WorldWarBlue'': Gear keeps getting reminded of the [[spoiler:death of his best friend friend]] in his dreams]].dreams.
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-->In the middle of the night I woke up in terror.
In my dreams, I was back within my helmet.
It was pressing inwards and threatening to crush my head.
In my dreams, I was back within my helmet.
It was pressing inwards and threatening to crush my head.
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In
--> ''In my dreams, I was back within my
It
--> ''It was pressing inwards and threatening to crush my head.''
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->''"I saw my death in my dreams, many times. A nightmare I'll never forget."''
-->--'''William Bishop''', ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon''
It's commonly accepted, at least in fiction, that a dream is never just a dream. When a character's dream is referenced for more than a quick gag or for a surreal scene, it's usually to establish something going on in their mind. This is especially true of nightmares, which can symbolize things like [[PastExperienceNightmare a bad past experience]] or [[AnxietyDreams major stress.]] Giving a character nightmares is a good way to show that they're affected by something. If they have the ''same'' nightmare, or a series of constant ones, then there's ''definitely'' an issue with them.
This trope is used to establish that issue. A character may be suffering from trauma or from the supernatural. They may be dreaming of the same thing every night or having a variety of them. They may never explain what these nightmares are about, or we'll get a full description of them. They may even result in the character becoming [[TheInsomniac a willing insomniac]]. What stays consistent is that the nightmares ''don't stop''. They affect the character on a consistent or near-consistent basis, and act as a sign of some psychological issues or things outside of their control. Even if the audience isn't sure what the issue is, it's obvious that the character is suffering and has something very wrong with them.
A character merely having a nightmare or two isn't this trope; it needs to happen often enough for it to be a notable trait about them, rather than an anomaly. The narrative often goes to great lengths to make it clear a character is suffering from these nightmares on most, if not all, nights, or the audience is shown it happening multiple times. A downplayed example may only make the character suffer for the duration of an episode or arc, but it counts as long as the nightmares are recurring for however long they affect the character. Another variant is recurring bad hallucinations or daydreams, which symbolize similar things but can affect the character while awake.
Has some overlap with PastExperienceNightmare, AnxietyDreams, DreamingOfThingsToCome, and PsychicDreamsForEveryone, depending on the source of the dreams. The dreams can also overlap with GroundhogDayLoop and may act as something of a variant, with the character being trapped in an endless dream rather than an endless day.
Don't confuse with RecurringDreams, which is about dreams proving their importance by recurring, rather than the recurrence itself being the important part.
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!!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Anime/FinalFantasyTheSpiritsWithin'': Dr. Aki Ross has recurring nightmares of an alien world engulfed in war and violence, where she constantly feels like her life is on the line. She feels this dream means something, and later discovers that [[spoiler:these are not dreams at all, but memories of the Phantom alien inhabiting her body]].
* ''Manga/IsMyRealityALoveGame'': Ryou has horrifying nightmares of several "capture" targets coming after him and inflicting graphic death.
* ''LightNovel/Overlord2012'': Nemu is haunted in her dreams each night by [[PastExperienceNightmare memories of her parent's death]], forcing her to sleep with her sister.
* In ''Manga/PandoraHearts'', Elliot suffers from recurring nightmares of him standing in a burning building surrounded by corpses of people he murdered.
* ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': When Naofumi buys Raphtalia, she suffers from recurrent night terrors stemming from the trauma of her parents' deaths.
* ''Manga/RGVeda'': Kumaraten has nightmares of [[DarkAndTroubledPast his past in the Holy War]] that turn into Taishakuten about to perforate Kaara's belly with the "baby" inside it, killing both.
* ''Manga/WorldWarBlue'': Gear keeps getting reminded of the [[spoiler:death of his best friend in his dreams]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In ''ComicBook/{{Batwing}}'', David Zavimbe has spent most of his adult life haunted by nightmares of the things he did as a child soldier.
* ''ComicBook/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': Raana's Force visions take the form of vicious nightmares that keep her from getting more than an hour of sleep each night.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Maus}}'', Vladek apparently has them every night, as he's always moaning in his sleep. Art says to Francoise: "When I was a kid I thought that was the sound that all grown-ups made while they sleep."
* ''ComicBook/MightyMorphinPowerRangersBoomStudios'': A side effect of Rita's mind control is that Tommy's constantly haunted by nightmares of Rita coming back into his life, and early on, would have hallucinations of the witch taunting him.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* ''ComicStrip/{{Retail}}'': Played for laughs. Cooper usually ends dreaming about work or Stuart, and they end up with him sitting [[CatapultNightmare bolt upright in bed.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Fanfiction]]
* ''Fanfic/AdviceAndTrust'': Shinji and Asuka had nightmares constantly about their mothers dying and their fathers abandoning them afterwards. Sleeping together effectively banishes those nightmares, allowing them to sleep more peacefully than ever before.
-->'''Asuka''' ''(talking about both)'' You have nightmares all the time about it. The memory keeps coming after you when you try to sleep.
* ''Fanfic/BrokenSpirit'': Discord has several nightmares stemming from [[spoiler: his guilt over inadvertently killing Celestia and Luna's parents. His nightmares only stop when he confesses to the princess's what he did and reconciles with them.]]
* ''Fanfic/TheChildOfLove'': Asuka often has nightmares where she dreams about her mother, her madness, her suicide, and how Kyoko wanted her dying together with her.
* ''Fanfic/ACrownOfStars'': Asuka has suffered recurring nightmares for ''sixteen'' years. They were pretty bad when they "only" consisted of her mother's madness and suicide, but they got worse during the Angel War and the post-TI years. However they stopped after she and Shinji started to sleep together.
* ''Fanfic/{{Dangerverse}}'': Sirius has these for a while in ''Living with Danger'', [[spoiler:a result of his guilt over Lily and James finally catching up with him after Azkaban]].
* ''Fanfic/DevilsDiary'': Magneto suffers from frequent nightmares in which his helmet is crushing his head, or his wife is leaving him, or he's being tortured in Auschwitz again.
-->In the middle of the night I woke up in terror.
In my dreams, I was back within my helmet.
It was pressing inwards and threatening to crush my head.
* ''Fanfic/GettingBackOnYourHooves'':
** Twilight's been having recurring nightmares about [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E2TheReturnOfHarmonyPart2 Discord's brief reign]], and the effect he had on her friends. Trixie helps her find a way to cope with them, as an early sign of her CharacterDevelopment.
** According to Applejack in chapter 11, ''all'' of the Mane Six have been having nightmares since then. Trixie, who by this point considers them all TrueCompanions, offers to teach them the Lucid Dreaming trick she taught Twilight to help.
* ''Fanfic/GhostsOfEvangelion'': Asuka had frequent nightmares for decades. Often she woke up screaming after dreaming about being chopped into pieces and eaten alive.
* In ''Fanfic/HarryAndTheShipgirls'', Ehren has nightmares about getting dragged back into the [[WarIsHell zombie infested spirit of Verdun]]. Those ones are easier to bear than her [[HisOwnWorstEnemy other nightmares]] where she is a proud member of the SS serving as an officer in one of the extermination camps. She hides this very well behind her cool demeanor save to Claire, Niobe, and Draco, who have seen under the mask.
* ''Fanfic/TheKingsWhoCared'': Aegon begins to get bad dreams after the first time he kills during the Battle of Castle Black, with his victim, the wildling [[spoiler:Ygritte]], hauting his nights.
* ''Fanfic/LiveAHeroMHA'': Izuku has so many nightmares that he stays awake a lot, and thus is a victim of SleepDeprivation.
* ''Fanfic/LeviathanMyHeroAcademia'': Izuku suffers from these fairly frequently, having a particular NightmareSequence that he's very familiar with. It consists of him being all alone while clinging to a streetlight on a dark, foggy night as the Leviathan looks him dead in the eyes and roars. Normally, he's able to comfort himself with the fact that it was AllJustADream. [[spoiler:But Izuku has a different nightmare the night after Aizawa's test, in which Blade stumbles towards him as an eviscerated walking cadaver that's falling apart at the seams, as if to remind Izuku of the fact that he has killed people, before the Leviathan barrels towards Izuku and swallows him whole. It turns eerily prophetic when Izuku starts flipping through the news channels and finds that Blade has escaped custody, causing Izuku to run to the bathroom and vomit in disgust and terror.]]
* ''Fanfic/TheLoneDragonEmperor'': Issei begins experiencing nightmares on a regular basis ever since [[spoiler:eating members of Genesis alive in chapter 9]], but these nightmares get even worse after his return to Kuoh.
* ''Fanfic/NeonGenesisEvangelionGenocide'': Asuka suffers from frequent nightmares. Often she dreams of the suicide of her mother or her MindRape. In chapter 10 she has a particularly nasty nightmare where she's being hanged. [[spoiler:It is eventually revealed to at least partly be a side-effect of exposure to the Emerald Tablet]].
* ''Fanfic/TheSagaOfAvatarKorra'': In the first chapters of Book Two, Korra has recurrent nightmares about the deaths of the Red Lotus.
* ''Fanfic/ScarTissue'': [[OfficialCouple Shinji and Asuka]] had been suffering from awful nightmares during the series. Then [[DespairEventHorizon the]] [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt events]] of the movie happened and their nightmares got way, WAY worse. Shinji's nightmares consisted of him letting Asuka dying and getting the whole of humanity killed. Asuka's nightmares features her mother's insanity and suicide, her MindRape, her extremely bloody death, and later the abuse that she heaped on Shinji after Third Impact.
* ''Fanfic/ATaleOfTwoSuns'': Sunset has one in the first chapter, imagining Celestia [[TakenForGranite turning her to stone]] as punishment for her misdeeds. Later chapters reveal that she has been constantly suffering nightmares about the different kinds of punishments Celestia would subject her to if she ever returned back to Equestria. [[spoiler: Thankfully for Sunset, Celestia isn't planning that at all]].
* ''FanFic/TarnishedDiamonds'': Diamond Tiara is implied to have had them since Checker Monarch's defeat, including the one that starts the fic, due to being terrified of becoming a second Checker. She's showing signs of sleep deprivation at the beginning of the story.
* ''Fanfic/TheOneILoveIs'':
** Asuka suffers frequent nightmares, specially after [[spoiler:getting raped by Arael.]] Usually they revolved around her mother's insanity and craziness. During a conversation with Rei, Shinji says they are getting so bad he is worried about Asuka.
** Shinji also had bad dreams after [[spoiler:Rei blew herself up and Asuka ran away.]] Often he sees [[spoiler:his Eva tearing his best friend apart, Rei exploding and Asuka killing herself while he does nothing to prevent it.]]
* ''Fanfic/XComTheHadesContingency'': [[spoiler:The Commander is plagued by nightmares of his late wife and comrades, accusing him of getting them killed.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Film-- Live-Action]]
* The 1945 [[AnthologyFilm anthology]] [[HorrorFilms horror movie]] ''Film/DeadOfNight'' shows its hero, architect Walter Craig, called to a country house for work purposes. He realizes he knows all those assembled because they appear in a recurring dream he has and predicts what will happen to those assembled (including his killing them). Each guest recounts a bizarre and spooky story to distract him and entertain each other -- but all of Craig's foretold events occur. He begins murdering those in the assembled group and then runs afoul of the characters in the stories he has heard, one of whom begins strangling him. He wakes up to a phone call, summoning him to a country home for work purposes, [[GroundhogDayLoop thereby starting the nightmare over]].
* During ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Anakin has a recurring nightmare of his wife, Padme, [[DeathByChildbirth dying in childbirth]], something that Anakin believes to be a [[DreamingOfThingsToCome prothetic dream]]. Sure enough, this ends up being the case. The film's {{Novelization}} goes more in depth with this, revealing that Anakin has this nightmare ''every time he sleeps'', leading to him swearing off sleep entirely just to avoid it.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/AliensStevePerryTrilogy'': Wilks and Billie both suffer recurring nightmares based on their encounter with the Aliens on Rim. Billie arguably has it worse, since she was subjected to a [[AmnesiaMissedASpot brainwipe that didn't entirely take]], so she's unaware the monsters in her dreams are real, or ''why'' she keeps dreaming about them.
* ''Literature/AnnaDressedInBlood'': Cas has had recurring nightmares, sometimes complete with CatapultNightmare, and attributes it to his ghosthunting. He doesn't tell anyone, thinking that it's either to be expected, or worse, that it ''isn't'', and Gideon and his mother will really try to get him to stop killing ghosts.
* ''Literature/CarrerasLegions'': Carrera is plagued by recurring nightmares, both over the murder of his family and, later, his [[spoiler:nuking a city]] to get the family of the leader of the terrorists he was fighting in the first half of the series.
* ''Literature/TheCurseWorkers'': Nightmares [[spoiler: about killing Lila]] haunt Cassel through half the first book [[spoiler: until he discovers that he didn't kill her.]]
* ''Literature/DeliriumSeries'': Lena and her little cousin Gracie, who have both lost their mothers, are plagued by recurring nightmares about their deaths.
* ''Literature/DifferentSeasons'': Kurt Dussander, who used to be the commander of a Nazi concentration camp, frequently has nightmares about it. [[spoiler: He eventually commits suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills, and he ends up dreaming those dreams -- forever.]]
* ''Literature/DishonoredTheReturnOfDaud'': Daud was starting to settle down and move on when he was haunted by nightmares, visions of Karnaca being swarmed by endless bloodflies and death, until he couldn't sleep anymore. That leads to his decision to kill the Outsider.
* ''Literature/TheDivingUniverse'': Boss is haunted by nightmares; the most powerful involve her mother's loss to the Room of Lost Souls when she was seven, but others involve members of her crews who have died. Wreck diving is a dangerous business.
* ''Literature/DreambloodDuology'':
** In the sequel, Wana is troubled by nightmares of his dead father talking to him while his body putrefies and rots. [[spoiler:Made worse by the knowledge that they're true visions of his father's soul eternally trapped in nightmares for his crimes in life.]]
** The nightmare curse {{Mind Rape}}s people with these until they die. [[spoiler:Specifically, it traps them in the nightmares of its source, a horrifically tormented child.]]
* ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'': Ever since Calder had Forley the Weakest murdered, he's had nightmares of the event, regretting his decision to kill a good person just to make himself appear strong.
* ''Literature/FellowMan'': Ragnhild has coped with her crime, but the bad dreams come to her eventually. This one is pretty scary: She dreams that she is surrounded by priests, just staring at her, and in front of them stands TheDevil. Behind her is the things she has to protect - her loved ones and her child. She hews down the Devil again and again, "but he just keeps coming". The being tells her that you can't kill evil with an axe.
* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': Katniss and the rest of the victors seem plagued by them, although Katniss has long had recurring nightmares about her father's death.
* ''Literature/{{Kane}}'': In "Raven's Eyrie" Klesst has a recurring nightmare of a huge black hound with fiery red eyes that is hunting her. This is actually a {{Foreshadowing}} of the fate [[spoiler: her mother Ionor]] has intended for her.
* ''Literature/KushielsLegacy'':
** Imriel is plagued by nightmares in the days after Darsanga, though they eventually go away completely. It's said by Drucilla that he also had them soon after he arrived there, for very horrific reasons.
** Phedre is plagued by a few of these in ''Kushiel's Avatar'', the first of which serves as a plot-triggering event in the novel. The rest show Phedre's stress and fear as her quest continues and her feeling of travelling towards darkness and doom grows, and also serve as guidance from the gods.
* In ''Film/TheLastJedi'''s novelization, Tallissan Lintra has nightmares about the deaths of her comrades, hearing their dying screams as she tries to protect the bombers.
* ''Literature/TheLegendOfYanKanMar'': Dia/Tomoyo is frequently haunted by past memories when she sleeps and they become more distressing as the book progresses.
* ''Literature/TheLockedTomb'': Gideon got them a lot as a kid, especially ones about the Locked Tomb opening. Her dreams get a lot worse after the Fourth's death, her nightmares mostly revolving around all the deaths she failed to prevent.
* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': Frodo is stated to have recurring nightmares throughout the quest, and they get increasingly worse as he approaches Mount Doom and the effect of the Ring increases.
* ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'': In particular, thanks to being touched by the blood of a Hound of Shadow, Paran keeps dreaming of being a Hound, hunting and drowning in darkness.
* ''Literature/TheMistmantleChronicles'': In the first book, Husk gets nightmares [[spoiler:after killing Prince Tumble, of the dead hedgehog sniffing him out]]. Could be seen as prophetic when [[spoiler:a short sighted baby hedgehog does the same thing innocently at the end.]]
* ''Literature/{{Rosebush}}'': Almost every chapter opens with a recurring nightmare Jane has throughout the novel. [[spoiler: It is strongly implied to be Jane's inner guilt at Bonnie's death and her anger at herself for not seeing this coming.]]
* ''Literature/SonOfTheShadows'': Bran comes off as a very unpleasant man, making it difficult to sympathize with him in any light. [[spoiler: Then Liadan gets a look inside his head and witnesses his nightmares for herself]]. Some of his dreams are extremely disturbing.
* ''Literature/SonnysBlues'': The narrator mentions that Isabel has recurring nightmares about their deceased daughter Grace.
* ''Literature/StarWarsResistanceReborn'': Jessika Pava has nightmares about whatever happened to her family. When Poe wakes her up from a nap, she [[CatapultNightmare shoots awake]] and looks terrified, worrying Poe about her mental state, but unfortunately, the Resistance is in such a bad place at the moment there literally [[ThereAreNoTherapists are no therapists]] to help her.
* ''Literature/TheStoriesOfJohnCheever'': Irene in "The Wrysons" has persistent nightmares of nuclear holocaust.
* ''Literature/WarriorCats'': In ''The Raging Storm'', Shadowkit has a constant nightmare about drowning on [=RiverClan=] land during a heavy rain. [[spoiler:He nearly does drown near the end of the book, but Juniperclaw manages to save him.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/The100'': Charlotte confesses to Wells that she has bad dreams every night, and believes they will stop if she kills Wells.
* ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'': In the "Tale of the Shiny Red Bicycle", the main character has recurrent nightmares of his friend's death.
* ''Series/{{BIA}}'': Victor has a lot of these about Helena and the accident, mostly not literal dreams but daydreams. Then, episode 37 includes an actual dream where he and Helena, pre-accident, sing the song they never finished. It suddenly changes into a nightmare with Helena repeating "You let me down" and then Victor's father saying "There's nothing more you can do about it, son". Victor wakes up with a start, saying "I must tell the truth". In short, he is haunted by the secret he has been keeping for 10 years about the way the accident happened.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': In the episode "Warlord," Zukan is haunted by guilt over the men who died for his schemes.
-->'''Zukan:''' They're all dead. Eleven good Betafarlians. Do you think you'll see them in your dreams, Finn?
-->'''Finn:''' [[PunchClockVillain Not me.]]
-->'''Zukan:''' I will, if my dreams aren't already overcrowded.
-->'''Finn:''' You should take [[PhlebotinumPills dream suppressants]].
-->'''Zukan:''' [shakes head] They don't help. [[ObliviousGuiltSlinging I see my bad dreams in other people's eyes.]]
* ''Series/{{Cadfael}}'': In "The Devil's Novice", Meriet has screaming nightmares that disrupt the abbey and lead Oswin to ask if he's possessed by demons. [[spoiler:It's guilt over his family's involvement in Clemence's death.]]
* ''Series/{{Carnivale}}'': throughout both seasons, Ben Hawkins has repeated visions and nightmares about a man with a black tree tattooed across his chest. Eventually, these dreams begin merging with others about Brother Justin Crowe, a charismatic preacher who is undergoing his own visions and developing strange powers; [[spoiler:Ultimately we learn Justin and the tattooed man are one and the same, the Usher of Destruction destined to end the world.]]
* ''Series/TheDefenders'': In "The H Word", Danny appears to be plagued by night terrors about [[MyGreatestFailure K'un-L'un]]. According to Colleen, it's not the first time he's been heard screaming in his sleep.
* An episode of ''Series/EmptyNest'' has Harry having a recurring nightmare where he's trying to escape from a lion while wearing his late wife's nightgown. Eventually, he ends up having to stay up all night to avoid having it. With the help of Barbara and Carol, he discovers why he's having it: [[spoiler:the lion represents the cancer that his wife died from and his escape attempts were her battle with it. He's been having the nightmares because he's scheduled to attend a conference at the hospital where she died.]]
* ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' had a WhatDoTheyFearEpisode where it's revealed that Blanche had a recurring nightmare where she was in a room full of bald men, then heard the voice of God, and the room fell into the ocean. She accompanies Rose and Dorothy when they take a flight to a funeral and is shocked when all of the passengers aside from them are bald men. [[note]] "They were all former Mr. Cleans on their way to a convention." [[/note]] Then the pilot, Captain Lord, makes his pre-flight announcement which just agitates her further. Fortunately, the falling into the ocean part doesn't come into play and they return home safely.
* ''Series/JaneTheVirgin'': In "Chapter Forty-Six," following Michael's shooting, Jane has recurring nightmares of hearing gunshots and seeing his body.
* In ''Series/{{Lexx}}'', Stan has nightmares about being chased by Giggerotta. In "Patches in the Sky," the resulting sleep deprivation causes him to embark on a frantic search for something to improve his mood, but his search leads to the destruction of a planet populated by sentient robots, which provides him with even ''more'' fodder for nightmares.
* ''Series/Lucifer2016'': In the episode "Quintessential Deckerstar", Charlotte is still plagued by nightmares of losing her family, and now Dan is in them as well.
* ''Series/OnceUponATime'':
** Since waking up from the Sleeping Curse, Aurora's had recurring nightmares of being trapped in a room on fire. As it turns out, Henry's been having them, too, and so has Mary Margaret - which ends up being key to getting Mary Margaret and Emma out of the Enchanted Forest.
** Henry has nightmares as a side effect of eating the poisoned apple (turnover) and falling under the sleeping curse. Even after Emma breaks the curse, he still gets horrible nightmares.
* ''Series/PicketFences'': Zach is seen suffering from nightmares about death in the first season episode "Sacred Hearts" after he visits an elderly patient with Jill and they find her dead in her hospital bed.
* ''Series/PowerRangersZeo'': In "Inner Spirit", Tommy keeps having nightmares about the Zeo Megazord being destroyed in battle with an unseen adversary.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
** Sam experiences psychic visions, usually of premonitions of people in danger or people who are going to die in the future. These dreams occurred during the first and second seasons. Although these dreams would often help Sam and Dean during a hunt, they would also be incredibly scary and traumatic for Sam as quite a few of them would occur at night when Sam was sleeping. It's also incredibly disturbing for Sam as Sam continuously sees morbid thoughts and visions of people constantly dying and there is nothing that Sam can do to prevent it or stop it from happening. However, there were some cases in which Sam and Dean were able to prevent or stop the premonitions from coming true.
** In season four, Dean spends many nights tossing over his nightmares of [[spoiler:hell]]. In season seven, Dean is once again having nightmares, this time about [[spoiler:Castiel's death, Sam's hallucinations, killing Amy Pond and keeping it a secret.]]
* The ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "Shadow Play" shows main character Adam Grant trapped in a recurring nightmare. The episode starts with him on trial for murder and being sentenced to death and concludes with him being executed in the electric chair. The recurring nature of the dream is revealed at episode's end, when [[GroundhogDayLoop the nightmare starts all over again]], this time with different people serving in roles such as the judge and public defender.
* ''Series/TheWaltons'': The HalloweenEpisode "The Ferris Wheel" centers around Elizabeth's recurring nightmares of being trapped on a Ferris wheel.
* ''Series/TheXFiles'':
** Mulder frequently has nightmares about his sister's abduction; it's probably the biggest reason he's an insomniac.
** Both Mulder and Scully have nightmares about the other during their separate abductions. For Scully, they come so often and regularly that she panics when she ''stops'' having them, fearing that Mulder's death is the reason.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Video Games]]
* William Bishop from ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon'' is plagued by recurrent nightmares of getting shot down over Miami by a Russian jet with a shark mouth painted on its nose. This turns out to be a case of PropheticDreams, as Bishop later learns that that plane belongs to a RenegadeRussian ace, giving an otherwise stoic Bishop a bad case of anxiety when the two of them ''do'' duke it out over Miami.
* ''VideoGame/EternalSeniaHydrangeaAfterTheRain'': When tapped on the StartScreen, Senia mentions that she has multiple nightmares, contents unknown, but her hometown was razed by demons, and her sister figure is trapped in a tower:
--> '''Senia:''' "Another nightmare..."
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'': The first time Princess Edelgard von Hresvelgr opens up to Byleth is when they wake her up from a nightmare while making the nightly rounds at the campus. She then reveals it was about the time when she and her siblings were vivisected in an attempt to give them a second Crest -- she was the [[SoleSurvivor only success]], while all her brothers and sisters [[ForcedToWatch died in front of her eyes]]. She has been reliving this trauma regularly in her dreams ever since.
* ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'': Abby has recurring nightmares of [[spoiler:finding her father's corpse. It's only once she saves Yara that she has a peaceful dream of her father alive.]]
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect'': In the first game, Shepard has unsettling dreams about the visions from the Prothean beacon. Understandable, considering that it A) was information delivered in a format not meant to be understood by human minds, and B) concerned the extermination of entire species. In the third game, Shepard starts having flat-out nightmares [[SurvivorGuilt about the people they couldn't save.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Mercenaries}}'': Sometimes when you approach Misha in the base, you can catch him waking up screaming from a nightmare about his plane crashing.
* ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'': According to her dialogue tree, Rada suffers from periodic nightmares of being adrift in a cold and dark ocean, slowly sinking beneath the waves and being dimly aware of ''something'' waiting in the darkness below her.
* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'':
** The main setting of ''VideoGame/{{Catherine}}'' is Vincent's recurring nightmares about cheating on his girlfriend. He's plagued by them in ''VideoGame/Persona3'' as well.
** ''VideoGame/Persona4'': Shu has a recurring dream in which he's on a train going to an unknown destination. He's unable to leave the train, and is being pursued by a strange figure, who gets one car closer every night.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/LamentoBeyondTheVoid'': Rai suffers from them very often, particularly [[spoiler: from nightmares about his bloodlust]].
* ''VisualNovel/TheSecondReproduction'': Christina has frequent nightmares [[spoiler: due to LaserGuidedAmnesia of the time she was made to slaughter an entire demon village.]]
* ''VisualNovel/SpiritHunterNG'': In the Bad End Akira becomes plagued with visions of all his companions that died, preventing him from getting any sleep and causing his health to deteriorate.
* ''VisualNovel/{{Sunrider}}'': After getting captured by Cosette on Ongess and seeing Alliance soldiers gun down a little girl during his rescue, he starts having nightmares in which the child blames him for her death before morphing into his dead sister Maray.
* ''VisualNovel/SweetEnchantments'': Zain suffers from nightmares, as the heroine discovers in his second season.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/SuperScienceFriends'': Albert Einstein suffers recurring nightmares [[spoiler: after his AccidentalMurder of his hero Isaac Newton.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/DocRat'': Pippie suffers from horrible nightmares and wets the bed after most of her family die in a wildfire. She gets better thanks to her friendship with Jarrad.
* ''Webcomic/{{Kubera}}'':
** After the [[spoiler:battle with God Kubera and Asha's revelation of what Leez really means to her and what Asha did to her father]], Leez frequently has dreams about the both of them and how they betrayed her, causing her to wake up screaming and in cold sweat.
** Ian routinely suffers from these and tends to shuffle about. Taksaka, for whom being disturbed in his sleep is a BerserkButton, notes that it's the only thing about her that annoys them in their marriage.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Outsider}}'', after his ship is destroyed, Alex Jardin nearly dies due to asphyxiation while drifting in space. He's later noted to be having nightmares in which he mentally relives this experience. The first instance of this that's depicted also includes him being confronted by the "spirit" of one of his dead crewmates who chides him for having survived, hinting that he has some deep-seated SurvivorsGuilt.
* ''Webcomic/PlatinumGrit'': Jeremy keeps having nightmares about his childhood tormentor Cousin Dougal suddenly returning. Despite Dougal looking suspiciously dead at the end of an early storyline, Jeremy's dreams [[DreamingOfThingsToCome might be more]] than just the result of childhood trauma.
* ''Webcomic/ShinkaTheLastEevee'': Nick has nightmares about being chased by a Skarmory. They occasionally segue into odd dreams where a voice gives him vague warnings and such. [[spoiler: Turns out those odd dreams were actually [[{{Telepathy}} telepathic communication]] from Sol the Espeon, who believes Nick can help rescue the other captive Eeveelutions.]]
* ''Webcomic/WhenHeavenSpitsYouOut'': In Part 2 especially, Ryan has strange and lucid nightmares where he imagines himself either dying or bathed in blood while faced with religious iconography. On the outside, such terrifying visions reduce him to tears and he subsequently wakes up crying.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Downplayed with Aang in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirBender''. He becomes deeply stressed as the day of the invasion approaches. He begins having nightmares akin to those of a kid the night before an exam, where his battle goes comically wrong, such as him showing up without pants and Ozai making fun of Aang, causing him to become sleep deprived and neurotic.
* During ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'', it's revealed that all Clones regularly suffer from nightmares about a "mission that never ends", presumably a side effect of the [[MindControlDevice inhibitor chip]] implanted in their brains to make them obey [[FinalSolution Order 66]].
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In "Kiki's Pizza Delivery Service", her letting Jenny push off her responsibilities onto her give her recurring nightmares about being dragged by cheesy hands down into pizza and drowning.
[[/folder]]
----
->''"I saw my death in my dreams, many times. A nightmare I'll never forget."''
-->--'''William Bishop''', ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon''
It's commonly accepted, at least in fiction, that a dream is never just a dream. When a character's dream is referenced for more than a quick gag or for a surreal scene, it's usually to establish something going on in their mind. This is especially true of nightmares, which can symbolize things like [[PastExperienceNightmare a bad past experience]] or [[AnxietyDreams major stress.]] Giving a character nightmares is a good way to show that they're affected by something. If they have the ''same'' nightmare, or a series of constant ones, then there's ''definitely'' an issue with them.
This trope is used to establish that issue. A character may be suffering from trauma or from the supernatural. They may be dreaming of the same thing every night or having a variety of them. They may never explain what these nightmares are about, or we'll get a full description of them. They may even result in the character becoming [[TheInsomniac a willing insomniac]]. What stays consistent is that the nightmares ''don't stop''. They affect the character on a consistent or near-consistent basis, and act as a sign of some psychological issues or things outside of their control. Even if the audience isn't sure what the issue is, it's obvious that the character is suffering and has something very wrong with them.
A character merely having a nightmare or two isn't this trope; it needs to happen often enough for it to be a notable trait about them, rather than an anomaly. The narrative often goes to great lengths to make it clear a character is suffering from these nightmares on most, if not all, nights, or the audience is shown it happening multiple times. A downplayed example may only make the character suffer for the duration of an episode or arc, but it counts as long as the nightmares are recurring for however long they affect the character. Another variant is recurring bad hallucinations or daydreams, which symbolize similar things but can affect the character while awake.
Has some overlap with PastExperienceNightmare, AnxietyDreams, DreamingOfThingsToCome, and PsychicDreamsForEveryone, depending on the source of the dreams. The dreams can also overlap with GroundhogDayLoop and may act as something of a variant, with the character being trapped in an endless dream rather than an endless day.
Don't confuse with RecurringDreams, which is about dreams proving their importance by recurring, rather than the recurrence itself being the important part.
----
!!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Anime/FinalFantasyTheSpiritsWithin'': Dr. Aki Ross has recurring nightmares of an alien world engulfed in war and violence, where she constantly feels like her life is on the line. She feels this dream means something, and later discovers that [[spoiler:these are not dreams at all, but memories of the Phantom alien inhabiting her body]].
* ''Manga/IsMyRealityALoveGame'': Ryou has horrifying nightmares of several "capture" targets coming after him and inflicting graphic death.
* ''LightNovel/Overlord2012'': Nemu is haunted in her dreams each night by [[PastExperienceNightmare memories of her parent's death]], forcing her to sleep with her sister.
* In ''Manga/PandoraHearts'', Elliot suffers from recurring nightmares of him standing in a burning building surrounded by corpses of people he murdered.
* ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': When Naofumi buys Raphtalia, she suffers from recurrent night terrors stemming from the trauma of her parents' deaths.
* ''Manga/RGVeda'': Kumaraten has nightmares of [[DarkAndTroubledPast his past in the Holy War]] that turn into Taishakuten about to perforate Kaara's belly with the "baby" inside it, killing both.
* ''Manga/WorldWarBlue'': Gear keeps getting reminded of the [[spoiler:death of his best friend in his dreams]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In ''ComicBook/{{Batwing}}'', David Zavimbe has spent most of his adult life haunted by nightmares of the things he did as a child soldier.
* ''ComicBook/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': Raana's Force visions take the form of vicious nightmares that keep her from getting more than an hour of sleep each night.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Maus}}'', Vladek apparently has them every night, as he's always moaning in his sleep. Art says to Francoise: "When I was a kid I thought that was the sound that all grown-ups made while they sleep."
* ''ComicBook/MightyMorphinPowerRangersBoomStudios'': A side effect of Rita's mind control is that Tommy's constantly haunted by nightmares of Rita coming back into his life, and early on, would have hallucinations of the witch taunting him.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* ''ComicStrip/{{Retail}}'': Played for laughs. Cooper usually ends dreaming about work or Stuart, and they end up with him sitting [[CatapultNightmare bolt upright in bed.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Fanfiction]]
* ''Fanfic/AdviceAndTrust'': Shinji and Asuka had nightmares constantly about their mothers dying and their fathers abandoning them afterwards. Sleeping together effectively banishes those nightmares, allowing them to sleep more peacefully than ever before.
-->'''Asuka''' ''(talking about both)'' You have nightmares all the time about it. The memory keeps coming after you when you try to sleep.
* ''Fanfic/BrokenSpirit'': Discord has several nightmares stemming from [[spoiler: his guilt over inadvertently killing Celestia and Luna's parents. His nightmares only stop when he confesses to the princess's what he did and reconciles with them.]]
* ''Fanfic/TheChildOfLove'': Asuka often has nightmares where she dreams about her mother, her madness, her suicide, and how Kyoko wanted her dying together with her.
* ''Fanfic/ACrownOfStars'': Asuka has suffered recurring nightmares for ''sixteen'' years. They were pretty bad when they "only" consisted of her mother's madness and suicide, but they got worse during the Angel War and the post-TI years. However they stopped after she and Shinji started to sleep together.
* ''Fanfic/{{Dangerverse}}'': Sirius has these for a while in ''Living with Danger'', [[spoiler:a result of his guilt over Lily and James finally catching up with him after Azkaban]].
* ''Fanfic/DevilsDiary'': Magneto suffers from frequent nightmares in which his helmet is crushing his head, or his wife is leaving him, or he's being tortured in Auschwitz again.
-->In the middle of the night I woke up in terror.
In my dreams, I was back within my helmet.
It was pressing inwards and threatening to crush my head.
* ''Fanfic/GettingBackOnYourHooves'':
** Twilight's been having recurring nightmares about [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E2TheReturnOfHarmonyPart2 Discord's brief reign]], and the effect he had on her friends. Trixie helps her find a way to cope with them, as an early sign of her CharacterDevelopment.
** According to Applejack in chapter 11, ''all'' of the Mane Six have been having nightmares since then. Trixie, who by this point considers them all TrueCompanions, offers to teach them the Lucid Dreaming trick she taught Twilight to help.
* ''Fanfic/GhostsOfEvangelion'': Asuka had frequent nightmares for decades. Often she woke up screaming after dreaming about being chopped into pieces and eaten alive.
* In ''Fanfic/HarryAndTheShipgirls'', Ehren has nightmares about getting dragged back into the [[WarIsHell zombie infested spirit of Verdun]]. Those ones are easier to bear than her [[HisOwnWorstEnemy other nightmares]] where she is a proud member of the SS serving as an officer in one of the extermination camps. She hides this very well behind her cool demeanor save to Claire, Niobe, and Draco, who have seen under the mask.
* ''Fanfic/TheKingsWhoCared'': Aegon begins to get bad dreams after the first time he kills during the Battle of Castle Black, with his victim, the wildling [[spoiler:Ygritte]], hauting his nights.
* ''Fanfic/LiveAHeroMHA'': Izuku has so many nightmares that he stays awake a lot, and thus is a victim of SleepDeprivation.
* ''Fanfic/LeviathanMyHeroAcademia'': Izuku suffers from these fairly frequently, having a particular NightmareSequence that he's very familiar with. It consists of him being all alone while clinging to a streetlight on a dark, foggy night as the Leviathan looks him dead in the eyes and roars. Normally, he's able to comfort himself with the fact that it was AllJustADream. [[spoiler:But Izuku has a different nightmare the night after Aizawa's test, in which Blade stumbles towards him as an eviscerated walking cadaver that's falling apart at the seams, as if to remind Izuku of the fact that he has killed people, before the Leviathan barrels towards Izuku and swallows him whole. It turns eerily prophetic when Izuku starts flipping through the news channels and finds that Blade has escaped custody, causing Izuku to run to the bathroom and vomit in disgust and terror.]]
* ''Fanfic/TheLoneDragonEmperor'': Issei begins experiencing nightmares on a regular basis ever since [[spoiler:eating members of Genesis alive in chapter 9]], but these nightmares get even worse after his return to Kuoh.
* ''Fanfic/NeonGenesisEvangelionGenocide'': Asuka suffers from frequent nightmares. Often she dreams of the suicide of her mother or her MindRape. In chapter 10 she has a particularly nasty nightmare where she's being hanged. [[spoiler:It is eventually revealed to at least partly be a side-effect of exposure to the Emerald Tablet]].
* ''Fanfic/TheSagaOfAvatarKorra'': In the first chapters of Book Two, Korra has recurrent nightmares about the deaths of the Red Lotus.
* ''Fanfic/ScarTissue'': [[OfficialCouple Shinji and Asuka]] had been suffering from awful nightmares during the series. Then [[DespairEventHorizon the]] [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt events]] of the movie happened and their nightmares got way, WAY worse. Shinji's nightmares consisted of him letting Asuka dying and getting the whole of humanity killed. Asuka's nightmares features her mother's insanity and suicide, her MindRape, her extremely bloody death, and later the abuse that she heaped on Shinji after Third Impact.
* ''Fanfic/ATaleOfTwoSuns'': Sunset has one in the first chapter, imagining Celestia [[TakenForGranite turning her to stone]] as punishment for her misdeeds. Later chapters reveal that she has been constantly suffering nightmares about the different kinds of punishments Celestia would subject her to if she ever returned back to Equestria. [[spoiler: Thankfully for Sunset, Celestia isn't planning that at all]].
* ''FanFic/TarnishedDiamonds'': Diamond Tiara is implied to have had them since Checker Monarch's defeat, including the one that starts the fic, due to being terrified of becoming a second Checker. She's showing signs of sleep deprivation at the beginning of the story.
* ''Fanfic/TheOneILoveIs'':
** Asuka suffers frequent nightmares, specially after [[spoiler:getting raped by Arael.]] Usually they revolved around her mother's insanity and craziness. During a conversation with Rei, Shinji says they are getting so bad he is worried about Asuka.
** Shinji also had bad dreams after [[spoiler:Rei blew herself up and Asuka ran away.]] Often he sees [[spoiler:his Eva tearing his best friend apart, Rei exploding and Asuka killing herself while he does nothing to prevent it.]]
* ''Fanfic/XComTheHadesContingency'': [[spoiler:The Commander is plagued by nightmares of his late wife and comrades, accusing him of getting them killed.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Film-- Live-Action]]
* The 1945 [[AnthologyFilm anthology]] [[HorrorFilms horror movie]] ''Film/DeadOfNight'' shows its hero, architect Walter Craig, called to a country house for work purposes. He realizes he knows all those assembled because they appear in a recurring dream he has and predicts what will happen to those assembled (including his killing them). Each guest recounts a bizarre and spooky story to distract him and entertain each other -- but all of Craig's foretold events occur. He begins murdering those in the assembled group and then runs afoul of the characters in the stories he has heard, one of whom begins strangling him. He wakes up to a phone call, summoning him to a country home for work purposes, [[GroundhogDayLoop thereby starting the nightmare over]].
* During ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Anakin has a recurring nightmare of his wife, Padme, [[DeathByChildbirth dying in childbirth]], something that Anakin believes to be a [[DreamingOfThingsToCome prothetic dream]]. Sure enough, this ends up being the case. The film's {{Novelization}} goes more in depth with this, revealing that Anakin has this nightmare ''every time he sleeps'', leading to him swearing off sleep entirely just to avoid it.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/AliensStevePerryTrilogy'': Wilks and Billie both suffer recurring nightmares based on their encounter with the Aliens on Rim. Billie arguably has it worse, since she was subjected to a [[AmnesiaMissedASpot brainwipe that didn't entirely take]], so she's unaware the monsters in her dreams are real, or ''why'' she keeps dreaming about them.
* ''Literature/AnnaDressedInBlood'': Cas has had recurring nightmares, sometimes complete with CatapultNightmare, and attributes it to his ghosthunting. He doesn't tell anyone, thinking that it's either to be expected, or worse, that it ''isn't'', and Gideon and his mother will really try to get him to stop killing ghosts.
* ''Literature/CarrerasLegions'': Carrera is plagued by recurring nightmares, both over the murder of his family and, later, his [[spoiler:nuking a city]] to get the family of the leader of the terrorists he was fighting in the first half of the series.
* ''Literature/TheCurseWorkers'': Nightmares [[spoiler: about killing Lila]] haunt Cassel through half the first book [[spoiler: until he discovers that he didn't kill her.]]
* ''Literature/DeliriumSeries'': Lena and her little cousin Gracie, who have both lost their mothers, are plagued by recurring nightmares about their deaths.
* ''Literature/DifferentSeasons'': Kurt Dussander, who used to be the commander of a Nazi concentration camp, frequently has nightmares about it. [[spoiler: He eventually commits suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills, and he ends up dreaming those dreams -- forever.]]
* ''Literature/DishonoredTheReturnOfDaud'': Daud was starting to settle down and move on when he was haunted by nightmares, visions of Karnaca being swarmed by endless bloodflies and death, until he couldn't sleep anymore. That leads to his decision to kill the Outsider.
* ''Literature/TheDivingUniverse'': Boss is haunted by nightmares; the most powerful involve her mother's loss to the Room of Lost Souls when she was seven, but others involve members of her crews who have died. Wreck diving is a dangerous business.
* ''Literature/DreambloodDuology'':
** In the sequel, Wana is troubled by nightmares of his dead father talking to him while his body putrefies and rots. [[spoiler:Made worse by the knowledge that they're true visions of his father's soul eternally trapped in nightmares for his crimes in life.]]
** The nightmare curse {{Mind Rape}}s people with these until they die. [[spoiler:Specifically, it traps them in the nightmares of its source, a horrifically tormented child.]]
* ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'': Ever since Calder had Forley the Weakest murdered, he's had nightmares of the event, regretting his decision to kill a good person just to make himself appear strong.
* ''Literature/FellowMan'': Ragnhild has coped with her crime, but the bad dreams come to her eventually. This one is pretty scary: She dreams that she is surrounded by priests, just staring at her, and in front of them stands TheDevil. Behind her is the things she has to protect - her loved ones and her child. She hews down the Devil again and again, "but he just keeps coming". The being tells her that you can't kill evil with an axe.
* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': Katniss and the rest of the victors seem plagued by them, although Katniss has long had recurring nightmares about her father's death.
* ''Literature/{{Kane}}'': In "Raven's Eyrie" Klesst has a recurring nightmare of a huge black hound with fiery red eyes that is hunting her. This is actually a {{Foreshadowing}} of the fate [[spoiler: her mother Ionor]] has intended for her.
* ''Literature/KushielsLegacy'':
** Imriel is plagued by nightmares in the days after Darsanga, though they eventually go away completely. It's said by Drucilla that he also had them soon after he arrived there, for very horrific reasons.
** Phedre is plagued by a few of these in ''Kushiel's Avatar'', the first of which serves as a plot-triggering event in the novel. The rest show Phedre's stress and fear as her quest continues and her feeling of travelling towards darkness and doom grows, and also serve as guidance from the gods.
* In ''Film/TheLastJedi'''s novelization, Tallissan Lintra has nightmares about the deaths of her comrades, hearing their dying screams as she tries to protect the bombers.
* ''Literature/TheLegendOfYanKanMar'': Dia/Tomoyo is frequently haunted by past memories when she sleeps and they become more distressing as the book progresses.
* ''Literature/TheLockedTomb'': Gideon got them a lot as a kid, especially ones about the Locked Tomb opening. Her dreams get a lot worse after the Fourth's death, her nightmares mostly revolving around all the deaths she failed to prevent.
* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': Frodo is stated to have recurring nightmares throughout the quest, and they get increasingly worse as he approaches Mount Doom and the effect of the Ring increases.
* ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'': In particular, thanks to being touched by the blood of a Hound of Shadow, Paran keeps dreaming of being a Hound, hunting and drowning in darkness.
* ''Literature/TheMistmantleChronicles'': In the first book, Husk gets nightmares [[spoiler:after killing Prince Tumble, of the dead hedgehog sniffing him out]]. Could be seen as prophetic when [[spoiler:a short sighted baby hedgehog does the same thing innocently at the end.]]
* ''Literature/{{Rosebush}}'': Almost every chapter opens with a recurring nightmare Jane has throughout the novel. [[spoiler: It is strongly implied to be Jane's inner guilt at Bonnie's death and her anger at herself for not seeing this coming.]]
* ''Literature/SonOfTheShadows'': Bran comes off as a very unpleasant man, making it difficult to sympathize with him in any light. [[spoiler: Then Liadan gets a look inside his head and witnesses his nightmares for herself]]. Some of his dreams are extremely disturbing.
* ''Literature/SonnysBlues'': The narrator mentions that Isabel has recurring nightmares about their deceased daughter Grace.
* ''Literature/StarWarsResistanceReborn'': Jessika Pava has nightmares about whatever happened to her family. When Poe wakes her up from a nap, she [[CatapultNightmare shoots awake]] and looks terrified, worrying Poe about her mental state, but unfortunately, the Resistance is in such a bad place at the moment there literally [[ThereAreNoTherapists are no therapists]] to help her.
* ''Literature/TheStoriesOfJohnCheever'': Irene in "The Wrysons" has persistent nightmares of nuclear holocaust.
* ''Literature/WarriorCats'': In ''The Raging Storm'', Shadowkit has a constant nightmare about drowning on [=RiverClan=] land during a heavy rain. [[spoiler:He nearly does drown near the end of the book, but Juniperclaw manages to save him.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/The100'': Charlotte confesses to Wells that she has bad dreams every night, and believes they will stop if she kills Wells.
* ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'': In the "Tale of the Shiny Red Bicycle", the main character has recurrent nightmares of his friend's death.
* ''Series/{{BIA}}'': Victor has a lot of these about Helena and the accident, mostly not literal dreams but daydreams. Then, episode 37 includes an actual dream where he and Helena, pre-accident, sing the song they never finished. It suddenly changes into a nightmare with Helena repeating "You let me down" and then Victor's father saying "There's nothing more you can do about it, son". Victor wakes up with a start, saying "I must tell the truth". In short, he is haunted by the secret he has been keeping for 10 years about the way the accident happened.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': In the episode "Warlord," Zukan is haunted by guilt over the men who died for his schemes.
-->'''Zukan:''' They're all dead. Eleven good Betafarlians. Do you think you'll see them in your dreams, Finn?
-->'''Finn:''' [[PunchClockVillain Not me.]]
-->'''Zukan:''' I will, if my dreams aren't already overcrowded.
-->'''Finn:''' You should take [[PhlebotinumPills dream suppressants]].
-->'''Zukan:''' [shakes head] They don't help. [[ObliviousGuiltSlinging I see my bad dreams in other people's eyes.]]
* ''Series/{{Cadfael}}'': In "The Devil's Novice", Meriet has screaming nightmares that disrupt the abbey and lead Oswin to ask if he's possessed by demons. [[spoiler:It's guilt over his family's involvement in Clemence's death.]]
* ''Series/{{Carnivale}}'': throughout both seasons, Ben Hawkins has repeated visions and nightmares about a man with a black tree tattooed across his chest. Eventually, these dreams begin merging with others about Brother Justin Crowe, a charismatic preacher who is undergoing his own visions and developing strange powers; [[spoiler:Ultimately we learn Justin and the tattooed man are one and the same, the Usher of Destruction destined to end the world.]]
* ''Series/TheDefenders'': In "The H Word", Danny appears to be plagued by night terrors about [[MyGreatestFailure K'un-L'un]]. According to Colleen, it's not the first time he's been heard screaming in his sleep.
* An episode of ''Series/EmptyNest'' has Harry having a recurring nightmare where he's trying to escape from a lion while wearing his late wife's nightgown. Eventually, he ends up having to stay up all night to avoid having it. With the help of Barbara and Carol, he discovers why he's having it: [[spoiler:the lion represents the cancer that his wife died from and his escape attempts were her battle with it. He's been having the nightmares because he's scheduled to attend a conference at the hospital where she died.]]
* ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' had a WhatDoTheyFearEpisode where it's revealed that Blanche had a recurring nightmare where she was in a room full of bald men, then heard the voice of God, and the room fell into the ocean. She accompanies Rose and Dorothy when they take a flight to a funeral and is shocked when all of the passengers aside from them are bald men. [[note]] "They were all former Mr. Cleans on their way to a convention." [[/note]] Then the pilot, Captain Lord, makes his pre-flight announcement which just agitates her further. Fortunately, the falling into the ocean part doesn't come into play and they return home safely.
* ''Series/JaneTheVirgin'': In "Chapter Forty-Six," following Michael's shooting, Jane has recurring nightmares of hearing gunshots and seeing his body.
* In ''Series/{{Lexx}}'', Stan has nightmares about being chased by Giggerotta. In "Patches in the Sky," the resulting sleep deprivation causes him to embark on a frantic search for something to improve his mood, but his search leads to the destruction of a planet populated by sentient robots, which provides him with even ''more'' fodder for nightmares.
* ''Series/Lucifer2016'': In the episode "Quintessential Deckerstar", Charlotte is still plagued by nightmares of losing her family, and now Dan is in them as well.
* ''Series/OnceUponATime'':
** Since waking up from the Sleeping Curse, Aurora's had recurring nightmares of being trapped in a room on fire. As it turns out, Henry's been having them, too, and so has Mary Margaret - which ends up being key to getting Mary Margaret and Emma out of the Enchanted Forest.
** Henry has nightmares as a side effect of eating the poisoned apple (turnover) and falling under the sleeping curse. Even after Emma breaks the curse, he still gets horrible nightmares.
* ''Series/PicketFences'': Zach is seen suffering from nightmares about death in the first season episode "Sacred Hearts" after he visits an elderly patient with Jill and they find her dead in her hospital bed.
* ''Series/PowerRangersZeo'': In "Inner Spirit", Tommy keeps having nightmares about the Zeo Megazord being destroyed in battle with an unseen adversary.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
** Sam experiences psychic visions, usually of premonitions of people in danger or people who are going to die in the future. These dreams occurred during the first and second seasons. Although these dreams would often help Sam and Dean during a hunt, they would also be incredibly scary and traumatic for Sam as quite a few of them would occur at night when Sam was sleeping. It's also incredibly disturbing for Sam as Sam continuously sees morbid thoughts and visions of people constantly dying and there is nothing that Sam can do to prevent it or stop it from happening. However, there were some cases in which Sam and Dean were able to prevent or stop the premonitions from coming true.
** In season four, Dean spends many nights tossing over his nightmares of [[spoiler:hell]]. In season seven, Dean is once again having nightmares, this time about [[spoiler:Castiel's death, Sam's hallucinations, killing Amy Pond and keeping it a secret.]]
* The ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "Shadow Play" shows main character Adam Grant trapped in a recurring nightmare. The episode starts with him on trial for murder and being sentenced to death and concludes with him being executed in the electric chair. The recurring nature of the dream is revealed at episode's end, when [[GroundhogDayLoop the nightmare starts all over again]], this time with different people serving in roles such as the judge and public defender.
* ''Series/TheWaltons'': The HalloweenEpisode "The Ferris Wheel" centers around Elizabeth's recurring nightmares of being trapped on a Ferris wheel.
* ''Series/TheXFiles'':
** Mulder frequently has nightmares about his sister's abduction; it's probably the biggest reason he's an insomniac.
** Both Mulder and Scully have nightmares about the other during their separate abductions. For Scully, they come so often and regularly that she panics when she ''stops'' having them, fearing that Mulder's death is the reason.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Video Games]]
* William Bishop from ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon'' is plagued by recurrent nightmares of getting shot down over Miami by a Russian jet with a shark mouth painted on its nose. This turns out to be a case of PropheticDreams, as Bishop later learns that that plane belongs to a RenegadeRussian ace, giving an otherwise stoic Bishop a bad case of anxiety when the two of them ''do'' duke it out over Miami.
* ''VideoGame/EternalSeniaHydrangeaAfterTheRain'': When tapped on the StartScreen, Senia mentions that she has multiple nightmares, contents unknown, but her hometown was razed by demons, and her sister figure is trapped in a tower:
--> '''Senia:''' "Another nightmare..."
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'': The first time Princess Edelgard von Hresvelgr opens up to Byleth is when they wake her up from a nightmare while making the nightly rounds at the campus. She then reveals it was about the time when she and her siblings were vivisected in an attempt to give them a second Crest -- she was the [[SoleSurvivor only success]], while all her brothers and sisters [[ForcedToWatch died in front of her eyes]]. She has been reliving this trauma regularly in her dreams ever since.
* ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'': Abby has recurring nightmares of [[spoiler:finding her father's corpse. It's only once she saves Yara that she has a peaceful dream of her father alive.]]
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect'': In the first game, Shepard has unsettling dreams about the visions from the Prothean beacon. Understandable, considering that it A) was information delivered in a format not meant to be understood by human minds, and B) concerned the extermination of entire species. In the third game, Shepard starts having flat-out nightmares [[SurvivorGuilt about the people they couldn't save.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Mercenaries}}'': Sometimes when you approach Misha in the base, you can catch him waking up screaming from a nightmare about his plane crashing.
* ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'': According to her dialogue tree, Rada suffers from periodic nightmares of being adrift in a cold and dark ocean, slowly sinking beneath the waves and being dimly aware of ''something'' waiting in the darkness below her.
* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'':
** The main setting of ''VideoGame/{{Catherine}}'' is Vincent's recurring nightmares about cheating on his girlfriend. He's plagued by them in ''VideoGame/Persona3'' as well.
** ''VideoGame/Persona4'': Shu has a recurring dream in which he's on a train going to an unknown destination. He's unable to leave the train, and is being pursued by a strange figure, who gets one car closer every night.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/LamentoBeyondTheVoid'': Rai suffers from them very often, particularly [[spoiler: from nightmares about his bloodlust]].
* ''VisualNovel/TheSecondReproduction'': Christina has frequent nightmares [[spoiler: due to LaserGuidedAmnesia of the time she was made to slaughter an entire demon village.]]
* ''VisualNovel/SpiritHunterNG'': In the Bad End Akira becomes plagued with visions of all his companions that died, preventing him from getting any sleep and causing his health to deteriorate.
* ''VisualNovel/{{Sunrider}}'': After getting captured by Cosette on Ongess and seeing Alliance soldiers gun down a little girl during his rescue, he starts having nightmares in which the child blames him for her death before morphing into his dead sister Maray.
* ''VisualNovel/SweetEnchantments'': Zain suffers from nightmares, as the heroine discovers in his second season.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/SuperScienceFriends'': Albert Einstein suffers recurring nightmares [[spoiler: after his AccidentalMurder of his hero Isaac Newton.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/DocRat'': Pippie suffers from horrible nightmares and wets the bed after most of her family die in a wildfire. She gets better thanks to her friendship with Jarrad.
* ''Webcomic/{{Kubera}}'':
** After the [[spoiler:battle with God Kubera and Asha's revelation of what Leez really means to her and what Asha did to her father]], Leez frequently has dreams about the both of them and how they betrayed her, causing her to wake up screaming and in cold sweat.
** Ian routinely suffers from these and tends to shuffle about. Taksaka, for whom being disturbed in his sleep is a BerserkButton, notes that it's the only thing about her that annoys them in their marriage.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Outsider}}'', after his ship is destroyed, Alex Jardin nearly dies due to asphyxiation while drifting in space. He's later noted to be having nightmares in which he mentally relives this experience. The first instance of this that's depicted also includes him being confronted by the "spirit" of one of his dead crewmates who chides him for having survived, hinting that he has some deep-seated SurvivorsGuilt.
* ''Webcomic/PlatinumGrit'': Jeremy keeps having nightmares about his childhood tormentor Cousin Dougal suddenly returning. Despite Dougal looking suspiciously dead at the end of an early storyline, Jeremy's dreams [[DreamingOfThingsToCome might be more]] than just the result of childhood trauma.
* ''Webcomic/ShinkaTheLastEevee'': Nick has nightmares about being chased by a Skarmory. They occasionally segue into odd dreams where a voice gives him vague warnings and such. [[spoiler: Turns out those odd dreams were actually [[{{Telepathy}} telepathic communication]] from Sol the Espeon, who believes Nick can help rescue the other captive Eeveelutions.]]
* ''Webcomic/WhenHeavenSpitsYouOut'': In Part 2 especially, Ryan has strange and lucid nightmares where he imagines himself either dying or bathed in blood while faced with religious iconography. On the outside, such terrifying visions reduce him to tears and he subsequently wakes up crying.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Downplayed with Aang in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirBender''. He becomes deeply stressed as the day of the invasion approaches. He begins having nightmares akin to those of a kid the night before an exam, where his battle goes comically wrong, such as him showing up without pants and Ozai making fun of Aang, causing him to become sleep deprived and neurotic.
* During ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'', it's revealed that all Clones regularly suffer from nightmares about a "mission that never ends", presumably a side effect of the [[MindControlDevice inhibitor chip]] implanted in their brains to make them obey [[FinalSolution Order 66]].
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In "Kiki's Pizza Delivery Service", her letting Jenny push off her responsibilities onto her give her recurring nightmares about being dragged by cheesy hands down into pizza and drowning.
[[/folder]]
