History Main / SlainInTheirSleep

** Averted by the hobbits in Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/TheFellowshipOfTheRing'', who had stopped at the Prancing Pony Inn and had gone to their rooms for the night. Some Bree-men suborned by the Ringwraiths gained access to the hobbits' room, where attacked what they thought were the hobbits in their beds. Fortunately, Strider had forewarned the hobbits about this; what actually happened was the ruin of several good bolsters.

[[folder:Mythology]]

* ''Literature/TheBible'' has the story of Jael. The Israelites were at war with King Jabin of Canaan and his top general Sisera. Deborah, the judge and prophetess who advised Barak, the ruler of Israel at the time, had prophesied that the honor of defeating the enemy army would go to a woman. After the nine hundred iron chariots that gave Sisera the advantage against the Israelites were bogged down by rain and mud, the Canaanites were defeated and Sisera fled, soon finding the tent of Heber, whose household was at peace with Jabin. But Jael, Heber's wife, sympathized with the Israelites because of the twenty years of oppression they had suffered at Jabin and Sisera's hands, and after welcoming Sisera into her tent and getting him to sleep, she drove a tent peg into his temple and through his skull with a workman's hammer and killed him, thus fulfilling Deborah's prophecy and delivering the Israelites from Jabin.

** Played ''slightly'' less for laughs ''Literature/SmallGods'' with the story of how Didactylos came up with a SleepLearning program for a king who demanded a "royal road to learning", only for the slave who was supposed to be whispering knowledge into his ear to stick a dagger in it instead.

* PlayedForLaughs in several ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' books where "soon we shall all be murdered in our beds" is used to identify the speaker as [[HumansAreBastards a petty, xenophobic and narrow-minded citizen]] ([[RacistGrandma since it usually involves foreigners to Ankh-Morpork]]). In ''{{Literature/Jingo}}'', a very old lady uses the variant "when Klatchians will be ravishing us in our beds", to which Carrot of all people responds "[[FetishRetardant those Klatchians are mighty brave]]".

* ''Literature/TheBible'' has the story of Jael. The Israelites were at war with King Jabin of Canaan and his top general Sisera. Deborah, the judge and prophetess who advised Barak, the ruler of Israel at the time, had prophesied that the honor of defeating the enemy army would go to a woman. After the nine hundred iron chariots that gave Sisera the advantage against the Israelites were bogged down by rain and mud, the Canaanites were defeated and Sisera fled, soon finding the tent of Heber, whose household was at peace with Jabin. But Jael, Heber's wife, sympathized with the Israelites because of the twenty years of oppression they had suffered at Jabin and Sisera's hands, and after welcoming Sisera into her tent and getting him to sleep, she drove a tent peg through his skull with a workman's hammer and killed him, thus fulfilling Deborah's prophecy and delivering the Israelites from Jabin.

* ''Literature/TheBible'' has the story of Jael. The Israelites were at war with King Jabin of Canaan and his top general Sisera. Deborah, the judge and prophetess who advised Barak, the ruler of Israel at the time, had prophesied that the honor of defeating the enemy army would go to a woman. After the nine hundred iron chariots that gave Sisera the advantage against the Israelites were bogged down by rain and mud, the Canaanites were defeated and Sisera fled, soon finding the tent of Heber, whose household was at peace with Jabin. But Jael, Heber's wife, sympathized with the Israelites because of the twenty years of oppression they had suffered at Jabin and Sisera's hands, and after welcoming Sisera into her tent and getting him to sleep, she drove a tent peg through his skull with a workman's hammer and killed him, thus fulfilling Deborah's prophecy and delivering the Israelits from Jabin.

People are very vulnerable creatures when they're asleep. Their defenses are down, they usually feel like they're in a safe place. Thus when someone is killed in their sleep, it's portrayed as someone being killed when they're at their most defenseless. Doing so is often the ''modus operandi'' of the DirtyCoward, who would be afraid to kill someone when they can fight back -- though for particularly powerful enemies such as {{vampire}}s, it may well be the ''only'' way to kill them without risking one's life or those of others.

People are very vulnerable creatures when they're asleep. Their defenses are down, they usually feel like they're in a safe place. Thus when someone is killed in their sleep, it's portrayed as someone being killed when they're at their most defenseless. Doing so is often the modus operandi of the DirtyCoward, who would be afraid to kill someone when they can fight back. It can also be used as ParanoiaFuel, as everyone has to sleep at some point, thus everyone (even the viewer) is vulnerable at some point. Often subverted by the killer stabbing a SleepingDummy.

* One of LightNovel/GoblinSlayer's favorite tactics for killing goblins, which he uses to clear out a goblin nest with the help of two spells from Dwarf Shaman and Priestess. The two spells combined render the goblins defenseless, rendering them easy prey for Goblin Slayer, High Elf Archer and Lizard Priest.

* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing'': Subverted. We see [[spoiler:the Nazgul stabbing what seems to be the Hobbits]] sleeping in their beds, to death. But [[spoiler:the Hobbits had filled their bed with straw to make it look like they were in bed,]] and were hiding somewhere safe.

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'':

* In the film version of ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'' James Bond's girlfriend Aki is murdered in her sleep by mistake (they were aiming for Bond). An assassin sneaks into the rafters of their bedroom and lowers a string, then puts a drop of poison on the string to drip down into Bond's mouth; but Bond and Aki both turn over, so poor Aki's mouth is where the string is.

* In ''Film/2001ASpaceOdyessy'', [[AIIsACrapshoot Hal 9000]] does this to three crew members in hibernation by disabling their life support functions.

* In ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyessy'', [[AIIsACrapshoot Hal 9000]] does this to three crew members in hibernation by disabling their life support functions.

Not to be confused with its Sister Trope, PassedInTheirSleep, where someone's death during sleep is portrayed as peaceful and one of the best ways to go. Any examples where a character is injured, falls asleep, and dies from the injury while asleep go there. This is for when characters are targeted when they're asleep.

** Antonio and Sebastian attempt to do this to King Alonso and his adviser, Gonzalo, in ''TheTempest''. Gonzalo is awakened by Prospero's spirit, Ariel, and prevents the murder.

* In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'', attacks made against unconscious targets {{always accurate|Attack}}, and hit with maximum solidity. In an exception to the [[AIRoulette relative randomness]] of AI attacks, they will always aim for the head when attacking someone that's out cold. [[ArtificialStupidity Even if the target has a good enough helmet on]].

* In ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey V: Beyond the Myth'', Harbingers have a skill called Fatal Reap that inflicts modest physical damage with a chance of a OneHitKill. The damage and instant-kill chance increase dramatically if used on a sleeping enemy.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': ComicBook/{{Cheetah}} intends to kill Diana Prince this way, and comes within inches of plunging a knife into her heart while she sleeps but stops at the last minute because the one she's really pissed at is Wonder Woman and she realizes she has everything she needs to frame Wondy for stealing from a charity for war orphans by sticking the funds she herself stole under Di's bed.

* In ''VideoGame/Fallout3'', ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', and ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', the [[https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Mister_Sandman Mister Sandman]] perk gives you the option of automatically killing sleeping {{NPC}}s instead of pickpocketing them. ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' changes the 50 ExperiencePoints to +15% for every sneak attack with a silenced weapon (meaning guns only, unless you have the [[https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Ninja Ninja]] perk) and goes up to +30% at level 17 and +50% at level 30.

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]

* In ''VideoGame/Fallout3'', ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', and ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', the [[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Mister_Sandman Mr. Sandman]] perk gives you the option of automatically killing sleeping {{NPC}}s instead of pickpocketing them. ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' changes the 50 ExperiencePoints to +15% for every sneak attack with a silenced weapon (meaning guns only, unless you have the [[https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Ninja Ninja]] perk) and goes up to +30% at level 17 and +50% at level 30.