History Main / YourWorstNightmare

* An episode of ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' pits the PowerTrio protagonists against their worst nightmares come to life after the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Demon Of The Week]] gets his hands on some Sandman sand.
** A first season episode featured a serial killer who developed a way to enter the dreams of women who rejected him. [[YourMindMakesItReal Killing them there meant they died in real life.]]

** When Scarecrow uses his fear toxin on SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker, though, he accomplishes nothing at all. The Joker just finds fear (even his own) to be funny.

* Happens in ''VideoGame/StarStealingPrince''. At first, the protagonist Snowe brushes it off as merely normal nightmares... [[spoiler: until the [[DreamWeaver the Demon]] [[UpToEleven increases how often it happens]], as well as making each nightmare more and more horrific until Snowe's companions even take note of just how [[ExhaustedEyeBags badly his eyes have gotten unnaturally baggy.]]]] [[spoiler: The only way to truly halt this endless stream of nightmares (and secure the [[GoldenEnding Good Ending]]) is by having Erio [[DreamWalker enter Snowe's mind]] so that him, Snowe and Dream Astra (the final of which has been forced to [[ResurrectionDeathLoop die again and again]] via being [[ManonFire burned alive]]. Only after defeating the Demon causing said nightmares will they cease, and after they return from the DreamWorld, Snowe '''instantly''' falls asleep after conversing with Astra about what Erior and Snowe were doing inside the tent, concluding with Snowe finally freed from those dreadful nightmares.]]

* Happens in ''VideoGame/StarStealingPrince''. At first, the protagonist Snowe brushes it off as merely normal nightmares... [[spoiler: until the [[DreamWeaver the Demon]] [[UpToEleven increases how often it happens]], as well as making each nightmare more and more horrific until Snowe's companions even take note of just how [[ExhaustedEyeBags badly his eyes have gotten unnaturally baggy.]]]] [[spoiler: The only way to truly halt this endless stream of nightmares (and secure the [[GoldenEnding Good Ending]]) is by having Erio [[DreamWalker enter Snowe's mind]] so that him, Snowe and Dream Astra (the final of which has been forced to [[ResurrectionDeathLoop die again and again]] via being [[ManonFire burned alive]]. Only after defeating the Demon causing said nightmares will they cease, and after they return from the DreamWorld, Snowe '''instantly''' falls asleep, finally freed from those dreadful nightmares.]]

* Happens in ''VideoGame/StarStealingPrince''. At first, the protagonist Snowe brushes it off as merely normal nightmares... [[spoiler: until the [[DreamWeaver the Demon]] [[UpToEleven increases how often it happens]], as well as making each nightmare more and more horrific until Snowe's companions even take note of just how [[ExhaustedEyeBags bad his eyes have gotten unnaturally baggy.]]]] [[spoiler: The only way to truly halt this endless stream of nightmares (and secure the [[GoldenEnding Good Ending]]) is by having Erio [[DreamWalker enter Snowe's mind]] so that him, Snowe and Dream Astra (the final of which has been forced to [[ResurrectionDeathLoop die again and again]] via being [[ManonFire burned alive]]. Only after defeating the Demon causing said nightmares will they cease, and after they return from the DreamWorld, Snowe '''instantly''' falls asleep, finally freed from those dreadful nightmares.]]

** Happens in ''VideoGame/StarStealingPrince''. At first, the protagonist Snowe brushes it off as merely normal nightmares... [[spoiler: until the [[DreamWeaver the Demon]] [[UpToEleven increases how often it happens]], as well as making each nightmare more and more horrific until Snowe's companions even take note of just how [[ExhaustedEyeBags bad his eyes have gotten unnaturally baggy.]]]] [[spoiler: The only way to truly halt this endless stream of nightmares (and secure the [[GoldenEnding Good Ending]]) is by having Erio [[DreamWalker enter Snowe's mind]] so that him, Snowe and Dream Astra (the final of which has been forced to [[ResurrectionDeathLoop die again and again]] via being [[ManonFire burned alive]]. Only after defeating the Demon causing said nightmares will they cease, and after they return from the DreamWorld, Snowe '''instantly''' falls asleep, finally freed from those dreadful nightmares.]]

** Happens in ''VideoGame/StarStealingPrince''. At first, the protagonist Snowe brushes it off as merely normal nightmares... [[spoiler: until the [[DreamWeaver the Demon]] [[UpToEleven increases how often it happens]], as well as making each nightmare more and more horrific until Snowe's companions even take note of just how [[ExhaustedEyeBags bad his eyes have gotten unnaturally baggy.]]]] [[spoiler: The only way to truly halt this endless stream of nightmares (and secure the [[GoldenEnding Good Ending]]) is by having Erio [[DreamWalker enter Snowe's mind]] so that him, Snowe and Dream Astra (the final of which has been forced to [[ResurrectionDeathLoop die again and again]] via being [[ManonFire burned alive]]. Only after defeating the Demon causing said nightmares will they cease, and after they return from the DreamWorld, Snowe '''instantly''' falls asleep, finally freed from those dreadful, sould-draining nightmares.]]

See also PrimalFear, NightmareDreams and NightmareWeaver. Not to be mistaken for YourFavorite, unless you are a NightmareFetishist.

* Happens in''ComicBook/ScareTactics'' #2, when the band find themselves in the VanishingVillage of Beaumont, which brings their worst nightmares to life. Screamqueen sees her family being executed for her crimes; Fang finds himself face-to-face with [[RunawayGroom the bride he jilted at the altar]], who killed herself and is now a zombie; and Slither relives being tortured by his father in the name of science.

* In the ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' fic ''Fanfic/VariousVytalVentures'' chapter "Hide and Seek", a demonic being called Nightmare attacks several characters in their dreams. Ruby is forced to watch everyone else's nightmares, unable to help them. Weiss is trapped in a HallOfMirrors that repair themselves when smashed, and her reflections come to life, saying she's a failure and will always be alone. Blake turns into a sort of werecat and attacks her friends, while she's still conscious but unable to control her body. Yang suffers a broken leg and loses her powers, leaving her helpless when she's attacked by a swarm of rapier wasps. Jaune turns into a helpless baby and his friends cruelly abandon him. Pyrrha is attacked by a swarm of snakes and bitten several times, paralyzing her just as a Taijitu Grimm arrives and prepares to eat her. Ren is attacked by his own mother, who calls him a disappointment and tries to kill him. Nora becomes invisible, inaudible, and intangible, and nobody seems to remember her. Velvet is beaten up by Team CRDL, who then prepare to gang rape her. Sun is forced to wear a clown outfit and perform in a circus, where the audience jeers and subjects him to ProducePelting. Penny is strapped to a chair and a MadScientist starts to disassemble her robotic body. Fortunately, Ruby finds the strength to reject her fear of being unable to help her friends, which pulls everyone out of their nightmares and into her dreamworld. Everybody then kicks Nightmare's ass.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''Fanfic/TheMeaningOfHarmony'' the nightmares Sunset and Twilight have make them afraid to sleep, as well as causing them to suffer from PowerIncontinence, forcing them to sleep in a shield spell to prevent themselves from blowing up their camp site, like they did to the inn they stayed at when their journey just began.

** ''Series/UltramanTiga'',''Series/UltramanDyna'',''Series/UltramanGaia'': Five King (Tiga's greatest fear is presumably Golza and Melba, Dyna's being Golza and Reigubas, and Gaia's would be Gan-Q and Super COV)

* Creator/HPLovecraft set a whole series of stories (tied to the Franchise/CthulhuMythos) in the Dreamlands, or some such name. It's no surprise he used this trope, in one story where a tale is transmitted -- somehow -- to the narrator concerning a man who cannot wake up, and is chased through his dreams by [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]]. The narrator concludes by stating that he is afraid of what he might find if he visits the address mentioned in the story.

* ''Literature/TheSeventhTower'': The aptly named Hall of Nightmares, the Castle's torture chamber. [[LivingShadow Spiritshadows]] are used to invade a subjects mind, draw out their worst fears, and attack them with them. Tal mentions that he knew someone who was sent to the Hall, and he was never the same again. Tal is worried when Milla is taken to the Hall; as an Icecarl, Milla is especially terrified of Spiritshadows, and she'll have no idea what to expect, so he assumes he'll find her terrified into catatonia. [[NoSell It turns out she barely even notices]]. All Icecarl children are taught to "call the Crones" in their dreams, who appear and protect them from their nightmares ([[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane the Crones are magical, but this particular effect might just be lucid dreaming]]). When Tal is later sent to the Hall himself, he is able to replicate the effect and also escapes unscathed.

* In the ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' episode "Doppelganger", an entity jumps from an alien crystal to Sheppard, then from him through various cast members, causing vivid nightmares starring a sociopathic Sheppard. The entity only scares people at first, until [[YourMindMakesItReal killing]] [[spoiler: the psychiatrist Dr. Heightmeyer]] in a [[spoiler: falling dream where she hit the bottom.]] The sociopathic Sheppard which only acted on everyone else's worst fears (Heightmeyer's fear of heights, Keller's fear of Alien etc.) eventually re-entered his own consciousness and its revealed his worst fear is ''himself'' which proceeds to taunt him about his [[ILetGwenStacyDie failures]], self-loathing and beat him to a pulp.
** In a similar episode Sheppard hallucinates his arch enemy Kolya kidnapping and torturing him for hours. Again it turns out his worst nightmare isn't Kolya but his own inadequecies and that he believes he deserves to suffer. There's a reason Sheppard is the BrokenAce.

* The ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' episode "Fear Strikes up a Conversation" played with this trope. Sabrina, nervous about giving a speech in front of all of Westbridge High, uses a spell to remove her fear--only for it to become a living shadow that followed her everywhere. While she was immune to its effects, it caused everyone around her to become overly paranoid: Libby, terrified of never winning another beauty pageant, constantly applied makeup; Harvey, worried about being injured, clung to walls rather than walking normally. To defeat her fear, Sabrina's [[TricksterMentor Quizmaster]] leads her on a kind of JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind, where she encounters her worst hidden fears, including being take advantage of for being too nice, not getting into a good college, and being outed as a witch. She conquers them all and goes through a door to discover her deepest fear...delivering her speech. She does so successfully, and overcomes her fear--who turns out to be Steve Allen. And once having overcome her fear, she then transforms herself into her Quizmaster's worst fear [[spoiler:a clown]] to torment him in a bit of well-earned payback.

* In the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' universe, there is an epic monster known as a dream larva, a major threat usually sealed away in some other dimension. It is either a literal child of a god of dreams or a god's nightmare that has been so powerful that it absorbed a spark of his power and become sentient. In either case, its essentially [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger]] on steroids, capable of messing up dreams of entire worlds at once. It also has a reality-warping power to assume the shape of everyone's worst nightmares [[AppearanceIsInTheEyeOfTheBeholder simultaneously,]] so most mortals get heart attacks just seeing it.

** In 3.5's Monster Manual II we get the Nightmare Beast which, surprise, can induce horrific nightmares to any intelligent creature from a distance. Add Its immense size, the ability to trample smaller creatures and some pretty frightening spells and you have a monster made for inducing nightmares regardless of whether you are awake or asleep.

* Fall in ''Webcomic/ParallelDementia'' has dreams where multiple supernatural entities (called "Nightmares") try to influence her and each other. Once she was convinced to sleepwalk to the edge of a second story balcony and climb on the railing before she was woken up.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': A whole episode was devoted to this. [=SpongeBob=] travels into other main characters' dreams and cluelessly messes them up, getting on everybody's nerves and making some of their dreams into nightmares.

** In the season 3 premiere, [[spoiler:[[BigBad King Sombra]] turns out to have set a trap like this to prevent anypony else from getting to the Crystal Heart. Twilight Sparkle falls into it, and sees a vision where Princess Celestia angrily tells her she failed her test and she should just give up on her magical studies. Spike manages to free Twilight, only to fall into it himself and be treated to a vision where Twilight tells him he's not needed anymore as her assistant and tries to send him away.]]

[[folder:Comicbooks]]

* [[Franchise/GreenLantern Sinestro Corps]] members are initiated by experiencing their worst fears so that their rings can absorb their fear energies. After this, they have the ability to weaponize the fears of others.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* ''[[TroperWorks/UltimateSleepwalker Ultimate Sleepwalker: The New Dreams]]'' has a rather gruesome variant with Psyko, whose madness beams force anyone affected by them to constantly relive their worst nightmares over and over again. What makes this stand out is that Psyko not only commits MindRape on his victims, but he can also use their bodies as {{People Puppet}}s in making them do his bidding even while they're hallucinating. Oh, and he can also do all this when you're ''wide awake''.

* An episode of ''Disney/{{Hercules}}: The Animated Series'' had [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantasos Phantasos]] using a shroud similar to his brother Morpheus to give people bad dreams.

* ''Fanfic/ADiplomaticVisit'': Late in chapter 6 of the second sequel, ''Diplomacy Through Schooling'', it's noted that Starlight has been having these about Cutie Marks and her old village, which only stopped after she gave herself up to Twilight and her friends. Twilight suspects Luna and Pharynx were responsible.

Subtrope of TalkingInYourDreams. May be mistaken for BadDreams, AnxietyDreams, DreamingOfThingsToCome, DreamSpying, or DreamingOfTimesGoneBy. Indeed, those tropes can be used by the attackers.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': The b-plot of "Cheers for Fears" revolves around Doof building the Worst-Fear-inator, which makes the worst fear of whoever is zapped by it come to life.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'', a band of intruders in the home of [[spoiler: the Tooth Fairy]] are menaced (and in many cases, killed) by a number of scary things from their childhood. One is literally swallowed up by darkness, another is devoured by a wardrobe with a creepy face in the woodwork, a third is chased off (and presumably killed) by a "Scissor Man" (read: a ''man made of scissors'' who threatens children that suck their thumbs), a fourth is attacked by an exaggerated version of a bully they knew in school, and one dies of a heart attack after being menaced by a giant version of his domineering, [[AbusiveParents abusive mother]].

** ''Series/UltramanTiga'',''Series/UltramanDyna'',''Series/UltramanGaia'': Five King (Tiga's greatest fear is presumably Golza and Melba, Dyna's being Golza and Reigubas, and Gaia's would be Gan-Q and Siper COV)

** ''Series/UltramanZero'': Ultraman Belial

* In ''Ultraman Ginga S The Movie: Showdown! The 10 Ultra Brothers (2015)'', the BigDamnMovie for ''Series/UltramanGinga'', this is how the BigBad Etelgar attempt to prevent the alliance of Ultramen of various dimensions from [[StormingTheCastle invading his fortress hideout]]; by summoning Eteldummies, copies of their worst fears, where each Ultramen are forced to stay back and fight in order to proceed.

* ''Villainous'' takes this in a weird direction when the main characters are populated by {{Card-Carrying Villain}}s and {{Nightmare Fetishist}}s. The "Evil Ray" makes the most evil thing someone can imagine manifest where Black Hat's is another copy of himself (and he doesn't mind), Dr. Flug makes a sandwich with too much mayonnaise, the harmless not-actually-evil creature 5.0.5 creates a huge, monstrous Black Hat, ''that'' Black Hat makes a small, drooling, half-formed Black Hat that all concerned find a disturbing sight, and Demencia creates a giant, ''sexy'' Black Hat. Which thinks the most evil thing is to leave them all wanting more of him.

* In the ''GIJoe'' episode "Nightmare Assault", Dr. Mindbender tortures the Joes with these. His scheme is foiled by Low-Light, who has had nightmares about his [[AbusiveParents abusive father]] all his life and is pretty used to it by now.

[[folder:Videogames]]

[[folder:Web Originals]]

* In [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12638077/3/ZMLS-s-Ten-Year-Anniversary-Special this]] ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' oneshot, an EldritchAbomination disguises itself as a [[GeniusLoci haunted house]] attraction and abducts visitors in order to trap them in {{Lotus Eater Machine}}s and feed on their fears. Over the course of the story, we see it do this Gaz (who finds herself once again inflicted with the pig-mouth curse, locked up, and with everyone laughing at her), Zim (who finds himself exposed as an alien, captured, and about to be dissected), and Dib (who finds himself in a post-AlienInvasion world where Zim rules). [[spoiler: Then it tries to entrap [[CloudCuckoolander GIR]] as well, and [[TooSpicyForYogSothoth his insanity overwhelms and destroys it]], freeing the others.]]

See also PrimalFear, NightmareDreams. Not to be mistaken for YourFavorite, unless you are a NightmareFetishist.

Not to be confused with ImYourWorstNightmare (which is just the phrase).

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':
** A whole episode was devoted to this. [=SpongeBob=] travels into other main characters' dreams and cluelessly messing them up, getting on everybody's nerves and making some of them nightmares.