Line #114 Main/PassedInTheirSleep


1	->'''Lisa:''' Bart, do you realise what this means? The next time we fall asleep, we could die!\
2	'''Grandpa:''' Ehhh, welcome to my world.
3	-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', during the segment of [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E6TreehouseOfHorrorVI "Treehouse of Horror VI"]] where they spoof ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet''
4
5	Death is usually compared to sleep. We have a DeepSleep, where a character sleeps like they're dead, but there's also those times when a character has Passed In Their Sleep. This, of course, occurs when a character dies of a natural cause such as a disease, old age, or an injury. And many people argue [[PeacefulInDeath that this might be the best way to go.]]
6
7	Oftentimes this kind of death is portrayed as mystery (death in your sleep, while natural, has no directly visible causes) or exoticness/symbolism (a form of PeacefulInDeath).
8
9	Compare BigSleep, which is when a character's eyes close as they die, making it look as though they were sleeping, and PeacefulInDeath, which is when a person is content with their death, whereas Passed In Their Sleep just refers to a character who [[ShapedLikeItself passes while they sleep]] regardless of whether they thought they were ready. Also compare SlainInTheirSleep, where a character is murdered in their sleep and it's portrayed as tragic rather than peaceful. Can be the result of DangerousDrowsiness.
10
11	'''As a death trope, all spoilers will be left unmarked!'''
12
13	[[noreallife]]
14	----
15	!!Examples
16
17	[[foldercontrol]]
18
19	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
20	* ''Anime/GraveOfTheFireflies'': [[KillTheCutie Setsuko dies of starvation and sickness]] while she sleeps.
21	-->'''Seita''' ''(In a voiceover)'': [[WhamLine She never woke up]].
22	* This is [[TheReveal revealed]] to be what happened to Nausicaä's father after [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge she finds the Tolmekian soldiers in his room and him dead]] in ''Anime/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind''.
23	* Near the end of ''Anime/PersonaTrinitySoul'', Ryo Kanzato passes away like this after he uses his Persona powers to help his siblings defeat the Marebito and save Ayanagi City from another Apathy Syndrome disaster.
24	* In the ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' OVA series, Tenchi's mother Kiyone died like this while a young Tenchi was sleeping next to her.
25	* How Future Goku is depicted to have died to the heart virus in ''Anime/DragonBallZTheHistoryOfTrunks''. He dies in his bed and was most likely comatose given how main timeline Goku remained in a coma while he was ill.
26	* One of Subaru's [[TheManyDeathsOfYou many deaths]] from ''Literature/ReZero'', involved him simply going to bed as usual and waking up the following day only to realize that Return By Death had activated making it clear that he somehow ended up dying during his sleep.
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	[[folder:Comic Books]]
30	* In ''ComicBook/{{Thorgal}}'', a girl escapes from a hidden valley inside a glacier, where "time was frozen". She goes to sleep and [[NoImmortalInertia ages to death]] before she can wake up.
31	* In the "Mobius: 25 Years Later" comic arc in ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'', Knuckles mentions that this trope is how his father Locke died, while he was admitted to hospital.
32	* ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'': Scrooge's father Fergus dies in his sleep the same night Scrooge and his sisters move to America. In fact, they think he's just sleeping in when they leave the next morning.
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Fan Works]]
36	* In ''Fanfic/WeAllNeedAHero'' this is Sayu Yagami's calling card as Kira. She tries to minimize the pain her victims feel by always specifying that they fall asleep before dying of a heart attack. This show of sympathy even for her victims underscores how differently she approaches being Kira compared to Light, who seemed to enjoy causing suffering.
37	* In the fanfic ''Mort Takes A Holiday'', this is how Granny Smith's husband died.
38	* In ''[[Fanfic/Gensokyo20XX Gensokyo 20XXV]]'', we have this with Satori, who dies during the night when after spending the entire day enjoying herself since her sister, Koishi's, death.
39	* ''Fanfic/AnUnsungSong'': Gamemaker Misty dies of a heart attack in her sleep.
40	* ''Fanfic/{{Sleepless}}'': In contrast to other deaths in the fic, Vinyl passes away quietly: she dies off-screen, never waking up from the coma.
41	* ''Fanfic/LittleFires'': The sickly Duckkit is given poppy seeds so that he'll fall into a coma as he dies.
42	* ''Fanfic/DestinyAfterandalasia'': Tiana was ill with the flu when one night she went to bed and never woke up.
43	* ''Fanfic/JudgementDayDragonBall'': Goku and Vegeta both die of natural causes in their sleep at an old age.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
47	* ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'' shows the final plague this way; since it happens in the middle of the night, the firstborn of one Egyptian family is shown dying in his sleep, and presumably this is the case for most of the others too.
48	[[/folder]]
49
50	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
51	* In the film ''Film/TheElephantMan'', the title character has a large tumor on his face [[BodyHorror that greatly disfigured his face]] and causes him to be [[HumansAreBastards mistreated by the public.]] When he finally [[TemptingFate tries to go to sleep like a normal person]] (laying down instead of upright) he ends up dislocating his neck as he sleeps and dying. It's impossible to say for certain, but many people suspect his death was a suicide.
52	* Defied in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''. Yoda heads to bed to try to avoid Luke's questions, then fights to stay awake to give him some last words of advice [[BigSleep before (literally)]] [[EverythingFades fading off]] [[KilledMidSentence mid-sentence.]]
53	* In the film ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'', Rose may have passed away peacefully in her sleep at the end (it's purposefully left ambiguous).
54	* Parodied in ''Film/ScaryMovie3'' where C.J. and Mahalik discuss the trope and end up arguing if one can actually "wake up dead".
55	* ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'': The novelization of the film shows that Edmunds settled into hypersleep to await NASA's response after confirming that the planet was inhabitable; while he was asleep a rockslide destroyed his shelter, giving him what's most likely the most painless death of all the scientists.
56	* ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'': While the Avengers are discussing the Sokovia Accords, Steve gets a text which says, "She's gone. In her sleep." The next scene is him at the funeral of Peggy Carter.
57	* Grandpa Hoover passed in this way halfway into ''Film/LittleMissSunshine'', in the same motel room beside his young granddaughter Olive. The following scene next morning begins with Olive waking her parents and saying "[[ChildrenAreInnocent Grandpa won't wake up]]..."
58	* Due to being so morbidly obese, [[spoiler: Bonnie]] dies like this at the end of ''Film/WhatsEatingGilbertGrape'', after climbing the stairs to sleep in her bedroom.
59	* In ''Film/HappyDeathDay'', Tree finds herself in a GroundhogDayLoop where she keeps getting murdered by someone. After a lot of trial and error, she kills Tombs the serial killer, then celebrates afterwards by eating a birthday cupcake given to her by her roommate Lori. She then wakes up and is bewildered by the fact that she's ''still'' stuck in her time loop, confused as to why until she realizes that she died in her sleep. From a poisoned cupcake that in no previous loop she had eaten. From her roommate Lori. [[ExplainExplainOhCrap With whom she is alone with in the same room when she realizes the true culprit.]]
60	[[/folder]]
61
62	[[folder:Jokes]]
63	* "When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car."
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder:Literature]]
67	* In the ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' Verse, school legend has it that elderly Professor Binns died while napping in the teachers' lounge. He then got up to teach his next class as a ghost, and it's entirely possible he hasn't actually noticed he's died. Presumably the rest of the faculty were unable to think of a tactful way to broach the subject.
68	* ''Literature/TheKaneChronicles'': In ''The Red Pyramid'', Sadie has a conversation with Iskander, the kindly, two-thousand-year-old head of the House of Life, in which he seems to be on her and Carter's side, but the next morning they discover Iskander died in his sleep, which means their lives are now in danger, as his replacement immediately orders their arrest and execution.
69	* This is how Tunstall dies in the third ''Literature/BekaCooper'' book. After a long and arduous battle in the cold and rain, Beka can't make herself kill him and ties him up for proper capture instead, even while thinking this is a CruelMercy. When she goes to give him some food the next day, she can't wake him and finds his body locked in rigor mortis--cold and shock did him in overnight.
70	* ''Literature/TheBooksOfEmber'': In ''The City of Ember'', this is how Lina and Poppy's grandmother dies. After she starts succumbing to an unknown illness, she tells Lina to go to sleep, and the next morning, Lina finds her body still in bed.
71	* In ''Fool's Errand'', Nighteyes gets this. After being tortured and run to exhaustion, Nighteyes and Fitzchivalry sleep in the cave. Nighteyes gets up to go hunting and when Fitzchivalry tries to follow. Fitzchivalry wakes up just in time to hear Nighteyes breathe his last in his sleep.
72	* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
73	** Ser Harlan Grandison died peacefully while sleeping in his cell in the White Tower.
74	** For a non-human example, Balerion the Black Dread, the only known dragon to die of old age. According to historical accounts, he went to sleep one day and never opened his eyes again.
75	* This how [[BigGood Granny Weatherwax]] dies in ''Literature/TheShepherdsCrown'', [[BaitAndSwitch despite the prologue and first chapter]] implying that she'd die in the coming battle with the elves.
76	* ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern'': In the climax of ''All the Weyrs of Pern'', [[spoiler:retired Masterharper Robinton has a final talk with Aivas. After saying goodbye when the A.I. suicides, he falls asleep in a chair, along with his fire-lizard Zair, and neither of them ever wakes up.]]
77	* ''Literature/JaneEyre'': Helen Burns dies as she and Jane sleep in each other's arms.
78	* ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'': Played for DeliberateValuesDissonance when Laurence gets the news that his ailing father died in his bed. Laurence's dragon companion Temeraire, who's been in various combat roles for most of his life, is horrified that someone can die ''in a place of safety'' and becomes nervous whenever Laurence sleeps.
79	* ''Literature/TheBoxcarChildren'': Discussed in book #26 (''The Mystery of the Mixed-Up Zoo''), when Edward Marlowe tells the Alden siblings how long ago, he served in a World War II fighter squadron and eventually adopted their wildcat mascot Billy, who became the first animal in Edward's zoo. When asked what happened to him, Edward explains that Billy lived to a ripe old age before dying in his sleep.
80	* ''Literature/BruceCovillesBookOf Nightmares II'': The plot of ''The Dollhouse'' starts when elderly couple Jake and Angela Fowler are found dead in bed together, having died in their sleep. [[spoiler: Supposedly. It turns out they actually transferred themselves into another dimension, switching places with a couple of life-size dolls, to start a new life.]]
81	* ''Literature/TheEnchantedFiles'': Early in ''Diary of a Mad Brownie'' / ''Cursed'', elderly Sarah [=McGonagall=], whom Angus had served before Alex, simply falls asleep in front of the television one afternoon, starts snoring and dies without ever waking up.
82	* ''Series/RedDwarf Log No. 1996'': At one point, Rimmer recalls a former crewmate who was terrified that this would happen to him; having read that most people die in their sleep "about 3am", he set off alarm bells, klaxons and sirens in his room to wake him up at 2:59, [[LiteralMinded just so he wouldn't be asleep at 3]]. A week later, [[DeathByIrony he died at 3am]]... when [[DrivenToMadness his bunkmate shot him]].
83	* In the ''Literature/HumanxCommonwealth'' novel ''Phylogenesis'', the [[InsectoidAliens thranx]] poet Desvendapur survives any number of unlikely adventures, yet succumbs to exposure and exertion while camped out overnight after a daring escape. His human companion is [[DeathIsSuchAnOddThing honestly stunned]].
84	* In ''Literature/WiseChild'', Wise Child's grandmother is implied to have died in her sleep, as Wise Child's first reaction to her death is to tell her aunt that "Granny's too tired to get up today".
85	[[/folder]]
86
87	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
88	* ''Series/ArchieBunkersPlace'': "Archie Alone", which explained Edith's death due to a stroke suffered in her sleep. When Archie finally lets go of his emotions, he bemoans being unable to figure out why she was unresponsive as he shook her repeatedly, hoping to wake her up so she could fix breakfast.
89	* ''Series/FullHouse'': Played straight in the Season 7 episode "The Last Dance." Jesse's grandfather, who also becomes very close to Michelle, dies in his sleep while staying at the Tanners.
90	* Used in ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E9PerchanceToDream Perchance to Dream]]". A man thinks that if he falls asleep, he'll die. At the start of the episode, he goes to a doctor's office, lies down and closes his eyes for a moment, then jumps up and explains his situation to the doctor. At the end it's revealed that it was all a DyingDream; the doctor reports to his nurse that the man came into his office, lay down, and never woke up.
91	* An episode of the Singaporean comedy ''Series/PhuaChuKang'' has Chu Kang offering a friend's mother to stay at his place (mistaking his friend to have thrown his mother out -- in actuality, the old lady had a quarrel with her son and daughter-in-law before deciding to flee on her own), with Chu Kang's sister-in-law Margaret offering the old lady her room to sleep in after discovering their shared love of vegan food (much to her husband Anthony Phua's chagrin). Alas, by the time Chu Kang's friend arrives one morning to retrieve his mother several days later (after causing a ton of problems for the Phua household) she somehow died in her sleep in Anthony's and Margaret's bedroom. Being a comedy, it's all PlayedForLaughs, especially considering this is the ''only'' instance of a CharacterDeath happening in the entire series.
92	* In an episode of ''Series/RedDwarf'', Rimmer finds a letter saying that his father (who of course died thousands of years ago) died peacefully in his jeep... er... sleep.
93	* ''Series/AllInTheFamily'': [[Recap/AllInTheFamilyS2E1TheSagaOfCousinOscar "The Saga Of Cousin Oscar"]]. At least Cousin Oscar went peacefully, without barking orders at Archie, Mike, and the others.
94	* ''Series/PompeiiTheLastDay'': The last we see of them, they have all fallen asleep from exhaustion and are spared the suffering that others went through during the remainder of the disaster.
95	* ''Series/{{Creepshow}}'': In the season 2 premiere "[[Recap/CreepshowS2E1ModelKid Model Kid]]", Joe and his cancer-stricken single mother June watch ''Film/AbbottAndCostelloMeetFrankenstein'' together, and June's cancer takes its final, fatal toll on her as she falls asleep.
96	* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Debbie Wolowitz dies at Howard's Aunt Gladys while she was sleeping.
97	* In ''Series/TheGhostAndMrsMuir'', Captain Gregg died in his sleep, his foot having accidentally kicked the lever on his gas heater, turning the gas on while the window was shut.
98	* In the ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' episode “[[Recap/NCISS21E02 The Stories We Leave Behind]]”, Ducky (after his actor Creator/DavidMcCallum [[DiedDuringProduction died in September 2023]]) dies peacefully overnight of natural causes while asleep, with his protege Palmer finding his body the following morning when he comes by his house to discuss an old case.
99	* In the final season of ''Series/TheCloser'' Brenda's parents visit revealing her father's been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and is undergoing treatment. Her mother keeps mentioning she wants to discuss something with her, but Brenda keeps putting it off due to her case. One day she tries to wake her mother up so that they can have the discussion, only for Brenda to learn her mother passed in her sleep.
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Music]]
103	* ''Music/KennyRogers'': In "The Gambler," the titular character informs the narrator that the best a gambler can hope for is to die in his sleep before slipping away himself. Rogers himself died in his sleep in March 2020.
104	* The Music/DanielAmos album ''Songs of the Heart'' ends with "My Hand to God", in which the elderly Bud Akendorf dies in his sleep. In this case, the song is from Bud's perspective as [[{{Psychopomp}} "The Mysterious Stranger"]] comes to ferry his soul away. The lyrics emphasize how peaceful the transition is:
105	-->Never seen the moon so big and bright
106	-->or had a dream this strangely soothing.
107	* Music/SplitEnz has the classic "Charlie", where the man who has been banished to the couch for a monumental argument comes into his significant other's bedroom to wake her up and say sorry to her - only to find, slowly and disbelievingly, with a rising sense of horror, that she has died in the night. WordOfGod says this actually happened to a friend of theirs in RealLife.
108	-->Darling Charlie, pale and deathly still
109	-->For Heaven's sake, wake up Charlie.
110	[[/folder]]
111
112	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
113	* Task Force Games' ''Central Casting: Dungeons'' generic RPG supplement. In the sample dungeon "The Gambling Pit'', the dungeon was originally abandoned because of poison gas that entered the air supply quickly and without warning. Most of the dungeon occupants who were awake at the time managed to escape, but almost all who were sleeping at the time died (apparently the occupants who were awake were too busy fleeing to wake up the sleeping people).
114	[[/folder]]
115
116	[[folder:Toys]]
117	* While most of the Franchise/{{Digimon}} virtual pets age while they are sleeping, the original ones were also able to evolve or die during their slumber.
118	[[/folder]]
119
120	[[folder:Video Games]]
121	* ''VideoGame/SimCity'': If one of your sims from My Sim mode lives to old age, they will often die of old age, being replaced with a GenerationXerox child.
122	* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'': According to her bio, Sue Pea died in her sleep from what was supposed to be a quick nap.
123	* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'': Referenced by Padok Wiks [[spoiler: if he's the one about to sacrifice himself at the Shroud to cure the Genophage]],
124	-->''Some people die in battle, some die in their sleep, and some die for no reason at all...
125	* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': A variation occurs in the cinematic for ''Dragonflight''. As the Flights leave the Dragon Isles in the aftermath of the Sundering, they entrust the Watchers (essentially animate statues) to reactivate the beacon that will lead them back one day. In the meantime, the Watchers enter a kind of stasis to await the time they will be needed. TenThousandYears later, the time comes to reactivate the beacon, but the Watchers have crumbled during their long slumber, except for one, Koranos. As he goes to reactivate the beacon, he passed the inanimate remains of his brethren who never woke up. In the game itself, the lifeless watcher are seen standing silently in various locations.
126	[[/folder]]
127
128	[[folder:Web Comics]]
129	* [[https://somethingpositive.net/comic/just-today-pt-5/ Faye MacIntire]] in ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive''. Doubly tragic for her husband, Fred, who had just found out [[TraumaCongaLine he had Alzheimer's]] and didn't get the chance to tell her.
130	[[/folder]]
131
132	[[folder:Web Original]]
133	* The WebVideo/NostalgiaCritic gets a call telling him that his mother dies this way in the review of ''Film/JurassicParkIII''. It became HarsherInHindsight when Doug's mother actually died this way two years later.
134	[[/folder]]
135
136	[[folder:Western Animation]]
137	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
138	** Discussed in the [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E6TreehouseOfHorrorVI "Treehouse of Horror VI"]] segment ''[[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace]], which is where the page quote comes from.
139	** In the "Treehouse of Horror XXXIII" segment ''[[Anime/DeathNote Death Tome]]'', Lisa kills Mr. Burns by writing in the titular book that he'll die in his sleep, calling it "the most peaceful way to go". Burns proceeds to fall asleep... [[BlackComedy right onto the kitchen grill!]]
140	* WordOfGod is Ember from ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' died in her sleep however it was anything but peaceful; she died because her house burned down and she was too exhausted from being stood up from a date all night to notice.
141	* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Zuko receives a message telling him to research his great-grandfather's death. Later he asks Azula about it, who tells him that Firelord Sozin, their father's grandfather, died peacefully in his sleep, an old man. But Iroh wanted him to know about his mother's grandfather, Avatar Roku, who was betrayed by Sozin and left to die at an erupting volcano. As for Sozin, while him dying in his sleep may have been true, [[WasItReallyWorthIt the "peaceful" part is much less so]].
142	* ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldHis9Lives'': Happens to Garfield's sixth life, Diana, at the end of "Diana's Piano".
143	* In ''WesternAnimation/IlEtaitUneFois.. l'Homme'', the Neanderthal incarnation of [[CoolOldGuy Maestro]] dies like this.
144	[[/folder]]

Context Main / PassedInTheirSleep