Guilt-Induced Nightmares in Western Animation.
- Aaahh!!! Real Monsters: In "I Dream of Snorch with the Long Golden Hair", when Snav is framed for stealing the Snorch's golden nose hair (it scurried into his pillow), Krumm, Ickis, and Oblina each have one because they feel guilty about it since it was Krumm and Ickis who really stole it on a sarcastic dare from Oblina.
- Adventures in Odyssey: In "Baby Daze", Eugene tries to use the baby to make a scientific breakthrough (in relatively harmless ways), despite Connie's protests that he needs to remember this is a small person, not just a test subject. Upon falling asleep, Eugene dreams that his artificial intelligence achieved sentience. While initially ecstatic, he's horrified when the thing demands the baby so that it can fill in some remaining gaps. When he wakes up barely in time to keep the baby from toppling off an upper floor, he's extremely relieved and stops trying to study him in favor of just being his friend and caretaker.
- Very commonly occurs in Arthur:
- In "Arthur's Underwear", Arthur, due to feeling guilty over laughing at Binky for ripping his pants, has recurrent Not Wearing Pants Dreams.
- In "Prunella Gets it Twice", Prunella acts ungrateful to Francine for buying her a doll for her birthday that she already has. That night, she dreams that two ghosts tell her that Francine worked hard to get the doll, prompting her to apologise to Francine.
- In "Buster's Dino Dilemma," Buster finds an incredibly rare fossilized footprint while on a field trip and asks Arthur to keep the secret that he took it home. When Buster has a nightmare where Arthur was forced to confess that he knows about the fossil, Buster asks Arthur to help him return the footprint, which is then displayed in the museum with a plaque stating: "Discovered by Buster Baxter and Arthur Read."
- In "Arthur's Lost Library Book", Arthur is worried about being unable to find a library book, so he has two nightmares. In the first one, the police are outside his house, demanding that Arthur give up the book. A very long arm drags him to the library, where an angry Ms. Turner is waiting for him. In the second nightmare, Arthur reads a book attached to a chain, Ms. Turner suddenly drags him in, threatening to use the crank next time.
- In "D.W.'s Name Game", D.W. and Arthur have been Volleying Insults with each other. D.W. goes to bed and dreams that she whispers an unknown insult into his ear, causing him to melt, much to her shock and remorse. When she wakes up, she's quick to apologize to Arthur.
- In "Bugged", everyone is displeased with Brain for being an Insufferable Genius (or a "pest", as Francine says). Brain starts to feel bad about correcting people, and that night, he has a nightmare that he's become a cockroach (a Shout-Out to The Metamorphosis) and his friends put him on a conveyor belt so he can be crushed to death by a giant flyswatter. He's so rattled when he wakes up that he decides to take a vow of silence.
- In "Arthur's Mystery Envelope," Mr. Haney gives Arthur the titular envelope with instructions to give it to his mom. Fearing he is in trouble for something, Arthur hesitates to give it to Jane, even as D.W. continues to pester him about it. While sleeping that night, Arthur has a dream where the envelope starts growing until it bursts through the house's roof, forcing him and Jane to flee. The dream finally makes Arthur hand over the envelope, and it turns out that it had nothing to do with him after all; inside the envelope were Mr. Haney's tax documents, which Jane had been trying to contact him about all day.
- In "To Tibble the Truth", Tommy and Timmy have a nightmare where they're in prison for telling too many lies to other people after D.W. tells them that she wouldn't be surprised if they "ended up in jail someday", and when they wake up, they vow to always tell the truth.
- In "Francine's Pilfered Paper", Francine has a nightmare about the original author of the article she plagiarized from, dressed as a The Phantom of the Opera expy, coming after for her. After she wakes up, she decides to confess to Mr. Ratburn and submit a replacement essay that she wrote with her own words.
- Bob's Burgers:
- In "Sacred Cow", Bob has a few days to make a choice; he will either make Moolissa into a burger or spare his life. He keeps him outside during a rainy night and has a nightmare that he's put on trial for killing Moolissa, and he loses the case. He wakes up and decides to let him sleep inside for the night.
- In "Friends with Burger-Fits", Bob is feeling remorseful and worried about serving burgers to Teddy, as the latter has informed him that constantly eating burgers has given him high levels of cholesterol. He has a nightmare that Teddy's doctor calls him on the phone, and then a long arm comes out of the receiver. The arm pulls Teddy's heart out of his chest and begins to stuff burgers into it. Bob grows several arms and uncontrollably shoves burgers into Teddy's exposed heart, which grows bigger and bigger. He wakes up in a fright just before Teddy's heart bursts.
- Doc McStuffins: A variation in "It's a Hard Doc Life". After Doc indirectly causes a flood in the toy hospital, she starts to feel remorseful and inadequate as a doctor. She dreams about Hallie showing her that life would not have been better without her; several toys would not have been fixed, McStuffinsville would have been a wasteland taken over by Stanley, Stuffy would be forced to work in a tower, Chilly would live in a freezing tundra, and Lambie would perform in an empty theater. Doc realizes that her toys do need her, and by the time she wakes up, she's ready to help again.
- Main character Tom from Dragons: The Nine Realms suffers from this after battling the Fault Ripper in the season 1 finale.
- The Fairly OddParents!: In "Dream Goat", Timmy wishes that the mayor's goat Chompy was free upon seeing how depressed and lonely he is, and Vicky is given the blame as the "goat-napper" and Timmy is hailed as a hero. He eventually begins to feel guilty for letting Vicky take the blame for sending Chompy away and starts wishing in his sleep as a result. The dream wishing stops once he finally tells the truth.
- Futurama: In "The Sting", Fry is apparently killed on a mission to collect space honey, and Leela blames herself because she deliberately ignored all the signs of danger for the sake of her pride. She ends up having a series of far-out dreams in which Fry seems to be trying to communicate with her from the other side.
- On Garfield and Friends, there's a U.S. Acres/Orson's Farm segment where Wade accidentally removes a mattress tag. You know, the ones that say "Do not remove under penalty of law" but forget to add "except by the consumer"? Wade is so petrified that the cops are coming to get him that he has a nightmare about it.
- Hey Arnold!:
- In "Part Time Friends", Arnold and Gerald have gotten into a fight. Grandpa Phil tells him about how he and his friend Jimmy got into a petty squabble and never spoke to each other again. Arnold then dreams that he and Gerald are still arguing as old men, even though they don't even remember what they were fighting about. A zombified version of Grandpa says, "Well, what did I tell you, Shortman?" and chuckles until his jaw falls off. Arnold wakes up with a yelp and realizes he should try to make amends with Gerald.
- Helga will have plenty of these when she does something really bad and tells her classmates about it. They include changing one of her titular big sister's grades on her report card from an A to a B+ in "Olga Comes Home"note , having to take Phoebe's place in an academic decathlon just to earn a spot in the trophy wall in "Phoebe Takes the Fall"note and framing her nanny, Inge, for stealing her father's lucky belt and getting her fired in "Helga and the Nanny"note . The former two instances involve Arnold serving as a Guardian Angel.
- House of Mouse: In the segment "Donald's Goofy World", Donald loses his temper at Goofy and yells at him to leave, saying he never wants to see him again. After he's knocked unconscious thanks to a door hitting him on the head, he dreams that Goofy is everywhere and he eventually turns into Goofy himself. When he wakes up, he starts to take his anger out on Goofy, only to apologize and admit he's happy there's only one Goofy.
- King of the Hill: In "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret Hill", Peggy impersonates a nun in order to get a job teaching at the local Catholic school, but she soon feels guilty when her students ask her questions about Catholicism that she (a Methodist) can't answer and believes she's leading them astray. Eventually, Peggy has a nightmare in which Moiseñor Martinez sends her class to Hell for her sins.Peggy: Moiseñor, please! Please! I didn't mean to damn their mortal souls for all of eternity! I JUST WANTED A FULL-TIME JOOOOOOOOB!!!
- Little Audrey: In "The Seapreme Court", Audrey goes fishing for fun and has a nightmare wherein several sea creatures arrest her. She is put on trial and eventually gets sentenced to the eel-ectric chair. When Audrey awakens, she releases a fish that she caught into the water and snaps her fishing hook.
- Mr. Men and Little Miss: In "A Big Surprise for Mr. Mean", Little Miss Sunshine has a cold on Christmas Eve. Mr. Mean initially refuses to take care of her (though the look on his face suggests that he feels sorry for her when he hears her sneezing) because it's too cold out and he's not being paid for it. He dreams that he meets a wizard showing him what will happen tomorrow if no one comes to help Little Miss Sunshine; she'll end up all alone on Christmas. Mr. Mean wakes up in Tears of Remorse and decides to help her.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- Exaggerated and invoked during "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?". To keep punishing herself for her actions as Nightmare Moon, Luna created the Tantabus to torture her in her dreams. This meant that each night she had continuous nightmares, not just because of her guilt but as a way of keeping herself reminded of her guilt.
- In "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils", this is invoked. Sweetie Belle is furious with Rarity for unintentionally upstaging her, so she ruins a headdress that Rarity has made. Luna gives her a nightmare that reveals a Bad Future; if the headdress remains unfixed, Rarity will be an outcast among the fashion community and her sanity will shatter. Upon waking up, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo hurry to Canterlot to save the headdress.
- The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh:
- In "Rabbit Marks the Spot", Rabbit tries to get back at his friends for ruining his garden with their game of "pirates" by burying a chest full of rocks and giving them a map to find it. That night, he has a nightmare where he's chewed out by giant rock versions of his friends for getting their hopes up, leading him to try to steal the chest before it's opened.
- In "Balloonatics", Pooh feels guilty for breaking a balloon he borrowed from Christopher Robin. (Rabbit and Tigger were actually responsible and convinced Pooh it was his fault; and the balloon was deflated anyway, not popped.) That night, he has a nightmare that he's put on trial by other balloons, found guilty and put in jail.
- Played for Laughs in the Soviet cartoon Passion of Spies, where a West-corrupted teen, after being trapped into planting a bomb as part of the spies' plans, has nightmares about being caught and publicly shamed, so he turns himself in.
- Pluto's Judgement Day: Mickey tears Pluto a new one for chasing a kitten. Pluto falls asleep soon after and has a nightmare that a courtroom of cats put him on trial for chasing their species and sentence him to death by burning. When he wakes up, he licks the kitten, having decided to be nice to cats from now on.
- Popeye:
- In "Never Sock a Baby", Popeye spanks Swee'Pea for an unknown reason. After he sends Swee'Pea to bed without dinner, he begins to feel like he Was Too Hard on Him. He's confronted by an angel and a devil, who tell him to apologize and let Swee'Pea know who's boss, respectively. Swee'Pea runs away from home and Popeye has to retrieve him. It culminates in them falling down a waterfall. Then comes the reveal that it was All Just a Dream, and upon waking up, Popeye kisses Swee'Pea (to the latter's confusion).Popeye: (singing) If you spank kids, I betcha, your conscience will getcha, says Popeye the sailor man!
- In "Baby Phase"note , Popeye refuses to allow Swee'Pea to juggle. When Swee'Pea disobeys this, Popeye makes him go to bed without lunch. Popeye falls asleep while reading about jugglers and dreams that Swee'Pea has run away to join the circus. He saves Swee'Pea from some lions, only to find out that he's signed a 99-year contract. He wakes up and decides to give Swee'Pea some spinach because that's how good jugglers become strong.
- In "Never Sock a Baby", Popeye spanks Swee'Pea for an unknown reason. After he sends Swee'Pea to bed without dinner, he begins to feel like he Was Too Hard on Him. He's confronted by an angel and a devil, who tell him to apologize and let Swee'Pea know who's boss, respectively. Swee'Pea runs away from home and Popeye has to retrieve him. It culminates in them falling down a waterfall. Then comes the reveal that it was All Just a Dream, and upon waking up, Popeye kisses Swee'Pea (to the latter's confusion).
- The Raccoons: In "Stealing the Show!", in order to impress his brothers with a comic collection, one of the Pigs resorts to shoplifting some Mudman comics from Willow's General Store and lying that he's able to get them for free. He later has a nightmare where his shoplifting gets him arrested.
- The Ren & Stimpy Show: In "A Scooter for Yaksmas", Stimpy accidentally shatters the display window in a store and is accused of stealing a scooter. He ends up riding away on the scooter so that the police won't catch up to him. He has a nightmare that he's told off by several people (including Ren) for what he's done and later sentenced to infinity in prison.
- Rocket Power: In one episode, Otto and Twister both start competing in street luge racing, and Twister turns out to have a natural knack for the sport. This upsets Competition Freak Otto, who's driven to cheat by taking an illegal shortcut in a championship race to ensure that no one will beat him at anything. That night, he dreams that the trophy he won is chasing him and faces a gigantic version of Reggie's head reciting the Memetic Mutation "YOU COULD TAKE A SHORTCUT!"
- Rolie Polie Olie: In "The Lie", Olie dishonestly tells his mother that he ate every single Brussels sprout (he actually ate all but one). This results in him dreaming that a Brussels sprout grows every time he tries to hide it, so when he wakes up, he decides to come clean to his mother.
- Rugrats: Discussed in "Grandpa's Bad Bug"; Stu remembers that Grandpa Lou has told him a rhyme that says if you break a promise, your conscience will haunt you in your sleep. Sure enough, when Lou lies to cover up the fact that he took an all-night fishing trip, he starts having nightmares of Stu reciting the rhyme endlessly.
- The Simpsons:
- In "Bart the Murderer", Bart becomes an errand boy for the Springfield Mafia and has them confront Principal Skinner for giving him detention. When Skinner goes missing the next day and it's assumed the mafia killed him, Bart has a nightmare of himself being haunted by Skinner and sent to the electric chair.
- In "Lisa the Iconoclast", after it appears Lisa's argument that Jebediah Springfield was actually pirate Hans Sprungfeld was proven wrong, she has a guilty dream where Jebediah appears as a ghostly figure to scold her for disturbing his legacy — only for George Washington to appear, chase off Springfield and encourage Lisa to continue her pursuit of the truth.
- In "Jazzy and the Pussycats", Lisa goes to an animal shelter and adopts a cute puppy over a more homely-looking dog. That night, Lisa dreams of that dog scolding her for not adopting him because of his appearance, prompting her to go back the next day and take him home.
- In "Lisa Gets an F1", Lisa becomes a kart racer and Homer becomes worried for her safety, especially after she tells him that it was his bad driving that led to her getting into the sport in the first place. This results in Homer having a Mario Kart-inspired dream where he (as Wario) hits Lisa's kart with a turtle shell and knocks her off Rainbow Road.Homer: (springs up) IT'S A-ME, WARIO! IT'S ALL MY FAULT! WEH!
- South Park: In "Toilet Paper", after TP'ing his teacher's house and getting away with it, Kyle suffers guilt-ridden nightmares about his teacher and her family crying over the vandalism. This makes him want to confess, despite his friends trying to keep quiet about the ordeal.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Procrastination", SpongeBob keeps putting off an essay. This comes back to bite him when he has a nightmare that all of his household objects come to life and his house burns down.House: Why did you set me on fire, SpongeBob?! Why didn't you just write your essay?! STOP WASTING TIME!!
- Tiny Toon Adventures: In one episode, Plucky cheats on a test in Foghorn Leghorn's class. That night he has dreams of a mob of Foghorn Leghorns, complete with torches, chasing him around yelling, "Cheater!" The next day, Foggy shows up in class and announces that he accidentally dropped the tests into mud and had the class redo it. Plucky is the only student who's delighted with that.
- Tom and Jerry: In Heavenly Puss, Tom is denied access to Heaven for constantly chasing Jerry. He needs to have Jerry sign a contract saying that he forgives him or else he will be sent to hell. Jerry signs it too late and Tom is promptly shoved into a boiling pot by a demonic version of Spike the Bulldog. It's then revealed that this was All Just a Dream, and when he wakes up, Tom gives Jerry a big hug, much to the latter's bewilderment.
