Sleep Cute

All together now (but very quietly): "AWWWWWWWWWWW"

"In the terminal she sleeps on my shoulder
Hair falling forward, mouth all askew."

— Vienna Teng, "Recessional"

A Ship Tease shot of two characters — the Official Couple, the official not-a-couple, or just two of the shippers' favorites — sleeping together. In the literal sense. They're fully clothed, probably in a public place in broad daylight, one's head pillowed on the other's shoulder, chest, stomach, or possibly lap. Maybe they were sitting through something really boring, had a Post-Victory Collapse, or were knocked unconscious in just the right position by an attack or some magic backfiring. Or, most simply, they just fell asleep because they were tired.

In any case, it serves one purpose: the perfect opportunity for viewers near and far to simultaneously say, "Awww, they look so cute together!"

Of course, this doesn't have to be romantic. A pair of siblings, a parent and child, very close friends, et cetera can also pull off a sort of Sleep Cute. Either way, it is a strong source of good, happy feelings and a very good Go-to-Sleep Ending. A big Tear Jerker variant is to have the "sleeping" characters be dead, overlapping with Together in Death. May also overlap with Clingy Sleepers.

Compare Accidental Kiss, Beautiful Dreamer, Comforting Comforter, Lap Pillow, There Is Only One Bed.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• 7 Seeds: Koruri and Haru are outside of the teams' established 'village' and talk, with Haru holding Koruri's hands to warm them up. The two end up falling asleep in that position until morning.
• Ace Attorney (2016): Maya lies this way on Phoenix during a train ride after "Reunion and Turnabout."
• Ai Yori Aoshi: Happens on the train. Only Aoi was asleep, though. They wind up riding past the stop and all the way around again, because Kaoru couldn't wake her.
• AKIRA: Subverted in the manga. Yes, Kaori looks sweet and peaceful when she sleeps with her head on Tetsuo's lap, but then we see that Tetsuo is in extreme pain and his arm is mutating again.
• Angelic Layer: Played with in the 2nd ending, which shows Deuses sleeping with their Angels.
• Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts: The reason why Hideyoshi Kinoshita gets a kiss from Akihisa Yoshii. Or in a dream, at least.
• Berserk: this is done not once, but twice in regards to Guts and Jill (the village girl during the Fairy Arc). Once when she first decides to start following him, and finds him asleep. She then curls up and sleeps in his lap. Another when they fell off a cliff while he protected her from demonic spirits, only for him to wake up later and tell her to get off him since she's heavy. While it can be perceived as Precocious Crush, it’s more likely Jill is seeing him as father substitute and thus more comfortable around Guts.
• Betrayal Knows My Name: In episode 5, Yuki wakes up to find Luka sleeping on his shoulder.
• Bleach: In chapter 408 we see Michiru and Chizuru sleeping in Karakura Town with Michiru resting her head against Chizuru.
• Brave10: Isamai does this with Saizo while on a horse!
• Case Closed:
  • This tends to be played straight once in a while. But it's once memorably subverted in a filler episode when Ran turns in her sleep, facing Conan... and while she looks pretty cute in her sleep, he is very distracted by how her robe's cleavage is rather revealing.
  • In a hilarious take on the trope, Conan once went with the Detective Boys to watch a movie, and was seated between Ayumi and Ai. Halfway through the movie, both girls fell asleep on his shoulders, putting him an incredibly awkward situation, as he needed to go to the bathroom at that moment, and couldn't bring himself to stand up and wake them.
• Ceres, Celestial Legend: Aya and Tooya fall into this trope as they ride a train back home. Cue the news that Aya is pregnant, and fangirls go "Squeeeeeee!"
• CLANNAD: at the end of Fuko's arc, where Tomoya and Nagisa end up sleeping side by side as you see in the page image. Of course, they're the Official Couple.
• Claudine: A very fatigued and cold Maura falls asleep on Claude's shoulder right after arriving at the de Montesse home on a rainy day.
• Code Geass: Akito the Exiled: Julius - who is actually Brainwashed and Crazy Lelouch - and Suzaku end up in this position. Surprising, considering their relationship is Doomed by Canon (Akito takes place in between seasons 1 and 2 of Code Geass).
• Cross Game: Kou and Aoba, all the sweeter since if Aoba had woken up first, Kou would have been a dead man.
• D.Gray-Man: This happens to Allen and Lenalee. Poor Johnny.
• Darker than Black: In season 2, Suou and July are repeat offenders of this trope◊. Puppy Love ensues.
• Digimon Adventure 02: Happens with Daisuke and Ken, on a train, during the credits of the movie, Diaboromon Strikes Back. Just watch the shippers go nuts.
• Dirty Pair Flash: This happens to Heterosexual Life-Partners Kei and Yuri in the beach volleyball episode, when they're exhausted from another day of Training from Hell.
• Durarara!!: Walker and Erika pull this off in the last episode. Despite the fact that they're the resident Torture Technicians of the show, it's adorable as hell.
• Et Cetera: Mingchao awakens in her hotel room to find the place trashed. Baskerville and Benkate are sleeping beside each other against the wall, and she wonders at first if they had fought over who got to sleep on the bed. But then she notices how peaceful and relaxed they are, with Benkate leaning against Baskerville.
• Fairy Tail:
  • When Elfman is recovering after his winning battle with Bacchus in the Grand Magic Games, Evergreen, who has been watching over him in the infirmary, falls asleep on his chest at one point. He blushes and makes no attempt to rouse her.
  • The 7th OVA shows a more sisterly-like version, with Cana and Wendy, who end up falling asleep together sitting by the trunk of a tree, both of them with a smile on their faces.
• Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu has a non-romantic example at the end of the Onsen Episode, where Kaname and Tessa sleep side-by-side. It's absolutely adorable.
• In Episode 40 of Futari wa Pretty Cure, Nagisa and Honoka share a bed and hold hands while asleep.
• Gate: Rory, Lelei and Tuka are seen like this during the first ending song.
• Great Teacher Onizuka features a scene with the entire class piled on top of each other like this.
• Kageyama and Hinata in Haikyuu!! on the bus ride back from the first day of the Inter-high competition. This only happens in the manga however, prompting many fans to jokingly say the panel was 'too gay' for the animators to handle. However, this didn't stop the anime from showing Nishinoya sleeping on Tanaka's shoulder in Episode 19.
• Haruhi Suzumiya
  • In the novels, Mikuru Asahina and Haruhi are seen sleeping peacefully like that. It does give a good impression of their friendship, given that poor Mikuru usually is nothing more than an abuse doll for Haruhi. Kyon also comments on it, and also says that they could "rival each other [in looks] right now". Then he later remarks that that's because her mouth was shut, and she wasn't being her bossy self. This also happens in the second season of the anime in the second part of "Endless Eight".
• Hajimete no Aku: Featured when Jiro falls asleep on Kyouko, after staying up all night protecting her from mosquitoes.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • Lithuania, exhausted from being overworked by his boss Russia, unintentionally falls asleep on a couch only to wake up to find himself beside Russia, who for once is in a genuinely good mood and gently asks him about what he's been dreaming of.
  • Subverted with Greece and Japan. It looks like Greece is gonna pull this on Japan... but after dozing off a little, he wakes up and acts like nothing happened.
  • Done in the Hetalia Bloodbath 2010, where the kidnapped nations are found sleeping in various places. But the cutest has to go to Russia, Prussia and Austria.
  • Still in Hetalia Bloodbath 2011, Italy sleeping with his head on Germany's lap.
  • In Hetaween 2011, where Wy falls asleep and Australia carries her home on his back.
    • The Hetaween 2013 gives us a young Hong Kong sleeping next to Victorian England◊ with tears hanging from his closed eyes.
• Higurashi: When They Cry Kai: The final episode has a very cute scene of Rika and Hanyuu sleeping together. Combined with what they do upon waking up (namely turning the calendar to July 1).
• Hitomi-chan Is Shy with Strangers: After going to the water park, Yuu and Hitomi fall asleep next to each other on the train. Yuu's sister Kaoru takes a photo to tease them with later.
• Houkago Play: Happens in this◊ 4koma.
• I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying: Double Subverted when Kaoru snuggles up next to her husband after an episode long Flashback Nightmare, only for him to roll over in his sleep and whack her in the head. As the credits play, it jumps to them in various positions (including both of them with their upper bodies completely off the bed), but it ends with the two of them next to each other again.
• Ichaicha Suru to Okane ga Waichau Futari no Hanashi: Aki and Hanasaki already sleep next to each other relatively often, but usually not touching. In Chapter 9.5, Hanasaki cuddles up next to Aki and falls asleep. He wakes up, thinks he's dreaming, and cuddles her back. When they wake up, there's a lot more money than usual.^note The premise of the series is that money appears out of thin air when they're affectionate towards each other.
• The Idolmaster:
  • Miki throughout the first quarter of the show,
  • All the girls (except the ones that are part of the Ryuugu Komachi unit) after the end of their first live.
• Im At End Of Your Sight: Dong-ha and Je-Hyung in the first chapter. Dong-ha asks if they can sleep together and, after some persuading, Je-Hyung agrees and has Dong-ha hug him from behind.
• Happens repeatedly in Insomniacs After School, starting with the first chapter. Magari admits early on that she has trouble sleeping without Nakami around, and quickly realizes nothing helps her sleep more than listening to his heartbeat.
• K: The main trio (Shiro, Kuroh, and Neko) are often shown this way in official art.
• K-On!: All the girls of the band do this after their last concert, since they still practiced till very late the night before.
• Kimi ni Todoke: Sawako falls asleep against Kazehaya's shoulder in an early episode (although he was still conscious). Later, Chizu and Ryu also fall asleep together.
• Komi Can't Communicate: At the end of the Kyoto field trip, Komi falls asleep on the train ride home. Her field trip buddies manipulate Tadano into sitting next to her on the train so she ends up sleeping on his shoulder.
• Kyo Kara Maoh!: Yuuri falls asleep and Wolfram lets him lean on his shoulder◊ and smiles.
• Madlax: Madlax and Vanessa pull it off twice, raising the Les Yay to an almost Queer Romance level. Madlax/Limelda shippers disagree, though.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS: The last episode has Subaru and Teana doing this after the final mission, together with a mother and daughter variation with Nanoha and Vivio. Earlier on, Nanoha invokes this when Vivio starts whimpering in her sleep by putting her next to a still sleeping Fate.
  • In the movie adaptation of A's, Lindy finds Nanoha and Fate propped up next to each other after the Wolkenritter drain their Linker Cores. Since they originally passed out on the ground several yards away from each other, it's implied that the Wolkenritter actually moved them there.
• Marginal #4, with twins L and R. They fall asleep this way in the car after their debut concert in the first episode.
• In the third ending theme for My Hero Academia, we can see Midoriya and Uraraka both asleep on a bus while resting their heads on Iida's shoulders (and he's also asleep). It's cute and edges slightly into Threesome Subtext.
• My-HiME:
  • There are two beds in Mikoto and Mai's room, but the two girls are often snuggled up together, including during the closing shot of the end credits. In the second-to-last omake, they both have smiles on their faces when they're sleeping. During the Tamayura festival episode, Mikoto sleep-rolls out of her own bed and finds her way onto Mai's. It's hard to believe Mikoto wasn't doing so intentionally, but still...
  • In the manga, of course, this is out of necessity — there are still two beds, but the room is shared with Yuuichi, who naturally gets his own bed. (Although it's implied that they previously slept in the same bed anyway.)
• My Heavenly Hockey Club: Happens in Volume 2 with Hana and Izumi.
• Nabari no Ou: In the 2nd ED, Yoite and Miharu. They may not actually be an Official Couple, but... hey, fun with Ho Yay!
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
  • Happens with Asuna and Negi on the way back from the school trip. "Cute couple, eh?" one spectator says. "There will be time for that later," another replies.
  • Konoka and Setsuna slump into this during the same trip back, as well.
  • On another occasion, Negi falls asleep on Konoka's lap, leading to Ayaka jumping to conclusions in hilarious fashion.
  • And on another occasion Negi falls asleep in Ayaka's lap, leading her to declare that it is the best school festival ever. The poor guy just needs to stop overworking himself.
  • And he falls asleep again in Chachamaru's lap. He is just that cute and overworked folks.
  • The anime's credits have the cast sleeping cutely in a non-shipping context.
• Played with in the manga version of Neon Genesis Evangelion, where Shinji and Asuka are shown to be this after defeating Israfel, while still inside their Eva units, both of which are crumpled over one another.
• Nisekoi: This happens in chapter 144 between Kosaki Onodara and Raku Ichijo. After spending a weekend together in a bath house, being too tense around one another to properly talk (or really do anything together) they have a Sleep Cute[1]◊ moment together on the bus back home.
• Noir took this to then-new heights, including several classic There Is Only One Bed scenes, all of which were played completely straight (and quite sweetly).
• One Piece:
  • Nami and Vivi do this◊ in ending six.
  • Luffy, Zoro, Chopper and Usopp pull this when in the Alabasta desert and cuddling for warmth.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Happens with Satoshi/Ash and Kasumi/Misty in early episodes featuring Jigglypuff, which can lull people to sleep by singing.
  • Occasionally happens with Kojiro/James and Musashi/Jessie of Team Rocket.
  • Non-romantic example in the Pokémon 4Ever movie, Pikachu and Celebi do this◊.
  • Another Mons example, Pikachu falls asleep on Meowth while he's waxing philosophical.
  • Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon: In the End-of-Episode Silliness for SM056, the gang listen to a recording of Jigglypuff singing, and Lillie falls asleep on top of Ash, while Lana rests her chin on Kiawe's back.
• The Prince of Tennis: Happens to Ryoma and his best friend Momoshiro. And the Yaoi Fangirls rejoiced.
• The Quintessential Quintuplets: At the end of the Sisters War arc, the five Nakanos end up falling asleep in the bus back home. Fuutarou ends up snapping a photo of them for the photo album he was making as a birthday present.
• Ranma ½: In episode 124, Sentarô and Satsuki meet and it's love at first sight. They stare at each other for so long that Ranma and Akane, waiting for them to actually say something, fall asleep, resting against each other until the next morning.
• Requiem of the Rose King: Henry and Richard get a lot of cute moments◊ sleeping while cuddled together.◊
• The Rose of Versailles: The manga features a scene where André is reading the newspaper while seated next to Oscar. Oscar falls asleep on his lap due to sheer exhaustion. André is delighted to say the least. They had not become a couple yet.
• Sakura Trick: This happens with the two main characters in the first chapter. Amusingly, it's during the entrance ceremony.
• Seven Days (2007): Happens to Yuzuru and Seryou on their date in Volume 1.
• Slam Dunk: There's a chapter and equivalent episode where the main five fall asleep in a heap in the locker room after a particularly tiring game. Yes, the Ho Yay fangirl squees could be heard across the globe.
• Snow White with the Red Hair:
  • As a night of drinking and talking wears on Obi wakes to find his very heavily hinted and implied Bodyguard Crush Zen sleeping with his head on Obi's lap and his confirmed Bodyguard Crush Shirayuki sleeping next to Zen on the floor. After some mumbled whining about not being able to get up he arranged a sleep cute of his own by placing the former right next to the later.
  • Shirayuki falls asleep against Zen after a period while the Pharmacy was overworked, leaving him holding her there trying not to wake her up until Mitsuhide finds them and Zen realizes it would be bad for just about anyone to see them in such a potentially compromising position.
  • Izana gets Zen drunk and he proceeds to fall asleep on a couch next to Shirayuki, who also falls fast asleep as she had been working hard and not getting enough rest. When Kiki, Mitsuhide and Obi find them Obi talks the other knights into putting them both in Zen's bed, causing Zen to fall out of bed when he turns his head and finds Shirayuki there.
  • In an odd variation both Shirayuki and Zen have noticed that Obi is comfortable enough around them that he often falls asleep near them while he's not on duty, and find it endearing.
• Spiral: Happens in the manga and anime with hero Ayumu and sidekick Hiyono; the thing is, he's very aloof and she's the stereotypical annoyingly cheery air-head, but they've just saved each other's lives and he hasn't slept much in two days, so he asks to sleep on her shoulder. While calling her annoying. Probably the cutest moment of the entire anime, though the manga topped it when it started fixing romantic entanglements.
• Spy X Family: At the end of Mission 1, Loid barely makes it home before passing out on the couch from a few days' worth of pent-up exhaustion. His recently-adopted daughter Anya, after failing to wake him up, decides to curl up in his arms and fall asleep herself.
• Sword Art Online: In season 2 ^note or volume 7, Yui is sleeping peacefully on top of the baby dragon Pina, which is curled up on Kirito's chest, as Kirito is sleeping peacefully in his chair. The sweet sight is so peaceful that all the girls studying want to join in.
  • What made Asuna actually fall in love with Kirito was finding him peacefully asleep (instead of helping plan the next raid) because it was such a nice day.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: after a long day of breaking through to the surface and fighting beastmen, Yoko finds Kamina and Simon sleeping together, with Kamina protectively wrapping an arm around his his "brother"◊.
• The Tower of Druaga: Aegis of Uruk shows Jil and Kaaya asleep at a train station in the closing shot of the Alternate Universe opening. Also sets up some strange self-referential imagery, what with a poster for itself behind them.
• Trigun: Happens to Wolfwood and Milly. (From Wolfwood to Milly: "You're comfortable.") This makes Meryl and Vash have to sit next to one another as they express annoyance at their companions' behavior.
• Happens in a chapter that crossed over between Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- and Xxx HO Li C, with adorable mascot Mokonas Soel and Larg.
• Twin Spica: This happens between Asumi and Marika during the grueling closed-environment test, which might have been the trigger for Marika's defrosting process.
• Utawarerumono: Non-shipping example in episode 8, with Aruruu, Yuzuha, and Kamyu sleeping on top of Mukkuru.
• Yotsuba&!: The Beach Episode ends with a panel showing the entire group slumped into each other, asleep, on the train back home. There's an extra "The End" panel showing that Koiwai has slid onto the floor...
• You Are Totally in Love With Me, Aren't You?: Sayaka and Mako in Chapter 5 are sleeping together in Sayaka's room. However, Sayaka is not amused by this and immediately asks Mako if she did something funny to her. Mako denies it, but the end of the chapter shows that she took a picture of Sayaka's sleeping face.
• You're Under Arrest!: Miyuki and Natsumi fall asleep together in their patrol car at the end of OVA episode 2, "Tokyo Typhoon Rally". By the end of the OVA series, they've moved in together — to save on expenses and travel time. Poor "Kenny" Nakajima might die of hemorrhagic shock before his nose quits bleeding. Afterward too, since all the official art is a complete and utter explosion of Les Yay...
• Judai and Asuka of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX wake up like this after the group is teleported back to Earth in a first season episode. cough*Ship Tease*cough
• Viktor falls asleep on Yuri twice during Yuri!!! on Ice: First on a plane ride, and later in bed when he's trying to get Yuri to nap before a competition.

Arts

• Non romantic example; the twin Classical Mythology gods Hypnos (God of Sleep) and Thanatos (God of Death) are often seen in this kind of position in art. It's really cute◊.

Comic Books

• Batman: Black and White, "A Matter of Trust": A doctor friend of Bruce's talks him into babysitting her young sons when she has to go deal with a medical emergency and can't get a sitter at short notice. He and the boys completely fail to get on intially, but when she gets home she finds Bruce asleep with the two boys curled up asleep in his lap.
• A familial version pops up in Jem and the Holograms (IDW). While in the hospital Aja stares at her three sisters sleeping in a group. She notes they look cute and Kimber's sleep bubble even says "cute sleeping".
• The Question: A platonic version occurs between Vic Sage and Renee Montoya when they fall asleep on a long plane ride and Vic slumps onto Renee's shoulder. It's kind of cute considering how much time they spend bickering and snarking at each other when awake.
• In the last issue of Runaways, Molly and Klara fall asleep with their heads in Karolina's lap.
  • Another Runaways story by the same writer, "It's Not Lupus", ends with Molly and Klara cuddled up after a long day of pony-related hallucinations.
• In a scene towards the end of Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together, Scott, Stephen, and Joseph are recording a song, while in the background, Kim and Ramona are shown to have fallen asleep (presumably from boredom), with Kim's head on Ramona's shoulder.
• This happens, of all places, in a Sin City story. Miho, the resident Dark Action Girl, falls asleep on the lap of Dwight McCarthy in the story "Family Values". This is sandwiched between scenes in which Miho carves up an entire mob family.
• In a non-romantic example, Spider-Man and Spider-Girl get a father-daughter version of this. It's even sweeter in context, having come after an issue where they spent most of their time bickering at each other before reuniting an Ex-Villain and his daughter.
• In a Superman comic, Supes and Wonder Woman do this after a difficult battle, prompting Lois Lane to observe the two of them and make an aside to the audience that it's a good thing that she's not a jealous woman. (This is used mostly to note Lois' Character Development, because she was jealous of Supes' and Diana's relationship not that long before this story.)

Comic Strips

• Parodied in a 1989 FoxTrot strip (and an obvious non-shipping example, since they're brother and sister). During a long plane trip, Paige falls asleep on Jason's head. Luckily, this quickly stirs the both of them awake and causes them to scream in terror.
• Phoebe and Her Unicorn: The last panel of this Christmas strip has Phoebe and Marigold adorably curled up together.

Fan Works

• Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità: There is at least one shot of Germany, Italy, and Japan sleeping together quite cutely.
• Bridge to Terabithia 2: The Last Time: Jess Aarons and Leslie Burke, now at college-age, sometimes does this, notably in the one chapter when Mr. Burke gives Jess and his daughter a lift back from the airport.
  A few minutes later, Bill looked into the rear view mirror and found the two teenagers sleeping quietly, Leslie's head resting on Jess' shoulders while his was atop her head. It was a cute sight that made him smile to. He couldn't believe how fast times were changing now...
• Doing It Right This Time, a Neon Genesis Evangelion fanfic: In the first story draft, Misato comes home and finds Shinji, Asuka and Rei fast asleep and cuddling up together. She finds them so absolutely adorable her doubts about a three-ways relationship working vanishing... and she slinks away to find a camera and take pictures.
  The Children were curled up together on the sofa. Asuka was propped under Shinji's arm while Rei was lying across both their laps. All three of them were fast asleep.
  They looked so utterly adorable that Misato's few lingering doubts about Asuka's grand plan were banished entirely. She decided to leave them undisturbed, and tiptoed off to bed... but not before she got her camera.
• In FREAKIN GENSOKYO, Ha-chan frequently tries to invoke this with Brad, usually without his consent.
• A non-romantic example in the Back to the Future fanfic Ich Liebe Dich: Doc drifts off when they are checking the future photograph, and Marty falls asleep curled up against him.
• This Dragon Ball GT fanart.
• Icecry's Parallel Saga (a Dragon Ball Z fan comic) has Goku, Bulma, and Gohan (who in this alternate universe is the illegitimate son of Goku and Bulma) sleeping in the same bed like one, big, happy family.
• Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past: The Gryffindor Six each get one in Chapter 22, when the combination of cold weather and heated air conditioning on the train makes them all nod off against each other.
• Team 8, a Naruto fanfic:
  • Happens accidentally with Naruto and Hinata; Hinata can't keep her eyes open and nods off, her head against Naruto's shoulder, while Naruto is too panicked to move an inch because of this. Simultaneously played for laughs, cuteness, and drama; Hinata was forced by her father into abusive "family training" the night before, and was sleep deprived as a result, but Shino still finds Naruto's reaction hilarious.
  • Happens again in the Forest of Death, when Hinata falls asleep on Naruto's shoulder after he's left comatose during the fight with Orochimaru.
• Destiny's Pawn. a Star Wars fanfic, has it in the Kashyyyk chapter. The entire party is holed up in Jolee's cabin for the night. Bastila notices the sleeping arrangements of Kairi (Revan), Mission, and Carth with dismay.
  Bastila struggled for sleep, but found it would not come. Across the fire pit, she saw Kairi sleeping between Mission and Carth. The Twi'lek girl and Kairi were face-to-face, Mission's blue hand clasping Kairi's. Poor girl. Bastila knew she was deeply hurt by the loss of her constant companion, and there was little doubt that being alone and asleep in Taris's Lower City was a gamble at best. As for Carth, he had fallen asleep on his stomach, one arm flung around Kairi's shoulders. With a muffled grumble, he shifted to his side and used one arm as a pillow. He wasn't spooning with Kairi... yet... but his hand sleepily groped around until he found Kairi's and Mission's, and topped their hands with his. As much as he claimed he trusted no one during the day, he could hold no secrets in sleep. He already had bonded to them, perhaps irrecoverably. What else could go wrong with this assignment?
• Mickey Mouse and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit have had this treatment by an Epic Mickey fan. Super adorable.
• Subverted in Total Drama Battlegrounds when Joel and Daisy cuddle together in their sleep. The others tease them in the morning about it, while they say it has nothing to do with romance. Sure enough, they both wind up paired with other people.
• Finding Dad has one such scene where Phineas and Isabella fall asleep on the bus to Charlotte.
• Shinji and Asuka at the end of Evangelion RE-TAKE. It's a very minimalistic example, since their fingers are only barely touching the other's, but for them, it's an extremely meaningful show of affection.
• Marche and Montblanc sleeping together from the Game Boy Advance video game Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
• In The Hunger Games fanfiction Some Semblance of Meaning, this trope eventually comes into play with Vale and Obsidian. Even before that, it was used in a more platonic, sibling-like example with Vale and her district partner Kit. The open trust that this action displayed was one of the things that kept Obsidian from killing them when he came across them one night in the arena while they were asleep.
• Navarone does this with several ponies in Diaries of a Madman. When he and Rainbow Dash get teased over this due to a Not What It Looks Like situation, he's quick to point this out to them.
• Vinyl and Octavia Get Incredibly Drunk, featuring a fan favorite couple from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, ends with Octavia drunkenly calling for Vinyl to come into her bed and cuddle her, since she doesn't want to sleep alone. Vinyl obliges, of course.
• Nightfall Fancomic: Vriska finds John sleeping on the couch and curls up next to him.
• Platonic examples occur multiple times in the Sherlock Holmes fics written by KCS:
  • Simple Gifts: the feverish Watson grabs Holmes' hand in his delirium, and the detective can't bring himself to pull away. He ultimately settles down next to him upon realizing the doctor won't let go. Unfortunately for Holmes, the maid comes in early the next morning and wakes him up with a fit of giggles.
  • Holidays with Holmes: In the "New Years' Eve" entry, Watson gets injured and awakens from a nightmare to see Holmes asleep in a chair at his bedside and the dog of the house (a bulldog puppy) curled up in the detective's lap. He says he had no more nightmares after getting an eyeful of the adorable scene.
• A non-romantic example in the Star Trek: The Original Series fanfic Retribution : After the two make up, Kirk falls asleep against Spock as he meditates. Spock doesn't mind, until McCoy wanders in and snaps a photo.
• Another non-romantic example in the Star Trek: The Original Series fanfic Memories Born of Fire. The tired Spock falls asleep on Kirk's shoulder, where he was resting to reassure himself after a Flashback Nightmare.
• Yet another non-romantic example from the Star Wars fanfic Youngling. While there are several examples, the best has to be from chapter 3, after Obi-Wan has found the currently three-year-old Anakin and they are en route back to Coruscant. The second Jedi who went with Obi-Wan on the rescue mission finds the two sleeping in the medcentre, Anakin using his master's cloak as a blanket and arm as a pillow.
• This happens later in Hope for the Heartless to Avalina and the Horned King (who are a case of Intergenerational Friendship). It's significant because the latter is a lich and unable to sleep at all. He falls asleep for the first time in a millennium while admiring stars in Avalina's garden after losing his Walking Wasteland ability.
• Lydia and BJ cuddle up for warmth in the backseat of the convertible while on the run in Cinderjuice.
• Blood That Flows: When Lina sees her daughter Nanoha, Fate and Yuuno sleeping on the same bed, she thinks that they're incredibly cute.
• The Second Try: It happened quite a few times to Shinji and Asuka in chapter 4. Aki as well in chapter 8, where she prevents her father from even getting up by sleeping on top of his chest.
• Advice and Trust: In chapter 8, Asuka couldn't sleep due to her nightmares. So she went to Shinji's room and they slept together, snuggling up under the blankets.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide: Shinji and Asuka have several scenes where they sleep together since Asuka's nightmares are overwhelming her and she cannot sleep alone.
• In a scene of chapter 9 of The Child of Love, Shinji and Asuka are sleeping together, wearing pajamas and snuggled up under their bed's covers.
  Misato's apartment, at the same time. A room. A bed. Two teens are tucked under the sheets, wearing pajamas, sleeping peacefully in each other's arms. One of the two awakens.
• Ghosts of Evangelion: Shinji and Asuka do this several times. Some examples:
  • Shinji hugged Asuka while she fell asleep after their first time.
  • They snuggled up together under the covers after having an argument about their daughter.
• Shinji and Asuka share a bed in chapters 10 and 16 of Once More with Feeling. Both of them note that they sleep better when they are together.
• Quite common in Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction between Marinette and Adrien. Two standout examples include Tangled Up In You (specifically, the two fall asleep on Alya's couch while watching Tangled together, waking up with Marinette's head on Adrien's chest with his arms around her), and The Space Between Us (the two are forced to share a motel room where there is only one bed, which results in Marinette having to calm Adrien down during a particularly restless sleep (caused by his fear of thunderstorms) by singing "Au Clair de la Lune". They wake up in more or less the same position as above.)
• In Unknown Legends, Ruby falls asleep in Link's arms/wings^note Link is wearing the mask of Elrora, former Queen of the Watarara after he/she sings her to sleep.
• In Neon Metathesis Evangelion, it's Asuka and Rei who do the Israfel training week together. One night, Asuka stumbles into Rei's futon instead of her own. Unlike Shinji in canon, Rei doesn't vacate the futon. Instead the two end up hugging in their sleep. Later, after Rei's soul had been reunited, Rei comes to Asuka's room after having been frightened by a weird dream. Too tired to do anything else, Asuka offers her to come into her futon.
• In Dragon Age: Inquisition fanfic Walking in Circles, during the Bad Future of Redcliffe, Fen'Harel seeks out Evelyn in the middle of the night just to be close to her for a moment. He plans to leave sooner but she convinces him to stay so they end up sleeping together for some time, enjoying each other's presence until Corypheus attacks the castle.
• Chapter 34 of Pokémon Reset Bloodlines ends this way, between Ash and his three female companions: Misty, Iris and Anabel. This is more a willing example, since they all decide to stay the night close to him because they're worried after Sabrina kidnapped him in front of them and they want to make sure he'll stay safe.
• A strictly platonic example in Remnant Inferis: DOOM. After suffering through a horrific Nightmare Sequence, Ruby decides to go sleep in the same room as the Slayer, and seeing the way he sleeps sitting on the floor against the wall she joins him and nods off against his shoulder. He doesn't try to stop her, and it goes to show how much she trusts him.
• Chapter 1 of Sparkling Shimmer, ends with Twilight falling asleep in Sunset's arms, and Sunset, not willing to wake her up, simply laying down and falling asleep as well.
• In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, in all the inns in the game, There Is Only One Bed, causing a fanartist to take the idea to it's conclusion: Mario and all his partners sleeping on top of each other.
• Unlocked Doors is a Danganronpa one shot where Makoto wakes up to discover Kyoko asleep with him. After a bit of embarrassment, the two decide to go back to sleep together.
• In Strange New World, Ren and Makoto fall asleep holding hands while Takemi is treating their injuries from the raid on Kaneshiro's bank. They find that they enjoy it so much that they make it a nightime routine. It shows that they are beginning to acknowledge their feelings for one another.
• In Home Sick (NoonboryKedabory), Disco Kid spends the night on the couch with a sickly Aran Ryan, and they fall asleep cuddled together.
• The Bolt Chronicles: In "The Ship," Bolt and Mittens are described as having recently begun sleeping curled up next to each other. It's one of the ways Penny says she can tell the two are developing feelings for each other.
  Penny: I've noticed something with you two for a while now. You've been spending lots more time with each other lately, almost like you guys have a secret together. And the way you curl up next to each other when you sleep at night. I think I know what's going on.
• The Ma Fille chapter "Sick Day" often has Katrina curled up asleep in her father's arms, which puts them both at ease.
• In Ships Ahoy!, Oscar and Olive both fall asleep on the couch of the former's house after an hour of catching up on details regarding their rocky relationship, and while watching Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, with their heads resting on each other's shoulders. It's a very well-deserved sleep too, considering it's the day after the Boiler Room incident depicted in Olive's Last Partner.
• My Dream Is Yours opens up with Olympia and Otis asleep together on one of the benches at the local park, having fallen asleep while waiting for Jamie Jam to show up.
• Reapers Among Fairies: Kazui Kurosaki and Wendy Marvell fall asleep in each other's arms. Everyone who walks in on them calls it the cutest thing they have ever seen.
• Guys Being Dudes: On their first night sleeping together because there was only one bed, Arlo ends up curled up on Spark's chest with the latter's arms around him. Sierra takes a picture, both for blackmail purposes and because she does acknowledge them as pretty cute together.
• The Techno Queen ^**krakathoooom*: After TTQ manages to find how to undo the effects of her latest weapon (which turns people into children), she comes to the main room to find all the kids and caretakers asleep and clinging to each other. She returns everyone to their proper age, takes photos, covers them, and then cuddles with Clockblocker.

Films — Animation

• Coco: In a blink-and-miss scene towards the end when Miguel runs to Coco, you can see his uncle and cousin sleeping on a bench with one cuddling the other.
• Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children: Cloud and Tifa sleep curled up together in a bed of flowers in Aerith's church. Of course, this is because Tifa has been knocked unconscious by Loz and Cloud has terminal geostigma, but it's still sweet to the point of hyperglycemia.
• The Incredibles: Dash and Violet do this. Dash leaps off rather quickly when he wakes up, however, since he's at the Girls Have Cooties age and because Violet's his sister.
• Legend Of The Guardians The Owls Of Ga Hoole: Gylfie and Digger fall asleep under Soren's wings on a tree branch.
• Oliver & Company: Oliver (the eponymous kitten) snuggles up next to Dodger (a dog) who earlier didn't want anything to do with him. Dodger lets him.
• The Rescuers: Happens during Bernard and Bianca's flight.
• Wreck-It Ralph: Zig-zagged. Vanellope shows Ralph her hideout within Diet Cola Mountain in the "Sugar Rush" game and how she tucks herself into bed using candy wrappers as her blankets. Of course, Ralph just sees a homeless child who lives in a cave and sleeps in garbage.
• Yellow Submarine: Lampshaded when the Beatles emerge from their hiding place to find the Blue Meanies are all asleep:
  Ringo: Don't they look cute when they're asleep? Almost human.

Films — Live-Action

• Chungking Express: Cop 633 and Faye have one of these one fine afternoon at the former's apartment.
• The Defiant Ones: Comes with a strong dose of Ho Yay when Joker and Noah, a pair of Chained Heat convicts, wake up after a night out in the rain. Joker is pretty horrified to find Noah snuggled up to him.
• Drinking Buddies: Done many times to show off Luke and Kate's chemistry... with the hitch that they're both dating someone else.
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:
  • Ron and Hermione are sleeping next to each other, with their hands lying so they appear to be reaching out for each other.
  • Tonks and Lupin are posed like this as they're lying dead in what's left of the hospital wing.
• Hot Fuzz does it adorably with Danny Butterman and Nicholas Angel.
• The Hunger Games: Katniss and Peeta in the cave.
• It Happened One Night: Early on, Ellie sleeps on Peter's shoulder during a bus trip. Later, he says to her: "Remember me? I'm the fellow you slept on last night."
• Juan of the Dead: Juan and his grown daughter do a version of this at one point.
• Jurassic Park (1993): Having been a bit of a Child Hater in contrast of the book, Alan Grant sheds this flaw by letting the kids he rescued sleep next to him in the trees. At the end of the movie Lex and Tim fall asleep on him again in the helicopter carrying them away from the island.
• The Karate Kid (2010): Dre falls asleep and leans sideways onto Mr Han's lap who hesitantly places a hand on his back. His hesitation makes more sense when you realize his deceased son would have been the same age as Dre.
• In The Knight Before Christmas Brooke initially declines Cole's invitation to spend the day watching TV with him she soon gives in and ends up falling asleep on his shoulder, he tucks a blanket around her and then falls asleep himself on the sofa next to her.
• Leap Year (2010): Two instances. First when Anna spends the night on a bench with Declan as they wait for the bus (him sitting upright, she with her head in his lap and his coat serving as the Comforting Comforter). When they finally catch said bus, it happens yet again with her head resting on his shoulder.
• The Legend of Frenchie King: Louise and Maria fall all over each other when they pass out from fatigue from their fight, ending with Maria having her arm slung over Louise's waist and her head against her stomach. It's the Les Yay cherry on top of the Foe Romance Subtext cake that's the rest of the movie.
• Lizzie McGuire: In The Movie, Lizzie and Gordo fall asleep this way on the way to Rome early on. Gordo eventually awoke and realized the situation, but decided he didn't mind, and went back to sleep.
• Towards the end of Maja Stenansikt, Maja and Gloria fall asleep huddled together.
• In Plan B, one of the major signs that Bruno is falling in love with Pablo is his tendency to subconsciously (or consciously) snuggle closer to Pablo when they're sleeping in the same bed or roll over to bury his face into Pablo's pillow when the other man wakes up first.
• The Sand: Final girls, Kaylee and Chanda sleep huddled together until the next morning after the creature is defeated and after spending most of the film being romantic rivals.
• Se7en: Bizarrely enough. Mills and Somerset have worked themselves ragged and sit down on a bench in the police station. Come the morning, they're asleep.
• Sherlock Holmes (2009): Holmes falls asleep against Watson, after spending the night in a prison yard. Make of that what you will...
• She Will: The film ends with a shot of Veronica and Desi on the train together, exhausted but ready to heal from all their trauma. Desi, who has been tirelessly working to care for Veronica the whole film, finally falls asleep with her head resting in Veronica's lap. Veronica smiles and wraps an arm around her, letting her rest.
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022): Sonic and Tails' deep bond is perfectly illustrated during a scene in which Tails falls asleep in front of a fireplace. Sonic drapes a blanket over him and joins him, sleeping back-to-back. Tails in turn drapes his tails over him.
• The Secret Garden (1993): Cousins Mary and Colin, both about eight years old, spend part of a night looking through old photographies of their parents, then they both fall asleep in Mary's bed, huddled together.
• The Spy Who Loved Me: Anya Amasova and James Bond start to do this, but when the Russian agent stops falling asleep she jerks herself back from Bond.
• This Gun for Hire, gaining plot-relevance when the sleepers are seen and mistakenly linked together by a third character.
• War of the Worlds (2005): Ray and his daughter Rachel are shown sleeping together in the basement after Ray's murder of Ogilvy.
• Zombieland: The girl Columbus lets hide in his apartment at the beginning asks if she can sleep on his shoulder, having suffered a pretty stressful day. He gleefully obliges and soon goes to sleep too... only to discover when he wakes up that she's zombified.

Literature

• Demon World Boba Shop: Ella finds the sight of Arthur and Mizu falling asleep on a bench together so cute that she wishes she could fetch an easel and paint a portrait. The only thing that stops her is knowing it would have been rude. Also, Mizu is much too sensitive for teasing her about it to be in good taste — but Arthur is another matter.
  Ella: It made me feel young again. Milo's father and me were like that, once.
• This shows up in Dracula of all places, between Jonathan and Mina.
• In The Plucker, the two protagonist dolls (living dolls; some are creepy, some are not; the book is illustrated) are shown at the end asleep leaning on one another.
• Occurs in The Beekeeper's Apprentice, during the She Is Not My Girlfriend stage of Sherlock Holmes's friendship with Mary Russell, and Watson makes this observation when the two fall asleep in a carriage, leaning against each other.
• Ron and Hermione in Deathly Hallows definitely qualify: the first night they spent in Grimmauld Place, they fell asleep holding hands. Harry even remarked how seeing them like this "made him feel strangely lonely".
• Conway Costigan and Clio Marsden in E. E. "Doc" Smith's Triplanetary. They later marry.
• The Irregular at Magic High School:
  • In volume 16, it's mentioned that the death of Miyuki's mother left her so inconsolable that Tatsuya let her spend that night with him. It was innocent and platonic, unlike the Sleep Cute they had a few years later after getting engaged.
  • Because the Parasites inside them make them a danger to society, Minoru and Minami agree to be placed in a magical sleep. Some years later, their friends wake them, having devised an alternate option: permanent exile to a spaceship. They are content with this, having before lived lives of bloodshed and subjugation.
• From Book 4 of The Lord of the Rings:
  And so Gollum found them hours later, when he returned, crawling and creeping down the path out of the gloom ahead. Sam sat propped against the stone, his head dropping sideways and his breathing heavy. In his lap lay Frodo's head, drowned deep in sleep; upon his white forehead lay one of Sam's brown hands, and the other lay softly upon his master's breast. Peace was in both their faces.
• Married to the Protagonist character Jinyao has a habit of wrapping all of her limbs around Cheng "like an octopus". He grumpily demands she move away, but changes his mind when she says she'll go hug the cat instead.
• Subverted slightly in Nation: Daphne has to sleep next to Mau in a rather cute moment. However, she quickly discovers that having a person asleep on your arm is a good way to get pins and needles.
• Wicked has a scene where Glinda and Elphaba sleep together. To quote it:
  In a single lumpy bed, they huddled together for warmth and encouragement and, Glinda told herself, protection... Glinda would start as if from a frightful dream, and nestle in nearer to Elphaba, who seemed at night never to sleep.
• There are several particularly cute ones in Moby-Dick of all things, involving Ishmael and Queequeg, one of which is quoted here:
  We had lain thus in bed, chatting and napping at short intervals, and Queequeg now and then affectionately throwing his brown tattooed legs over mine, and then drawing them back...
• The fifteenth Dresden Files book Skin Game ends in a scene where Maggie is curled up sleeping on her father. Harry mentions he wouldn't trade it for the world.
• Katniss and Peeta are all over this trope in The Hunger Games. Katniss intentionally invokes it since it's a convenient way for her to make people believe she's in love with him.
• Percy and Annabeth in The Heroes of Olympus. They get up at night to go cuddle in the stables, and end up falling asleep together. Then Frank finds them in the morning. Annabeth ends up getting grounded.
• Invoked, Zig-Zagged, and Downplayed in The Inquisitor: Unsafe and Unsound, the eighth entry in the La Fuerza Series. During an overnight car ride, Lily offers to let Jane sleep on her shoulder. Whether or not Jane accepts is left ambiguous, but when she wakes up, she’s leaning against her seatbelt, and Lily is sleeping on Jane’s shoulder.

Live-Action TV

• 7 Yüz: In "Biyolojik Saat", Metin falls asleep on Gökçe's shoulder at the movie theater shortly after the film begins. She is more amused than offended, and later assures him he didn't miss out — the movie sucked.
• Angel
  • Happens in the second episode with Cordelia and Doyle. Several episodes later, it happens again with Cordelia and Angel. Apparently Cordelia has a knack for this.
• Ashes to Ashes (2008): Subverted by Gene and Alex falling asleep in Gene's office after bugging Mack's office... and Alex is snoring.
• In the aptly named episode "Wake Up, Little Cory" of Boy Meets World, Cory and Topanga are working late on a project at school and they happen to fall asleep next to each other. However, when other students see them the next morning they think they had sex.
• In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Tabula Rasa", Giles and Anya wake up from one of these. Since everyone is under a temporary magical amnesia, they promptly assume they are engaged, and act accordingly.
  • In "Touched", Buffy asks Spike to hold her until she falls asleep, and they end up spending the night like that.
• Castle: the episode "Close Encounters of the Murderous Kind" Rick Castle and Detective Beckett wake up in her police car after they were taken, interrogated then drugged by mysterious government agents. Later they are asked "Are those hickeys?" "They're from the injectors" he answers.
• Invoked in The City Hunter when Yun Sung falls asleep on Na Na's shoulder. She tries to surreptitiously push him away, gives up when he doesn't budge ... and fails to notice that he's grinning.
• Doctor Who:
  • "The Space Pirates": The Second Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe do a three-way version of this. Jamie and Two are getting particularly cozy with each other. They're not asleep, though, they're almost passing out from oxygen deprivation. It's still cute.
  • "Battlefield": The Doctor comes in to find Brigadier Bambera and Sir Ancelyn — last seen having a knock-down drag-out brawl — leaning on each other, fast asleep.
  • "The Christmas Invasion": With the brand-new Tenth Doctor in a post-regenerative coma, Jackie Tyler ends up falling asleep at his bedside, with her head on his mattress. Considering the rather frigid relationship between the Doctor and Jackie up until that point, it makes it all the more heartwarming.
  • "Amy's Choice": The Doctor, Amy, and Rory fall asleep against each other a few times. The most adorable is probably on the bench in Upper Leadworth: the Doctor and Rory fall asleep touching foreheads.
  • At the end of the comedy special The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, Sylvester McCoy and Colin Baker sleep like this during their bus ride home.
• Dollhouse: At the end of an episode that showed all the horrific things Sierra went through before coming to the Dollhouse and the fallout of those events, the closing shot is of her and Victor, cuddled up in the same sleeping pod.
• Happens in an episode of Family Ties when Mallory and Skippy, dressed in chipmunk costumes, are trapped in the basement.
• Firefly episode "Jaynestown". After a night drinking Mudder's Milk and singing "The Man They Call Jayne," Kaylee and Simon end up sleeping in the bar, on a bench, Kaylee on top of Simon. Simon being Simon, he manages to ruin it as soon as they're woken by The Captain. Here's a picture◊.
• Happened entirely by accident in private to Ross and Joey in Friends. After concluding that it was the best nap both had ever had, and that it didn't mean anything, they voluntarily do it again... and woke up after the rest of the group had been staring at them for several minutes.
  • In another episode Monica stops to watch Chandler sleeping on her couch. He wakes up and freaks out, as that's what his creepy roommate Eddie had been doing.
  "Why must everybody watch me sleep? There'll be no more watching me sleep! No more!"
• Gossip Girl's Chuck and Blair waking up in the back of his limo, holding hands.
• In the pilot of Hannibal, you might be tempted to think the good doctor himself manages it when he falls asleep clutching the hand of a comatose attempted-murder victim, right after he saved her life. Do not be fooled. On the other hand, Will Graham falling asleep on a couch in the same patient's room (and waking up to find he's been draped with a blanket) is straightforward adorable.
• Homicide: Life on the Street: Meldrick Lewis and Terri Stivers.
• iCarly
  • In the "i Dream of Dance" episode, Freddy, Sam and Carly fall asleep on the couch together. Interestingly it's Sam and Carly who lean against each other. You may draw your own conclusions.
  • Same episode, after Sam's dream sequence, Freddie has his own dream sequence (where he defends Carly's honour in a dance fight), once it's over, there is a textbook Sleep Cute shot with Freddie asleep but smiling, and Carly asleep and resting on his shoulder.
• Inventing Anna: A platonic example with Anna and her Gay Best Friend Val, when they get locked out of their hotel room. While waiting for Anna's boyfriend to come help them sort it out, they fall asleep sitting in the lobby, with Anna's head resting on Val's shoulder.
• Keen Eddie: Eddie and Monty in "The Amazing Larry Dunn" wake up like this in Monty's car after a stake-out.
• The Middleman has something similar between the Middleman and Wendy, only they were both awake, albeit extremely bored.
• An early episode of Moonlighting has Maddie sleeping on David's shoulder on an airplane. Memorable for David's line: "Don't pretend you're not impressed. We're sleeping together."
• In the Mork & Mindy episode "Sky Flakes Keep Falling On My Head", Mork and Mindy fall asleep huddled together in Exidor's literally falling-apart summer home to keep warm from the snow. Unfortunately, because they fell asleep, their fire went out...
• Tony and Ziva end up like this in the NCIS season 3 episode "Untouchable". The "cute" factor is somewhat mitigated by Ziva's loud snoring... still cute◊.
• In an early episode of The O.C., Ryan, Seth, Summer and Marissa are forced to spend the night in a hotel. Summer and Seth have the bed while Ryan and Marissa share the pull out couch. Ryan and Marissa wake up spooning, and we cut to Summer telling Seth she didn't want to wake them up because they looked so cute together.
• Power Rangers
  • Power Rangers Samurai: Kevin and Mia during a stakeout.
  • Power Rangers RPM: Gemma and Flynn during their work on the new Zord. After each gets an adorable scene of having fallen asleep while the other is still working, we get an adorable scene of both having fallen asleep together.
• In the American version of The Office, Pam falls asleep in this exact pose on Jim's shoulder during one of the interminable conference room meetings. Even though he's had a rotten morning and lost his main sale of the year, this little gesture from Pam is enough to let him decide that he's had a pretty good day.
• In an episode of Scrubs, Doctor Cox awakes in the break room to find that his arch rival Doctor Kelso is sleeping with his head in Cox's lap. His response is a resigned, "Fair enough."
• Shtisel: When Akiva and Libbi take a bus to Tel Aviv, she ends up falling asleep on his shoulder.^note This is a bigger deal for Akiva than for most people, since Orthodox Jews follow the rules of shomer negiah, which forbids touching non-relatives of the opposite sex — and usually does not make an exception for cousins. He doesn't wake her up till they arrive.
• At the beginning of the Skins episode "Maxxie and Anwar", the class travelling to Russia on a plane — Maxxie is sleeping with his head resting on Anwar's shoulder. Maxxie wakes up and notices that Anwar has an erection, which Anwar insists is due to the plane's vibrations.
• A non-romantic example happens in Sunes Jul between Håkan and his friend Pär as they are waiting for Christmas to arrive. In the novelisation it gets very briefly mentioned and played for laughs rather than cute, however:
  Narration: 36 minutes later Håkan and Pär grow tired. They fall asleep, leaning against each other. Håkan snores, sounding like a tractor that has gotten stuck in a ditch.
• Mike and Amanda in the Supah Ninjas episode "Detention". Turns out she's a drooler.
• The Vampire Diaries' Stefan and Elena waking up in bed together in Season 2 Episode 6 "Plan B".
• In the Korean Series You Are Beautiful, Tae Kyung and Mi Nam do this at the movie theater.

Music

• The Everly Brothers song "Wake Up Little Susie" is about the aftermath of this, when the boy wakes up, realizes that it's now six hours past Susie's curfew, and that nobody will believe that there's an innocent explanation for this (they went to see a movie but it was so boring that they both fell asleep).
• The album art of "Brain Thrust Mastery" from We Are Scientists.
• As evidenced by the page quote, Vienna Teng's Recessional. And later, "Flyweight Love".

Theatre

• Engelbert Humperdinck's opera Hansel and Gretel (1893) has this when the children go to sleep in the woods for the night. Hansel and Gretel rest upon each other while various spirits protect them.
• Mary Mary ends with Bob and Mary making up with each other just before the former dozes off on The Couch under the influence of several sleeping pills he took by accident.

Video Games

• Resident Evil
  • Chris and Jill◊ at the end of the first one.
  • Claire and Steve when their plane goes to Antarctica in Resident Evil – Code: Veronica.
• Persona:
  • It is possible to invoke one of these in Persona 4. When Rise (who, along with Yukiko, may or may not be drunk at the time) drags everyone into a party game. Choosing the right option will result in Rise sleeping with her head in the main characters lap.
  • At the end of Persona 3, the protagonist falls asleep with his or her head in Aigis's lap (or alternatively, in a New Game+ , that of his or her chosen love interest). Unfortunately, he/she never wakes up, thanks to previously sacrificing his/her life force to prevent the End of the World as We Know It.
  • Persona 5 provides a platonic, family example: after Joker and the Sakuras finish their Christmas dinner, Futaba falls asleep from eating too much, leaning adorably on her father's shoulder.
• The end of the original Shadow Hearts with Yuri and Alice. It's cute in the happy ending; they wake up and smile at each other. In the Canon ending, he wakes up and realizes she's dead.
• In Yakuza, 9-year-old Haruka falls asleep with her head in Kazuma's lap while riding in the back seat of a car. That in itself is cute enough, but in Yakuza 2, there is a similar scene where Kazuma falls asleep with his head in Haruka's lap.
• The save method in ICO is sleeping cute. Extra points to the programmers for adding a little animation of Ico carefully sitting up with his head turned so as not to hit Yorda with his horns, when they wake up after their game-saving nap. You can even press R1 (the "call Yorda/hold hands" button) to turn Ico's head toward Yorda's while on the couch, who will respond in kind.
• Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core: At the inn in Nibelheim, right before the big event and Sephiroth's big Face–Heel Turn, Cloud and Zack stay up late talking and then fall asleep in adjacent beds. Shippers, start your engines.
• In the opening cinematic of Kingdom Hearts II, Sora is shown sleeping on the beach, Holding Hands with both Riku and Kairi. Serves as Ship Tease for both pairings (and, if you're so inclined, the OT3).
• After completing Mass Effect 2, if you romanced any of the characters, there's an option to sleep in together in bed, cuddling and resting.
• Lynch and his fiancée Xiu at the start of Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days. This serves to make it more poignant when she's killed by Hsing.
• Infamous 2 gives us Cole and Zeke in a total Bromance moment. Cole is about to absorb the penultimate Blast Core, but he and Zeke decide to just relax for once and watch TV and drink beer, ignoring their phones/radios. Fade to several hours later and the two are leaning on each other.
• In one of the side events in Tales of Vesperia, you can catch Ristelle sharing a bed at the inn.
• Kirby:
  • In one of the earlier stages of Kirby's Epic Yarn, you get to see two Waddle Dees sleeping against one another. If that wasn't cute enough, there's also a heart made of red beads floating over them.
    • Chuggaaconroy really puts emphasis on the cute part here.
  • A non-romantic example is in Kirby and the Forgotten Land: Kirby can sleep in his house, and is joined by Elfilin and, if playing co-op, Bandana Waddle Dee.
• In Fire Emblem: Awakening, Henry and Lissa's supports involve him trying to help her to sleep, with... special results. In their A support, Lissa finally manages to doze off on Henry's lap without his "help"... and he falls asleep next to her immediately afterwards. And if you give them an additional support, they'll get married.
• Non-romantic example in Pokémon X and Y: You can find two Skiddo sleeping together on the sidewalk of Lumiose City at night.
• In The Stinger of Shovel Knight an injured Shield Knight finds an unconscious Shovel Knight and curls up by his side.
• One Chance features this in some ending paths, although the context is anything but cute, as it involves your daughter dying leaning on you.
• The final scene of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon is Luigi resting on an armchair with the Polterpup he adopted curled up on his lap.
• Project Zero 2: Wii Edition: Mio and Mayu are posed this way in the Shadow Festival ending, symbolizing that they are Together in Death. For that extra bit of poignancy, they're also Holding Hands.
• For a sibling example, in Final Fantasy XIV there are a few different cutscenes where the twins Alphinaud and Alisaie end up falling asleep leaning on one another. It never stops being precious.

Visual Novels

• a2 ~a due~: After Hao and Sona stay up late into the night arguing over orchestral decisions, they fall asleep next to each other on the floor. Next morning, their orchestra members find them and start taking pictures with a cell phone, even more, convinced now that the two of them are absolutely smitten with each other.
  Cello player: Hey, give that back! No, don't delete it! It's too cute to delete!
  Trumpet player: Yeah, we can Photoshop out your drool!
  Sona: Do you honestly think that's the real problem here?!
• In ACE Academy during Kaori's route, thanks to a hiccup in the system of the Hotel they choose to sleep, Tristan and Kaori lose their reservation. The crisis gets averted quickly but only upon entering their new room, they realize there is only one bed. At this point, Tristan can choose whether he ends up being voluntarily Exiled to the Couch or share the bed with her girlfriend, to which Kaori answers with deploying a pillow barricade. A few hours later the wall disappears and Kaori sleep-cuddles to Tristan who is the happiest man alive.
• CLANNAD: In the Visual Novel (unlike the anime example above), Fuuko and Tomoya. And then Tomoya wakes up alone. The nicest bit is when Tomoya's made to remember Fuuko afterward, and finds she's been invisibly following him around since then.
• If one was to take the Natsuki route in Doki Doki Literature Club!, this is implied to happen to the two of you. Mods of the game have ran with this implication and make it even more cute.
• Katawa Shoujo has Cloudcuckoolander Rin and protagonist Hisao fall asleep next to each other on the day of the festival, at the end of Act 1, if you manage to get her route. This is especially amusing considering she had earlier asked Hisao if he enjoyed watching girls sleep.
  • In Lilly's route, Hanako falls asleep on Lilly's shoulder as the two and Hisao take a train tide back to Yamaku from Hokaido. Lilly lets her nap as she and Hisao make small talk.
• In Kissed by the Baddest Bidder, this is the subject of a CG scene in Soryu's route when the protagonist falls asleep on Soryu's sofa and wakes up in his bed, with Soryu asleep beside her.
• Little Busters!: The last CG in Mio's route is of her falling asleep on Riki's shoulder as they sit together at lunch under the zelkova tree.
• At the end of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice: Trucy falls asleep on Edgeworth's shoulder on the plane ride back to Japanifornia, and Edgeworth is very clearly annoyed.

Web Animation

• One episode of RWBY Volume 7 features a montage of the team doing various jobs in Atlas, ending with a shot of Weiss asleep on Ruby's shoulder and Blake asleep on Yang's lap.

Web Comics

• 8-Bit Theater: The Light Warriors look so adorable while sleeping together that their would-be assassins can't go through with killing them. But it's not gay, because there's three of them.
• Atomic Laundromat normally focuses on the humor, but even this webcomic can't resist the appeal of a full Sleep Cute strip.
• The Brawl in the Family strip Serenade has Kirby and Jigglypuff doing this.
• Chapter 9 of Dating a Team Magma Grunt ends with Brendan and the Magma Grunt sleeping up against the massive Jigglypuff plushie Brendan bought as an Apology Gift.
• Freefall:
  • It's been a long night for Winston and Florence, so she makes use of his lap.
  • On another long night, his laundry basket.
• El Goonish Shive. For nearly everyone, but particularly Grace.
  • Prior to Grace and Tedd being an Official Couple, Edward forbade them to sleep in the same bed, but couldn't really get himself to enforce it, especially since Grace is prone to Past Experience Nightmare.
• Guardian has a sisterly version when Yuna, a lonely orphan on Besaid, climbs into bed with Lulu. There are frequent shots afterwards of Lulu holding her protectively.
• Inverloch has Varden falling sound asleep on Lei'ella's shoulder at an inn, making her blush.
• The entire "Afternoon Nap" arc of Tsunami Channel's Experimental Comic Kotone. Everyone except Laika gets chance with Onii-san.
• MegaTokyo:
  • Piro and Kimiko, after getting over some of the problems they'd brought on through their combined neuroses.
  • Happens with Kimiko again in #1265. It's been a long day, and Kimiko's conked out on Miho's shoulder.
• Not in the actual comic, but the Valentine's Day 2008 color panel of Misfile has Ash and Em posed like this.
• Outsider: At one point, Alex (the human main character) and several Loroi are left stranded in space due to their shuttlecraft's power being knocked out. Bedding down in one area to conserve heat and energy is decided on, but when the time comes to actually try and sleep, the Loroi choose to pile up on and around Alex, partly because his body temperature is higher than theirs and so everyone will stay warmer, and partly because he's blind to their innate telepathic abilities and it's theorized that he'll insulate the Loroi from each other. All well and good, but a couple of them look happy with the arrangement for other reasons.
• Reunion (2021): Episode 9 ends with Rhea having fallen asleep on Shiro in the middle of their reminiscing. Both parties are fully clothed and Shiro's jacket is draped over her. The warm lighting makes it clear it's a tender, romantic moment.
• Scandinavia and the World: Happens twice with Norway and Denmark. But it comes naturally with all the Ho Yay.
• For Kat and Art of Sequential Art, it ends up as an awkward position.
• Stand Still, Stay Silent has Odd Friendship pair Emil and Lalli fall asleep with their hands nearly touching after their first mission together.
• Terinu plays with this, with Leeza and Rufus asleep in a ship's brig, Rufus sitting up and Leeza using his lap as a pillow and his tail for a blanket.

Web Novel

• Can You Spare a Quarter?: When Jamie becomes a little overwhelmed at Frank's Christmas Barbecue, Jason takes him up to his bed and they have an afternoon nap together. They do this again during the night after the Barbecue.

Western Animation

• Adventure Time: Bonnibel and Marceline, after a rather taxing adventure (both physically and emotionally) in the episode Varmints, PB ended up falling asleep in Marcy's shoulder, telling Marcy to wake her up after "15 minutes" passed. Aw.
• A platonic but still quite adorable example occurs with Mimi and Scooter in episode 4 of The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan.
• Ulrich and Yumi of Code Lyoko fall asleep together during an all-night programming session at the Supercomputer.
• Danny Phantom: Danny and Tucker accidentally sleeping together is the most hilarious non-gay moment ever.
• Daria:
  • In the episode "Road Worrier", on the way back from Alternapalooza, Jane and Jesse fall asleep in this pose. Subverted a little in that Jane is not actually asleep.
  • "My Night At Daria's". Tom and Daria fall asleep while reading in Daria's bedroom. They wake up at 4 AM, and Tom is forced to sneak out in a failed bid to avoid a hilarious misunderstanding.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show has a platonic version (maybe) where the Eds fall asleep together in a pile.
• Happened between Fry and Bender once on Futurama, when they got bored watching TV. They promptly fall asleep in the very same position once they become bored with what Leela wanted to watch — which being Futurama, takes all of four seconds. They scramble apart when woken up but not much is made of it.
  • In the episode "Neutopia", everyone gets their gender-defining characteristics removed and as a result, everyone starts to get along better. This includes a rather adorable scene of Leela and Amy cuddling up with Fry in a hammock.
• Near the end of the Gravity Falls episode "Land Before Swine", we get a rather adorable shot◊ of Stan, Mabel and Waddles sleeping while covered in sap.
• Justice League:
  • The Christmas Episode "Comfort and Joy" ends with Hawkgirl and Green Lantern resting against the counter of a bar. Hawkgirl gives the unconscious Green Lantern a peck on the cheek before she lays her head on his shoulder and goes to sleep.
  • To slightly subvert this trope, John is also pressed up against a giant grey-skinned alien that they had been fighting earlier in the Bar Brawl.
  • In the episode "Only a Dream", Flash fell asleep with his head in Hawkgirl's lap.
• In a Kaeloo episode where the main four spent the night camping in the forest, Kaeloo and Mr. Cat fall asleep together and end up snuggling.
• Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable fall asleep together during a boring field trip lecture during the "Rewriting History" episode, sharing a dream.
• In the The Legend of Korra episode "The Revelation", Mako and Korra fall asleep this way while staking out Republic City Park, and wake up with hasty awkwardness when they realize the position they're in.
• One Looney Tunes short, The Old Gray Hare, has one with baby Elmer and baby Bugs in the middle of a chase scene.
• While on a long car trip in one episode of ¡Mucha Lucha!, Buena Girl fell asleep on Rikochet's shoulder.
• Molly and Jordan, three times in Ōban Star-Racers. First, on Rush's ship with blankets, second, at the Grand Temple of Oban, and third, well... when they're unconcious.
• The Star vs. the Forces of Evil episode "Starsitting" ends with Marco and Star asleep on the floor, with Star's head resting on Marco. While a miniature Star and Marco from the board game Star conjured up are watching them.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Happens with Ahsoka and Barriss in "Brain Invaders". Granted, they were practically freezing to death since life support had been sabotaged and Barriss had just been freed from a mind-controlling worm.
• Star Wars Rebels: In "The Honourable Ones", Zeb and Agent Kallus fall asleep like this. They react in disgust when they wake up.
• In the Steven Universe episode "Island Adventure", Lars wraps his arm around Sadie while they're trying to go to sleep, to her obvious delight. Then Steven's arm wraps around Lars from his other side, and Lars angrily kicks him away. (Steven seems to be the one who's fully asleep at this point.)
  • After Steven's and Connie's dance results in Stevonnie's fusion, they're thrown into jail. In "Escapism", after unfusing, Steven goes into an out-of-body sleep trance to seek help on Earth. After surviving Watermelon Island and melon sharks, he makes a raft to Greg and Bismuth at his home, and when he wakes up in Homeworld jail, Connie has fallen asleep with her arms around Steven, gently and unconsciously hugging him as if he were a teddy bear.
• Thunder Cats 2011: Tygra and Cheetara are seen sleeping against each other in the episode "Berbils", much to Lion-O's annoyance.
• Total Drama:
  • During the challenge to stay awake in "The Big Sleep", one by one the campers succumb to sleep. Close friends Katie and Sadie unsurprisingly lie down right next to each other and snore in sync, with one breathing in and the other breathing out and vice versa. Trent and Gwen find it a cute sight. Also cuddling, if by accident, are Noah and Cody. They wake up while Noah is nibbling on Cody's ear, leading to mutual horrified screaming. The incident gets a Call-Back in "Celebrity Manhunt's TDA Reunion Show" where they've seemingly become at ease with each other.
  • The teams have to spend a night in the forest in "The Sucky Outdoors". When morning comes for the Killer Bass, Bridgette is cuddling up to Geoff and Courtney is lying half on top of Duncan. Bridgette and Geoff are cool to find themselves in their positions and Duncan likes Courtney's attention too, but Courtney, still in denial about her feelings, is horrified at what she's been doing.
  • Most of the contestants choose to wait in the canyon for help after their bus crash in "Celebrity Manhunt's TDA Reunion Show". It is a long wait, so at some point the lot falls asleep. In a Call-Back to "The Big Sleep", Noah once more snuggles up to Cody, but this time they're not horrified about their positions when they wake up. Courtney and Duncan, who had just prior to the crash rekindled their relationship, also sleep together, as do Leshawna and Harold, whose relationship at this point is a highly affectionate friendship.
  • During the hunt in "African Lying Safari", Alejandro tricks Ezekiel into attacking Duncan to have an easy shot at him. The moment they get jointly hit with the tranquilizer balls, they fall asleep snuggling.
  • While alone in economy class in "Awwwwww, Drumheller", Cody and Sierra fall asleep together. This gives Alejandro the opportunity to acquire a photo and then edit that photo so that Sierra is replaced with Heather. In the morning, he gives Sierra the photo of Cody and Heather snuggling together to make her believe the two are having an affair.
• Wild Kratts:
  • Martin and Chris invoke this trope accidentally. In "Voyage of the Butterflier XT", they're tired after their long journey to Mexico, and decide to hibernate with the butterflies. Eventually, cut to scene of Martin sleeping on Chris... and using his ass for a pillow.
  • Again in Elephant in the Room, except the elephant calf put Chris on top of Martin after stealing their blankets. Didn't stop them from falling asleep, though...
• Work It Out Wombats!: At the end of the episode, Super is sleeping with her grandkids, and it is adorable.
• Strangely subverted in X-Men: Evolution: Nightcrawler would look cute as he's sleeping... if only he didn't accidentally teleport every time he sneezes due to a bad cold. Taking Kitty with him.

Real Life

• Mated pairs of otters do this on purpose. Because they sleep floating on their backs in the water, they'll anchor themselves to any convenient seaweed with one front paw and hook the other around their mate's so they won't drift apart while they're sleeping.
  • Many, many small mammals sleep together in a pile, both to share body heat and to fit as many as possible into a burrow or nest without having to make it bigger.
• This behind-the-scenes picture from Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger.
• This adorable behind-the-scenes snap posted by Mark Ruffalo of his Avengers costars.
• In Real Life close friends may sometimes use each other's shoulders as a pillow. Don't assume they're a couple though; it might turn out that they actually are Just Friends and would find it a bit weird to think otherwise. However, couples also do this.
• This can happen by accident on long bus trips or plane flights. If only one half of the pair is asleep, awkwardness ensues.
• Thomas Gibson posted this adorable picture of his Criminal Minds castmates doing just this.
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. becomes Agents of S.N.O.R.E.
• After they won the 21st season of Dancing with the Stars, Bindi Irwin and her partner Derek Hough became so tired from back-to-back TV appearances following their win that they just collapsed on the floor and snuggled close together with each other. They were then joined by runners-up Nick Carter and his partner Sharna Burgess. Bindi then had this cute picture taken of the four of them sleeping together peacefully◊ put up on Instagram. Bindi called Derek, Nick and Sharna "gorgeous people" and thanked them for being her "human pillows".
• Apparently Amy Acker is prone to this with her Person of Interest co-star Sarah Shahi.

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