Basic Trope: Eating too much before bed gives a character nightmares.
- Straight: Bob eats too much spicy food before bed and has horrible nightmares.
- Exaggerated: Bob eats a single M&M before bed and has a horrible nightmare that lasts the rest of the series.
- Downplayed: Bob eats a little too much before bedtime and has a mildly weird dream.
- Justified:
- The spice on Bob's food has hallucinogenic properties, which start affecting Bob once he falls asleep.
- Pain can sometimes cause nightmares, and the food had given Bob indigestion.
- Inverted:
- Eating before bed gives Bob good dreams.
- Having a nightmare causes Bob to wake up needing to use the bathroom.
- Bob has a nightmare because he's hungry.
- For some reason, going to the bathroom before bed gives Bob nightmares.
- Subverted:
- Bob eats too much before bed, and dreams about monsters, but the monsters quickly turn into hot girls.
- Bob has a nightmare about being attacked by monsters. He thinks he ate too much, but really, it's because monsters are coming to the city and he had a prophetic dream.
- Double Subverted:
- The hot girls then start trying to torture and kill Bob.
- Then it turns out that in the show's universe, people have premonitions when they're in pain, and Bob really did have indigestion.
- Parodied: Before Bob goes to bed, he opens a box with the label "Nightmare Fuel" attached to it. The box is filled with spicy food.
- Zigzagged: Bob eats too much before bed. His dreams alternate between being good and bad.
- Averted:
- Bob does not have any nightmares.
- Bob does have nightmares, but they aren't caused by eating too much.
- Enforced: The director wanted to warn viewers that is not healthy to eat too much before bed.
- Lampshaded: "Didn't I tell you that eating that junk before bed would give you bad dreams?"
- Invoked:
- Bob wants a weird dream so he eats as crazily as possible trying to get a crazy dream.
- Alice wants to ruin Bob's sleep, so she adds extra spice into his supper knowing it will give him bad dreams.
- Exploited: Bob uses this as an excuse to reject Alice's terrible cooking, saying that it's too close to bed time and that he doesn't want nightmares.
- Defied: Bob doesn't eat anything before bed in order to avoid any potential nightmares.
- Discussed: "Bob always has a bad dream after eating too many jalapenos."
- Conversed: "I remember having a dream like that after eating too much Havarti before bed."
- Implied:
- Bob eats something weird and later complains about having trouble sleeping at night.
- When Bob wakes up from his nightmare, he is holding an empty food container or wrapper.
- Played For Drama: Bob has just been through a personal tragedy, but can't eat his choice of Comfort Food at night or he'll suffer horrific nightmares.
Are you gonna eat all that?! Watch out! You don't wanna get an Acid Reflux Nightmare!
