History Main / DontWakeTheSleeper

* This is a discussed trope in ''[[Literature/AliceInWonderland Through the Looking Glass]]''. Alice and another character (the White Knight?) talk about the Red King sleeping under a tree. The Knight supposes that he's dreaming their world. I'll let someone with a more recent memory of the book add it as an example, since I'm not sure I have the details correct.

* In Steven Erickson's ''Malazan'' series, the whole world is a sleeping goddess, Burn, whom it would be A REALLY bad idea to wake.

* There's a ''TweetyAndSylvester'' cartoon in which Sylvester has to get past dozens of {{angry guard dog}}s to get to Tweety. At the end he tries to sneak in at night when they're all asleep, but then Tweety turns on the alarm clock.
** Same gag is used in the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "Roman Legion-Hare", this time with BugsBunny, Yosemite Sam and a cage full of lions.
** Another ''Looney Tunes'' short, "A Pest in the House", involves a tired hotel guest asking manager Elmer Fudd for peace and quiet as he sleeps in his room, and threatening to punch Elmer in the nose otherwise. His slumber is constantly disturbed by the blundering of bellboy DaffyDuck, with the expected results.

* In LordDunsany's "TheGodsOfPegana", the gods created the world, but [[AC:Māna-Yood-Sushāī]] created the gods, and from this task he now rests, lulled by the endless drumming of Skarl the Drummer (who is technically not a god, despite having been created along with the gods). If Skarl were to cease drumming even for an instant, [[AC:Māna-Yood-Sushāī]] would wake up, and his awakening would destroy the world and the gods.

* The ''[[VideoGame/UnlimitedAdventures UA Newsletter]]'' has a series of articles by Alex D. Karaczun, supposedly about creating a setting and a plot, but the articles seem to mostly be an excuse to showcase Alex's invented setting about the sleeping god "Primion", whose dream is the entire setting of Rothon, and it's unclear if waking him up would cause a DreamApocalypse or make Rothon a real place. (The articles: [[http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/uanews/nlhtm07/write.htm Part I]], [[http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/uanews/nlhtm08/write.htm Part II]], [[http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/uanews/nlhtm09/write.htm Part III]].)

* There's a TweetyAndSylvester cartoon in which Sylvester has to get past dozens of {{angry guard dog}}s to get to Tweety. At the end he tries to sneak in at night when they're all asleep, but then Tweety turns on the alarm clock.

* The main plot for the WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry short "Quiet Please!", in which Spike tires of Tom's racket in trying to catch Jerry, threatening violence if Tom wakes him up one more time. Tom immediately has to sabotage Jerry's vigorous attempts to wake Spike. A later short, "Royal Cat-Nap", replays this scenario with the Mouseketeers, Tom having to prevent them from waking the king he is guarding. They relent and help Tom get the king back to sleep when they realise the penalty is a beheading, however.

* The ''[[UnlimitedAdventures UA Newsletter]]'' has a series of articles by Alex D. Karaczun, supposedly about creating a setting and a plot, but the articles seem to mostly be an excuse to showcase Alex's invented setting about the sleeping god "Primion", whose dream is the entire setting of Rothon, and it's unclear if waking him up would cause a DreamApocalypse or make Rothon a real place. (The articles: [[http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/uanews/nlhtm07/write.htm Part I]], [[http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/uanews/nlhtm08/write.htm Part II]], [[http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/uanews/nlhtm09/write.htm Part III]].)

* The Kisin [[spoiler: who's sealed in a prison below Shibushen]] in ''SoulEater''. [[spoiler: They fail to prevent Medusa's minions from waking him up.]]

* ''WorldOfWarcraft'' has the instance Sunken Temple, where the final boss is asleep and his underlings are fighting to keep you from waking him up. He was originally a guardian, his dreams protecting the world from an evil God - who managed to corrupt him and twist his dreams into nightmares.

* In ''FinalFantasyX'', the summonable "[[SummonMagic aeons]]" are each the dream of a "fayth", who sleeps in that aeon's temple. There are also a whole bunch of fayth together on a holy mountain, dreaming ''something'', but nobody knows what. [[spoiler: It's Dream Zanarkand -- [[DoomedProtagonist Tidus's]] home town.]]

* In ''ToyStory'', Woody and Buzz try to sneak past Sid's dog Scud. Then Woody's pull string is caught and his voice box wakes Scud up.

* In ''PansLabyrinth'', this is the secret objective of one of the quests given. The protagonist is not told that there is a sleeper, or that horrible things will happen if she wake him up.

* In Steven Erickson's ''Malazan'' series, the whole world is a sleeping goddess, Burn, whom it would be A REALLY bad idea to wake.

* In the ''TainBoCuailnge'', Fergus notes that ''nobody'' dares to wake Cu Chulainn when he's asleep - the last man who tried found his forehead smashed all the way into the back of his skull.

* ''WorldOfWarcraft'' has the instance Sunken Temple, where the final boss is asleep and his underlings are fighting to keep you from waking him up. He was originally a guardian, his dreams protecting the world from an evil God - who managed to corrupt him and twist his dreams into nightmares.
* ''EverQuest'' had The Sleeper--or rather, his guardians--as one of the major bosses of the Scars Of Velious expansion. Waking him up results in destroying his dungeon permanently, robbing the community of an important source of loot. The Sleeper himself comes back in a later expansion.

* In ''FinalFantasyX'', the summonable "[[SummonMagic aeons]]" are each the dream of a "fayth", who sleeps in that aeon's temple. There are also a whole bunch of fayth together on a holy mountain, dreaming ''something'', but nobody knows what. [[spoiler: It's Dream Zanarkand -- [[DoomedProtagonist Tidus]]'s home town.]]

* The ''[[UnlimitedAdventures UA Newsletter]]'' has a series of articles by Alex D. Karaczun, supposedly about creating a setting and a plot, but the articles seem to mostly be an excuse to showcase Alex's invented setting about the sleeping god "Primion", whose dream is the entire setting of Rothon, and it's unclear if waking him up would cause a DreamApocalypse or make Rothon a real place. (The articles: [[http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/uanews/nlhtm07/write.htm Part I]], [[http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/uanews/nlhtm08/write.htm Part II]], [[http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/uanews/nlhtm09/write.htm Part III]].)

** Same gag is used in the ''LooneyTunes'' short "Roman Legion-Hare", this time with BugsBunny, Yosemite Sam and a cage full of lions.

* A villain in ''WesternAnimation/{{Teen Titans}}'', Plasmus, is a guy who has to be constantly asleep or he will become a mindless purple goo monster. (I really don't know how to word this)

* This trope figures into ''{{The Fox and the Hound}}'', the scene where Todd is poking around Chief when Chief is asleep in his barrel-house.

* A running theme in Cthulhu Mythos, with mad cults trying to wake up Great Cthulhu. [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Their success would be a very bad thing]].

* The main plot for the TomAndJerry short "Quiet Please!", in which Spike tires of Tom's racket in trying to catch Jerry, threatening violence if Tom wakes him up one more time. Tom immediately has to sabotage Jerry's vigorous attempts to wake Spike. A later short, "Royal Cat-Nap", replays this scenario with the Mouseketeers, Tom having to prevent them from waking the king he is guarding. They relent and help Tom get the king back to sleep when they realise the penalty is a beheading, however.

* In one ''{{xkcd}}'' strip, Cueball [[http://xkcd.com/1013/ accidentally wakes up the Sheeple from its 10,000 years long slumber]], prompting everyone to run for their lives.

* The board game called ''Don't Wake Daddy''. We'll give you one guess as to how you lose... ;)
* In the board game DungeonQuest (Original title: "Drakborgen"), the goal is to reach the Dragon's hoard and steal as much as possible from it. But if you steal so much that you wake up the dragon, you die.

* WorldOfWarcraft has the instance Sunken Temple, where the final boss is asleep and his underlings are fighting to keep you from waking him up. He was originally a guardian, his dreams protecting the world from an evil God - who managed to corrupt him and twist his dreams into nightmares.
* EverQuest had The Sleeper - or rather his guardians - as one of the major bosses of the Scars Of Velious expansion. Waking him up results in destroying his dungeon permanently, robbing the community of an important source of loot. The Sleeper himself comes back in a later expansion.

* In FinalFantasyX, the summonable "[[SummonMagic aeons]]" are each the dream of a "fayth", who sleeps in that aeon's temple. There are also a whole bunch of fayth together on a holy mountain, dreaming ''something'', but nobody knows what. [[spoiler: It's Dream Zanarkand -- [[DoomedProtagonist Tidus]]'s home town.]]

** Same gag is used in the ''LooneyTunes'' short "Roman Legion-Hare", this time with BugsBunny, Yosemite Sam, and a cage full of lions.
** Another LooneyTunes short "A Pest In The House" involves a tired hotel guest asking manager Elmer Fudd for peace and quiet as he sleeps in his room, and threatening to "punch him in the nose" otherwise. His slumber is constantly disturbed by the blundering of bellboy DaffyDuck, with the expected results.
* The main plot for the TomAndJerry short "Quiet Please", in which Spike tires of Tom's racket in trying to catch Jerry, threatening violence if he wakes him up one more time. Tom immediately has to sabotage Jerry's vigorous attempts to wake Spike. A later short replays this scenario with the Mouseketeers, Tom having to prevent them from waking the King he is guarding. They relent and help Tom get the King back to sleep when they realise the penalty is a beheading however.

* A villain in WesternAnimation/{{Teen Titans}}, Plasmus, is a guy who has to be constantly asleep or he will become a mindless purple goo monster. (I really don't know how to word this)
* The ChillyWilly short "The Legend Of Rock-A-Bye Point" is half this and half MusicSoothesTheSavageBeast.
* Figures into {{The Fox And The Hound}}, the scene where Todd is poking around Chief when Chief is asleep in his barrel-house.

* Ur-Example: Kumbakarna, from the ancient Indian epic TheRamayana. He was a giant demon prince who was cursed by the god Indra to sleep for six months of each year, and was cursed with death if he was woken during that sleep. His brother, the demon-king Ravana, woke him so he could help turn the tide of a decisive battle. It was working for a while, but then guess what happened.

* The MilkmanConspiracy segment of ''{{Psychonauts}}'' revolves largely about the DrivingQuestion of "Who is the Milkman?" and various forces preventing Raz from waking him up.

* This is a discussed trope in ''ThroughTheLookingGlass''. Alice and another character (the White Knight?) talk about the Red King sleeping under a tree. The Knight supposes that he's dreaming their world. I'll let someone with a more recent memory of the book add it as an example, since I'm not sure I have the details correct.

* In LordDunsany's "[[TheGodsOfPegana The Gods of Pegāna]]", the gods created the world, but [[AC:Māna-Yood-Sushāī]] created the gods, and from this task he now rests, lulled by the endless drumming of Skarl the Drummer (who is technically not a god, despite having been created along with the gods). If Skarl were to cease drumming even for an instant, [[AC:Māna-Yood-Sushāī]] would wake up, and his awakening would destroy the world and the gods.

* In LordDunsany's "TheGodsOfPegana", the gods created the world, but [[AC:Mana-Yood-Sushai]] created the gods, and from this task he now rests, lulled by the endless drumming of Skarl the Drummer (who is technically not a god, despite having been created along with the gods). If Skarl were to cease drumming even for an instant, [[AC:Mana-Yood-Sushai]] would wake up, and his awakening would destroy the world and the gods. [Note to launcher: the first "a" in "Pegana", the first "a" in "Mana", and both letters of the "ai" in "Sushai" are supposed to have [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macron macron accents]]. And yes, the asscaps are in the original.]

* A) The Sleeper is dangerous and will cause havoc if he wakes up. In effect, this is SealedEvilInACan, with a pillow instead of a canister.
* B) The Sleeper is doing something very important in his dreams: Protecting something, defending the world from something, maybe even dreaming a world into existence.
* C) [[KingInTheMountain You should wait until he is needed.]]
* D) Waking up would be traumatic. [[NeverWakeUpASleepwalker Often about a sleepwalker]].

* In ''Jinx High'' by MercedesLackey, There's a Type A Sleeper under Tulsa, Oklahoma.

* A level in [[{{Scribblenauts}} Super Scribblenauts]] had an objective to sneak past a sleeping dragon to get a key. Naturally, the path is filled with chandeliers and piles of junk that will shift and wake the dragon if you so much as touch them.

* Figures into {{The Fox And The Hound}}, the scene where Todd is poking around Chief when Chief is asleep in his barrel-house.

DreamApocalypse might occur (even in real world, if the sleeper in question is a reality warper.)

* ''TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' has the Wind Fish who is dreaming the entire island that the game takes place on, all the dungeon bosses try to stop you from waking it up and try to warn you about what you're doing.

* In ''SuperMario64'', you must walk slowly around sleeping Piranha Plant enemies otherwise they will wake and attack at the player.

* The ChillyWilly short "The Legend Of Rock-A-Bye Point" is half this and half MusicSoothesTheSavageBeast.

Different works have very different reasons why The Sleeper must remain asleep, but the three major types of reasons are:

* In ''PansLabyrinth'', this is the secret objective of one of the quests given. [[spoiler:The protagonist is extremely hungry, but arbitrarily instructed that she must not eat. No explanation is given. She is then confronted with a huge feast at a table where a faceless man is sleeping. As she steal a grape from the table, the man wake up and turn out to have [[EyesDontGoThere eyes in very wrong places]]. And yes, he is very dangerous indeed.]]