History Main / DyingToWakeUp

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E62ShadowPlay Shadow Play]]". [[spoiler: Adam Grant has a recurring nightmare about being on death row and sent to execution. He ''knows'' that when they throw the switch, he'll wake up. But it isn't a pleasant experience for him. To the point that he keeps trying to convince the other characters in his dream, who vary in roles from night to night, that he's dreaming and that they'll cease to be when he wakes up.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': In "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE30PerchanceToDream Perchance To Dream]]" The Mad Hatter traps Batman in a machine designed to imprison him in a dream and gives him whatever life he wanted, resulting in a NightmareOfNormality in which Bruce Wayne never became the Caped Crusader. Once Batman figures out it's AllADream, he realises there's only one guaranteed way out, and jumps to his simulated death from the bell tower.

* Episode 22 of the anime adaptation of ''VideoGame/InazumaEleven'' begins with Endou having a nightmare about the match between Raimon and Zeus, with a score of 49-0 for the latter. After a Zeus member breaks not only Endou's God Hand, but also Endou himself with a powerful shot, he wakes up.

** During the mission to Robert Fischer's mind, Cobb's team have been given a heavier dose of sedative to allow for three layers of dreams, meaning that they won't wake up if they die. Instead, they'll drop into Limbo, leaving them lost in the LotusEaterMachine for so long that they'll be brain dead when they wake up. So, the dream team have to avoid serious injuries until they can use the Kick (the alternative DreamEmergencyExit) to wake up... which becomes a problem when [[spoiler: Saito - the group's paymaster and the only man that can save Cobb from getting arrested - ]] is mortally wounded in Level 1, leaving the rest of the team [[RaceAgainstTime trying to complete the mission before he bleeds out]]. [[spoiler: Fortunately, it turns out that the "dying in a dream" trick still works in Limbo - ''if'' you can remember that there's another reality to wake up to, as Cobb and Saito do in the finale.]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho:'' In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E7AmysChoice Amy's Choice]]", the Doctor, Amy, and Rory find themselves ensnared by the [[DreamWeaver Dream Lord]] and plunged into two possibly imaginary scenarios: one the present-day TARDIS, the other an [[{{Dreamville}} idyllic country town]] where Amy and Rory have settled after parting ways with the Doctor. Their mission is to figure which one is reality before the threat of the scenario kills them, as dying in the dream world will wake the three of them up... but if they guess incorrectly, they'll die in the real world. [[spoiler:The twist is that ''both'' scenarios are dreams, and dying in both is the only way to escape from the Dream Lord's game.]]

* ''VisualNovel/CookingCompanions'': The player has multiple nightmares, one on most nights. The common theme is that most depict scary or surreal events happening to the player, with each one ending in a death. Immediately, you wake in a cold sweat.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': In "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE30PerchanceToDream Perchance To Dream]]" The Mad Hatter traps Batman in a machine designed to imprison him in a dream and give him whatever life he wanted, resulting in a NightmareOfNormality in which Bruce Wayne never became the Caped Crusader. Once Batman figures out it's AllADream, he realises there's only one guaranteed way out, and jumps to his simulated death from the bell tower.

->'''The Dream Lord:''' Now then, the prognosis is this: if you die in the dream, you wake up in reality. Healthy recovery in next to no time. Ask me what happens if you die in reality?
->'''Rory:''' What happens?
->'''The Dream Lord:''' You ''die,'' stupid. That's why it's called reality.
-->--''Series/DoctorWho,'' "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E7AmysChoice Amy's Choice]]"

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]

* Episode 22 of the anime adaptation of ''VideoGame/InazumaEleven'' begins with Endou having a nightmare about the match between Raimon and Zeus, with a score of 49-0 fir the latter. After a Zeus member breaks not only Endou's God Hand, but also Endou himself with a powerful shoot, he wakes up.

[[folder: Comic Book]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[folder: Film — Live Action]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/DoctorWho:'' In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E7AmysChoice Amy's Choice]]", the Doctor, Amy, and Rory find themselves ensnared by the [[DreamWeaver Dream Lord]] and plunged into two possibly imaginary scenarios - one the present-day TARDIS, the other an [[{{Dreamville}} idyllic country town]] where Amy and Rory have settled after parting ways with the Doctor. Their mission is to figure which one is reality before the threat of the scenario kills them, as dying in the dream world will wake the three of them up... but if they guess incorrectly, they'll die in the real world. [[spoiler: The twist is that ''both'' scenarios were dreams, and dying in both is the only way to escape from the Dream Lord's game.]]

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E62ShadowPlay Shadow Play]]". [[spoiler: Adam Grant is having a recurring nightmare about being on death row and sent to execution. He ''knows'' that when they throw the switch, he'll wake up. But it isn't a pleasant experience for him. To the point that he keeps trying to convince the other characters in his dream, who vary in roles from night to night, that he's dreaming and that they'll cease to be when he wakes up.]]
--> '''Adam Grant:''' How do you like to wake up screaming every night? That's what I do.

* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'': Travelers in the [[DreamLand Astral Realms]] take damage to their Willpower points instead of Health. If they "die" of willpower loss, they wake up [[AbilityDepletionPenalty mentally exhausted]] but physically sound.

[[/folder]]

Of course, this is very much TruthInTelevision: stressful dreams like nightmares trigger the flight-or-fight response and release adrenaline, and because REM sleep isn't very deep, the body is often shocked awake in the process - usually coinciding with a violent death or a fall in the dream.

[[folder: Film - Live Action]]

** Dying in a dream instantly wakes Extractors up - either into reality or into the previous layer of dreams, depending on the heist. However, because dreams can be indistinguishable from reality, it's important to recognize the difference between the two before you try to awaken yourself, hence why Totems are so vital - and why you really shouldn't abandon them. In the past, losing touch with reality in this way resulted in tragedy when, after awakening after decades of [[YearInsideHourOutside subjective time]] in [[EldritchLocation Limbo]], Mal became convinced that her real life was a dream and jumped to her death in a delusional attempt to wake up.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': In "[[Recap/FarscapeS03E09LosingTime Losing Time]]," Scorpius finds himself on the receiving end of this in his concluding dream, managing to literally unlock the secrets of wormholes in the form of a box in Moya's cargo hold - only for the seemingly defeated Crichton to catch him off-guard and throw him into the open wormhole. Scorpius immediately wakes with a start, sitting bolt upright, equal parts alarmed and irritated. For good measure, this is one of the few times this trope has occurred in the show, with most other instances of death in dreams [[YourMindMakesItReal resulting in real-world death.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'': In the intro to ''The Brigmore Witches,'' Daud finds himself in a duel with Corvo, similar to the one due to take place in the main game... except the blue tint and odd gravity reveal that this clearly takes place in [[DreamLand the Void]]. If the player has imported a save from a High Chaos playthrough, the fight ends with [[KarmicDeath Daud being disarmed and then killed]] with a single slash to the throat - whereupon he wakes up, breathless and panicky.

* ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'': if the Knight "dies" while fighting a boss in a dream, it wakes up near whatever it used the Dream Nail on to access said fight. Mechanically speaking, this doesn't count as a death -- you don't lose Geo, for example.

* ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'': One of the facts established in [[DrillSergeantNasty Coach Oleander]]'s [[JustifiedTutorial Basic Braining]] is that being killed while [[JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind exploring someone's mind]] will only result in you getting kicked back to reality, a point revealed when [[SpeaksFluentAnimal Elton]] gets himself blown up within seconds of starting the course. For good measure, tokens exist in the various dreams that can replenish or even strengthen Raz's astral projection - in other words, extra lives for Raz.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In the [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E6TreehouseOfHorrorV "Treehouse of Horror V"]] segment "Nightmare Cafeteria," after the teachers become cannibals and have eaten most of the students at Springfield Elementary, Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse get chased across a plank above a giant blender. After Milhouse falls in, Bart assures Lisa that something or someone will save them from their predicament, only for them to fall - whereupon Bart wakes up in his bedroom and is told by Marge that he was having a nightmare.