History Main / NightmareSequence

* While sleeping in the sauna of the ski lodge, the protagonist of ''VisualNovel/DoubleHework'' has one of these. He gets an unwanted food order via “Avalanche Delivery Service,” Dennis is an unnaturally tall sex god just referred to as “master” by all the girls, and Dr. Mosely is his executioner.

* The Creator/FamousStudios ''ComicStrip/LittleLulu'' and ''Little Audrey'' cartoons have a few of these. In "Musica-Lulu", Lulu is knocked unconscious and in her ensuing dream, she is tried by a KangarooCourt of musical instruments who then chase her.

* ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'': Gavin has one of these in [[Recap/TheBrittasEmpireS7E6GavinFeatherlyRIP Gavin Featherly R.I.P]], dreaming that the staff is finding him guilty for copying a cassette tape, leading to psychotherapy sessions with Helen.

* Downplayed in ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'', when Osaka dreamt of meeting Chiyo's dad. It was mostly super bizarre because of Chiyo's dad's presence, but at the short end of the dream, Chiyo's dad suddenly threatens to rip off Osaka's tongue for her saying that she got cat's tongue, unlike him. The effect is doubled in the original version, where Chiyo's dad is voiced by Creator/NorioWakamoto, [[PigeonholedVoiceActor famed for his roles as many villains]], and while he's using his more wacky normal voice throughout the dream, when he threatened, Wakamoto dipped into his villain-voice (albeit a LargeHam one), making it feel like he was serious in ripping Osaka's tongue.
* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'''s first sequence is this trope, complete with DerangedAnimation, NonEuclideanGeometry, a wrecked landscape, and an EldritchAbomination. Oddly enough, as horrific as it was, Madoka didn't wake up [[CatapultNightmare startled]], just confused. As it turns out, [[spoiler:it was a FlashbackNightmare from a previous timeline]].

May overlap with CatapultNightmare, if the character having the nightmare wakes up by flinging themselves up from the bed in fright. FlashbackNightmare is a subtrope of this (and PastExperienceNightmare) where the nightmare is shown as a {{flashback}} the character's DarkAndTroubledPast. See also IrritationNightmare and GuiltInducedNightmare.

* At the beginning of ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', Eren experiences a very mysterious and disturbing nightmare complete with Titans eating people, a decapitated statue, a child's dolls spread out in the same positions as a group of dead soldiers, and a [[DreamingOfThingsToCome grainy shot of his mother being picked by a Titan]]. He wakes up in a fright with Mikasa nearby and tells her that he felt as if he had an extremely long dream but couldn't remember any of it. Mikasa then notices Eren crying and asks him why, and Eren couldn't answer that either. This was a change from the original manga where Eren only saw a seemingly older Mikasa with shorter hair telling him that she'll see him later before waking up.

* Happens several times in ''Manga/ChronoCrusade''. Chrono has a nightmare where he's surrounded by dead bodies as Aion tempts him back to his side (hinting at his backstory). Rosette has a nightmare at the start of the DarkestHour that serves to recap some of the trauma she's been through as well as gives a clear idea of her psychological state. And in an early episode of the anime, Rosette has a nightmare that's half flashback, half nightmare about her brother's kidnapping by the BigBad.

* An episode of ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5'' features nightmare sequences for four of the main characters, induced by TheDragon for [[BrainwashedAndCrazy a pretty good reason]]. The idea is to cause the girls to despair.
* Downplayed in ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'', when Osaka dreamt of meeting Chiyo's dad. It was mostly super bizarre because of Chiyo's dad presence, but in the short end of the dream, Chiyo's dad suddenly threatens to rip off Osaka's tongue for her saying that she got cat's tongue, unlike him. The effect is doubled in the original version, where Chiyo's dad is voiced by Creator/NorioWakamoto, [[PigeonholedVoiceActor famed for his roles as many villains]], and while he's using his more wacky normal voice throughout the dream, when he threatened, Wakamoto dipped into his villain voice (albeit a LargeHam one), making it feel like he was serious in ripping Osaka's tongue.

** The story starts out with Kara reliving her final battle against Superwoman. As she is hitting the supervillain, accusing her from destroying her planet and causing a war, Superwoman retorts the Kryptonians were not blameless, Alura was far from innocent, and Supergirl killed her. Then her flesh melts off her face, and a legion of skeletons -including Supergirl's dead parents'- move in on Kara to drag her down with them.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'', Spider Jerusalem has one after he stuffs himself with drugs (again) when he realizes he has become a Japanese-like anime, a cheesy live action TV series and a [[RuleThirtyFour porn movie]]. Sadly, he has a fairly good dream at the beginning.

** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': After Hippolyta's death the reader is treated to a series of Diana's nightmares in which Hippolyta's burnt and dying form asks why Diana didn't save her. When Diana learns her sister is having the dreams as well she realizes they're being inflicted on them by Circe and hunts the witch down.
** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman2006'': After Diana is trapped in a dreamlike state by Stalker she has a nightmare within it in which she looses her compassion and soul and sees herself as a heartless Amazon queen with her old friends and mother forced to bow to her and her villains heads displayed on pikes before her throne.

* In chapter 8 of ''Fanfic/AdviceAndTrust'', Asuka has a nightmare in which she and Shinji were fighting [[EldritchAbomination Israfel]] again, and Shinji dies. Meanwhile Shinji has another nightmare where he sees Asuka sinking again in the volcano's magma, he jumps in to rescue her, and he misses.

* ''Fanfic/TheChildOfLove'': In chapter 3 Asuka has a nightmare in which her mother’s disembodied voice urges her to dying with her.

* In ''Webcomic/CharbyTheVampirate'' Zeno has a [[FlashbackNightmare flashback nightmare]] of being vivisected alive his first night in the cabin and one of the individuals trying to manipulate him gives him further bad dreams in the attempt, some of which are shown in comic.

* Cail and Gabe, two of the main characters in ''Webcomic/DearChildren'' have unsettling and distorted dreams at the end of the second chapter.
* Early in ''Webcomic/DevilsCake'' Zoshi turns Tad's [[http://devilscake.smackjeeves.com/comics/285009/book1-ch1-pg22/ nice dream]] about his upcoming date with Kea into a nightmare. It is implied he's done this to everyone who has ever shown a romantic interest in her.
* In Webcomic/ForestHill, the young rabbit Kaleb has one about a girl who he wants nothing to do with.
* Several of Celina's imp's are shown in ''Webcomic/{{Imp}}''. He tends to bite his hand and talk in his sleep as well.
* [[http://the-qlc.com/loserz/go/180 This]] ''Webcomic/{{Loserz}}'' strip.
* No one seems to sleep that well in ''Webcomic/SlightlyDamned'', as a significant portion of the characters get either nightmares or RecurringDreams.
* ''Webcomic/ZombieAndMummy'' "...[[http://www.zombie-and-mummy.org/have_a/nightmare.html have a nightmare]]"

* ppWesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}} Anya/Anastasia]] has a nightmare on a stormy night at sea. While things start off with her family swimming around happily in the water beckoning her to join them, they then suddenly turn into [[BigBad Rasputin]]'s demon minions. It's made even more horrible by the fact that Anya is a sleepwalker, so when she watches her family's swimming from a cliff she's actually standing at the railing of the deck, and the demons are trying to make her fall into a certain death. Rasputin instigated the dream in the first place, and the sleepwalking, as well - he was trying to use his dark magic to make her commit suicide in her sleep. When Dimitri stops her from throwing herself into the water, the spell is broken and the dream becomes a nightmare.

* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'' has a dream sequence where Woody is thrown in a garbage can, and when he tries to crawl out he is pulled back by a mass of discarded toy parts working together to form a giant ''Anime/{{Akira}}''-style tentacle. They were originally going to use this in the first movie as well. There's also an episode of the Toy Story Shorts that is based around this entire trope.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'', Moses has a hieroglyphic-depicted nightmare of himself being in the village where the Hebrews reside and he sees the Egyptian guards taking the newborn sons away from their mothers. He also sees his biological mother and siblings running to the Nile while hiding from the guards. He follows them and he sees his mother putting a baby in a basket. That baby is him, and he realizes the truth about his true heritage. Then, he runs away from Egyptian guards who are chasing him and he falls down into the crocodile-infested river along with the newborn infants.

* In the animated film ''WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}}'', Anya/Anastasia the title heroine has a nightmare during the boat scenes at stormy night while things start off with her family swimming around happily in the water beckoning her to join them, they then suddenly turn into the bat-like demon minions of undead sorcerer Rasputin. It's made even more horrible by the fact that Anya is a sleepwalker, so when she watches her family's swimming from a cliff she's actually standing at the railing of the deck, and the demons are trying to make her fall into a certain death. The dream was caused by Rasputin in the first place, and so was the sleepwalking - he was trying to use his dark magic to make her commit suicide in her sleep. When Dimitri stops her from throwing herself into the water, that's when the spell is broken and the dream becomes a nightmare.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBraveLittleToaster'' featured [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEdZh8a4ZvE nightmare sequences]] where the titular Toaster is menaced by a horrifying MonsterClown in a fireman outfit, then [[ElectrifiedBathtub falls to his doom into a bathtub]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKingIISimbasPride'', Simba has a nightmare where he tries and fails to save his father from falling to his death in the wildebeest stampede, and is then thrown into the gorge himself by Kovu.

* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'' had a dream sequence where Woody is thrown in a garbage can, and when he tries to crawl out he is pulled back by a mass of discarded toy parts working together to form a giant Akira-style tentacle. They were originally going to use this in the first movie as well. There's also an episode of the Toy Story Shorts that is based around this entire trope.

* In the [[WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} RWBY]] fanfic [[FanFic/VariousVytalVentures Various Vytal Ventures]] this makes up the majority of the '[[WhatDoTheyFearEpisode Hide and Seek]]' chapter, where a Nightmare Grimm is purposefully stirring up such sequences in the characters minds.

May overlap with CatapultNightmare, if the character having the nightmare wakes up by flinging themselves up from the bed in fright. FlashbackNightmare is a subtrope of this (and PastExperienceNightmare) where the nightmare is shown as a {{flashback}} the character's DarkAndTroubledPast. See also IrritationNightmare.

* ''Animation/PleasantGoatandBigBigWolf'': In the near end of ''Happy Diary'' episode 46, Wilie have a bad dream where he founds that his parents has returned to their castle, only to found out shortly not after, they were taken away in chains by an invisible hand, leaving Wilie alone stranding in the black void.

* ''Animation/PleasantGoatandBigBigWolf'': In the near end of ''Happy Diary'' episode 46, Wilie founds that his parents has returned to their castle, only to found out shortly not after, they were taken away in chains by an invisible hand, leaving Wilie alone stranding in the black void.

* ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryIV'':
** The game has literal Nightmare Fuel in the form of a [[ShoutOut Cask of]] [[Creator/EdgarAllanPoe Amon Tillado]], a wine that gives the drinker dark visions of the local EldritchAbomination rising to destroy the world.
** Also the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDidcsqWres nightmares]] you have when you sleep in Erana's garden or under her staff.
* Entering a little girl's dreams in ''VideoGame/YumeNikki''? That can't possibly be so-OHMYGODWHATWASTHAT!? Madotsuki, you have problems.
* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' has loads of these, most of which are your own memories, the rest being sensory stones (devices which store and can recall memories, experiences and sensations).
** One particularly nightmarish example is a sensation through which a night hag [[spoiler:Ravel Puzzlewell]] decides to contact you. Upon touching a sensory stone, you find yourself inside the body of a traveller who once sought her out. She took both of his or her eyes, the tongue, both arms and hacked off the legs below the knees. The night hag then tells the traveller to return to Sigil to deliver her message, or else ''"ANOTHER bite shall she a-take"''. While you listen to the message, you're trapped in that traveller's body, with all sensations that come with it.

* In ''Film/{{Bad Dreams|1988}}'', the protagonist Cynthia, who went into a coma after barely surviving a mass suicide, is tormented by images of the dead cult leader, Harris.