History Main / NightmareSequence

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'': The whole plot of "Blood Diamonds", where Alex, fearing exposure to Ebola virus, has a nightmare that ends with Walker and Trivette's deaths. The end of the episode was all just a dream... OrWasItADream

* The title character of ''Literature/TheBFG'' is a giant who travels to DreamLand to catch dreams, and then blow the nice ones through the windows of sleeping humans. He generally makes it a policy to destroy the nightmares, but his human friend, Sophie, convinces him to make a specific nightmare to send to UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen, warning her about the other giants and their [[ToServeMan people-eating ways]]. They feel very bad about it, but it's the only way they can prepare the Queen to believe them when they ask for her help in getting rid of the giants.

* ''Literature/MaxAndTheMidknightsBattleOfTheBodkins'': In chapter 4, Max has a nightmare where she's kicked out of knight school, and her friends leave her for her Bodkin. Max wakes up from her nightmare [[CatapultNightmare by sitting right up and going "'''[=GAH!=]'''"]].

* [[https://64.media.tumblr.com/62609be982075891ce843c16cd9fcbd2/f150913a9da5db93-f0/s1280x1920/61ea4658f5a2387cb48289286ee51ca7a3e010b8.pnj This]] comic features a creator herself having a nightmare about Newton (from ''VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet3 Little Big Planet 3'' getting possessed by the Titans''; only if [[AllJustADream she noticed about the picture frame of her and Normal!Newton Pud, however]].

* [[https://64.media.tumblr.com/62609be982075891ce843c16cd9fcbd2/f150913a9da5db93-f0/s1280x1920/61ea4658f5a2387cb48289286ee51ca7a3e010b8.pnj This]] comic features a creator herself having a nightmare about ''VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet3 Newton getting possessed by the Titans''; only if [[AllJustADream she noticed about the picture frame of her and Normal!Newton Pud, however]].

* Played with on ''Series/TheDailyShow'' for Hallowe'en 2001. Creator/SteveCarell, reporting on a haunted house, complains that it isn't scary enough. A dream sequence follows involving his high school gym coach, Creator/StephenColbert as the show's new host, and clips from ''Corky Romano''. He wakes up screaming - next to Jon Stewart. They ''both'' scream. [[spoiler:But only because they weren't expecting to see a camera in their bedroom.]]

** One episode focuses on Oscar having nightmares about happy people (seeing as he's a [[GrumpyBear Grouch]].)

[[/folder]]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Known to be truth in television. Casual nightmares can be horrifying to the extreme, overshadowing the goriest of gratuitous horror films. Reports of dreams such as watching a person being skinned alive, or worse ''doing the skinning'' in hyper-realistic detail. What is truly baffling about these dreams is that they can and do occur to people who are well adjusted, and don't reflect reality to a great extent. In other cases, intense horrifying imagery is one indicator of repressed emotions, trauma, and emotional baggage. Even then, the nightmares may seem disproportionately frightening. And God help you if you have nightmares 5 times per week. That'd ruin the relief of rest.

* ''{{Series/Legion|2017}}'': In "Chapter 26", while asleep on the plane ride to Morocco, Charles Xavier has a nightmare where he's watching a play where a matador kills a bull. When the matador removes the mask of the dead actor in the bull costume, it's revealed to be Charles who's lying in pools of his own blood onstage. The grotesque Devil with the Yellow Eyes suddenly appears next to him and growls, "You should never have come." Charles then abruptly wakes up out of fright.

* ''WesternAnimation/ShrekTheThird'' contains a sequence where Shrek is back home, safe and sound... until he's suddenly near-crushed by a literal flood of babies. Plus "Baby Donkey" and Baby Puss n' Boots". "'''DADA!'''"

* ''{{Series/Legion|2017}}'': In "Chapter 26", while asleep on the plane ride to Morocco, Charles Xavier has a nightmare where he's watching a play where a matador kills a bull. When the matador removes the mask of the dead actor in the bull costume, it's revealed to be Charles who's lying in pools of his own blood onstage. The grotesque Devil with the Yellow Eyes suddenly appears next to him and growls, "You should never have come." Charles then suddenly wakes up out of fright.

Some dreams are heart-warming visions of hope, filled with [[TastesLikeDiabetes cute and cuddly creatures, so delightful they make you want to fall asleep right away]]. Other dreams...aren't.

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* 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/BaitAndSwitchSTO'': Eleya's recurring FlashbackNightmare of the time ten years ago she was stabbed while repelling a BoardingParty.
* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': Mittens's lack of sleep in "The Insomniac" stems from a series of bad dreams that wake her up and upset her.
* ''Fanfic/TheBoyWhoCriedIdiot'': At one point, Lincoln has a nightmare about being chased by clones of Martin.
* ''Fanfic/TheChildOfLove'': In chapter 3 Asuka has a nightmare in which her mother’s disembodied voice urges her to die with her.
* ''Fanfic/ChildrenOfAnElderGod'': Shinji has one in chapter 5. It starts quite innocently, looking like a fairy tale where knight Shinji has to move all of Princess Asuka's possessions to become a god, and he is helped by a horde of cute penguins. Then it takes an increasingly unsettling turn when he is led deep underground until a vast subterranean lake filled with a bubbling, seething sludge from which formed tendrils. Shinji tried to back away and then a horde grabbed him, ripped his clothes and threw him naked in the lake. And ''then'' it got real disturbing.
* ''Fanfic/GhostsOfEvangelion'': The night before her birthday, Asuka has a very violent, bloody nightmare where the MP-Evas eat her alive again.
* ''Fanfic/{{HERZ}}'': In chapter 2 Asuka has a nightmare where she dreams of the Angel War and how weak she felt when Zeruel destroyed her, how defiled she felt after Ariel’s MindRape, how worthless and useless she felt after being unable moving her Eva to fight Armisael, and what it was like when the MP-Evas tore her apart.
* In ''Fanfic/IfFirestarNeverJoinedThunderClan'', Grayflight has a disturbing dream about his Clan dying and then a tiger rips his head off. In the second book it doesn't get better. Bristlepaw has a nightmare where [[spoiler:Blackstar and his Clan]] capture them and worship fire. [[spoiler:It's scarier when the dream comes true.]]
* The ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'' fic ''Fanfic/{{Intercom}}'' originally had one, where Riley sees [[spoiler:a future version of herself, driven mad by the voices in her head.]] This was cut after the author saw the movie and realized that Dream Productions doesn't work like that.
* In ''Fanfic/JonathanJoestarTheFirstJoJo'', Jonathan has one at the beginning of chapter 3, where he's [[TorsoWithAView punched through the torso by]] [[BigBad Heaven Ascension Dio]] and left there to bleed out.
* ''Fanfic/LastChildOfKrypton'': In chapter 11, Shinji and Asuka suffered several nightmares as they fought Leliel’s psychic assault. Shinji saw his self choking Asuka on a beach under a red sky, and Asuka saw a version younger of herself turning into a monstrous, blood-stained doll and urging her to die with her before strangling her.
* In the ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' fanfic ''FanFic/{{Left}}'', Frodo has a nightmare about finding out that he murdered Sam when Sam offered to share the Ring.
* In the ''Series/LaverneAndShirley'' fanfiction ''[[http://knapp-street.org/Cheshyre/MilkNPepsi.html Milk 'n' Pepsi]]'', Laverne has a nightmare in which she dies after giving birth. Its sequel, ''[[http://knapp-street.org/CheshMissy/DrinkWater1.html Drink the Water]]'', focuses on Laverne worrying that the nightmare will come true.
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8724152/1/Morticia-s-Nightmare Morticia's Nightmare]]'' is a fanfiction of ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'', in which Morticia has a nightmare where her husband Gomez dies.
* In ''Fanfic/MyLittlePonyAUFanficMutant'', Twilight has one that involves Yog-sooth in the third chapter.
* In episode 10 of ''Fanfic/NeonGenesisEvangelionGenocide'', Asuka has a nightmare: she relives her mother's madness and suicide, sees her mother's rag doll hanging from a ceiling, and hears several disembodied voices declaring that they hate her, before feeling a noose tightening around her neck.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/TheNightmareHouse'', everyone has a nightmare, like the title implies. Lori dreams that her siblings don't need her and she shrinks, Leni dreams that she gets immobilised and fed to spiders, Luna dreams that she gets trash-talked by her idol and an old lady, Luan dreams that her audience are all statues and Mr. Coconuts is sentient and mean, Lynn dreams that she accidentally decapitates Lincoln, Lucy dreams that she gets vomited on by possessed dancers, Lana dreams that she gets brainwashed into behaving more stereotypically feminine, Lola dreams that her facial features drop off, Lisa dreams that she gets sent to daycare and babied by an evil teddy bear, Lily dreams that the mortgage is a baby-eating monster, and finally Lincoln dreams that evil creatures replaced his sisters.
* In ''{{FanFic/Nosflutteratu}}'', after spending the evening researching vampires Twilight Sparkle has one of these.
* In ''Fanfic/OnceMoreWithFeeling'' Shinji suffered nightmares where he revived the battle against Sandalphon, except that he missed when he tried to rescue Asuka, and she sank, begging him to save her.
* ''Fanfic/TheOneILoveIs'': In chapter 11 Shinji has a nightmare where he relives his worst failures: first he sees Unit-00 fighting Armisael and blowing up. Then Rei appears and says that he let her die before bursting into flame. Right after Asuka shows up, accuses him from never loving her and betraying her trust, and then slits her wrist. When Shinji tries to touch her, her body erupts in a shower of blood, covering him whole. Shinji screams and then he wakes up.
* Both Yang and Cinder get these in ''FanFic/TheRWBYLoops'', with separate causes and each preying on their insecurities. Notably, Yang's are guided by a specific entity and, eventually, she manages to conquer the issue without losing her mind; Cinder's are portrayed as surreal and mind-breaking, probably because they're caused by Slenderman, and by the time she shakes them off she is utterly insane.
* In chapters 2 and 4 of ''Fanfic/TheSecondTry'', Shinji and Asuka have several nightmares where they revive the events of [[MindScrew Instrumentality]].
* ''Fanfic/ThousandShinji'': In chapter 13, Rei has several awful dreams where she kills Asuka and Shinji kills her in retaliation or he kills himself and she tries to commit suicide to join Shinji and Asuka in the Afterlife.
* ''Fanfic/UniverseFalls'':
** In part one of "Sock Opera", a sleep-deprived Dipper nods off and has a nightmare about [[spoiler: Lapis Lazuli and Jasper, who are trapped as Malachite at the bottom of Lake Gravity Falls.]]
** "Do It For Them" opens with Dipper having a nightmare inspired by the events of "Sock Opera". [[spoiler: Dipper is reunited with Lapis Lazuli, only for her to turn out to be possessed by Bill Cipher. As Bill taunts Dipper, Dipper falls off a cliff and turns into a wooden puppet.]] Making it worse is that it's the latest in a series of nightmares Dipper has been having, and it's ambiguous as to whether they're happening on their own or if Bill Cipher is deliberately tormenting Dipper in his dreams ForTheEvulz.
* In the [[WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} RWBY]] fanfic ''FanFic/VariousVytalVentures'' 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.
* During the epilogue of ''Fanfic/TheVow'', Shen dreams as a helpless spectator [[spoiler:his attack on the panda village, including his chase of the infant Po and his mother that ended with him murdering her, except that he's chasing his wife Lianne and their infant son. Unlike Po's mother, Lianne doesn't get a chance to hide her son before she's caught by Shen's wolves and killed by Shen personally, exactly the same way he killed Po's mother in real life]]. The nightmare ends with [[spoiler:the dream version of Shen [[OffingTheOffspring ordering his son to be killed]]]].
* ''[[Fanfic/{{Eleutherophobia}} War Games]]'' begins with Tom having a nightmare where he's a [[AndIMustScream Controller]] again and is forced to kill his family.
* In ''RolePlay/WeAreAllPokemonTrainers'':
** Fool goes through a rather freaky one during the AU Arc in which she sees herself (The one she identifies as "[[EnemyWithin Sol]]") ''using the corpses of Pokemon that she murdered as marionette puppets''. A ShoutOut to a very similar scene in WesternAnimation/{{Felidae}}.
** Happens to Sakura not too long after her debut, she mentions that it happens frequently, but they stopped once she found Lyuri.
** Straw goes through these at least somewhat often, such as being stabbed by Jab and [[spoiler:dreaming Crewe died and he was only finding this out when he was married to Elise.]]
** Tagg has one following the Orre arc after drinking himself unconscious at Kat's wedding.
* ''Fanfic/TheMeaningOfHarmony'' has many of these and even opens on one, all involving Sunset's magic going out of control, and the world turning to crystal. They get progressively worse as more Forges are activated.
* ''Fanfic/ADiplomaticVisit'': Twilight has a brief one in chapter 21, of Chrysalis destroying books (two of her worst fears in one), before Princess Luna intervenes.
* ''Fanfic/OneGirlWithTenBrothers'': Luke has a nightmare where his brothers beat him up while shouting homophobic slurs and his parents throw him out of the house for being bisexual and dating a boy, all while Linka, who's the only one who knows about his sexuality so far, is powerless to help him or stop the other Louds. It increases [[{{Gayngst}} the insecurity he has about his sexuality]].
* In ''Fanfic/WhatYouWishFor'', [[WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse Lori Loud]] has a nightmare where a [[RedEyesTakeWarning red-eyed]] Carol Pingrey claims Lincoln is ''her'' brother now.
* Fighting Hell starts to take its toll on Team RWBY in ''Fanfic/RemnantInferisDOOM'', with each of them (and other characters) having horrific nightmares as a result.
** Ruby has a disturbing one involving a mutilated, deformed version of her mother trying to drown her in a pit of blood and gore; condemning her for following in the Huntress' lifestyle.
** Weiss dreams that she loses her fight against the Gigas first seen in the White trailer, her father Jacques sells Atlas out to Hell and she's dragged away by two Imps wearing SDC vests.
** Blake has nightmares of the Slayer killing off all of the White Fang, including her father and Ilia.
** Cinder has a nightmare remembering her parents summoning a demon that proceeded to kill them and all the other cultists, with her being the only survivor of the attack due to Salem rescuing her.
** Yang has one where an Imp's arm thrusts out of the pancake batter Summer was making and kills her in front of the child Yang.
* Part of Fanfic/GoneWrong depects [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit Roger's]] nightmare.
* In ''Fanfic/{{Enlightenments}}'', Wander has very frequent nightmares. They're mostly about being on the wrong end of an abusive relationship with his wife or his experiences with being forced to kill children.
* ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'': In the midst of Act 2's ''very'' heavy PsychologicalHorror based arc, Goh is subjected into something called "nightmare therapy" (based off a wish from Parker to have him learn his lesson on how to be a better friend to Chloe as Goh's insensitivity is the basis of Chloe running onto the Infinity Train) where he is told off by construts of Ash, Tokio and Raboot for how insensitive he was, got to see what happened if Chloe stayed like he wanted (involving her jumping off the school's rooftop) and having him repeat the same scenario that caused Chloe to run away from home, failing every time until his guide simply ''apologizes'' as if to highlight how easy it is if Goh was not obsessed over Mew and started being a friend. The events are so horrific, it ends with Goh giving up on life and burying himself alife in the nightmare...and when he wakes up, the stress from it all sends him into a ''suicide ward''. Should we mention that Goh is ''10''?!
* ''Fanfic/{{Syngenesophobia}}'': Lincoln’s mental trauma causes him to have several nightmares about his sisters torturing him. So far, four of them are shown in detail:
** In Chapter 3; it involves Lincoln being chained to the floor of his house, while his sisters, now looking like demons, prepare to kill him with various weapons and blame him for every bad thing that happens in the house.
** Chapter 14 has a prolonged scene based on the events from "Making the Case", in which the girls get so mad at Lincoln for uploading the embarrassing videos of them that they try to murder him in various ways. A few examples: Lisa planting a bomb under his bed, Lola sicking her stuffed animals (which suddenly come to life) on him, Lynn attacking him with a mace, Lucy making her bats attack him, and finally Lori and Leni attempting to crush Lincoln with their beds.
** Chapter 22 features one about Lisa feeding him to sharks that look like the other sisters.
** Lincoln suffers another one in chapter 23, when he falls asleep in class. He dream that he [[DreamWithinADream wakes up]] in an empty classroom, with everyone else having gone outside for recess. Then five of his sisters come in and corner him.
** In chapter 25, Lincoln has one in which he and his sisters are Ace Savvy and the Full House gang, but they (minus Deuce/Lily, who in this dream has had a PlotRelevantAgeUp) violently turn on him after several of his plans to capture the villains fail. This nightmare actually leads to a B-plot involving multiple connecting dreams in which Ace and Deuce plan revenge on the Full House Gang.
** Chapter 26 features a continuation of the dream, in which One-Eyed Jack/Clyde snuck into the Full House Gang's base and stole a healing liquid. Afterwards, Ace/Lincoln contacts additional help, that being Lady Ace-assin/Ronnie Anne, depicted here as a female expy of ComicBook/{{ThePunisher}}.
*** In the same chapter, Lincoln describes a nightmare to Dr. Lopez in which Lisa botches a sex-change operation performed on him and he bleeds to death.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/AnAmericanWerewolfInLondon'':
** There's one upsetting nightmare scene in which the protagonist sees his family shot in their home by what can only be described as [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Zombie Werewolf Nazi Goblins]]. The fact that ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' is playing on the television doesn't help. Quite possibly one of the most horrifying nightmares in all of film.
** Then there's the one where he's seen biting a deer.
* In ''Film/BadDreams'', the protagonist Cynthia, who went into a coma after barely surviving a mass suicide, is tormented by images of the dead cult leader, Harris.
* In ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', [[Comicbook/{{Batman}} Bruce]] has several nightmare sequences, the first one being the opening of the film itself, with Bruce reliving [[DeathByOriginStory his parent's murder]], and the day of their funeral, where he accidentally fell into the caves beneath the Wayne estate, disturbing the bats within. Although it's subverted with the "Knightmare", where Bruce finds himself in a wasteland that was once Gotham, as a [[LaResistance resistance fighter]] against an oppressive regime led by Comicbook/{{Superman}}. The fact that the nightmare contains things Bruce doesn't know about at this point, such as [[Comicbook/NewGods Parademons]], and the appearance of [[Comicbook/TheFlash Barry Allen]] at the end with an OminousMessageFromTheFuture, makes this clear this wasn't a dream, but a vision of a BadFuture.
* In the 1996 film ''Film/TheCableGuy'', the main character Steven has a nightmare in which Chip (Creator/JimCarrey) pounds on the door a few times but there's no answer, but later he bursts through the door and snarls, "I JUST WANT TO HANG OUT. ...NO BIG DEAL!" and chases him. This nightmare is a parody of the chase scene from ''Wolf''.
* ''Film/TheDayTheEarthCaughtFire'' plays the sequence throughout the movie. What starts with two atomic bombs being activated at the same time, ends with the Earth gradually being pulled towards the Sun.
* ''Film/DeathWish4TheCrackdown'' opens with Kersey confronting three muggers who beat and rape a girl. When Kersey kills all three, the last one he rolls over turns out to be himself. Kersey then wakes up via CatapultNightmare.
* A whimsical example in ''Film/EarthGirlsAreEasy'': In the afterglow of her night with [[MagicalGirlfriend alien paramour Mac]], Valerie slips into a DeliberatelyMonochrome dream that starts with a TV set screening clips from ''Film/EarthVsTheFlyingSaucers'' and, as she desperately changes the channel, the 1946 ''Film/{{Beauty and the Beast|1946}}'' -- the latter confronting her with her romantic dilemma: Should she go with Mac to his home world, since he's leaving as soon as his ship is fixed? She then looks outside to find that the familiar faces of her neighborhood are all aliens of various sorts, and as she runs through her house in a panic there are even more creatures and robots running amok. She tries to turn to her Earthly (and unfaithful) fiance Ted for help, only to see him start attacking pre-makeover Mac as the dream dissolves.
* There's a good chance that ''Film/{{Eraserhead}}'' is entirely made out of this trope.
* Two-thirds into ''Film/TheFall'', Alexandria accidentally falls off a shelf and bumps her head, sending her into a trippy montage merging together random fantasy sequences (including the FramingDevice story she's being told throughout the rest of the film), a personal flashback to her village being raided, and a terrifyingly uncanny StopMotion sequence of a doll being operated on (tortured?) by mysterious figures in hoods.
* In ''Film/TheFly1986'' Veronica (Creator/GeenaDavis), having found out she's pregnant by a man who is undergoing a SlowTransformation into a HalfHumanHybrid, subsequently has a nightmare in which she gives birth to a squirming maggot-like creature. The film originally was to have an epilogue that included a DreamSequence in which a human baby with butterfly wings emerges from a chrysalis as a hopeful counterpart to this, and answering the question of whether she would bring her pregnancy to term or not, but none of the ''four'' filmed versions of the sequence played well with the creators or test audiences so the film instead closes with [[spoiler: her lover's death by her hand]] and leaves the question unanswered.
* The film ''Film/TheGhostAndTheDarkness'' has a scene after the protagonist kills the first lion. The railroad construction is back on track and his wife is coming to visit with their new baby. [[CatapultNightmare And then the other lion comes running out of the grass.]]
* In ''Film/{{Gothika}}'', the main character suffers two of these.
* Michael and Laurie have these in ''Film/HalloweenII2009''.
* In ''Film/HerbieRidesAgain'', CorruptCorporateExecutive Alonzo Hawk is tormented in his dreams by evil Volkswagen Beetles after Herbie thwarts his evil schemes.
* In ''Film/HollowMan'', Linda is fast asleep in bed with the windows wide open. Suddenly, the bed covers slip off of her and Caine crawls onto her bed, takes her underwear off, and begins to rape her. And then she wakes up with the bed covers still on her.
** In a similar manner, ''Film/RosemarysBaby'', has a sequence in which Rosemary is [[spoiler:drugged and undressed by her husband and a local cult, and then raped in her sleep by the devil. She later awakens to discover that she is pregnant, but her husband goes along with her assumption that he "went ahead and did it".]]
* ''Film/TheLazarusEffect'' has Zoe's recurring nightmare of a fire when she was young.
* ''Film/LostCreek'': After meeting Maggie, [[TheProtagonist Peter]] starts having nightmares about a distorting sounding voice calling out to him.
* ''Film/MissionImpossibleFallout'' opens with Ethan having one of these. It has Ethan marrying Julia in what appears to be at a lake, when the priest is revealed to be Solomon Lane, who tells Ethan that he should have killed him. A nuclear explosion suddenly appears and vaporizes all three before he wakes up.
** There's another one later in the film, when Ethan's sleeping in the back of the team van on the way to London. This dream also features Julia and Lane, and Ethan wakes just as suddenly and silently, looking just as shaken.
** Ethan has a vivid nightmare/hallucination sequence while traumatized and sleep-deprived in [[Film/MissionImpossible the first film]] as well, this one heavily blurring the boundaries between dream and reality.
* The "Moloch Machine" sequence from the silent classic ''Film/{{Metropolis}}''. After witnessing a dreadful accident, Freder hallucinates one of the machines in the lower levels of the city is a shrine to a GodOfEvil, consuming the workers killed in keeping it running like human sacrifices.
* ''Film/{{Monkeybone}}'' has many - a drug that could be described as "Nightmare Fuel" is even a plot point.
* Liu Kang has one of these after being knocked unconscious by Nightwolf in ''Film/MortalKombatAnnihilation''.
* The heroine in ''Film/NextOfKin1982'' experiences two of these over the course of the film, both hinting at events from her childhood and the possibility of a family curse. In the first, she sees herself as a young girl wandering the deserted hallways of the Montclare retirement home while carrying a red ball. In the second, she sees a recent drowning victim [[SurrealHorror swimming towards her window and tapping at it]].
* The entire ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'' series is themed around this, as Freddy Krueger attacks his victims through nightmares. Even worse, considering how much power he has over the dreamscape, he is able to manipulate your dreams according to your fears, desires and insecurities. Makes the glove itself feel like being put to sleep in comparison, not to mention a more merciful death at that (let's just say the multitude of freakish nightmares some of the teenagers suffer increase in frequency the further the series progresses rather than describe them).
* ''Film/PeeWeesBigAdventure'' has two of these -- in the first one he sees a stop-motion dinosaur eat his beloved, missing bicycle, and in the second [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7kw0WiUB5c there's evil clowns and even a trip to Hell!]] A third scene was also filmed involving a giant monkey (which is actually Francis), but was deleted.
* Rambo has one of these in ''Film/RamboIV'', which culminates in Trautman shooting Rambo in the stomach, which was from the original planned ending for ''Film/FirstBlood''.
* ''Film/TheSecretGarden'': Mary, at one point, has a bad dream in which her mother leaves her in a jungly version of the garden, and she's a little kid.
* Another Creator/WesCraven movie, ''Film/TheSerpentAndTheRainbow'', includes several zombie-themed nightmares suffered by the protagonist.
* The dream sequence the main character in ''Film/SonOfTheMask'' has. His wife being pregnant and giving birth... only to reveal that she is pregnant with many, many, ''many'' babies, all squirming and crying with fanged mouths.
* ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' opens with Picard finding himself inside a Borg cube and part of the collective hive mind, before he's experimented on and his eyes are almost pierced by a needle. There's a fakeout where it seems like he's woken up, but then a Borg implant bursts out of his cheek before he wakes up for real.
* ''Film/StrangeNature'': Kim has one about her son growing up into a deformed mutant with a half-frog face as a result of living in her town. In the dream, after eating, he goes into a small room, puts a gun to his head, and says "Thanks, mom." before shooting himself. She wakes at the sound of the gunfire.
* Sarah Connor is plagued by this trope and its [[UsefulNotes/NuclearWeapons contents]] in the movie ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay''.
** Likewise, Kyle's dreams/flashbacks in the original movie.
** Given in ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' Ripley has a nightmare about a ChestBurster, the [[Creator/JamesCameron director]] has a thing for this.
* Briefly parodied in ''Film/TopSecret'': Nick's back in high school! It's the day of the big chemistry test and he hasn't studied! Then he wakes up and realizes he's actually a prisoner in an East German torture dungeon. "Thank God!"
* ''Film/VanillaSky'', [[spoiler:the whole movie IS a nightmare, but there are many scenes picturing a dream/nightmare inside a nightmare/dream]]
* Certain scenes of ''Film/{{Videodrome}}''. It's [[UnreliableNarrator hard to say]] which.
%% * ''Film/TheWolfman2010''.
* The basis of ''Film/TheEvilWithin'' is that Dennis has been having these since he was 4. He even lampshades how dreams generally lack logic, making them sound ridiculous when you try to explain them, but his special dreams, while surreal and terrifying, make perfect sense, and their narrative continues through the dreams.
* ''Film/UnderTheBed'': Paulie falls asleep in his theater group and has a nightmare. It ends with a man with black gunk on his face popping in and shouting "Wake Up!" at Paulie, causing him to [[CatapultNightmare wake up and freak out]].
* There's a horror movie from the early '60s called ''The Mask'' (no relation to ''Film/TheMask'' with Creator/JimCarrey) about a cursed Aztec death mask that prompts visions like this, eventually driving the wearer to madness and murder. The nightmare sequences drip with SurrealHorror, and are easily the high point of what is otherwise a rather unremarkable movie.
* ''Film/TheZombieApocalypseInApartmenr14F'': Raymond and Joey have a few nightmares over the course of the film about zombies. Whether it be getting caught by zombies, or discovering Red is one of them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/AbsentedAgeSquarebound'': In the Warehouse Driftworld, [[spoiler:Karen is captured by the Gangers and has a nightmare where they slowly take away her identity while her friends reject her existence. Eventually, she wakes up in her Heart's Core, where she meets the talking flower. The flower tells her that she only experienced a nightmare, but if she gets too absorbed into it and succumbs to her fear of rejection, it'll have [[YourMindMakesItReal become real due to her own belief]].]]
* In ''VideoGame/AmbridgeMansion'', at the beginning of the games, you play through Silas' nightmares. You wander around a creepy monster-infested house until you die in your dream.
* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' has multiple dream sequences throughout. Most consist merely of {{Breaking Speech}}es, although the one you get just after receiving the Slayer Form is kind of creepy...
* In VideoGame/{{Bastion}}, The Kid walks right into one of these while exploring Jawson's Bog, thanks to the [[MushroomSamba hallucinogenic properties of the place]]. In his dream, he has to fight his way through a series of unsettling landscapes... [[spoiler:with the Narrator [[MissionControlIsOffItsMeds actively speaking against him.]]]]
* The battles with Scarecrow in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' are this, thanks to copious amounts of fear toxins.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'', [[spoiler:both the Hunter's Dream and Nightmare of Mensis are formed by two rivaling [[EldritchAbomination Great Ones]] with surrogate hosts, The Nightmare of Mensis was formed by Mergo using Queen Yharnam and Micolash as the host to grant insight to the School of Mensis, while the Hunter's Dream was formed by Moon Presence using [[DeathSeeker Gehrman]] as the host in order to [[StartXToStopX undo the Great One's unintentional madness]] brought to Yharnam, and this is the exact origin of the Hunt. The [[CosmicHorrorStory entire story of Yharnam]] revolves around the two rivaling nightmares, and you can explore the two nightmares to uncover the truth of the dreams.]]
* In ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'', Catie suffers from strange nightmares throughout her adventure, always involving three unknown women and a host of mysterious voices crying for help. It turns out to be [[spoiler:the three missing pieces of her soul trying to reunite with her before it’s too late]].
* ''BioShockInfinite/BurialAtSea Episode 2'' begins with a happy dream in Paris that quickly turns into a nightmare, [[spoiler:with Elizabeth chasing a girl through the dark and stormy streets, passing a picture that foreshadows Atlas's torture of her, and ending with Elizabeth surrounded by screaming children trapped inside burning vents.]]
* Vincent's nightmares in ''VideoGame/{{Catherine}}''. He has to make his way up staircases made of blocks to reach the top. If he fails (falling off the stage, crushed by falling blocks, caught in traps or being killed by the weird creatures that pursue him), then [[YourMindMakesItReal he dies in real life]].
* ''VideoGame/DarkMessiah'' has a few nightmare cutscenes, which are made worse by the fact that they're in '''first-person''' like the rest of the game. The worst part of those dreams was [[spoiler:they turn out to be the truth, and the thing you thought was real was the ACTUAL dream.]]
* Horror puzzle game ''VideoGame/{{DARQ}}'' is set entirely within the nightmares of a boy who has become aware that he is dreaming and needs to [[DreamWeaver use what control he can exert over the nightmares]] to try and escape. This allows him to [[GravityScrew walk up and down walls]], [[RealityWarper twist and warp the world like a rubik's cube]] through the use of conveniently-placed handles, and in one extreme case, [[OffWithHisHead cut off his own head]] to use it as the final piece of a puzzle, but he also has to avoid horrible monsters that will kill him if they get their hands on him.
* The ''VideoGame/DeepSleepTrilogy'' has the protagonist stuck inside of a lucid-nightmare, being chased by figures who resemble moving shadows. This is ultimately played with though, as it turns out early in the second game that these are ''more'' than just dreams and the protagonist is actively stuck inside it.
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''
** Vaermina, the [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Prince]] of [[YourWorstNightmare Nightmares]], exists to cause these in mortals. By inflicting a mortal with ceaseless, horrific nightmares, she can cause a full blown MindRape.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'':
*** After a certain point during the main quest, the PlayerCharacter will start to have these everytime he/she rests due to the corrupting influence of [[BigBad Dagoth Ur]].
*** If the player character is inflicted with Vampirism, he/she will have nightmarish dreams when attempting to rest. Notably, resting no longer restores health, forcing the vampire to absorb it from other people and/or rely on potions/spells/enchantments to heal.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'':
*** In the quest "Through a Nightmare, Darkly", the PC uses a magical amulet to enter the nightmare world of a mage in order to rescue him. In his or her skivvies, no less.
*** In the Daedric quest of the aforementioned Vaermina, Vaermina sends the PC into a nightmarish world of burning corpses, molten lava, zombie-o-rama, only to find that the entire quest is the never-ending nightmare of a wizard who stole an artifact from Vaermina.
*** Like ''Morrowind'', a vampire player character will have these when attempting to rest if your "stage" of vampirism increases.
* ''VideoGame/FableII'' has a sequence in which [[spoiler:after you are shot by Lucien, you enter [[LotusEaterMachine a dreamlike state where Rose and your parents are still alive]], and live on a peaceful farm. At first, this is very pleasant, until nighttime. You wake up to the sound of a music box and leave the farm, but your sister follows. If you head down a path beyond a now-opened gate, your sister begs you not to leave and eventually vanishes with a desperate BigNo, and the area outside turns out to be full of fire and dead bodies, all while [[SoundtrackDissonance a music box is playing in the background]].]]
* ''VideoGame/FearEquation'' uses these as a means of indicating whenever the omnipresent fog is attacking your passengers by manifesting any recent nightmares they claim to have had. The effectiveness of said attack depends on what defenses have been constructed.
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', the creepy music and imagery in Shadow's first dream.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' has a nightmare sequence wherein Noctis finds himself fighting off Imperial soldiers and magitek armors, only to be robbed of his magical abilities.
* Gabriel's recurrent nightmare is a very important plot point in the first game, ''[[VideoGame/GabrielKnight Sins of the Fathers]]''. [[spoiler:It is actually tied to Gunter's last moments, and has been tormenting his descendants for 300 years.]]
* ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'' is chock full of these.
** In the first generation, a lot of {{Foreshadowing}} is involved, such as hinting that [[spoiler:the Point Man shares a bond with Alma, since, as Paxton Fettel says "She cannot see into your mind, but you can see into hers"]] or that [[spoiler:lieutenant Chen]] will be killed by a monster in ''Perseus Mandate''.
** The second game uses these as a sign that [[spoiler:Alma is trying to approach Becket sexually]].
* If the PlayerCharacter avoids socializing on her wedding night in ''VideoGame/{{Guenevere}}'', she's rewarded with a dream of being brutally murdered in her wedding dress, capped off with the appearance of a threatening, ominous young man.
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
** Except for the one with Zelda, any dream, hallucination, transformation sequence, flashback, abstract idea, or dizzy state in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' is overflowing with nightmarish elements.
** Nightmares open both ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword''. In ''Ocarina'', it's a precognitive dream foretelling Ganondorf chasing Impa and Zelda out of Castle Town. In ''Skyward Sword'', it's a dream about [[EldritchAbomination the Imprisoned]].
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' has one induced by Lanayru. It serves as exposition about the origin of the Fused Shadows. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWlJ2Zk62rU The images shown are very surreal.]]
* In a similar vein as the above, ''VideoGame/LSDDreamEmulator'' is just as disturbing.
* ''[[VideoGame/LunarTheSilverStar Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete]]'' has a brief but remarkably puissant sequence of nightmares. As Alex sleeps in the middle of the woods, we get treated to a cutscene of his nightmare. The kidnapped love interest, Luna, appears against a black background. Her singing can be heard in the background, along with her crying out Alex's name twice and a strange gurgling sound. The camera begins to zoom in on her and her shouts become more frantic. Suddenly, the singing stops and her voice warps into an unnatural low pitch (if there's such a thing as an UncannyValley for voices, this sequence nails it perfectly) and a bloody liquid suddenly floods the bottom of the screen.
* Shepard in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' has several over the course of the story, reflecting their SurvivorGuilt and increasing weariness as the [[HopelessWar Reaper War]] drags on. They consist of Shepard slowly chasing the young boy who died on Earth in the prologue through a desolate forest, while the voices of dead former squadmates echo in the background. When Shepard eventually catches up with the boy, he bursts into flames while Shepard is forced to watch. [[spoiler: In the final sequence, Shepard bursts into flames as well]].
* Zero's opening cutscene in ''VideoGame/MegaManX4'' has Zero waking up only to be ordered by Dr. Wily to destroy his arch-nemesis. Zero then suffers a headache as he's being forced to carry out those orders. The scene cuts to a laboratory, followed by Sigma screaming for his life, then we're treated to still shots of some Reploids brutally murdered with their mangled body parts and blood splattered throughout, Zero's blood-soaked hands, more dead bodies, then a close-up of one of his victims before finally waking up for real. Zero implies that he has this nightmare more than once.
** Zero's ending in ''VideoGame/MegaManX7'' has him standing in the middle of nowhere when X suddenly appears, charges his buster, and fires at Zero. [[CatapultNightmare Zero promptly wakes up as soon as he is hit]].
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' has a nightmare sequence that doubles as a minigame. If you save your game while Snake is in a prison cell, then load that save file, you'll get a brief minigame where you play as a hook-sword wielding warrior fighting zombies. After a few minutes, Snake jumps awake, and the game resumes as normal.
* ''Website/{{Neopets}}'' has a random event where everything goes wrong but it turns out to all have been a bad dream.
* ''VideoGame/NeverendingNightmares'' is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin basically]] a one huge Nightmare Sequence.
* In the same vein of the series above, ''VideoGame/NightmareHouse 2'' has several of these. [[spoiler:It's actually Romero trying to mess with your head by using his mind control Core.]]
* In ''VideoGame/NiGHTSJourneyOfDreams'':
** Helen feels guilty for constantly spending more time with her friends than with her mother. Shortly into her opening cutscene, she is walking down the street with two friends when she stops and sees something that reminds her of her mother in a store window. As she starts feeling guilty again, her mother's image appears faintly in the window. She gives Helen a sad gaze, but this abruptly turns into empty red eyes and a hideous snarl. The expression is just distorted enough to start heading into the UncannyValley, and the suddenness of it makes it as good as a screamer.
** Technically, every boss battle in both games is one of these. Most of the really creepy, surreal ones are in ''Journey of Dreams'', but Wizeman is horror in either.
* VideoGame/NightmareNed, one of Disney’s more obscure video games from the 90s, where you get inside the head of a 10-year-old boy and enter some [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids pretty horrifying nightmare worlds]] and help him make sense and overcome his fears.
* ''VideoGame/{{Oni}}'' features one when Konoko visits her father's lab. It's a [[NintendoHard particularly]] [[DifficultySpike tough]] level, featuring consecutive boss fights against the game's BigBad Muro, Konoko's superior Griffin and finally Konoko herself, interspersed with trippy imagery.
* ''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.
* ''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.
* This comprises the latter half of the ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}'' quest Dream Mentor.
* Each [[EpisodicGame episode]] of ''VideoGame/SallyFace'' starts with Sal's nightmares, ranging from memories of [[FacialHorror losing his face]] to meeting an oversized horribly emaciated nightmare-faced My Little Pony to being chased by a huge slug-like EldritchAbomination with a television camera for a head.
* During the two nighttime stages in ''VideoGame/{{Scratches}}'', both vaguely centered on [[ArtifactOfDoom an evil African mask]] hidden in the mansion. And each time Micheal wakes up, he hears [[ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight scratching noises coming from the basement]].
* Early in ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'', Ryo has a nightmare of Lan Di murdering his father.
* ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' has the "Dream Twister" Secret Project, which gives the known and liked Mind [[BodyHorror Worms]] a 50% bonus to their psionic attack by (judging by the cinematic) allowing them to tap into their victims' specific fears.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lva8L-J8x04 The clip that's played when the project is completed]] is based on the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQLLabj8Iyk Silent Scream]] from Baraka.
* ''VideoGame/SilentHillShatteredMemories'' has sequences where monsters chase you down, and all you can do is run and hide. They are referred to as "The Nightmare" by the game tutorial, but since Harry is the only speaking character to experience them, they barely get acknowledged, much less referred to by name.
** In VideoGame/SilentHill3, the opening level is a nightmare, which is ended by Heather being killed and waking up in a diner. [[spoiler:Turns out dreams come true in Silent Hill]].
** VideoGame/SilentHill2 seemingly shifts into this type of experience during and after exiting the [[AbandonedHospital hospital]]. This is the only time of the game where the town becomes [[DarkWorld dark]], for one. The character is lead to a "Historical Society"; from there, James encounters features unlikely to exist, such as a very-very long stairway, and very deep man-made-looking holes that don't cause injury from jumping into them. Also, one room has a deep hole that is protected by a prison bar-gate, with doors and ceiling features on the walls making this a hallway that has been rotated down 90 degrees. Additionally, James encounters a labyrinthine area with dead-end halls occasionally found. The nightmare seems to end after James gains a significant insight, and this places James back into the foggy town from earlier.
* This happens whenever you sleep in ''VideoGame/SpaceshipWarlock'', often depicting unsettling visions of the Kroll empire and the mysterious Stella Starbird who was brought onto the ship with you and her father. They end abruptly when Captain Hammer wakes you up with your next mission objective.
* ''VideoGame/TotalDistortion'' makes a couple of minigames out of this trope, where the general goal is to avoid nightmares that drain your mental energy, while solving a puzzle or collecting falling "Zs" to gain mental energy.
* In ''VideoGame/ToyStory'', the first BossBattle happens when Woody has a nightmare of being attacked by a flying, real-laser-shooting Buzz Lightyear. [[YourMindMakesItReal If he dies in the nightmare, he dies for real]]. It's also [[ThatOneBoss a particularly hard boss fight.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The opening scene of the ''[[WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers Galaxy Rangers]]'' episode "Psychocrypt". Made worse when you realize that it ''isn't'' a nightmare, but a form of MindRape the Queen is using on Zachary ''and'' his wife...
** There was also one of these in "Scarecrow." Niko has a nasty nightmare after the Scarecrow attacks her. She dreams of waking up in her own grave, and the Scarecrow jumping in to strangle her with his bare hands.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' episode "No Chipmunk is an Island", Alvin, Simon, and Theodore move into separate bedrooms after a fight, only to have nightmares about what would happen if they were left unchecked by each other's presence:
** Alvin dreams of living in a ridiculously opulent house with an enormous artificial wave pool. However, it uses so much electricity that a torch-and-pitchfork mob, led by Dave, Simon, and Theodore, chops a tree down onto his power lines, causing the wave pool to malfunction and send him spiralling down a whirlpool.
** Simon dreams of being a multi-Nobel Prize-winning scientist and inventor who is assisted in his discoveries by robotic versions of Alvin and Theodore. However, [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters they quickly break their programming]] and destroy Simon's experiments, then pursue him around his lab before throwing him into a glass tube that shrinks him to a height of six inches.
** Theodore dreams of life in an idyllic country cottage, where he is free to cook elaborate recipes with enormous portions. However, he eats so much that he and his teddy bear inflate like balloons and float away, attracting unwelcome attention from the US Air Force.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'':
** In "Germophobia", Buster has a dream where germs are visible and doing an EvilLaugh.
** In "Sick as a Dog", Arthur has a nightmare about bad things happening to his dog Pal at the vet.
** In "Arthur's Lost Library Book", Arthur has a truly terrifying nightmare about being haunted by ghosts, captured by the [[ExtendableArms literal]] long arm of the law, and punished in a barbaric manner for losing a library book (by having the library books he checks out chained to a ''crank'' the librarian operates). It's so scary Arthur even lets out ''all'' of his usual {{Stock Scream}}s, including of course his CatapultNightmare wake-up.
** In "D.W.'s Furry Freakout", D.W. has a nightmare where a giant cat is attacking Elwood City.
** IN "Francine Redecorates" Francine has a nightmare where she is attacked in her room by an [[BatOutofHell enormous, menacing bat sporting a Translyvanian accent.]] The most spine-chilling part is that it shifts to Francine's point of view before the bat dives at her with bared teeth, making it look like the bat is directly attacking the viewer, and it gets [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou dangerously close to the proverbial camera just seconds before the nightmare ends.]]
** In "Binky Goes Nuts", Binky has a nightmare where Mrs [=MacGrady=] doesn't let him eat anything and makes him sit next to some sloppy kids with bizarre allergies.
** In "D.W.'s Time Trouble", D.W. has a nightmare where she goes back in time and makes it so that she is the oldest. It starts off good, but turns into a nightmare when Arthur starts acting like a BrattyHalfPint and D.W. gets lost.
** "Arthur's Underwear" focuses on Arthur being afraid due to his NotWearingPantsDream's.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** Comes with a severe case of MoodWhiplash in the episode "Nightmares and Daydreams". Aang is nervous about the invasion of the Fire Nation, and is having nightmares. The first two are funny, with Aang about to face a giant Fire Lord but missing his pants and forgetting to study for a math test. The third however, is an insane and freakish affair that looks like it came straight out of ''Film/TheRing'' ([[DefangedHorrors sorta]]). It features Toph missing her eyes, Sokka, Katara, and Aang being engulfed in mud, fire, and ice while a giant fire takes the shape of Ozai with an evil laugh and attacks Aang, Momo eerily putting his finger to his mouth, and finally Aang suddenly in a field, watching as it is symbolically destroyed by Sozin's Comet. You can understand why he decides to stop sleeping. And then he starts having hallucinations of [[MoodWhiplash Momo and Appa arguing and getting into an epic sword fight]].
** Also, in Season 1 Aang had several nightmares about the day he ran away and was frozen in the iceberg. The last one we see starts off fine, with Aang flying with Appa while his friends ride on his glider and a giant Momo. Then he sees the storm, and when he warns his friends he notices that they are not there. Then Monk Gyatso shows up and asks him why he ran away before disintegrating.
** At one point, Aang also dreams of losing control of the Avatar State, and is outside his body while it was killing people.
** And Zuko's dream in "The Earth King", where he's being crowned Fire Lord with [[GoodAngelBadAngel dragons representing Azula and Iroh]] at his side when the audience turns to dust, and we then see Zuko's mother sinking into the ground, while the Azula dragon tells him to "go to sleep, ''just like mother''". This scene was originally supposed to show her being ''eaten'' by the Azula dragon, but they decided that was going too far. He then wakes up and walks around before noticing that he's bald with airbender tattoos, and then wakes up for real.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': Both parts of the "Two-Face" episode have one. The first opens with Harvey Dent trying and failing to escape from "Big Bad Harv" persona, foreshadowing his eventual fall. The second features Bruce suffering from a nightmare early on of his guilt for failing to keep Harvey from becoming Two-Face.
* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'':
** In "Friends with Burger-Fits", Bob is worried that his burgers have contributed to Teddy's high cholesterol, and has a nightmare where disembodied hands sprout from his body, pull out Teddy's still-beating heart, and cram it with hamburgers until it swells grotesquely and threatens to explode.
** In "The Millie-churian Candidate", Louise has a nightmare about her StalkerWithoutACrush Millie winning the class election, and using her power to force Louise to be her best friend, going so far as to have the marching band make an anthem to their "friendship" and get the Home Ec club to sew their clothing together.
** In "The Grand Mama-Pest Hotel", Linda has a nightmare about growing apart from Tina that ends with Tina running away and Linda getting trapped in a giant scrapbook.
** In "PTA It Ain't So", Linda discovers that Joanne, the PTA president, has been StealingFromTheTill, but is pressured into keeping quiet about it. Linda eventually has a nightmare where Joanne tries to get her to sign a contract in blood, then pulls off her face to reveal a BigRedDevil, then pulls off ''that'' face to reveal Linda's own head as Joanne lets out an EvilLaugh and the two are surrounded by flames.
** In "Pig Trouble in Little Tina", Tina has a series of nightmares about being tormented by the ghost of a fetal pig she had to dissect in science class.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Catscratch}}'' episode "Evil", Waffle wakes up to find out his fur is falling out- Mr Blik tells him that it's because he's cursed and evil. Waffle actually believes it. he has two nightmares in one he turns into a lizard-like beast and then some bug monster- then he eats Gordon and Human Kimberly, in another one he zaps Hovis the butler with a beam from his eyes and laughs manically. He is heard doing Evil Laughter in his sleep but then he covers up his mouth.
* WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts:
** "WesternAnimation/DerFuehrersFace": Donald dreams of being an overworked, underpaid laborer in a munitions factory in Nazi Germany.
** "WesternAnimation/PlutosJudgementDay": Pluto is scolded by Mickey for his habit of chasing cats, which prompts the dog to have a nightmare where he is lured into a courtroom composed of a hellish cavern where [[JokerJury everyone else in the court is a cat]]... a [[CatsAreMean demonic black cat]], at that. Poor Pluto doesn't even get a chance to defend himself, as the cats cruelly torment him throughout the brief trial before finding him guilty and sentencing him to be ''executed'' by being ''lowered into a bonfire''. When he wakes up it all turns out to have been an OpinionChangingDream, because now he'll be nice to kittens.
** WesternAnimation/TheMadDoctor: Mickey attempts to rescue Pluto from a very insane and sadistic Mad Doctor/Scientist who tortures the pup with a glee, having to face a lot of horrors that the doctor/scientist's lair provided, and waking up only after almost being cut in two while being StrappedToAnOperatingTable.
* The WesternAnimation/ColorClassics short "Play Safe! Play Safe!" has the scariest trains ever.
* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'''s final episode was full of these, the worst being a horrifying CGI monstrosity quietly telling Courage, "You're not perfect."
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' has some.
** In the episode "Monster", Daria and her friend, Jane, make a documentary for class about Daria's sister Quinn. Daria dreams that she has become her fashion-obsessed sister. In the nightmare, Daria has the body and voice of Quinn and her own head, while Jane has the bodies and voices of Quinn's equally vacuous friends and her own head.
** In "Through the Lens, Darkly", Daria believes herself to be vain for getting contacts and so has a nightmare where she goes through a Hall of Mirrors and her body gets distorted by the mirrors.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'' had Doug suffering from reoccurring nightmares when he couldn't bring himself to see TheReveal of [[MonsterDelay the monster's true form]] in the horror movie ''The Abnormal''. He is finally cured when he is dragged to the films final showing by his dog Porkchop, who holds his eyes open so he can see that the monster's costume is depressingly lame (one can even see the zipper up the back). It also turns out his friends were too afraid to see the monster, and Roger denies it.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'': It happens to Scrooge twice, at the beginning of "Earthquack" and the beginning of "The Unbreakable Bin." Both dreams involve Scrooge in his money bin, being attacked by the Beagle Boys.
* The ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' episode "Rock A Bye Ed" is centered around this trope.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
** In the episode where Bender sells his body, he has a nightmare where he sees a two in the middle of some binary.
** One episode focuses on Leela having [[AdventuresInComaland comatose dreams]] after being stung by a space bee, some of them fall into nightmare territory (being accused of killing Fry, etc).
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': The episode "Future Tense" is essentially an extended Nightmare Sequence, wherein Goliath returns to Manhattan to find that four decades have passed since he left. In that time, Xanatos appears to have taken over the city, Hudson has died, Broadway was blinded (and is killed during a heated battle), and Lexington has crossed the MoralEventHorizon and turned against his clan. [[spoiler:Luckily, it was all just a dream engineered by Puck to convince Goliath to hand him the Phoenix Gate.]]
* The ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' episode "The Man Who Shot Cane Skretteburg", wherein Hank experiences a disturbing hallucination of himself and his friends being (paintball) gunned down by the episode's antagonists. The sequence plays like a bad acid trip -- probably a little too effectively. (DerangedAnimation runs rampant.)
** The episode "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Hill" has a scene where Peggy dreams about dooming a convent to Hell for posing as a nun to get a full-time teaching job.
** The episode "Hank's Unmentionable Problem" has one where Peggy dreams that Hank dies of complications relating to his constipation, which ends with Cotton flushing the coffin into the ground. This scares Peggy when she wakes up and finally convinces Hank to see a doctor.
* The Russian short ''Animation/HisWifeIsAHen'' has the main character go through one. It's telling about [[DerangedAnimation the rest of the short]] that the only real indication that it ''is'' a dream is the fact that the character awakens from it.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'' has [[{{Satan}} Lucius]] suffering from these after Jimmy casually says YouOweMe. Even though Jimmy would probably never collect, he has nightmare about having to do degrading things for him.
* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' begins the PostScriptSeason with a reprise of Kim and Ron dancing at the prom in ''[[TheMovie So The Drama]]''... until Kim shrivels up and melts into synthodrone goo. Ron then [[CatapultNightmare wakes up screaming]].
* ''WesternAnimation/LittleBear'': In one episode, Duck has a nightmare where some geese are chasing her.
* The Creator/FamousStudios ''ComicStrip/LittleLulu'' and ''WesternAnimation/LittleAudrey'' 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.
** In "Butterscotch and Soda", Audrey eats too much candy in a dream sequence, leading to her being chased by menacing candies. She is then kidnapped and forced to eat all the candy she bagged.
* ''WesternAnimation/MarthaSpeaks'':
** In "Martha Fails the Course", Martha has a nightmare where she is balancing on a rocky ledge and [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever giant versions]] of her friends are laughing at her.
** Martha's dream in "Verb Dog: When Action Calls" is only a nightmare at the end: it ends with [[spoiler: herself muzzled, Helen petrified, Ronald about to take over the world, Alice frozen and T.D. tied up.]]
** In "Too Much Martha", Martha has a nightmare where she's literally paper-thin.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** Rainbow Dash's dream that introduces "May The Best Pet Win". [[spoiler:All the cast's pets appear, merge into [[MixAndMatchCritters one creature]], then Opal [[http://images.wikia.com/mlp/images/c/ce/Owlowiscious_Change_9_S02E07.png pops out of the thing's mouth]] like a [[Franchise/{{Alien}} xenomorph's]] tongue.]] Freaky.
** Scootaloo's dreams in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E6SleeplessInPonyville Sleepless in Ponyville]]" turn into nightmares based on Rainbow Dash's [[GhostStory Ghost Stories]].
** Sweetie Belle's dream in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E20ForWhomTheSweetieBelleToils For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils]]", fueled by a guilty conscience and directed by [[DreamWeaver Princess Luna]], ends with a nightmarish montage of a BadFuture for her sister.
** All three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders get nightmare sequences in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E4BloomAndGloom Bloom & Gloom]]" - starting with Apple Bloom's [[DreamWithinADream recursive dreams]], and later as Princess Luna shows her Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo's dreams fuelled by their own anxieties.
** ''Everypony'' gets them, including Princess Luna herself, in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E13DoPrincessesDreamOfMagicSheep Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?]]", caused by the Tantabus, a creature that creates and feeds on nightmares.
** Starlight Glimmer and Luna have their own nightmare sequences in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E10ARoyalProblem A Royal Problem]]", Starlight because she regrets her rash decision to swap Luna and Celestia's cutie marks, and Luna because she is failing so badly at performing the role Celestia normally fills.
* ''WesternAnimation/NightmareNed''. The ''entire show'' is a string of nightmare sequences inflicted upon Ned every time he slept, and every episode ends with him feeling terrified and paranoid.
** ''VideoGame/NightmareNed'' also had a PC game made by Disney Interactive. The entire game is one big sequence of nightmares, and to get the good ending you have to solve puzzles and reveal the shadowy monsters that plague Ned's dreams.
* ''WesternAnimation/PepperAnn'': In "Reality Bytes", Pepper Ann gets addicted to using the internet and is gradually spending her entire Spring Break surfing the web, putting her, Milo, and Nicky's plans to go hiking that weekend in jeopardy because she cannot unplug herself from the computer. Eventually, Milo and Nicky give up when Pepper Ann jilts them to go into an electronics store and use their computers when they're supposed to be getting supplies for their hiking trip, leading to Pepper Ann wondering if she's doing the right thing. We then segue into her with her friends in nature, Milo and Nicky happy that Pepper Ann has finally joined them. But then a mouse cursor appears and changes a rabbit into an angry pterodon and Milo and Nicky into a monkey and a pig through drop down menus. Then the "computer" starts to delete everything because of a computer virus and freezes Pepper Ann in place to delete her as well as she fruitlessly cries for help. She then wakes up still in the electronics store and it finally dawns on her that she is wasting her entire week. She shuts down the computer, catches up with her friends, and has a great weekend on their hiking trip (though she panics and runs for the hills the moment she sees a rabbit, much to Milo and Nicky's confusion).
* "Dream Scheme," an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' featured the Sandman as a villain who puts everyone in the entire world to sleep. The girls defeat him in this crazy and disturbing dream sequence...thingy featuring chickens, a praying mantis, and trippy oil projector backgrounds.
** "Power-Noia" pitted the girls against Him who was infiltrating their dreams and mainfesting their worst fears into nightmares. Bubbles' fear was being attacked by her toys, Buttercup's was a fear of spiders, and Blossom's was a fear of failing in school (although she wound up figuring the scheme out and set about making things right again).
* ''WesternAnimation/RenAndStimpy'' began to take its decidedly surreal and insane turn near the end of its run. E.g, an episode called "Hermit Ren", which was deeply bizarre right from the beginning with Ren and Stimpy living in a decaying carcass, but didn't get truly horrifying until Ren, frustrated by Stimpy's stupidity and bad habits, decides to become a hermit. The head hermit assigns him a cave, in which he is sealed for eternity. Once inside the cave the real disturbing nature of the cartoon is shown, with Ren's slow descent into complete insanity rendered in disturbing detail and depth. At one point Ren takes an ancient, decayed scarecrow of a previous hermit and attempts to talk to it, only to have it verbally mock him in return, changing its position with each jump cut back to it. At one point, he starts suffering severe delusions where ''the flesh on his hands melts off'' (in graphic detail), and he runs gibbering and screaming throughout the cave. When he looks back to his scarecrow dummy companion, he finds that suddenly it's sporting a horrifying, watery eyed version of ''Ren's face.'' And that's only scratching the surface of the traumatizing imagery of that episode.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'':
** Tommy gets a minor cut from a thorn bush and has a disturbing dream in which his arm is torn open and stuffing comes out (inspired by a damaged teddy bear that appears in the same episode).
** Undoubtedly the scariest dream sequence in ''Rugrats'' is the dream Angelica has in the episode where she finds out that she might have a baby brother/sister. It begins with Angelica hearing a baby crying and finds her parents fawning over the new baby, saying how "precious" and "adorable" it is while not knowing who Angelica is. After the mom and dad leave, Angelica talks to the baby, and, much in the same matter as Tommy and the gang, Angelica's new baby brother can talk. However, he's more like WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy's [[EnfanteTerrible Stewie]] minus the evil humor and with horrifyingly deep and raspy voice (that is in fact, a dead-on impersonation of Edward G. Robinson), and tells Angelica that this house isn't big enough for the both of them, and says that Angelica (the "old baby") should be gone permanently. Angelica tries to tell her parents about it, but of course don't believer, and then they force her to live in the garage. The baby finds her, and for not following his advice he plans to "teach [her] a lesson". She flees from him, but the baby keeps finding her, and growing every time there's an encounter between them. The dream enters its horrifying climax as Angelica's now Godzilla-sized baby brother catches Angelica in her getaway car, wondering "what a toy car would taste like". It all ends with Angelica screaming, "No! You can't eat me, I'm your sister!" with the baby replying, "WELL NOW YOU'RE NUM-NUMS!"
** A Halloween episode of the later series had Chuckie having a nightmare in which he turns into a Lon Chaney Jr style wolfman.
** Then there's the MonsterClown one that Chuckie had in one episode.
---> "I'm not Tommy!"
** In the same episode, Chaz has a very similar one at the end...
---> "I'm not Stu! HUHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** The episode "Bart The Murderer" features Skinner's corpse appearing in several places including ''rising from the grave'', sinisterly droning, "You've killed me, Bart!"
** Another one in the episode "New Kid On The Block", where Bart falls for Laura, the neighbour girl next door; upon finding out that she already has a boyfriend, he has a dream sequence where she says "I have something wonderful to tell you: I have a boyfriend!" then grabbing his [[BeatStillMyHeart still beating heart]] saying "You won't be needing this!" and throwing it against the wall.
** The entire story arc of "Treehouse Of Horror II" is built around Bart, Lisa and Homer's nightmares from eating too much candy.
** Bart dreams that the bus crashes at the start of the second act of "Treehouse Of Horror IV".
** Again, in the second act of "Treehouse Of Horror VI", the children have nightmares in a parody of ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet''.
** "The Girl Who Slept Too Little" has an unconscious Lisa experiencing a series of nightmares, ending with her being confronted by the creatures from an {{expy}} of ''Literature/WhereTheWildThingsAre'', who turn out to be friendly and teach her that it's okay for so-called "smart" people to get scared.
** In ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E9ElViajeMisteriosoDeNuestroJomer El Viaje Misterioso De Nuestro Jomer]]'' Homer's hallucinatory DreamSequence -- due to the effects of eating Guatemalan insanity peppers and candle wax -- provides many opportunities for surreal animated sequences. It starts off as a nightmare, but after a while Homer gets more used to it and it becomes a dream.
** In "Love Is a Many Strangled Thing", Homer has a nightmare based on his therapy sessions addressing his abusive behavior towards Bart, dreaming of himself as different people with AbusiveParents (who are of course portrayed by Bart). First, he dreams of himself as Music/TheJacksonFive with Bart as Joseph Jackson. Then, he dreams of himself as Ben Meechum from ''Literature/TheGreatSantani'', with Bart as Wilbur ("What are you gonna do, write a book about me?! You couldn't get in the door of Random House if your name was Bennett Cerf III!"). Finally, he dreams of himself as the title character of ''Film/{{Precious}}'', with Bart in the role of Mary.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TwiceUponATime'' (which is about a DreamLand), the fool heroes Ralph and Mum are briefly trapped in a ''waking'' nightmare in which they are attacked by sentient office supplies -- making matters worse, the heroes are only inches tall...
* In the ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' episode, "The Other Bin of Scrooge [=McDuck=]", Lena has one of these due to a magical dream catcher. It includes [[spoiler: Magica regaining her physical form, Webby calling Lena out, Magica turning Webby into a doll, which proceeds to give Lena a ''brutal'' BreakingSpeech.]] The dream ends after [[spoiler: Lena ''disintegrates'' Doll!Webby by accident.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'': "Part Time Friends". Arnold and Gerald work together at a flower shop with Gerald being the boss since the owner injured her leg and appointed him as the temporary manager. After Arnold gets into a fight with Gerald and says that he doesn't want to be friends with him, Arnold's Grandpa tells him about a similar incident that happened to him when he was Arnold's age. Arnold then begins to have a dream where he and Gerald are old, still former friends, and can't remember what they were fighting about. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRGogGbYaLU The dream takes a turn for the disturbing and into a full nightmare]] when it cuts to ''the old, withered, zombie corpse of Arnold's Grandpa'' where he says "Well, what did I tell ya, Shortman?" while some ominous music plays. He then proceeds to laugh in a ''really, '''creepy''' way'', only for his ''jaw to crack and fall off his skull''. Cue Arnold waking up via CatapultNightmare.
* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'': In the short ''WesternAnimation/HeavenlyPuss'', Tom seemingly dies and got rejected from Heavenly Express unless he got Jerry to sign in a certificate of forgiveness, but he got it too late and he's thrown straight to Hell to be tormented by the Devil who disturbingly looked like Spike the Bulldog. It was AllJustADream, but the short is one hell of a NightmareSequence of Tom.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Jellystone}}'': In "Face of the Town!", the stress of trying to pick someone to be the new face of Jellystone leads to Huckleberry having a bad dream wherein headless versions of Yogi, Jabberjaw, and Peter Potamus attack and [[OffWithHisHead decapitate him]] in a ruined version of town.
-->'''Huck''': Well, that there was a tad bit strange. (''realizes his headless body is lying next to him'') ...Oh, alright, I get the symbolism-slash-metaphor. [[CatapultNightmare AAAAAH!!]]
[[/folder]]

* Dream of ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' curses a man who kept him locked up for decades with the never-ending nightmare, where every time he thinks he's woken up, the nightmare continues. The few panels of this we see are horrifying.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' fic ''{{Fanfic/Syngenesophobia}}'', Lincoln’s mental trauma causes him to have several nightmares about his sisters torturing him. One is shown in detail, in Chapter 3; it involves Lincoln being chained to the floor of his house, while his sisters, now looking like demons, prepare to kill him with various weapons.

* Tetsuo's series of nightmares and hallucinations in ''Manga/{{Akira}}''. These dreams vary from giant stuffed animals attacking him, to visions of his horrifying future, to having his intestines spill out of him from simply falling. We don't even want to mention the [[BodyHorror further horrors]] that this poor kid has to go through during the story (even though he does partially deserve it).

* ''Literature/BerenstainBears'':