A possible solution.
Unfortunately, people aren't always able to be still when they sleep. They may likely end up trapped in a tangle of sheets and blankets by the time they wake up. This is just what happens when someone is sleeping alone.
If someone else is sleeping in the bed, they will usually have to put up with a sleeping partner who constantly pulls the sheet over him/herself. This may be done unconsciously, or the other sleeper is actively seeking warmth. This would, of course, happen at the expense of the other person in the bed, who will start feeling cold and will probably grab the sheets back. Then, the first sheet-hogger gets cold again, and they tug the sheets back towards themselves, and...you get the picture.
Sometimes accompanies There Is Only One Bed, but is not necessarily its subtrope.
See also Sleep Squashing.
Examples:
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Comic Strips
- Calvin and Hobbes:
- In one Sunday strip, Hobbes pulls the covers from Calvin while they're sleeping, and after a tug-of-war, Calvin gives up and goes to sleep with his parents, then does the same thing to his dad.
- In one strip, Calvin reaches to pull back the covers and hears Hobbes say, "I'm very fond of Calvin. Pass the gravy, please.
" Calvin wisely accepts his fate and sleeps cold.
Fan Works
- In Hogging The Blankets, Celestia and Discord (a married couple) get into an argument and ight over the blanket, accidentally tearing it in half.
Film — Animated
- The Rugrats Movie: Dil and Tommy do this while sleeping under a tree during the storm. It sets in motion the short but sweet chain of events when Tommy realizes just how badly he's been treating his baby brother, and starts reassuring and comforting him instead.
Film — Live Action
- Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang: When the children are forced to share their beds with farm animals, Ellie, the little elephant sharing with Vincent (the youngest child) pulls the blanket off Vincent with its trunk. The scene cuts short after this moment, though.
- In National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Audrey and Rusty are forced to share a bed when their grandparents come over for the holidays, leading to this.
- Chipmunk brothers Alvin and Simon start one over a small blanket while sleeping on a couch in Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, despite the fact that each of them has their own human-sized bed complete with blankets and pillows.
Jokes
- One old joke:
Q: What's antifreeze?A: When Uncle hogs the covers.
Literature
- A Bed of Your Own!: Implied. The animals are said to "hog the covers" when they're trying to share with Suzy-Sue.
Live-Action TV
- On The Cosby Show, Cliff and Claire have an argument in bed. Claire then took all the covers, prompting Cliff to say, "I didn't want them anyway."
- Taken to extremes on Everybody Loves Raymond. After a tiff in bed, Debra took all the covers and went downstairs to sleep on the couch. For good measure, she turned down the thermostat.
- Cougar Town has one in "Don't Do Me Like That" between Jules and a drunken Laurie.
- Frasier: In "Hot Pursuit" the hotel hosting a radio conference is overbooked so Frasier and station manager Kenny have to share Roz's room. She takes the couch leaving Frasier stuck sharing a bed with Kenny who immediately steals the single blanket.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation. Between Captain Picard and Vash in "Captain's Holiday" while camping in a cave. There's a sex scene not long afterwards.
- Rome. Lucius Vorenus is having a dream of being in bed with his wife Niobe, long since dead, when she suddenly starts a tirade in a foreign language. Vorenus then wakes up in the bed of an Egyptian prostitute, berating him for stealing the blanket while tossing and turning from his nightmares.
Video Games
- In Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, when Komaru and Toko finally have time to sleep, Komaru ends up hogging the blanket and monopolizing the bed space in her sleep.
Web Video
- Smosh: In "Paranormal Easy Bake Oven," among other running gags, Anthony repeatedly does this to Ian, despite the wall of pillows Ian keeps building to prevent this (and prevent Anthony from feeling up Ian in his sleep).
Western Animation
- Tom and Jerry:
- In "Million Dollar Cat", not only does Jerry pull on Tom's sheets, but he also shoves Tom out of bed.
- In "Puppy Tale", the puppy that Jerry brings home goes to sleep in Tom's bed. It then proceeds to take his blanket. A second later, Tom wakes up sneezing due to being cold.
- Spongebob Squarepants: An interesting variation in "Home Sweet Pineapple" - Patrick invites the newly homeless SpongeBob to be his "rockmate," so they sleep on opposite sides of Patrick's rock, with the rock being the blanket in this scenario. Other episodes of Patrick's house have shown there is a living area underneath the rock that includes a television set and purple armchair.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Applejack and Rarity do this in "Look Before You Sleep".
- Rugrats (1991): This happens in "The Odd Couple" when Tommy is staying the night at Chuckie's house. Though normally the best of friends, they soon begin to fight which leads from Tommy hogging most of the blanket while both are sleeping in the same crib. Whenever Chuckie takes the blanket back, Tommy just pulls it back over himself, leaving Chuckie to shiver from the cold. They eventually reconcile and Tommy shares some of the blanket.
- Occurs in the Looney Tunes short "Daffy Duck Slept Here". Porky tries to prevent Daffy from doing this by biting onto the covers, the covers just rips around Porky's bite mark.
- The Mighty B!: on thanksgiving at Colonial Farms, Bessie and Portia do this during sleep at a barn's haystack until Bessie gives up within a moment.
- Oskar Kokosha from Hey Arnold! has pulled the blanket away from Suzie a few times they slept together, leaving her to shiver from the cold. Suzie has often scolded him for this.
Real Life
- It tops this list of causes for bedroom brawls. And for good reason.
