Alice has a Catapult Nightmare, and wakes up crying. She's terrified, and doesn't think she can go back to sleep. Luckily for her, Bob is right there, and lets her talk about her dream, or hold her hand, or hug her... whatever she needs to feel better.
This is Post-Nightmare Comfort. A good way to show that a character has a strong support system is to show them receiving help/comfort after a terrible dream. It can also be used to provide sweet moments between couples, include a Ship Tease, or maybe even serve as a Pet the Dog moment if the couple has an Awful Wedded Life. Even if Woken Up at an Ungodly Hour, expect them to be patient with the scared dreamer and stay with them until they fall asleep (or even until morning, if the dream was that bad).
If the comfortee and comforter are friends, then this serve as a Friendship Moment. A Cooldown Hug may make an appearance. If the two characters are parent and child, this is often used to establish that the comforter is a good parent. The one in need of comfort may engage in sleep-talking or have a Waking Non Sequitur that hints at their dream, telling the audience it's not a good one. The comforter will likely help in any way they can, through talking to them, hugging them, telling them It's Okay to Cry, doing both at the same time, reminding them they're better people than they give themselves credit for, and possibly even bringing them Comfort Food.
Compare with Comforting Comforter (where the comforter does something for the comfort of an already sleeping person), Fright-Induced Bunkmate (when a person decides to sleep in the bed of another due to being scared by something) and Sleep Cute (where two characters end up sleeping next to each other in an adorable way). May make an appearance in a Hurt/Comfort Fic, especially if said fic includes a Mental Health Recovery Arc. Can be used to show that a villain or Jerkass is actually a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, or that Even Evil Has Loved Ones. Contrast with Comfort the Dying, as that is when a character lies to or helps a dying person to keep them calm and comfortable in their final moments.
Examples:
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See Also
The World Is So Cold And I'm On Fire (Rewrite) - DustRose - 機動戦士ガンダム 水星の魔女Princess Maelstrom - Chapter 22 - GuiltGalComparing the two Narutos, Neptune Naruto’s understanding is incredible — Chapter 128 – Faloo MTLA Ballad Of Shinobi and Change - Chapter 1 - CyberLock28- Love Everlasting has a rather dark and tragic case of this: during the "Too Hip for Love!" arc, Joan wakes up to the sound of one of her sons in a screaming panic from a nightmare. Earlier in the week, the family discovered the bloody corpse of their neighbor's cat in their backyard, dead from a gunshot, and Timmy dreamed that it was approaching him in its bloodied state, saying "I love you." Joan consoles Timmy, which also drives Joan to tears, which is explained when — after several restless nights, half-expecting Timmy to scream again — she confesses to her husband that she shot and killed the cat during another psychotic episode when they weren't around.
- X-Treme X-Men (2022): After Kitty's nightmare with Ogun, Rachel embraces Kitty to comfort her, and large, fiery wings (the Phoenix's) are seen behind her.
Fan Works
- Ben 10: Unlimited: After he gets stuck in the DC animated universe (shortly after losing his family and loved ones to Vilgax), Ben begins experiencing recurring nightmares about his family's deaths. The second night he spends at the Kent farm, Kara overhears him crying as he wakes up, and goes to comfort him. This is the first Ship Tease between the two, with them beginning to date around the time that the Justice League is rebuilt and made better than ever.
- SEXUAL HARASSMENT: After Lila tries to rape Adrien, Gabriel is forced to acknowledge that his actions ended up putting Adrien in a position where someone like Lila could get to him, causing him to have a Heel Realization. He shows the start of his Heel–Face Turn by running up to his son's room when he hears Adrien having a nightmare. He comforts his son and stays with him throughout the night.
- In The Real Ghostbusters fic In the Night
, Egon feels insecure about having had a Past Experience Nightmare regarding a fall from the World Trade Centre. Peter assures him that Fear Is Normal. - Intergalactic Illness: In the second chapter, Lala has a Guilt-Induced Nightmare about her friends abandoning her for trying to hide her cold from them. When she wakes up, she tells Hikaru about how awful she still feels about having lied before, and Hikaru tells her that Mistakes Are Not the End of the World.
- Lighting Candles: Tadashi notes that he used to do this for Hiro fairly often, as his little brother often had nightmares even before the fire. Tadashi finds that he can interact with Hiro when his little brother is asleep, allowing him to continue to comfort him when he has nightmares. This is a bit of a Cruel Mercy, though, as the second Hiro wakes up, Tadashi won't be able to touch or be seen/heard by him anymore.
- Lost Latte: In the epilogue, Latte has a dream about Neo King Byogen making all her friends disappear. When she wakes up, she finds Nodoka by her side, and she crawls into her arms. Asumi wakes up just then, and she and Nodoka understand why Latte is worried about being separated from her friends again. They remind Latte that she has a chip implanted in her so that they can find her if she ever gets lost again and give her a hug.
- Naru-Hina Chronicles:
- After returning to Konoha following a mission in the Nation of Steel where he almost died, Naruto has a nightmare concerning that mission, where he sees so much blood. This causes him to make enough noises to awaken Hinata before he does. After he wakes up in panic, she tries to comfort him by telling him it was just a nightmare and hugging him. Hinata then tells Naruto that she used to have nightmares when she thought he died during that mission and that his nightmares would go away just like hers did.
- A few chapters later, Naruto ends up at the hospital after being knocked out due to an explosion caused by an enemy. While at the hospital, he has a nightmare where he remembers more of what happened at the Nation of Steel. After he wakes up and Hinata arrives in his hospital room only to realize that he's finally awake, she immediately hugs him in relief. While hugging her back and sobbing, Naruto asks her to tell him that she loves him and to just hold him. Having no idea of what he dreamed about, Hinata does both of these things to make him feel better.
- The Nightmare House: When all of the Loud siblings have nightmares, the oldest one, Lori, decides to have them all sleep in the living room so they'll feel secure in one another's presence, and serve pancakes the next morning.
- Spy X Family: Happens to Loid and Yor in the first two, fan-dubbed, comics, originally by amesbloom, featured in this video. First, after Yor gets caught in the crossfire during a mission, he sees her die as he holds her, which causes him to jerk awake in front of the tv, and when Yor wakes up too, he holds her, and she comforts him by saying promises that she would never leave him. In the second comic, Yor happily arrives home with a present for Loid and Anya, and quickly breaks down when she sees her Thorn Princess persona stoically standing over the murdered Loid, Anya, and Bond, and when Yor wakes up screaming, Loid goes into her room to check on her, and when she tearfully grabs on to him and says "I'm scared," Loid comforts her by saying that everything will be all right.
- The Torchwood fic Small Miracles goes with the idea that the events of Torchwood: Miracle Day as well as Ianto's death in Torchwood: Children of Earth was nothing more than a bad nightmare that Jack had. Luckily, Ianto is there to calm down Jack from it by pointing out how bad the dream's plotting was. He even reassures Jack upon learning that his ex Angelo, who had killed him and taken him to be murdered over and over again, was in it, telling him that it wasn't his fault that Angelo did such acts to him.
- The Spectacular Spider-Man: Lost in Gotham: After being officially adopted by Bruce, Peter has a nightmare about the villains of his old dimension taking over New York and hurting his loved ones because he wasn't there to stop them. He climbs out onto the roof after, where Cass meets him. She gets him to talk about his dream, and (in her own way) is able to comfort him.
- Twisted Sister: An Extended Ending: Bubbles, who is deeply shaken by Bunny's death, has a nightmare about her family disappearing and leaving her alone. She goes to Professor Utonium's room and tearfully vents about how she's become afraid of losing anyone else. He tells her that she doesn't have to worry about that happening anytime soon and that no matter how many people she loses, there will always be more people out there.
Films — Animated
- Anastasia: Rasputin almost convinces Anya to jump off of a ship by trapping her in a dream (which becomes a nightmare). Dmitri catches her in time, waking her up (leading them both to think it was simply a nightmare. Upon waking up, Anya cries, saying that learning about her supposed lost family is making her grieve what she's lost all the more.
- James and the Giant Peach: When James has a nightmare about being a caterpillar and his evil aunts trying to kill him with bug spray, Miss Spider reassures him that he is safe from them.
- The Lion King 1 ½: During a montage of young Simba's time living with Timon and Pumbaa, he comes to them one night saying he had a bad dream (though you can guess what it might have been about), so they invite him to sleep with them.
Simba: Good night.
Timon: Sleep tight.
Pumbaa: Dream of bed bugs tonight!
Films — Live-Action
- Carrie (1976): In the final scene of the film, Sue Snell's mother tries to comfort her with hugs after she wakes up screaming and crying from a nightmare where she visits Carrie's grave and gets grabbed from a hand that emerges from the ground.
- Event Horizon: After the film's events, Starck wakes up from stasis to see a rescue team arriving... only to find out that one of them is possessed by Weir. This is revealed to be a nightmare, and the film ends as Cooper and the real rescue team try to comfort the awake and panicking Starck as the ship's doors close.
- The Invasion: Carol Bennell, the Mama Bear single parent protagonist, is introduced waking up in the dead of night after hearing her son Oliver screaming from his bedroom. Turns out Oliver's having one of his nightmares after his post-measles recovery, prompting Carol to rush out her room and sleep at Oliver's side.
Literature
- The Book Thief: Hans bonds with Liesel (who recently lost her little brother) over his comforting her when she wakes up screaming due to her recurring nightmares of her brother's death. He even helps her when one nightmare results in a much different reaction, and later turns the post-nightmare time into reading lessons to help Liesel catch up with her class.
- Catching Fire: During the Victory Tour around Panem, Katniss has a dream about the Games one night and wakes up, freaking out. Peeta runs in to check on her, and when she tells him it was just a dream, he tells her that it's okay because he gets them too. This led into a nightly ritual of sleeping in the same bed to comfort each-other.
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: In Dog Days, Rowley wakes Greg up in the middle of the night during a vacation where the boys are forced to share a bed. He wakes up because he had a nightmare about there being a chicken under his bed. The parents tell him its only a nightmare and allow him to sleep in their room.
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Played with when Harry has a vision in his sleep of himself as a huge snake, sinking his fangs into Arthur Weasley. At first, people around him believe that he has had a nightmare, and try to make a fuss of him, while Harry vehemently insists that what he saw really happened, and that Arthur needs help right now. Fortunately, Professor McGonagall believes him.
- Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: Grandmothers and Other Fearsome Encounters: Flora wakes up from a magically induced nightmare and her squirrel animal companion comforted her when she woke:
The pointy-eared, bushy-tailed red squirrel spent a long moment cuddling his mistress as she sobbed into his fur.
Live-Action TV
- House of Anubis:
- When Patricia has a nightmare about Rufus in the middle of class, she runs off screaming, before hiding away in embarrassment. She's eventually found by Alfie. Surprising her with his empathy, he gets her to open up about it and even admits that he, too, has been having nightmares — and that talking about it helps him deal with it. She calls it "pathetic, but sweet", and agrees to hang out with him more if it'll stop the nightmares. As a result, the two became much better friends.
- In season 2, Amber has a dream where she's being chased and taunted by Senkhara. Nina hears her panicking and manages to wake her up before she can get cursed, and proceeds to comfort and apologize to her terrified best friend. She calms down quickly and acknowledges that she chose to be involved.
- Murder, She Wrote: One early episode focuses on Jessica's niece, who's spent a few weeks in a psychiatric hospital due to her husband's suicide. Her mental stress/fragility is revealed at the start via her waking up from a recurring nightmare of walking in to find her husband's body. She shoots awake screaming, and is quickly comforted by a nurse.
- Once Upon a Time: In the first part of season 2, Henry Mills has a nightmare about "The Netherworld", a room on fire - a side effect of falling victim to the Sleeping Curse. He wakes up from a nightmare and is comforted by his grandfather, Prince Charming (who is Snow White's husband and Emma Swan's father).
- Son of a Critch: In "Halley's Comet", Mark suffers a severe nightmare about the titular comet bringing about the end of the world (as it coincided with a flare-up in the Cold War that moved the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight.) He wakes up to find himself in his grandfather's arms, with his grandfather assuring him that the Cold War has been going on for half his lifetime and Russia and the US never seem to get around to bombing each other directly, so the odds of them nuking Newfoundland are probably very remote.
Puppet Shows
- Bear in the Big Blue House: In "The Big Sleep", Ojo has a nightmare about monsters attacking. Bear assures her that monsters don't exist, and sings her a lullaby called "Go to Bed, Sleepyhead".
- Fraggle Rock: In "Boober's Dream", Boober has been having recurring nightmares about his alter ego, Sidebottom. Boober finds Sidebottom gruesome because he, unlike Boober, loves to laugh and tell jokes. Wembley, when Boober tells him about his nightmares, takes Boober to the Trash Heap, who advises Boober to share his next dream with Wembley so that he can help him learn something about himself from it. Wembley gladly agrees to do this.
Video Games
- Klonoa: Door to Phantomile: At the beginning, Klonoa has a dream that starts out happy, with him meeting and befriending Huepow. However, it quickly takes a scary turn when a strange airship crashes into Bell Hill, and the sky fills with darkness. Klonoa wakes up in shock, but he calms down when he sees Huepow by his side.
- Phantasmagoria: The protagonist, Adrienne, has a surreal nightmare at night and wakes up with a startle. Her husband, Don Gordon, soon wakes up to comfort her and they make love. This scene will be revisited at the start of chapter four, when the man will have violent sex with Adrienne, to further mark his possessed state.
Web Animation
- Helluva Boss: At the beginning of the second episode, Stolas' daughter Octavia wakes up from a nightmare in which Stolas had abandoned her and cries out for her parents. Stolas enters the room, hugs her and tells her he will always love her, no matter what happens.
Web Comic
- El Goonish Shive: In early strips, Grace would have nightmares about the horrors of her childhood. Tedd would sometimes sleep with her in her bed to comfort her and try to prevent further nightmares.
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: At the start of season two, Aang discusses a nightmare he's been having lately with Katara, admitting that he's terrified of how powerful he is, and that he doesn't want people to see him in the Avatar State.
- Adventure Time: In the episode "The Lich", Finn wakes up from a Prophetic Dream involving Billy and the titular Lich. He wakes up thrashing and falls out of bed, waking Jake. In his own way, Jake comforts Finn by telling him about his strange dream:
Jake: I dreamt I was in kindergarten again, but I had really big feet. And was also the teacher.
- The Dragon Prince: In Book 5, Janai is shown to be haunted by a recurring nightmare about her sister Khessa's death, and has been sharing this with Amaya. At the end of the season, after finally hearing what Aaravos whispered to Khessa, Janai breaks down crying in her wife-to-be's arms.
- Futurama: After selling his body in "A Head Of the Polls" Bender's head has a nightmare in binary code. Fry hears Bender screaming and runs in, cradling the robot's head as Bender reveals his dream. Fry, being a human with little to no knowledge of robotics/programming, doesn't see how binary code (with a possible two) could be frightening. Still, he tries to be supportive all the same.
Fry: It's okay; there's no such thing as two.
- The Loud House: In "One of the Boys", Lincoln screams after having had a nightmare about himself and his sisters swapping genders. All of his sisters run in and ask if he's okay.
- Phineas and Ferb: Towards the end of one episode, it seems that Perry's cover has been blown. The Flynn-Fletchers are arrested and Major Monogram has Perry reassigned to a different family. Perry then wakes up, revealing it was All Just a Dream. He wakes up Phineas in the process. Phineas, not knowing Perry's nightmare, simply tells him that it was only a dream and that everything's okay before he goes back to sleep. Perry, clearly feeling better, goes back to sleep.
- Rugrats (1991):
- In "In the Dreamtime", Chuckie dreams about Tommy with a Nightmare Face and bursts awake in a Catapult Nightmare. Chas comes in just then and tells him that nightmares aren't real and can't hurt him.
- In "Angelica's Worst Nightmare", Charlotte believes that she's pregnant. Angelica is not pleased, as she feels like she'll get less attention, and she even has a nightmare about her would-be baby brother terrorizing her and attempting to eat her alive. When she wakes up, she cries in her father Drew's arms and vents about how she doesn't want to be ignored like how she was in her dream. He tells her that she can never be replaced.
- Steven Universe: Future: After Steven and Peridot learn that he can project his dreams onto the TV, she asks him to use his dreams to bring her Camp Pining Hearts fanfic to life. Steven obliges, but after several tries all he can project is a nightmare where he voices his fears that doesn't know how to be friends with someone if he isn't helping them with something. When he wakes up, a tearful Peridot (who saw the whole thing on TV) tells him that they'll stop with the dream projection and that she never wanted him to feel like he needed to be useful in order to be her friend.
- Tangled: The Series: In the first season, Rapunzel has recurring nightmares about the events going on in her life, specifically the black rocks. Eugene is usually there to hold her and listen as she talks out her stress.
- Trollz: The first episode begins with Amethyst having a nightmare where she went to the mall, but the other BFFLs didn't know her. Amethyst's mother comes into the room after hearing her scream from waking up, and reassures her that her friends love her just the same and she fits in with them just fine.
- Ultimate Spider-Man: Upon beating Nightmare's attempt to trap him in his worst... well, nightmare, Spider-Man recalls a memory of Uncle Ben comforting him when he had a bad dream as a little boy. Ben simply tells him that nightmares aren't real, which Spider-Man and Dr. Strange realize is Nightmare's biggest weakness.
- Winston's Potty Chair begins with Winston having an Irritation Nightmare where he is at the beach and gets splashed by a wave. He calls for his mother to tell her he's wet, which he's later revealed to be doing outside his dream. His mother calms him down and assures him he was dreaming, only to discover that he really had wet his diaper.
