Slept Through the Apocalypse/Playing With

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Basic Trope: A character wakes up to find out (s)he is in the middle of an apocalypse, having literally slept through it the previous night.

  • Straight: Joe wakes up in a room. Everyone is dead, and Joe wanders outside to discover that the Zombie Apocalypse has arrived.
  • Exaggerated: Joe wakes up to the discovery that he's the only human left alive.
  • Downplayed: Joe wakes up, finds out that everyone is dead in the state of Idaho, which is under quarantine to prevent a world-wide apocalypse.
  • Justified: Joe was in a coma during the outbreak of The Virus.
    • Alternately, Joe was in cryogenic sleep.
  • Inverted: The only way to survive the Zombie Apocalypse is to enter cryogenic sleep.
    • Alternately, The Virus merely causes everyone to wake up, whether they turn into a zombie or not.
  • Subverted: Joe thinks he's woken up to a Zombie Apocalypse, but it turns out to be a prank.
  • Double Subverted: Joe thinks he's woken up to a Zombie Apocalypse, but it turns out to be All Just a Dream...and then the Zombie Apocalypse really does happen!
  • Parodied: Joe finds out he's slept through the apocalypse but is killed off quickly.
  • Zig Zagged: Joe finds out he's slept through the Zombie Apocalypse, then that turns out to be a dream...and then he actually does sleep through the apocalypse, but that turns out to be a Dream Within a Dream...and then the NEXT night...
  • Averted: All of the characters have been wide awake since the apocalypse began.
  • Enforced: What better way to have a character surprised by the apocalypse?
  • Lampshaded: "Whoah. I guess I really am a Heavy Sleeper."
  • Invoked: Mad Scientist Joe unleashes The Virus and then promptly puts himself in cryogenic stasis so that he'll literally sleep through the apocalypse.
  • Exploited: "I'll bet Joe survived. He is a heavy sleeper, after all.
  • Defied: The Crazy Prepared protagonist refuses to sleep for fear that he'll sleep through the apocalypse.
  • Discussed: "Remember in 28 Days Later when that guy woke up in the hospitol bed after the outbreak? I think that's exactly what happened!
  • Conversed: "I swear to God, Joe, you're gonna sleep through a Zombie Apocalypse!"

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