Rules for Sleeping and Dreaming

Required Sleep

All human-like beings need sleep every day based on their Constitution score:

Con Hours Needed

1       23

2       18

3       12

4       11

5-6    10

7-8      9

9-12     8

13-14    7

15-16    6

17-18    5

19-20    4

21-22    3

23-24    2

25-26    1

27-28    ½

29-30   1/3

31-32    ¼

Other types of creatures or monsters have differing sleep requirements or habit. Lion sleep around 20 hour a day, for example. Dragons sleep for long periods of time, more as they age.

Sleep Deprivation

For each day spent without the minimum sleep time, there is a cumulative -1 to every stat score which goes away upon sleeping for 1.5 times the normal requirement.

Dreaming

Typically 25% of sleep time is spent dreaming. These are spread out over 4 or 5 periods, each lasting for 5 to 20 minutes. As far as game background, there is a great source on the Region of Dreams in the Manual of the Planes. Otherwise, a character has to roll a DC 17 to remember a dream that they had the night before. If the dreamer awakens right after a dream the DC is 8. The check itself is modified by the Wisdom score adjustment.

Types of Dreams

d20 Roll: Result:

1-3         Joyful

4-6         Relaxing

7-10       Weird

11-13     Vexing

14-16     Disturbing

17-19     Nightmare

20-21     Sleep Paralysis

22-24    Night Terror Cry out in sleep, hard to remember (DC 18)

25-27     Night Terror Cold sweat, trembling, (remember DC 19)

28-30     Night Terror Sit Upright and wake up (remember DC 20)

31+       Comatose for 1 hour per point above 30

Die roll adjustments based on day's events:

Charm Person                          +1 each instance

Fear recipient                          +2 each instance

Enervation recipient                 +4 each level lost

Nightmare                              +5 each

Phastasmal Killer recipient       +4 each

Fighting                                 +1 per combat

Polymorphed                          +4 each instance

Serious Wound                      +2 each

Near Death                           +4 each

Finger of Death                     +7 each

Death and resurrected          +10 each

Bless Spell                         -1 for each

Remove Curse/Blindness      -3 for each

Death Ward Recipient          -4 for each

Atonement recipient            -5 for each

Cure light wounds              -1 for each

Cure Serious wounds         -3 for each

In general, spells or effects have plus or minus based on their spell level. NB this all might seem a little bit obsessive, but if you are running a campaign where dreams are central to the theme, it might be worth the bother of tracking this sort of thing??? I had fun making it up at any rate.

Specific Types of Dream Events:

d12 Roll Result:

1 Flying,

2 Swimming,

3 Running,

4 Searching for something,

5 Loss of Control (trying to do something but frustrated in the attempt),

6 Finding a treasure,

7 Loss of something valuable or important,

8 Falling,

9 Fighting someone or something,

10 Arguing with someone

11 Nude in a situation

12 Romantic encounter

These are just provided to give some randomness to the dream, DM can make up what (s)he seems appropriate.

Somniloquy – sleep talking

There is a 10% chance that a given person is inclined to talk in their sleep. Talking to someone in their sleep will usually give a one word answer and talking lasts for only 30 seconds. Talking may occur several times during the night. Rarely, people will answer in sentences. Sleep talkers usually don't remember anything about the conversation (DC 20). There is little chance of gaining some real information from someone who talks in their sleep, but it is possible (Veracity check DC 15).