Sleeping Curse

"My victims are not supposed to wake up. That's why I certainly never care what happens to them after."

- Regina to Mr. Gold

The Sleeping Curse is a curse featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It first appears in the first episode of the first season.

Before the Curse
A powerful witch named Maleficent in the Enchanted Forest casts a sleeping curse on a woman described by her friend, Regina as having "bested her". The woman is Sleeping Beauty, and later, for reasons unknown, Maleficent casts the same curse on her daughter, Aurora. Maleficent retires into her castle and lives contently with a pet unicorn. Sometime prior to this, Regina trades the Dark Curse given to her by Rumplestiltskin for the sleeping curse to get rid of her nemesis, Snow White. Regina casts the sleeping curse on an apple she stole; with the help of two children, Hansel and Gretel, from a blind witch's house. Snow White willingly eats the apple and falls into an eternal sleep. However, the curse is broken with true love's kiss from her true love, Prince Charming. Frustrated the curse did not work, Regina asks for the Dark Curse back from Maleficent. Though Maleficent warns of the unseemingly dark powers in it, Regina takes the Dark Curse back forcefully.

During the Curse
In present day Storybrooke, mayor Regina Mills desperately wishes to get rid of the savior of the Dark Curse, Emma Swan, but heeds Mr. Gold's advice that if she kills Emma, the curse will break. Therefore, Regina looks for a way to make Emma disappear from Storybrooke so she can have her adopted son--and also Emma's biological child--Henry, to herself. In part of a deal between her and the former portal jumper, Jefferson, Regina sacrifices the magic in her former engagement ring on his magical hat to reach into the past and retrieve the poisoned apple Snow White bit in the past. She bakes it into an apple turnover for Emma after the two of them come to an arrangement concerning Emma's visitation rights to Henry. As Emma is preparing to leave town, Henry sees the apple turnover, and in his fearlessness to make her believe in the curse, he eats it and falls into a coma.

After the Curse
David Nolan pricks his finger on a spindle from Mr. Gold's spinning wheel infected with the Sleeping Curse in order to see Mary Margaret Blanchard. She saves him with true love's kiss after returning to Storybrooke. ("Into the Deep"), ("Queen of Hearts")

Types of Sleeping Curse
In both types, the victim cannot be forced under the sleeping curse:
 * The old version of the Sleeping Curse, according to Mr. Gold, was cast by dipping the tip of a needle on the blue liquid potion, and then putting this object in a spinning wheel. That way, when the victim's finger is injured with the needle and the potion reaches its blood; making person cursed.
 * The Evil Queen combined the effects of a magic apple with the sleeping curse.
 * Aurora said she "knows about sacrifice"; a possible implication of her willingness in being put under the sleeping curse
 * Snow White was cursed because she decided willingly to eat the poisoned apple.
 * Henry was cursed because he wanted to prove Emma that the Dark Curse was real.
 * David Nolan was put under the sleeping curse in order to communicate with another person in the Netherworld.

Effects

 * The victim is trapped within their own body experiencing dreams made from their regrets.
 * To everyone else, the victim seems to be dead and does not even breathe.
 * It is explained that the victim has to willingly inflict the curse upon themselves or otherwise it won't work.
 * After being awoken from the curse, victims are repeatedly subject to common, horrible nightmares, which feature a red doorless, windowless room, with curtains that appear to be on fire. If another person is inflicted with the same curse, they will appear in the same world as well as the other person. The dreams fade over a prolonged period of time. According to Mr. Gold, this happens because when the sleeping curse is cast, the victim's soul travels to an out-of-control Netherworld where they live in their worst nightmares and fears. Even after the curse's hold is broken on the victim, their spirit may still go to the netherworld without realizing it, so they are still deeply traumatized even without the curse.

Ways to Break the Curse

 * True love's kiss - A kiss of true love to the victim who is under the sleeping curse has the power to break it. True love comes in many forms; as the romantic love between Snow White and Prince Charming existed strongly enough that he was able to save her, and as is Emma Swan's maternal love for her son, Henry also meant the criteria of true love to wake him from the sleeping curse.