

Released in 1991, a stop-motion animation film called The Sandman was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. The Sandman has appeared in numerous films as well. A television show based on the comics is set to premiere on Netflix in 2022.

Other characters in the story include Dream's siblings, named Delirium, Destiny, Death, Desire and Despair. He lives in a realm called the Dreaming but frequently visits the waking world. Though the character has a different name, he is still a mythical figure that puts children to sleep (albeit by squirting milk into their eyes rather than sprinkling sand).įrom 1989-1996, fantasy author Neil Gaiman wrote a comic book series called The Sandman in which the titular character Dream is something like a god of dreams. Hans Christian Andersen's 1841 story " Ole Lukøie" is also believed to be a representation of the Sandman. (Hoffmann is also known for his novella The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, which inspired Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker.) In "Der Sandmann," a man named Nathanael is tormented by his memories of a story told to him in childhood, about a monster called the Sandman who, according to the plot description, "threw sand into the eyes of children who would not go to bed so that their eyes bled and sprang out of their sockets." Sigmund Freud references "Der Sandmann" in a 1919 essay, arguing that the story's elements of doubles and identity confusion are examples of the odd sensation known as the uncanny. Hoffmann's short story "Der Sandmann," published in 1816. The earliest written work featuring the character is believed to be German Romantic author E.T.A. This element is likely borrowed from Scandinavian folklore. In many versions of the story, the Sandman sprinkles sand into a child's eyes to make them fall asleep. There is no consensus among experts as to the origin of the Sandman in folklore, as it is believed to be part of a long history of stories passed from generation to generation and from culture to culture.

In one story from Kim Fu's collection Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, an insomniac character is visited by the Sandman and subsequently finds it much easier to fall asleep. This article relates to Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century
