SLEEP AWAKE: Will You Vanish or Fight to Survive?

There's no denying the profound importance of sleep—it's the sacred time when our minds unwind and our bodies recharge, weaving the fabric of our daily vitality. Yet, imagine a chilling scenario: What if falling asleep meant vanishing into oblivion? To survive, you'd have to forsake sleep entirely, embracing a life of relentless wakefulness. But that choice carries its own torment—chronic sleep deprivation, manifesting as severe, unending insomnia that erodes your sanity and health. So, the question lingers: Would you opt for eternal rest through disappearance or cling to existence in a haze of perpetual exhaustion? Well, if you want to look for the answer, SLEEP AWAKE might be the game for you. 

Never Close Your Eyes: The Fight for Consciousness.

SLEEP AWAKE is a forthcoming first-person psychological horror and narrative-driven survival experience that explores the terrifying consequences of enforced perpetual insomnia. It is set in a far-future dystopian reality where falling asleep means death. The game is scheduled for release on December 2, 2025. It is being developed by EYES OUT, LLC, a studio led by Cory Davis, known for Spec Ops: The Line, and Robin Finck of Nine Inch Nails. The title is set to be published by Blumhouse Games and will be available across multiple platforms, including PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

The central narrative of SLEEP AWAKE immerses the player in the desperate, far-future dystopia of The Crush, which stands as the final, precarious sanctuary for humanity. The planet has been devastated by The HUSH, an unexplained and terrifying phenomenon with absolute lethality: any person who drifts into sleep immediately vanishes without a trace. This existential threat has enforced a state of perpetual insomnia on the survivors, fundamentally warping society and driving the inhabitants of The Crush to manic lengths to simply stay awake.

The player assumes the role of Katja, who is not only fighting to physically survive in the crumbling, dangerous urban environment but also battling the rapid deterioration of her own mind due to extreme sleep deprivation. This psychological struggle manifests in psychedelic visual distortions and blurring realities, making her quest even more perilous. As Katja desperately seeks to maintain her consciousness and sanity, she must navigate the hostile landscape, which is overrun by various depraved death cults. These factions, each adhering to their own destructive methods of staving off sleep, pose a constant threat, forcing Katja into frequent encounters involving stealth, survival, and high-stakes chase sequences. Ultimately, Katja’s main objective is to uncover the dark, complex secrets behind The HUSH—why it appeared, how it operates, and if there is any way to defeat it—before the inevitable moment arrives when her own desperate fight against sleep ends and she vanishes like everyone else.

The core atmospheric and interactive experience of SLEEP AWAKE is intensely focused on psychological disintegration. The visual presentation is defined by a highly psychedelic style, manifesting in vibrant, often jarringly distorted environments that serve as a direct, vivid reflection of the protagonist Katja's rapidly deteriorating mental state brought on by severe, perpetual sleep deprivation. To further amplify this sense of profound psychological disorientation and confusion, the developers have implemented a unique technical approach, seamlessly blending the standard 3D gameplay with deeply unsettling Full-Motion Video (FMV) sequences. This deliberate integration is key to the game’s design, constantly challenging the player’s perception and effectively blurring the boundaries between what is real within the narrative and what is merely a hallucination brought on by Katja’s fatigue and paranoia.

For survival, players must master a demanding set of gameplay mechanics. Controlling Katja, they are required to utilize stealth to bypass overwhelming threats, engage in tense survival scenarios, and endure frantic chase sequences while navigating the visually distorted and perilous city. Progress is tied not only to direct combat avoidance but also to solving intricate puzzles that are intrinsically linked to unraveling the central mystery of The HUSH. Crucially, the city is populated by hostile, dangerous, depraved death cults—factions that have embraced extreme and destructive ideologies as their last-ditch effort to stay awake. Avoiding or outmaneuvering these relentless cults is essential for survival. Finally, the entire, harrowing experience is cemented by an arresting, hypnotic, and industrial soundscape, which was meticulously designed by renowned musician Robin Finck of Nine Inch Nails, ensuring the audio is as deeply unsettling and atmospheric as the visuals.

Overall, the core experience of the game is intensely built around sustained psychological pressure and existential dread, ensuring the player is constantly on edge. A pervasive dread permeates the gameplay, stemming from the terrifying awareness that the simple, natural act of sleeping is a death sentence, which creates a high-stakes, deeply stressful environment. This anxiety is compounded by the mechanics of disorientation and hallucination, where the game’s psychedelic visuals and reality-bending environments are intentionally designed to immerse the player in the same confusion, paranoia, and disorientation experienced by the sleepless protagonist, challenging their grip on what is truly real. Ultimately, the player is meant to feel the raw desperation of a dying world, intertwined with Katja's personal struggle and profound grief from having lost loved ones to The HUSH, dramatically heightening both the narrative and emotional stakes of the entire survival ordeal. What would you choose, survive or vanish? Please make sure to check out SLEEP AWAKE through our comparison tool in order to purchase the game with the best deal.