The movie that best fits the idea of a man who thinks he is awake is Awake, a 2021 Netflix sci-fi thriller where the main character, played by Gina Rodriguez, believes she is fully awake and alert in a world where a global event stops everyone from sleeping.https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/netflix/awake-review In this film, a sudden disaster wipes out all electronics and power, leaving people unable to sleep no matter how tired they get. This leads to chaos as society falls apart and humans start to break down like zombies from lack of rest. The lead, Jill Adams, is a mother and army veteran who stays awake alongside her son and others called sleepers, who are rare people who can still rest. She fights to keep her family safe while searching for a way to fix the problem, maybe tied to a lake that lets a few people sleep again.
The story focuses on how not sleeping drives people mad, with Jill pushing through exhaustion, military bases crumbling, and strangers turning violent for any edge. Gina Rodriguez gives a strong performance, her eyes growing hollow and her face blank as the sleepless days drag on.https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/netflix/awake-review An escaped prisoner, played by Shamier Anderson, adds tension as a calm outsider who joins their group. The film plays up the horror of endless wakefulness, showing how sleep is key to staying human, though some say the idea feels too simple for a full movie.
Other films touch on similar themes but do not match as closely. The Sixth Sense has a twist where a man does not realize his true state the whole time, but it is about being dead, not awake.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sixth_Sense Wake Up Dead Man, a 2025 mystery, involves a priest who seems to come back in a locked-room puzzle, but the man thinks he is alive and solving crimes, not stuck awake.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_Up_Dead_Manhttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt14364480/ Hours from 2013 shows a father wide awake and desperate during a hurricane, but he knows he is not sleeping due to real danger, not a sci-fi twist.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094018/
Awake stands out for turning wakefulness into a survival nightmare, where the man or woman at the center clings to the belief they can keep going forever without rest.
Sources
https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/netflix/awake-review
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sixth_Sense
https://learningaboutmovies.substack.com/p/wake-up-dead-man-brings-back-the
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_Up_Dead_Man
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14364480/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094018/
