Sleepy Boy Technique

The Sleepy Boy Technique is one of Dragon Ball's most wonderfully absurd moves. The user performs a series of hypnotic hand motions while making strange, soothing vocal sounds, lulling the opponent into a deep sleep. Once the target is unconscious, they can be counted out in a tournament setting or simply left defenseless. It requires no ki, no physical contact, and absolutely no dignity on the part of the user.

Jackie Chun, Master Roshi's tournament alter ego, uses the Sleepy Boy Technique against young Goku in the finals of the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament. The hypnosis works perfectly: Goku's eyes droop, his guard drops, and he begins snoring on the tournament floor. The referee starts counting. All looks lost for the wild monkey-tailed boy.

Then Bulma shouts "Dinner time!!!!" from the stands. Goku's eyes snap open. He springs to his feet, wide awake and hungry, before the count reaches ten. It is classic early Dragon Ball: a legitimate fighting technique defeated by the protagonist's bottomless appetite. Roshi can only stare in disbelief as his carefully executed hypnosis crumbles at the mention of food.

The technique returns much later in Dragon Ball Super during the Tournament of Power, where Master Roshi attempts it against the transformed Ganos. The hypnosis takes hold, and Ganos begins to fall asleep. But unlike the naive child Goku of the 21st Tournament, Ganos is a seasoned fighter who manages to shock himself awake through his own electrical transformation energy. The technique fails, proving that while the Sleepy Boy Technique has endured across decades of the franchise, the opponents have gotten considerably better at resisting it.

In the Xenoverse games, the move goes by "Lullaby Punch" and can be obtained by players. Dragon Ball Fusions includes powered-up variants called "Slumber Punch" and "Coma Punch," escalating the hypnotic potency with each tier.