What are _your_ recurring dreams?

[Lodrain]

I keep having this dream. I'm walking down the street with a short French lady with short black hair, practicing what little French I know on her. I've dreamt about her three times this month. My friends know her as I've dubbed her--'French Chick'--and she's a source of a lot of humor.

This has been about my only recurring dream since early childhood. I tend to have very vivid, colorful and disturbing dreams, but they rarely have a recurring theme and I've haven't, to my knowledge, dreamt the same dream twice since puberty.

So, do you have recurring dreams? What're they about? How often do they recur? Do you notice any patterns?

[Batsinma Belfry]

My most common dream is of running to catch the bus at the end of the school day when I was in highschool. It was a huge inner city school, (my first year out of the sticks). We had about 5 mins. to run outside, find our bus (amongst the 50 identical ones), and get on it. The bus drivers wouldn't think twice about leaving you there. I got left my first day.

I'm more likely to have the dream when my stress level is high.

[DeVena]

Well mine's a little weird. Since I was 15, every couple of years I'll dream connected to the dream before. There's alway this same guy in it (not like that) He's a friend or something, but no sex. First one, we are in a store on the beach (with nets and bouys on the wall) and we're arguing about something and his name ended with -en, like warren or erin - dunno. 2nd dream came a year later and we're driving in a truck through the mountains with big snowbacks on either side of the road. He's driving and I'm trying to read the map. The most vivid one happened when I was in college, We were in a dance contest - big band - he was fussing at me for something and I got mad and started to walk away. He started dancing with me to Moonlight Serenade (I had the wonderful dress that went from peach at the straps to flame at the hem that just swirled and whirled) and he kissed me on the top of the head when the music stopped. We came in 3rd.

I've dreamed about this guy for over 20 years, off and on. Really weird.

[LilyoftheValley]

A common feature in my dreams is my teeth crumbling. Spitting out crumbling pieces of your teeth is just so gross. Supposedly it means that you feel you are not in control of your life (weird connection there), but for me, it actually happened in real life with a root-canaled tooth (yuk).

[Orange Skinner]

I have the same dream, Lily. Last week was the most recent, I dreamed that all the teeth on the right side of my mouth worked themselves out in one big chunk. It was absolutely revolting. I've also heard, in addition to the feeling a lack of control over your life, that it can mean you're debating between two paths of action, or are anticipating a big change.

I've also dreamed--probably 20+ times--that I die in a car accident. I am always the driver and it's usually at night, and something happens which requires I drive. I offer this as the primary reason I don't want to get my drivers' liscense, but to be honest, it really doesn't bother me that much.

[Zoe]

I'm in New York City trying to find Tiffany's. I've had this dream frequently for many years now.

I think it has to do with the daydreams I had as a young woman about the perfect future -- beautiful clothes, a beautiful face, a happily ever after ending. I idolized Audrey Hepburn then and so maybe this relates somehow to Breakfast at Tiffany's.

[arachnidlove]

Ugh. My most recurring dream? Its a little creepy, and when I mean creepy its because I knoew ALOT of posters on this board HATE spiders.

I've been dreaming that my house is crawling with tarantulas. Millions of them. I start to panic and start running around and scooping them up and putting them in whatever containers I can find. They usual bite me and it is quite painful in the dream. I get so scared and frustrated running around and trying to put these tarantulas back in their "homes". In the dream they are very quick and very angry. And just when I think I've captured them all, I turn around and find that they all have somehow escaped. In one of the "chase spiders around" dream I actually had to catch a tarantula that was about 3 feet tall. Every time I have these dreams I have to rethink my career that I want to pursue in Arachnology.

~/X\(..)/X\

[!ceQueen]

I kiill animals in my dreams. So far, I have killed a black cat, a fox, a mouse and a snake. If I remember correctly. Only once have I fled when something attacked me: it was two elephants and an army of thirty hunters.

Pattern: when I have some obstacles and stress (i.e. exams, etc.) in real life.

When I was younger, I used to have dreams of jumping up high and staying suspended in the air.

I get the occassional dream of tooth-crumbling as well.

[Gorsnak]

When I was a kid I had a recurring nightmare. To this day, I cannot really articulate what it was like, though. There was this incredible feeling of dread at some sort of impending doom. A sort of crushing black terror. And against this black backdrop, I'd see these little idyllic scenes - a girl in a sundress carrying a parasol walking through a flower garden with a dog, say, or something similar. Come to think of it, these scenes were sort of drawn, not live action, as it were. And I KNEW that they were just there to distract me from the crushing terror, which of course just made the terror that much worse. Nothing much really happened, except the scene would change occasionally. And eventually I'd wake up and be utterly unable to go back to sleep.

[Zeldar]

About the only dream I will remember after waking is the one where I either know I'm dreaming or hope I'm dreaming, only to wake up once and find I'm still dreaming and then finally wake up for good -- I hope!

There's always a new twist to it, so that the waking up part is still as shocking (usually frightening) as before, but without giving hard evidence that it's the same sort of dream-within-dream that I had before.

Not all of them are bad. Some are almost the sort you don't want to wake up from. Most are bad, though.

[Anamorphic]

I used to get the teeth falling out dream a few others have mentioned fairly regularly. Sometimes the individual teeth would crumble out, sometimes the entire friggin' palate would come out. These dreams were pretty disturbing.

The good news is, whatever it was symbolic of, I've gotten over, apparently; I haven't had the dream in several years.

[Eve]

It's on Fifth, in the 50s. Somewhere near where Doubleday and Bonwit's used to be, when I fdrst moved here.

I have this dream about ruins--driving past ruins. Sometimes Roman-type ruins; sometimes it's falling-to-pieces old brick water towers, which they actually had near where I grew up. There's frequently an old graveyard nearby, but I never get a chance to explore them!

[Archergal]

My favorite recurring dream is the one where I can run on all fours like an animal. In my dream, it's a faster and more efficient way of getting from point A to point B. And it's easy to do in my dream. I never become an animal, but I move like one. It's very cool and fun.

My least favorite recurring dream is the one where I'm either bouncing or swinging on a rope or something, and getting higher with each bounce/swing. In that one, I start feeling really frightened and out of control as I go higher/farther with each swing or bounce. It's kinda scary.

I don't know what either of them means, but I have them fairly often (couple of times/year.)

[Optihut]

I used to have 2 recurring dreams: One was about a bunch of vampires chasing me in a shopping mall and the other was me stepping into a hole in the ground. My leg always twitched when I had that dream, so I usually woke up.

Nowadays there are 2 recurring characters in my dreams: My old history teacher, who always offers cryptic advice on real life problems in my dreams.

[whiterabbit]

Originally posted by LilyoftheValley
A common feature in my dreams is my teeth crumbling. Spitting out crumbling pieces of your teeth is just so gross. Supposedly it means that you feel you are not in control of your life (weird connection there), but for me, it actually happened in real life with a root-canaled tooth (yuk).

I'm not the only one who gets this one??? Oh thank goodness!

I have these dreams where people are after me. Who it is varies; it's been school authorities, my parents, murderous strangers. The important part is that I must get away. The weird part is that in these dreams I can always fly. I always heard flying dreams are supposed to be great, but in mine, somebody is always trying to Get Me, so they're not much fun at all!

[KRC]

I have recurring themes of going to Heaven or Hell in my dreams. Of the two Hell is more interesting--it always has social workers who show me around and help me "get used to the experience of being in Hell." I also get to meet interesting people when I go to Hell--in one dream I met Stalin, Ian Curtis, and Nadya Alliluyeva. Heaven, on the other hand, is rather dull and has few people in it and none of them speak English.

[Rasa]

I have a couple running "themes" in dreams... never the same dream but the same type of dream. One is that I'm in a car that I can't control--I'm either in the back seat and no one is driving and I can't get to the front seat, or I'm in the driver's seat but the car doesn't respond to my controls. The car usually keeps going faster and faster and faster. I usually wake up with a start.

Another is that I have to *climb* over a huge bridge. Think like, an Erector Set bridge, all metal girders and steel, across a body of water. I have to literally crawl across it for some reason. I can vividly remember looking down between the beams and seeing water below. ::shudder::

Whenever I have these dreams I know there's something in my life that I consider "out of control" and if I don't do something about it it's going to be a disaster.

[Cyn]

I sometimes dream and have for 20 years that I try to dial the phone, rotary and now push button, and I can't. There's something wrong with the phone and I can't dial. I dial so carefully, knowing the phone is messed up, trying to compensate, but I never get it right.
I've dreamt I was being chased and I stop and turn to fight, but no matter how hard I hit, I don't hurt this man who's after me. I might stagger him, and I run again and he chases me some more.

[DocCathode]

I have these wonderful dreams of flying through the night sky on bat's wings.

The degree to which I am human varies.

These don't symbolize anything. I've long been disappointed by my inability to peel off my skin like an old scab and be a chiropteran man-beast beneath. At least I can soar and pierce the night with a sonar cry in my dreams.

[mudcrutch]

My recurring car dream is sort of like Rasa's

I have this dream that I am driving a car and can't get it to stop. I keep mashing the brake pedal as hard as I can but the car only slows down and never comes to a complete stop. It keeps running into things and creating general havoc, but there is nothing I can do to control it. God, I hate that dream.

I also dream about Austin, Texas alot, though I have never spent much time there. :confused:

[Kyla]

I didn't get my driver's license until I was 23. Until then, I quite often had dreams that I was in a situation where I needed to drive somewhere, and I was terrified that I would either driver poorly, or that I would get caught driving without a license.

No more dreams like that since I got the license. Hardly surprising.

I don't know if it would really qualify as recurring, but several times I have dreamt that I killed someone. Horrible, horrible dreams.

[Zoe]

Zeldar, in that part of the dream in which you know you are dreaming, have you ever tried to control what is going on?

[Zeldar]

Zoe, it varies. As I said, some of them are pleasant enough that I dread waking up. And there have been some dreams that as soon as I go back to sleep (hours later) I pick up where I left off. I mean down to the smallest detail. Those are rare, but fun.

[acrossthesea]

I have the same two every night. First, I'm working at Barnes & Noble again (I did that for a few years), only now my store looks like some really fancy palace. (strangely I had that one back when I worked at B&n too, which means I've been having it for many years now).

The second one is horribly teasing! I dream that I am in NY again, visiting. In the neighborhood I spent my whole life till now in. I am eating pizza at Valentino's, the pizza store I frequented almost daily! Here's what's sad about the dream. In it, I am aware that I have dreamt this same thing many times before, only I am convinced that THIS TIME IT'S REAL. I eat my pizza and say something like "thank god this time it's NOT that dream!"

Then I wake up and realize that it was, and that there's no way I'm getting NY pizza any time soon.

[acrossthesea]

Oh, I forgot to mention, another recurring theme I have in dreams are earthquakes. I am petrified of earthquakes here. We have them all the time and I hate them because they make me feel helpless. The interesting thing is, many times that i have a dream about an earthquake, I later find out we really had one.

[Seldon]

Mine is plane crashes. I'm not afraid of flying. Four or five times a year I'll dream of a plane taking off and about 30 seconds later it bursts into flames, either in midair or right after it crashes into the ground. I can't link the frequency of the dreams with anything going on in my life, and I am freaked out for days after one of these. Sometimes I am just watching, and sometimes I am in the plane, interacting with all these people moments before horrible, fiery death. And even if I die in the dreams, I can still see what's going on.

Actually, I dream of death often. I've been eaten by sharks, fallen off cliffs, drowned, etc. Those freak me out too, but they aren't recurrent like the planes.

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

Some previous offerings on recurring dreams:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=14847
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=33542
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=45144
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=55959
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=97045
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=102750
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=136502
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=162179
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=168761

BTW, I work with a gal from the Tamil Nadu state of India. She mentioned also having had the recurring dream of being in class at final exam time, and realizing that she wasn't prepared, and hadn't been to class all term.

[Fretful Porpentine]

Wow. I've had the teeth-crumbling dream too (ugh). I had no idea that it was so common.

I'm pretty sure my other recurring dream is unique: I'm being forced to play the female lead in a Shakespeare play with no advance notice -- I'm somehow supposed to read the lines once and memorize them. (Funnily enough, it's not always the same play; it's been Othello a couple of times, and The Merchant of Venice once.)

[hardygrrl]

Some people dream about being back in school, I dream about working retail again.

I'm always running late and always never know what to do - things must have changed in the five years since I quit, right?

I also have a recurrent nightmare. I come home and am walking through the hallway to my bedroom when I'm grabbed by the throat and have my feet kicked out from under me. I'm thrown to the floor and a foot lands on my stomach. All he says is "Welcome home bitch" ... and that's where I wake up. Always the same person's voice but I never see the face.

[Special Agent Jazz]

The recurring dream I have (when I sleep) is of my grandmother. She raised me from a baby till I was 12 (when she died). She was my best friend. I started having this dream where she and I would walk down a hallway together and the hallway never seem to end.

Just before I wake up, I would thank her for spending time with me to which she would say, "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

That's when I would wake up and I'm never sure what it means but I always have this dream at least twice or three times a week since I was 14.

[AmishBlue]

1) the teeth falling out dream
2) walking down the street and finding coins, one right after the other
3) being in an emergency situation and not able to make my fingers dial 911
4) being in the path of one or more tornadoes
5) when I was a kid, I had a recurring dream about being chased by a locomotive.....

[tolyri]

I dreamt that I was at the summer camp I used to work at with 30-40 people from different stages in my life. It started out very fun, like a big reunion. Then these helicopters fly overhead, and I make a run for the tennis courts. By the time I get there the helicopter is hovering very low, and a guy inside is point a gun at my husband. Then I wake up. I was so disturbed that I didn't even tell hubby about it. I had the dream two more times within a month. About halfway throught the third time, I realized I was dreaming and changed the outcome. I got to the tennis court and got hubby out before he was killed.

[look!ninjas]

I often dreamed that I'm being chased, and I'm trying to run, but I feel like I'm going in slow motion. However, the last time I had that dream, I managed to turn it into a cross between running and flight (like the footage of astronauts hopping around the moon), and finally got away.

I've also had the classic theatre dream (always right before performances) that I arrive at the theater on opening night only to find that we're doing a completely different play, and I don't know my part at all.

[El Gui]

Had the teeth falling out dream. I would usually be in front of my parent's bathroom mirror at the beginning, but I wouldn't actually see the teeth falling out. I would start pushing them out with my tongue at the slightest tongue movement and sometimes would see or hear them fall into the sink. I had it for a couple of years. Surprisingly, I wasn't too terrified during the dream, but instead would feel a bit nonchalant - like, "Well, this probably shouldn't be happening."

During the same time, I had the faulty brakes dream. Usually, it would occur at the same intersection (one I drive through almost every day IRL - about a mile away from home). I would step on the brakes, then realize I wasn't slowing down fast enough and would then press harder. Don't recall ever crashing though. I would wake up before that.

For about six months until very recently, I had a recurring theme in my dreams. Any dream that involved walking, I would feel as if my legs each weighed 100 pounds, making the activity incredibly physically exhausting. The location did not make any difference (the desert, beach, courtyard of my old jr. high (?), etc.) During many of those dreams, I would wake up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat.

I still have dreams where I realize I've been forgetting to attend one of my college courses or tutoring sessions and then panic when I realize how much I have missed (or sometimes, I can't remember my class schedule). IRL, I graduated from college 8 years ago, yet I'll still wake up feeling a bit panicky before realizing I was only dreaming.

Bizarre.

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

I'm really surprised at the number of dreams with "severe dental problems." I always assumed I was the only one.

[Optihut]

I only had the teeth crumbling dream once, so it isn't really a recurring dream for me. Then again, it seems to be a universally recurring dream ;)

[thi6]

I sometimes dream that I'm being chased through a house by a shadowy figure. I always end up cornered somewhere with a weapon, usually a gun, but I can't seem to kill him. He's not superhuman or anything, I just miss every time I fire, no matter how close he gets.

[Optihut]

Oh yeah, speaking of guns: Thanks to that Dirty Harry movie I always have exactly 6 shots in my Colt Revolvers instead of unlimited ammo when I am dreaming :(

[TheFunkySpaceCowboy]

My recurring dreams are very boring compared to some of yours. Every so often I'll dream of having to deal with minor, but annoying, car repairs or minor but expensive car accidents. Things like some switch or another going out that takes my car out of commision for a week and costs me several hundred dollars or a slow speed accident on icey roads that causes some expensive body damage. No one ever gets hurt in these dreams or is ever in any real danger, but I'm stuck dealing with a lot of bullshit paperwork as a result. I always wake up just after I've realized all the annoying paperwork and other bullshit I'm going to have to deal with as a result.

The onset of winter (until recently I lived in Anchorage) always set these dreams off, I always found winter driving to be very stressful and not at all fun, any other times I've felt a lot of anxiety has also brought on one of these dreams. They started, I think, after my second winter driving when a cracked cable guard was letting water into the plastic sheath that protected the cable going from the gas pedal to the throttel, with the result being that I had the throttel jam open a few times while driving at 40+mph on the way to class/work. I managed to avoid any accidents during the week that was going on but ever since then all of my anxiety induced dreaming has typically involved an out of control or otherwise misbehaving vehical that will require a long series of stressful and annoying repairs/paper work to sort out.