Weird, but common, dreams

[Skammer]

The current xkcd (http://xkcd.com/719/) cartoon got me thinking about dreams that are weird (as in, they don't reflect real life experiences) but are common, as in many people experience the same senario in their dreams, sometimes often. Popular examples are:

-- Driving from the backseat / trouble driving
-- Teeth falling out (these are both mentioned in the cartoon)
-- Being in class/a test and realizing you've missed the whole semester
-- Being in public naked/in your underwear
-- Using the toilet in front of other people
-- Flying

Are there any theories as to why these themes are so common in people's dreams? Why don't we all dream about (say) getting arrested, or being stranded at sea, or getting a really good deal on eBay?

[lalenin]

The only one of those I've ever had is flying, maybe my parasites are under control.

[Zsofia]

A lot of those are anxiety dreams. I have the teeth falling out one kind of often (and it came up on the Sopranos once) and instead of being naked it seems like I've always, say, forgotten my pants and am trying to stand behind tables and such. People have a lot of anxieties, I guess.

[Bijou Drains]

Seems like people bring up that comic strip often, I guess I an one of the few people that does not read it.

[Rhodes]

It seems to me that the naked / no pants dream could just be the result of sleeping with no pants. Like I'm having a dream, and suddenly it occurs to me that my legs are bare.

[Wakinyan]

There are a lot of theories about that. I do not mean to be snarky, but if you google "dreams flying falling" (without quotation marks of course) for instance, there's a wealth of theories right in front of you.

[Marley23]

Are there any theories as to why these themes are so common in people's dreams?
They represent basic anxieties, but they are also so famous that people are aware of these types of dreams even if they don't have them themselves. (I've had some of these dreams, but not others.) That popularity probably ensures people will keep dreaming them.

Driving from the backseat / trouble driving
If you have ever driven a car, you've been stressed out and nervous while driving.

Being in class/a test and realizing you've missed the whole semester
If you've ever been a student, you've worried you won't know the answers on some important test.

Being in public naked/in your underwear
A lot of people are insecure about their bodies and afraid of being embarrassed. And let's not forget that a lot of us sleep naked or in our underwear. I don't think I ever had a dream about being pantsless or naked in public until I started sleeping that way.

[cwthree]

If you have ever driven a car, you've been stressed out and nervous while driving.
I recall having the out-of-control car dream when I was a child, long before I started driving. In my dream, I'd be in the passenger seat with no idea how to stop the car.

[Buck Godot]

Hmmm I thought I was the only one who had the driving from the back seat dream, man I hate that one.

I have a couple of uninformed theories that I had concerning some of the others.

First, regarding the pants dream, I would agree with Rhodes, in that I tend to dream that I forgot my pants only when I go to sleep in my underwear.

As for the class you never attended, I always thought that it starts as a mundane dream about having to go to class, but then when you start trying to recall facts about the class, such as what the previous lectures were, what work you have done for the class, you have no memories to fall back on, since you never actually went to this class in real life. As a result your mind comes to the conclusion that even though this class has been going on for a semester you, must have forgotten to attend. From there panic ensues.

[freckafree]

My variation of the backseat driving dream is trying to use the telephone and it's either an interface that is bizarrely complicated or I keep misdialing the number or I pick up the phone to dial and there are other people on the line.

I stopped having the teeth falling out dreams after I switched dentists and my six-month cleanings/check-ups always ended with my dentist telling me that everything looked good, keep doing what I'm doing.

I don't sleep naked but I still have naked in public dreams.

[Marley23]

I recall having the out-of-control car dream when I was a child, long before I started driving. In my dream, I'd be in the passenger seat with no idea how to stop the car.
Fair point. Add "If you've ever been in a car, you've worried about being in an accident." I've never had this backseat driving dream - in fact I don't think I've ever dreamed about being in a car crash - but it seems like a pretty straightforward representation of feeling inadequate and unable to take control of the events around you.

[Acid Lamp]

I have a weird variant on the teeth dream where my mouth becomes so full of extra teeth, I'm chewing on them like a mouth full of marbles and begin spiting out teeth. Eventually I run out of teeth to spit out and I wake up. Ugh.

[Risha]

I've only ever had the "haven't been to class all semester" dream, and my college study habits were such that it was sometimes very nearly true. :D

I don't get sex dreams either. I feel a little cheated with that one.

[aruvqan]

I get the bathroom dream when I need to wake up to pee, for whatever reason the bathroom is unsuitable to use, either no privacy or the toilets are too nasty to use.

I get the loose tooth dream, but I also get a chewing gum dream (it is gunking up my mouth, and I keep having to reach in and peel it out a little bit at a time)

[Khadaji]

I occasionally get these two - but only occasionally:

-- Driving from the backseat
-- Being in class/a test and realizing you've missed the whole semester

I find it somewhat amusing that even in my dream world I am confident (arrogant?) enough to say I guess it won't matter if I pass or not, I'm good enough to get a job anyway.

[Frylock]

I often dream that I'm on stage and have no idea what's in the script. I'm betting that's a common one. (Is it?)

I also often dream that my jaw is just on the tip of becoming dislocated, and I have to shift it around just right to get it back into place--and the slightest screwup will make it dislocate. 'Sanyone else get this one, I wonder?

[GameHat]

One that strip missed:

I have recurring (not often, but probably at least once a year) dreams of this nature:

Something is chasing or pursuing me. Something that means to kill me. I try to run, but my legs just don't work. Well, they kinda work, but not nearly well enough.

I try to run, but my legs are either impossibly heavy or rooted to the ground. Either way, I know something is coming after me, I can laboriously move my legs but it's not nearly fast enough. I need to run, but the legs are so heavy I can only stumble a step or two before my pursuer catches up. I always wake up in a state of panic when the pursuer finally catches me.

God, I hate these dreams.

[Nars Glinley]

-- Being in class/a test and realizing you've missed the whole semester

I'm 47 and haven't been in college for 22 years and I still get this one all the time. What's also really irritating is how long it takes me to realize that I don't actually have to take a test after I wake up.

[yorick73]

The interesting thing is that, if these dreams are caused by anxiety, that they manifest in almost identical dreams for most of us.

I've been out of college for 10 years and still get the "missed the semester" dream every so often. Usually for me I am walking down a hall toward another class and pass up the classroom of the course that I am not attending. It then dawns on me that I am registered for this class and the final is in 10 minutes. Of course, even if I ace the final I would still fail b/c I missed all the other tests....HORROR!

[tr0psn4j]

I've heard if you die in your dream, you die IRL. I've never died in any of my dreams. :)

[kjbrasda]

My most common anxiety dream is trying to get ready for something and not being able to. For example, getting ready to go out and I can't manage to get dressed because I keep putting clothes on but when I look down, they are off again, or I am packing and can't find things, or things keep disappearing from my bags, or once, I was trying to take a shower in a really fancy high tech shower, I kept taking clothes off, but they kept appearing on my body.

I have died a few times in my dreams. Once in a tornado that picked up my car a few hundred feet, and once drowning. The drowning dream was very peaceful. I woke up feeling nice and calm.

[Magiver]

I get the bathroom dream when I need to wake up to pee, for whatever reason the bathroom is unsuitable to use, either no privacy or the toilets are too nasty to use.

I get the loose tooth dream, but I also get a chewing gum dream (it is gunking up my mouth, and I keep having to reach in and peel it out a little bit at a time)
I've had both of these dreams. I don't understand the toilet dream at all but the gum dream is probably from a try mouth caused by breathing through it (cotton mouth).

I have 2 types of flying dreams. One is a dream where I can hold either a high tech wing "surf board" or use my arms to form a super efficient wing and surf the wind like a parasail. the other involves flying my own plane but I constantly have to take off and land on streets and fields with overhead wires everywhere. I have to get high enough to clear cars but stay under the wires until I have enough speed pull up over them.

[tr0psn4j]

I remember, as a kid, I had a dream where I peed myself in the pants. Turns out, I actually did pee myself.

[Miss Violaceous]

I have everything on the OP's list except driving dreams. My variant on the flying dream involves bouncing. I can jump higher and higher until I just stay up there.

[Electric Warrior]

I remember, as a kid, I had a dream where I peed myself in the pants. Turns out, I actually did pee myself.

I once had a dream that I was going to take a shower, and I was removing my clothes. When I woke up I had indeed taken off my pajama shorts.

I think another one of the 'weird but common' dreams is falling from a great height, or jumping off of something high up. My most common recurring dream as a child.

[jjimm]

I've heard if you die in your dream, you die IRL. I've never died in any of my dreams. :)I've died in a couple of dreams. The afterlife was really bureaucratic.

I have also experienced the End of Time a couple of times. One time everyone was drawn to football stadia around the world, and above them each religion saw its own deity in the sky, coming to get them. Twenty years later I had a follow-up dream to this where the religious saw their own deity in the sky, then whatever deity it was decided to fuck with the atheists by a) rearranging all the stars, and b) turning gravity off for a couple of seconds. My cat went bobbing past me and I had to stop her from floating into the sky. I ended up saying "OK, so You can in fact change the law of physics - fair enough, I believe now, whoever You are." Weirdest dream I ever had.

[Chronos]

XKCD also had a comic explicitly about the missed semester dream (http://xkcd.com/557/).

I have died a few times in my dreams. Once in a tornado that picked up my car a few hundred feet, and once drowning. The drowning dream was very peaceful. I woke up feeling nice and calm. I've died at least twice in my dreams. Once was by drowning, after I had already realized that I was dreaming, so it wasn't traumatic at all: It just changed the scene of the dream to the inside of a crypt, where I was playing chess against other dead folks (they were really lousy players). The other time, though, I thought it was real right up until the end, when an assassin stabbed me through the throat with a dagger, which woke me up abruptly (and unpleasantly).

As for naked dreams, has anyone ever had the opposite? I've had dreams where I was trying to undress, but kept on finding that under every pair of pants, I had another pair of pants, like Bartholomew Cubbins' hats.

[Topologist]

-- Being in class/a test and realizing you've missed the whole semester


I got that one until I started teaching (college). Then I started having a dream where it's the end of the semester and I realize there's a class I forgot to teach all semester. Anyone else have that one?

[John Mace]

The interesting thing is that, if these dreams are caused by anxiety, that they manifest in almost identical dreams for most of us.

Yeah. I keep thinking that some day a new Darwin will come along, figure out why, and we'll all say: Now, why didn't I think of that!? Seems like there are enough clues that it should be a solvable problem.

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

As a Professor, I get a variation on the missed class dream. I dream that my class is out of control (and I generally have excellent students), talking over me, arguing won't sit down and I can't do anything to get their attention. This usually happens the week before classes start!

I also have the teeth falling out one- I almost cried when I woke up and felt my teeth were still in my mouth.

This is the the actual brain parasite (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cysticercosis)

[BigT]

one thing I notice in my backseat driving dreams is that I oftimes wind up outside the car, watching from the outside. I think it comes from watching TV.

[Marley23]

I often dream that I'm on stage and have no idea what's in the script. I'm betting that's a common one. (Is it?)
I have that one once every few years. I did theatre in high school, so I don't have any questions about where it came from.

I've heard if you die in your dream, you die IRL.
Nope. I had a dream about being killed by a car bomb a few years ago and I'm fine. It was a surprisingly peaceful experience. I've never had a backseat driving, falling, or using the toilet in public dream either.

[cmyk]

I think I've had the dreams listed in the OP multiple time, with exception of the toilet one (But even that, maybe once or twice?).

The naked/no pants one is pretty common, but it's weird for me. Usually, I'm not at all embarrassed about being exposed like that in public, but shamed that I could be so stupid as to forget to put my pants on.

I also have this reoccurring dream where I'm underwater in a building that I know well (like the basement of my house, or my old office), I start to panic, because there's no air, my lungs are aching, and I can't help to take a breath. And that's when the dream immediately becomes one not of terror but of elation and joy. I can BREATHE underwater! I also have a weightless sense of flying, but indoors and underwater. Some of my favorite dreams, those.

I have the regular flying dream too. It usually starts off by me just willing myself to levitate. Then from there, I discover I can just will myself to hover or cruise at altitude as if it were the most natural (but coolest) thing in the world.

My wife also tells me I laugh a ton in my sleep.

[Chronos]

I don't think there's "a" flying dream, but rather several different kinds. Speaking just for myself, I have at least four different types of flying dream:
1: I can make super-long jumps, like running down the sidewalk and only touching down every block or so. Basically, while I'm in the air, I can decide (within limits) when to come down.
2: I can walk horizontally on air, a feat which feels like it takes extreme balance. Occasionally I can walk up "steps" this way, but usually it's just horizontal.
3: I can levitate off the ground, but have no means of horizontal propulsion. If I'm running when I start levitating, I'll keep on moving, and I can push off of things, but I can't just take off in some direction. Sometimes this is just a few feet off the ground, and sometimes it's unlimited vertical distance.
4: I can do the whole Superman thing, with complete control. This is the rarest, and usually only occurs after I've done one of the other types and realize I'm dreaming, so I might as well go all the way with it.

I think that #1 comes from me riding my bike a lot, since riding a bike is a similar motion to running, but you cover more ground per leg movement, and can coast great distances without pedaling at all. Do the same thing but without the bike, and it's a form of flight. I have no idea what the origin of the other three is. I've also heard from others about dreams of "swimming in air" flight, which I never have, presumably due to the fact that I don't swim much in water in waking life.

[Malleus, Incus, Stapes!]

I've died in nightmares plenty of times.

After which I become a ghost and go around helping take down the bad guys, because they can't kill me twice. Or end up in some weird, but cool, afterlife.

Why is it that when you're running away, your legs don't work, but you can painfully drag yourself along by your hands? I read somewhere that the leg thing is normal sleep paralysis, but why doesn't it affect the arms?

It took me forever to learn to fly in my dreams. I can't float- I have to be swooping up and down and around to sustain the lift.

[Leo Bloom]

I also find myself with evermore increasing balls of gum in my
mouth which I have to strip away manually.

As for dying, I always wake up from fear before the _coup de grace_.

[elfkin477]

The naked/no pants one is pretty common, but it's weird for me. Usually, I'm not at all embarrassed about being exposed like that in public, but shamed that I could be so stupid as to forget to put my pants on. My naked dreams are the complete opposite: I'm modest in waking life, but in my dreams being mostly naked is no big deal.

I've never had a driving from the backseat dream, and the one flying dream I had involved a hang-glider, but I've had every other dream in the OP.

I thought everyone had bathroom dreams when they needed to get up and pee. Everyone has the running & hiding from danger dream, though, right? I had that one again Friday night, and as is often the case, I didn't even see the bad guys I was looking for a place to hide from. I could hear them in the school too though.

[aruvqan]

My naked dreams are the complete opposite: I'm modest in waking life, but in my dreams being mostly naked is no big deal.

I've never had a driving from the backseat dream, and the one flying dream I had involved a hang-glider, but I've had every other dream in the OP.

I thought everyone had bathroom dreams when they needed to get up and pee. Everyone has the running & hiding from danger dream, though, right? I had that one again Friday night, and as is often the case, I didn't even see the bad guys I was looking for a place to hide from. I could hear them in the school too though.

I didn't start having walking/running dreams until I became a gimp. I am ambivalent how I feel about dreams where I can walk or run like normal.

When I have flying dreams, it is more like I am swimming in the air, but I adore swimming, so I can see why I percieve my flying dreams in that manner. I do not ever remember a naked dream however. I have had dreams where I am dressed wrongly for the function [showing up at a formal dinner in a swimsuit for example] so I am not certain how that works out interpretationwise...

[Malleus, Incus, Stapes!]

My naked dreams are the complete opposite: I'm modest in waking life, but in my dreams being mostly naked is no big deal.

Yes, when I'm awake I don't even like to look at myself naked, but in my dreams being out au naturale is merely a bad faux pas. Sometimes the equivalent of showing up to a wedding in sweatpants, sometimes like showing in in your nightie, but usually not "OMIGOD I'M BARE NEKKED HERE!!!"

I didn't realize until I started lurking here that other people had the "need to pee, but all the restrooms are too exposed and/or dirty" dream.

Buck Godot- that's been my theory, too. Especialy when I'm dreaming that I'm in a play I actually did years ago, and of course I've forgotten most of the lines by now.

Interestingly, my "running away" dreams often feature concentration camps, or the Holocaust in general. I wonder, is it because I'm Jewish? Then again, it's not like I know any survivors. My whole family is upteenth generation American, and both my grandfathers were American soldiers in WWII.

[olivesmarch4th]

I've died in nightmares plenty of times.

There was a period of years where I died in my dreams every night. Usually via tornado, but my brain eventually got pretty creative -- being pushed by my mother out into traffic in a little red wagon, falling down an elevator shaft, being shot in the face...

In the dream, I would know that I was dying, and at the last second a feeling of complete and total acceptance came over me, and then blackness... And then I would realize I would still conscious, at which point I would wake up, and it would take me several moments to realize I wasn't actually dead.

Eventually those nightmares stopped. I still get tornado dreams from time to time, but more often than not I survive. Sometimes I dream there are 10, 20 tornados after me, and yet I still survive.

The frequency of my nightmares over the long-term seems directly correlated to my mental health status over the long-term. I still dream about danger, but I usually overcome the danger or work it out in time. So there is really something about dreams. My brain must have figured out that I'm going to be okay.

I've had wacky, vivid dreams for as long as I can remember. Totally bizarre stuff like being chased by floating whales or diving into a vault of mashed potatoes. I've had lucid dreams, where I control everything happening, and I've had dreams where I'm so aware I'm dreaming that I interpret the dream as it's happening... ''Wow, look at all these basins overflowing with water... water is the subconscious right, and everything's in black-and-white, wonder what that means?'' In the black-and-white dream I remember one bright red teapot--the only object of color in the whole dream.

The brain. Fascinating stuff.

[Angel of the Lord]

I once died in a dream. It was after failing to disable a nuclear device that me, my mom, and my best friend had spent hours pouring over the city in the vain hope of finding. It was some kind of mix-up at a science lab. It turns out that it was in my hope chest. My best friend and I pulled it onto my bed to defuse it. I was *this* close, and it went off.

. . .I kind of have badass dreams.

[BMax]

Something like the being chased and can't run away/heavy feet and the backseat driving dream, I have recurring a dream about someone threatening/dominating me or someone I care about and I attack them, but no matter how hard I punch them or how many times I shoot them, I don't do any damage to them, and they laugh at me.

Something like the missing class all semester dream: I sometimes dream that I'm back in the army, I need a haircut, I'm out of shape, out of uniform, I don't have any boots, or I have a faulty weapon. The guns in my dreams don't usually work; they often are missing some critical part, like the bolt if it's a rifle or if it's a pistol it's missing the slide.

[GIGObuster]

I always laugh at a funny combo one I got many years ago.

It included falling, dying and flying.

It was a mountainous setting and I tripped and then I experienced a huge fall towards a green patch of grass at the bottom of the mountain.

Somehow I began to realize that I was dreaming so I thought, I should fly and escape this predicament, so I did fly..

..but only after I had made an impact hole in the grass patch. I guess my brain just assumed that I was invulnerable but only after I "died" and fully realized that I had control.

[choie]

Wow. I get the too-many-teeth dream and the gunk-in-my-mouth dream too, though it's usually (sorry for graphic ickiness) mucus. I'd prefer it to be gum, though. C'mon brain, be less gross!

A recurring dream for me involves tornadoes. I look out my window and see the NYC skyline, through which several tornado funnels are reaching down like fingers to stab at the buildings in the distance. Like a dozen funnels, all sweeping across NYC. Scares the crap out of me.

But the most common recurring dream for me is amazing for the fact that it stopped, once and for all, when I apparently resolved the issue that was causing it. It's something so psychologically obvious that I wouldn't dare write it as a fiction story, because it's hard to believe the mind really works this way.

The dream, which I had several times each week for many many years, involved the home I grew up in, which in real life my father sold when I was around 23 (20 years ago now). I was never happy that he sold it and have missed it desperately for many years. Anyway, the dream focused on my sneaking back into the house for a visit, despite the new owners living there. When I'd enter, the house would be filled to the brim with trash or clutter, so awful I could barely move around. I'd sneak around trying to prevent the present owners from spotting me. Waking up from these dreams, I always felt depressed and bereft.

Last year I actually got up the nerve to contact the owners and ask to visit the house. They were gracious enough to let me and my sister visit, and we went on a tour. The house had changed, naturally, and while it was very good to see the beautiful old building, it no longer looked like "our" home. And yet I felt that the owners had loved it, and took care of it in their way. Even though I disliked some of the decor choices they'd made, I appreciated why they'd made them.

Since that visit, I've never had that dream again. Incredible.

[Mijin]

I remember, as a kid, I had a dream where I peed myself in the pants. Turns out, I actually did pee myself.

I actually did this recently, and when I was staying over at my parents' house no less :eek:
In my dream I was in a restroom and decided to relieve myself. I dreamed I was peeing, and yet i still felt like I needed to go. So I thought "let me try *really* hard to pee again" -- then I woke suddenly as I realised I was beginning to pee for real.

[caballohiker]

I often have dreams of flying and being naked in public and have wondered too why I have them. And I have had dreams of walking on water and even mud some much so that one day I tried crossing some mud and not sinking it in, but of course I did. Some of my dreams seem to be so real that I thought they were. Sometimes I will remember something in the past and wonder rather it really happened or I dreamed it. When I drink Williard Water I have the most vivid dreams of all that they seem so real I wake up and later wonder if I dreamed something or it really happened.

[Autolycus]

Last night I went to bed drunk, and I was drunk in my dreams. Neat.

[Morbo]

My recurring teeth dream involves stitches, like I had my wisdom teeth removed and I'm pulling at the stitches even though I know I shouldn't, and eventually all my teeth start coming out b/c they're attached to the stitches.

My flying dreams are more about water. Like I'm on a raft, or in a house, and the water level is rising so I'm floating around on top of it, but I never think it's dangerous or anything, just kind of pleasant. There's usually interesting creatures in the perfectly clear water for me to look at.

[Acid Lamp]

My variant on the flying dream works like this: I can fly, but only while maintaining a vertical position. I step up into the air as if jumping and land against an upward force, like a magnet.. By pushing down harder I go faster horizontally. I can gain altitude by jumping up to higher "levels", coming down you just land as if jumping but with far less weight and momentum. I LOVE THIS DREAM.

[Cheshire Human]

I have a weird variant on the teeth dream where my mouth becomes so full of extra teeth, I'm chewing on them like a mouth full of marbles and begin spiting out teeth. Eventually I run out of teeth to spit out and I wake up. Ugh.

My version is chewing gum. I keep pulling huge chunks of it out of my mouth, but there's still more clogging up my teeth, till there's no room in my mouth for more. I think this means we are all sick mo'fo's. Or, maybe we're all sane, and it's the psychologists who are the sick mo'fo's.

[Cheshire Human]

I get the loose tooth dream, but I also get a chewing gum dream (it is gunking up my mouth, and I keep having to reach in and peel it out a little bit at a time)

I should'a read down 2 more posts. That's my ick dream.

[Cheshire Human]

I also often dream that my jaw is just on the tip of becoming dislocated, and I have to shift it around just right to get it back into place--and the slightest screwup will make it dislocate. 'Sanyone else get this one, I wonder?

Unfortunately, this one isn't a dream for me. Due to an injury I got when I was 23, that's the way my jaw actually works. I wish it was just a dream.

[drachillix]

. . .I kind of have badass dreams.

I used to have a recurring dream in which I was an american army infantryman engaged in house to house fighting in some mid size french city. My recollections of the dream (I had it hundreds of times) could have been lifted from any one of dozens of war movies, but I clearly remember alot of it, the signs in french, the rubble and debris strewn streets, the weight of my rifle in my hands, trading fire with german infantry on dozens of occasions until at one point my squad rushes into a house and I feel something like getting hit in the chest with a sledgehammer, then I wake up. The dream was not always exactly the same, but it looks like the same town each time. Sometimes I get killed on the first house we search, sometimes the 4th-5th. Its always a surprise to me.

The dreams started when I was about 10, I have not had one for a few years, but for while it was at least once a week.

When I was younger I almost wondered if this was some kinda past life thing, not knowing any better.

[Marley23]

All of you are completely insane. I kid, I kid. I don't have most of these, but I've had a couple of flying dreams. Fairly often I have dreams where I get lost in some neighborhood where I've never been, and it seems to get larger as I try to get out. Anyone ever had that one?

[jasonh300]

I get the loose tooth dream, but I also get a chewing gum dream (it is gunking up my mouth, and I keep having to reach in and peel it out a little bit at a time)

I get that all the time. Have you ever been tested for sleep apnea?

Until I got married, I never put that dream together with waking up and gasping for breath. I'd dream I had a mouthful of gum or that I'd fallen asleep with a hard candy in my mouth and it went down my throat.

My ex-wife said she would watch me laying there, not breathing for a minute or two and then I'd wake up, take a deep breath and go back to sleep.

[Pyper]

I play multiple instruments, and I've had variations of the "missed a semester" dream in which I show up to the concert with my oboe, but I was actually supposed to learn the flute part! :smack:

I have the driving dream a lot and it occurs one of two ways: I am driving but my vision is so blurry I might as well be blind, or I am driving and the brakes don't work right.

I've also had the occasional beyond disgusting gunk in my mouth dream. In one dream I was pulling strings and strings of thick, fibrous sewage material from my mouth.

[Chronos]

Quoth Angel of the Lord:I once died in a dream. It was after failing to disable a nuclear device that me, my mom, and my best friend had spent hours pouring over the city in the vain hope of finding. It was some kind of mix-up at a science lab. It turns out that it was in my hope chest. My best friend and I pulled it onto my bed to defuse it. I was *this* close, and it went off.

. . .I kind of have badass dreams. You think that's badass? I had a dream once where I found a black hole in my living room. It was about the size of a softball (yes, I know that's way too large), and it had a violet glow around the edges (I couldn't figure out whether that was due to Hawking radiation or accretion of air). Of course, I immediately set about making as many measurements of it as I could, given the materials at hand.

[Cheshire Human]

All of you are completely insane. I kid, I kid. I don't have most of these, but I've had a couple of flying dreams. Fairly often I have dreams where I get lost in some neighborhood where I've never been, and it seems to get larger as I try to get out. Anyone ever had that one?

That's completely batshit insane:D
I dreamed about being lost, once, but when I woke up, I realized the place I had dreamed of was Daley Plaza in Chicago.

[dotchan]

I've been a lucid dreamer pretty much since I was like 9 years old, so I notice lots of recurring themes. Heck, one of the standard tests I do if I suspect myself of dreaming is to see if gravity works normally: in dreams, motion tends to be much more sluggish and I'm almost always floating a few inches from the ground.

I don't mind Dream Logic, since it does make a convoluted sort of sense while the dream itself is happening, but sometimes I wish my brain kept better track of continuity. (This morning, for example, I ended up stuck in a recurring loop where I kept redoing a part over and over again and I couldn't remember what items I had with me. It was like I was a character in a platformer or something.)

There was a time in my life where I was very unhappy, and in my dreams I was constantly dying in various horrible ways as a result. The worst dreams, though, were always the ones where I was being chased and I couldn't get away--even more so when I had someone running away with me and I needed to protect them as well.

Thankfully, I've since managed to conquer most of my recurring nightmares. My secret, at least, is to relax and remind myself that I'm dreaming. And I've learned to go with the flow a lot more rather than trying to dictate where the dream should go next. Changing my sleeping habits have also helped a lot with combating sleep paralysis.

(I used to keep a dream journal (http://dotchan.livejournal.com/tag/dreams), but I've since stopped bothering. Alas, there isn't a device to record and play back what's going on in my head.)

[Skammer]

I haven't had a flying dream in a long time, but used to have them as a kid. It was petty lame though: I could only fly in a horizontal position by flapping my arms, and I could only go 3-4 feet off the ground.

[BwanaBob]

I get all those anxiety dreams. I also get a variant on the "haven't been to class all semester" dream, except this time it's high school; the final is about to start; and I'm stuck at my locker because I can't remember my combination, soI can put my jacket aaway.

[gytalf2000]

I recall having the out-of-control car dream when I was a child, long before I started driving. In my dream, I'd be in the passenger seat with no idea how to stop the car.


I had several "out-of-control car" dreams when I was around 10-12 years old, for some reason!

[robby]

Until this thread, I had no idea that the "driving from the back seat" dream was common. I've had that dream for years.

I have heard that the "missed class all semester" dream is common. And the footnote in the xkcd strip (http://xkcd.com/557/) is exactly right--I'm still having this dream years after graduation.

I had the "class out of control" dream too, back when I was teaching.

[Flipshod]

I have most of the ones you guys are talking about. (except the backseat driving one) But I also dream that I'm trying to walk around doing my job, but I'm wearing roller skates, so very clumsy. Anyone have that?

[Ann Hedonia]

I get all those anxiety dreams. I also get a variant on the "haven't been to class all semester" dream, except this time it's high school; the final is about to start; and I'm stuck at my locker because I can't remember my combination, soI can put my jacket aaway.

I used to get the "haven't been to class all semester" dream but it's pretty much been replaced by this variant.

I have to take a plane somewhere for an important meeting and I am dangerously close to the departure time and I haven't packed, I don't know where the airport is or sometimes I get to the airport but don't know what airline or when the flight leaves or even where I'm going.

[mil0]

I have a reoccurring dream where I'm taken prisoner while traveling in China for a crime I didn't commit. I'm then tortured for information. I have my teeth cut out with scissors, my skin flayed, and boiling wax poured into my ears. It's always pretty terrifying, and even when I realize it's a dream I can't control the outcome. Eventually, what happens is, a group of soldiers come into my cell and give me a lethal injection right in the back of my neck.

It's probably a pretty unique dream :]

[Eleasarian]

I used to dream with I flapped my arms very fast I could start floating up into the air, I suppose flying. And the higher I got the more difficult it was to control which direction I went, and I could start floating upwards beyond my control, like a balloon, unless I fought it. When I was close to the ground I could control where I went, and the flapping the arms and hovering was fun, but if I got too high I could loose control and float away, most times I had this dream I could end up panicking as I tried to avoid the power lines as I floated upwards, while I at the same time I fought to get back to the ground.

[Rucksinator]

2 that I have. The first I've heard is somewhat common:

My arms or legs don't work right. Either I really need to punch this guy and I just can't swing my arms, or my legs don't work right. The more I focus on trying to walk, the less responsive my legs are. IOW, if I don't think about it, my legs are mostly fine. It's when I start to notice problems walking and really focus on them that my legs get worse. I don't fall down or anything. I'm just still legged and they refuse to work.

This is probably less common: I can't find a private place to poop. I will be in a room full of urinals, with people just peeing willy-nilly. But I've got to poop, and I've got to have some privacy. Everywhere I go, if I find a toilet, there are suddenly people milling around.

[Jinx]

Twenty years out of college, and I STILL have nightmares of not being able to settle down and study the night before an exam!!! :smack: On the bright side, I have never dreamed (drempt?) of my teeth falling out. :D

[IaMoDiNaRy]

I've always had really vivid, wild and strange dreams and I almost always remember them the next day. I used to have the flying dream all the time when I was a child.

Another one I used to have all the time was that I could drop down to all fours and run really fast like a dog. It was always a good dream and it made me feel really free and happy!

I've also dreamed the one where something or someone was chasing me and my legs weighed a ton or just wouldn't move at all. The only reoccurring school dream I had was that I couldn't remember where my locker was or where my classes were or where I was supposed to be.

The bad one I had a lot was of drowning. Me and a bunch of other people would be walking in single file in a line in waist deep water. I would always stumble, fall and no one would help me up.

When I was a teenager and then into my early 20's I had really bad nightmares. It was so bad that I dreaded going to sleep at night. I would get really anxious and try to stay awake as long as I could, afraid to go to sleep. I started reading everything I could about sleep disorders, dreams and nightmares and was finally able to tell myself in my dream that "it's only a dream". I also started writing it all down the next day and these two things together worked. I stopped having so many nightmares. From all the weird, scary stuff I dreamed, I came to the conclusion that this is where Stephen King and some of these horror fiction writers get their ideas. My poor brain came up with some really bizarre stuff at night and I could have given them some stiff competition if I'd had any writing talent.

[Malleus, Incus, Stapes!]

I get that all the time. Have you ever been tested for sleep apnea?

Until I got married, I never put that dream together with waking up and gasping for breath. I'd dream I had a mouthful of gum or that I'd fallen asleep with a hard candy in my mouth and it went down my throat.

My ex-wife said she would watch me laying there, not breathing for a minute or two and then I'd wake up, take a deep breath and go back to sleep.

I wonder if I should get tested. I sometimes wake up yelling and gasping in the night, because I think I can't breath.

[BMax]

I feel sorry for you guys with lame flying dreams. Although I can't stay up for long, I usually get above the treetops in my flying dreams.

[Leo Bloom]

Does anyone remember a scene in the movie "Top Secret" where the hero is being whipped (supposedly), drifts into unconsciousness and dreams he has missed the finals and hasn't studied? He then wakes up, realizes he's only being whipped, and is greatly comforted.

[Kobal2]

I never had the backseat driving dream (considering I don't drive, that's to be expected) or the teeth falling dream - but I get the "tomorrow is exam day and you have no idea what it's about", "today is exam day and you're 2 hours late" dreams very regularly. Sometimes so vividly that I wake up and get dressed in a hurry before remembering my last exam ever was years ago :/. Guess my life's not so stressful that my brain's gone and updated its primal anxiety source :)

Re : the falling/flying dream (which I never had either, BTW), I once was told that it could be a result of sleep itself : when you're fast asleep, your brain is supposed to paralyse your body so you don't move about too much or hurt yourself. Some people aren't paralysed much (remember your kid brother who kicked you in his sleep ?) and some only partly, in which case your body reacts by sending the brain messages to the amount of "I can't move or feel a fucken thing, there's no bed under me, this is weird, HALP!" , which the brain interprets and/or corrects by sending back the idea that it's all right, you're flying, now quit being such a baby.
Bear in mind, this is "guy I met in a bar once" level of information reliability, so do order a few grains of salt.

ETA : oh, and count me as one who's died in his dreams as well. A few times by suicide, but more often by unknown, crazed assailants. Once, the dream kept going : I got killed, then "possessed" some other body, who got killed by the same guy, again and again. Not fun.

[Kobal2]

Oh, and @OP : I very often dream about getting arrested and/or thrown in jail, or at least being interrogated. Sometimes because I've been mouthing off to the fuzz, sometimes because the pigs are being dicks, and sometimes, quite rarely, because I actually did something bad.

In case you're wondering, life on the inside's not so bad. You only gotta chew your first cellmate's head off, then they leave you alone to write in peace :p

[GuanoLad]

I've not had any of these kinds of dreams. The closes I come to flying is hovering, about two inches off the ground, and able to slide around like I'm on skates, but with no friction. The downside of which is there's also no traction, so I have to glide down hills to go anywhere.

And I have a lot of driving dreams. I don't drive in real life, so I guess this is my way of making up for what I'm missing. In dreams I have driven cars, buses, boats, and motorbikes.