I have seen countless references in books, movies, and on tv about three dreams that are common to many, maybe most, people: (1) being naked in public, (2) showing up for a test without having studied for it, and (3) getting ready to go on stage without having memorized your lines. Can anyone cite a more or less scholarly site or book which discusses this and speaks to such questions as how common it actually is and why these three particular dreams?
Well, I can’t, but #s 2 and 3 are really the same thing – being unprepared. The 1st one is almost the same thing.
I’d add that two other dreams I’ve heard are common to all humans are “The falling dream” and “The flying dream.” I bet I don’t even have to describe either one to you. I’ve heard that these are so deeply embedded in our common psyche that if monkeys could tell us their dreams they would include those two.
I’ve never had the 2nd or 3rd, I have had the 1st one(naked in public) but in the dream it seemed perfectly acceptable. This probably makes me a freak but that’s ok. 
*Chris Knight: Was it a dream where you see yourself standing in sort of sun-god robes on a pyramid, with a thousand naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at you?
Mitch: No…
Chris Knight: Why, am I the only one who has that dream? *
All of them reflect latent insecurities of some sort.
I don’t have the “naked dream”.
I have a version of it, in which I don’t have my shoes, and I have to go get them. For some reason, nobody notices that I’m not wearing shoes, and I can’t tell anyone or ask anyone to help me get my shoes.
Mr. Neville teased me once about this, saying my dreams conform to the Production Code. I don’t know what this says about the state of my mind, and I’m not sure I want to know.
never had 1,2 or 3. but I often have dreams of falling and flying.
I also dream alot about vampires, no idea why! I dont even read horror books!
I don’t have the naked dream. Oh no, I have the dream where I show up to school/work/dinner wrapped only in my baby blankie, but I don’t realise it until I get there. So, what the heck does THAT mean?
I’ve never had the naked dream, but I have had a number of dreams in which I am only wearing underwear. I’ve also had a few dreams in which I show up for a test or am in a class for which I am woefully unprepared. I’ve also had several flying dreams. I’ve never had the public speaking/performance dream, though.
Yes, I get all three of these dreams. There’s another one that I’m always hearing people talk about, and I get it, too.
It’s when you dream that a dead loved one is still alive, but they’ve just been hiding out or living somewhere else all this time. I dream this about my dad and all my dogs that I’ve ever had.
Is it common? Do you dream this one, too?
I’m 42 and I still I have the naked dream. Usually with a hard on, so it’s doubly embarassing.
I’ve never heard of the second and third dreams mentioned by the OP; I’ve had the ‘naked in public’ one a fair few times though (for me, I would be arriving at school, or later, work, only to discover that I was naked from the waist down; I would attempt to pull my shirt down to cover myself, but it would be inelastic and too short). I still get the flying dream on a regular basis and I understand this one is very common too (I think it must be more common than types 2 and 3 that the OP mentions).
In fact, the OP’s types 2 and 3 are almost the same thing, aren’t they? I’d warrant there will be more variance between individual accounts of the naked in public dream than there is between the two supposedly different unprepared dreams (type 2 and 3).
I’ve never, in over 20 years, had a flying dream (and this makes me feel quite odd, although not deprived), and the ‘falling’ dreams are never actual dreams, just a quickie sensation right at the point of unconsciousness that makes me literally jerk forward, and that’s not falling-falling, just me thinking “oops I missed a step on these wet stairs” falling (which is likely more related to my sleep paralysis and night terrors). Semi-naked dreams, yes, but they don’t really bother me, and only one or two ‘unprepared for a test’ dreams, except that one I was not at the testing center, just realizing I had 10 hours to study and so would have to forego sleep.
I once was dreaming that there were pirate ghosts in my bathroom by the stairs, realized it was a dream, figured “eh, sure, I’ll just fly down the stairs, I mean it’s just a dream”…took a leap, fell, broke a leg in the dream, and was quite pissed off that I couldn’t break the laws of physics even when I knew I technically could.
I get this one but its not that they’ve been hiding out, but rather that they have somehow come back to life. But they are never able to stay long - they have to go back.
I have a variation of this. It’s that the dead loved one is with me, but I know s/he is dead and just visiting and will have to go back at some point. I dream this about my parents and grandmother.
Other dreams I have that I know at least my sisters and I share but suspect others have, too:
Tooth/mouth dreams – My teeth are falling out at the slightest touch, or I look in the mirror and my teeth are a horrible jagged mess, or my mouth is full of some substance that I pull out by the handfull but it just keeps coming.
Telephone dreams – I need to use the telephone, but whenever I pick it up to dial, there are voices on the line or I keep misdialing over and over. (Does the use of “dialing” date me or what?!?)
Teeth-falling-out-or-disintegrating-in-mouth – definitely have. My mom has awful ones. She had one where her teeth were not teeth, but were broken glass shards, that kept falling out and cutting her mouth up. After hearing that, I started having teeth-yuck dreams. Never had them before. Thanks, mom.
Telephone-not-working dream – I have sad, sad computer versions of that. Where I am typing in instant messages, or the City of Heroes MMO, and I am actually physically typing usually. Typing on my chihuahua sleeping partner, no less. I get upset when I press Enter to submit my message, and it doesn’t work! I jab, and jab, and jab Enter, and wake up to a very angry chihuahua with my fingers smushing his belly.
Dead-relative dream – Nope.
Dead relative dreams - check
Teeth falling out dreams - check
Dreams I’m trying to write a computer program and someone else keeps inserting evil code which messes things up, and the evil code is actually killing people and committing atrocities, and everything in the dream (I mean EVERYTHING) is in onscreen text and numbers and symbols and line numbers and object diagrams and it’s all haywire and chaotic and WHERE’S THE SICK BASTARD PUTTING EVIL CODE IN MY PROGRAM?!? - check
One of the few recurring nightmares I have. Dreaming in source code…sheesh. :smack:
This also seems to be a common dream. I’ve always considered it to be a variation of any “frustration” dream, such as driving and always taking the wrong turn, or trying to write something down that you keep misspelling.
A linguist friend of mine had an interesting theory of the telephone dream. She thought that dreaming might be essentially a right-brain activity (creative), while using numbers is a left-brain activity. In this dream, you’re trying to use a part of the brain that’s not available, thus the frustration.
I have no idea whether there’s any validity to this (nor does she for that matter).
I don´t recall ever having one of the OP´s dreams; my two most frequent dreams are related and antipodal.
One is a flying dream, I´m walking along and then I start to jump and skip and jump higher and before I know it I can jump whole blocks; not high at first, just skimming a feet or two over the ground, as if jumping off a steep hill side and matching the ballistic path with the hill surface. Then it all goes to loony land and I find myself jumping and flying around the landscape like Rocky the flying squirel.
The other is the same beggining, I´m walking going somewhere and I start to feel my feet heavier and heavier; each step requires a tremendous phyisical effort and will, nevertheless I keep going for what seems an eternity and I wonder if I´d ever get to the place I´m going.
I´m certain that this dreams are linked to my emotional status at the time; luckly I have more flying than dragging!.
I’ve had the Flying dream but not as much as the Underwater dream… which I feel is a derivative. The Underwater dream is very interesting to me, because I’m usually trapped underwater, holding my breath (and I suspect I’m really doing it in me sleep) and panic starts to set in because I’m running out of air. When I can’t hold it any more, a certain calm overcomes me, and I take a breath full of water – and I can breathe! A sense of incredulous elation dawns on me, and I spend the rest of the dream flying around underwater, having a ball. One dream of this type was in my basement, when it flooded. Weird, since my basement’s never flooded.
I’m terrified of drowning, by the way… and of my basement flooding.
Also, I believe many have had this sort of dream: Molasses Escape. Usually I’m trying to run away from some undefined evil entity, but… I… Just… Can’t… Seem… To… Get… Anywhere! All the while he/she/it’s gaining on me, but it never actually gets me because I wake up in a tense ball of fear and frustration. As I got older, dreams like this are very rear, but they can still happen. This also seems a variation on the “frustration” set of dreams, but mixed with fear.
I love your friend’s right brain/left brain hypothesis, PoorYorick… there may be something to that.
I haven’t had 2) or 3). I’ve probably had 1) but I can’t remember specifically.
I dream I have frequently is of being pursued. What it is changes, most recently it’s been Cylons since I’ve been watching Battlestar Galactica on DVD; it’s been the Borg or the Terminator or just something more generic. They’re chasing me, presumably to kill me but it never gets actually gets that far. I’m running. And I can never stop. I try to hide, but they find me. And nothing I can do can ever make me safe for any period of time. So all I can do is run and run and run. (Sometimes, but not always, I’ll get the lead-leg effect, so I can’t even do that)
Oh, also, in my dreams I’m frequently female (which I’m not in real life). That can happen in most any dream, although attention is not usually called to it.