My anxiety dreams have modified themselves since my college days. They are now always somehow involved with my work, but still have the same format of something that has to be completed before I can get on with the matter that I’ve forgotten about. And then of course, something else comes up, and the forgotten matter has to be pushed back again, etc., etc., until I wake up. Then it usually takes a few minutes for me to think through my current work situation, and ascertain that it all really was just a dream.
My former housemate and I worked as technicians in the performing arts industry for years. My housemate thought it was uproariously funny when one morning I said I had a “Technician’s Nightmare”.
An “Actor’s Nightmare” (and there’s a play by that title) is the same as the exam dream – you’re onstage… and you have no idea what the play is let alone your lines! Oh, but apparently you’re the star and there’s a full audience in the house. You may or may not be naked.
In my “Technicians’ Nightmare” I was up on a platform that was the control center for an outdoor performance… of what, I had no idea, no idea if I was even running lights or sound, no idea what lights were patched where etc.
At least I was wearing clothes.
Oh, gosh, yes!!! I’ve got finals this week, and just last night I had a nightmare that the DJs on the morning radio show I listen to were my professors, and they were arbitarily flunking anyone they wanted to. Sounds kind of lame, I know, but I was really dang happy to wake up.
Print out drafts as you go, too. That way, in the event of a truly major foul-up that renders every electronic copy you have useless, you can at least tell your prof, “See, I really was working on my paper when the sky fell on my head…”
I had plenty of nightmares about being unprepared for exams and the like (still do). Of course, the one time that I actually studied all night for the wrong exam the next day only served to heighten my paranoia about preparedness. :smack:
My exam dream was of me checking my finals schedule online, only to find out that there was a final listed for a class I had never attended/bought the book/studied for. I graduated 2 years ago and still have this dream occasionally.