# Dreams We All Have **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 4, 2006, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367 "2006-08-04T18:49:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Slypork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@Slypork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slypork)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2006, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/41 "2006-08-07T17:09:37Z")
I’ve had the flying dreams but I have to frantically flap my arms and only get a couple feet off the ground. I’ve had the unprepared for plays/musical recitals (which is weird cause I don’t play an instrument). I’ve had dreams where they tell me that I should not have been discharged from the Army and have to serve another 10 years. My oddest thing is I get celebrity cameos in my dreams! It started when I was about 10 with Valerie Harper (for some weird reason I thought Rhoda was hot) and since then I have met Mel Gibson, Ray Romano, Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Sandra Bullock, Bruce Willis, Julia Roberts, Kathy Bates, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Dame Judi Dench. Whenever I meet them, it’s always in some normal place like a restaurant or the local convenience store. It’s not like I’m a celebrity junkie watching Entertainment Tonight and scooping up the National Enquirer at the supermarket. I really couldn’t give a hoot about who is sleeping with whom or what their latest rehab experience was like. In real life I think most of them are self-impressed children with little self-control. In my dreams I talk with them about which peanut butter is on sale or get directions to the beach. I’m I stalking them through astral projection? ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2006, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/42 "2006-08-07T18:00:23Z")
> [@erie774](#): > > I’ve had the flying dreams but I have to frantically flap my arms and only get a couple feet off the ground. I’ve had the unprepared for plays/musical recitals (which is weird cause I don’t play an instrument). I’ve had dreams where they tell me that I should not have been discharged from the Army and have to serve another 10 years. > > My oddest thing is I get celebrity cameos in my dreams! It started when I was about 10 with Valerie Harper (for some weird reason I thought Rhoda was hot) and since then I have met Mel Gibson, Ray Romano, Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Sandra Bullock, Bruce Willis, Julia Roberts, Kathy Bates, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Dame Judi Dench. Whenever I meet them, it’s always in some normal place like a restaurant or the local convenience store. It’s not like I’m a celebrity junkie watching Entertainment Tonight and scooping up the National Enquirer at the supermarket. I really couldn’t give a hoot about who is sleeping with whom or what their latest rehab experience was like. In real life I think most of them are self-impressed children with little self-control. In my dreams I talk with them about which peanut butter is on sale or get directions to the beach. I’m I stalking them through astral projection? Funny, I get the Army dream too. a phone call telling me that I’m facing criminal charges of desertion because I’ve been enlisted for the last 20 years and the only way out of the charges is to report for duty immediately at the rank of E1. I also dreamed about Sandra Bullock. My friend Dale & I were a mafia crew and Fat Johnny Archuletta was the boss. Bruno Kirby was also on our crew and Sandra Bullock was his sister. Bruno told Sandy that we were a mafia crew and fat Johnny was our boss and she was telling everyone. I knew that Armand Assanti & Chaz Palmenteri were cops investigating our crew and that they would find out, so I shot Sandra Bullock right in front of Bruno. My buddy Dale said “Don’t you think you’re taking this gangster movie stuff a little too seriously?” ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2006, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/43 "2006-08-07T18:52:14Z")
> [@teela brown](#): > > 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? Oh my god, I’m starting to get teary-eyed just considering the prospect of having such a dream. ☹ Waking up from it, realizing it was just a dream, must be so incredibly upsetting! I hadn’t heard about that one and I hope I never have it. -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![caverject](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@caverject](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caverject)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2006, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/44 "2006-08-08T19:24:25Z")
My top recurring dreams: 1)Teeth falling out/turning to rubber/breaking apart dream 2)The flying dream - only I am almost always Superman, and I’m not really saving people or anything but just flying around and exploring the landscape 3)The final exam dream - I realize I have a final exam in a class that I forgot to go to all semester (funny, since I’ve been out of college for almost a decade) 4)The locker dream - I cannot remember the combination to my locker and there is something really important inside that I have to get out right then 5)The telephone dream - it’s an emergency like there is a killer in the house and I can’t dial 911 for the life of me. Usually, the killer will even give me multiple chances to dial and I still can’t do it Also, I have been getting the airstrike dream recently - I am looking out on my balcony and I see hundreds of planes and zeppelins coming towards us, dropping bombs ---
**Author:** ![Surly\_Chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Surly\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surly_Chick)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2006, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/45 "2006-08-08T19:49:11Z")
I’ve never had the naked dream but often have variations of the unprepared dream and the flying dream. In a bizarre twist on the flying dream, I’m usually bouncing around the room because I’m possessed by a demon. Creepy. I also often dream about people trying to kill me in extremely violent ways (I once dreamt an old boss tried to kill me by running me over in his car and when that didn’t take, he drove metal spikes into my head. Ow.) I’m fairly certain I have some significant psychiatric problems… 😉 Count me in the group of people to whom melatonin gives incredibly wild dreams. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2006, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/46 "2006-08-08T19:56:13Z")
When I was a kid I used to get a version of #1 where I was usually in my pajamas or underwear. Now, occasionally I’ll have a dream where my bathrobe is open or I’m on the toilet but there are a lot of people around. I only remember one time, many years ago, having the falling dream. I think I was in a car that drove off a cliff, and I woke up when we hit the ground. I haven’t had any flying dreams in a long, long time (since grade school) but I used to have them frequently. The funny thing was, I had to flap my arms really hard and I only flew about three feet off the ground. The dream about being unprepared - I still have a dream where it’s near the and of the term and I haven’t been to class all year and can’t remember how to get to the classroom and there’s a big paper due but I don’t know what the assignment is. And I haven’t been in school for 15 years! Never had the teeth thing though, thankfully. But I remember once in high school I dreamed that I was eating doritos, and when I woke up I was chewing on my retainer. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/47 "2006-08-08T22:23:51Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Oh my god, I’m starting to get teary-eyed just considering the prospect of having such a dream. ☹ Waking up from it, realizing it was just a dream, must be so incredibly upsetting! > > I hadn’t heard about that one and I hope I never have it. > > -FrL- Yeah, it’s no fun. I’ve dreamt several times that my dogs (all dead years ago of old age), have been living at someone else’s house all this time. I go to the house, mad as hell, to reclaim my dogs, but I’m unsuccessful. This is most common after I’ve been looking at photographs of them that day. My mom’s still alive, but has Alzheimer’s. She doesn’t recognize anyone now. I’ll dream that she’s fully aware and functional and that doctors have been lying to us about her condition all this time. It’s kind of like the dead relative dream, but with a twist. ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2006, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/48 "2006-08-08T22:38:09Z")
Interesting thread. I have had none of those dreams you say are normal. Never had a flying dream, falling dream, naked dream or the unprepared dream. I sometimes have that feeling that Im falling, just when Im falling asleep, and I wake up, but I don’t suppose that is what you are talking about. But I very often have a dream that Im running away. Some person /group is after me and Im running away. Does anyone have a psychological interpretation of this? I don’t care if it’s crackpot, Id still like to know. ---
**Author:** ![SoulFrost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f07891/32.png) [@SoulFrost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoulFrost)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/49 "2006-08-09T01:01:40Z")
Sounds like a typical stress dream, **mr. jp**. Maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed or there is something you’d very much like to escape from (bank note, romantic interest, boredom.) Without knowing more about you, I really couldn’t say. Here are some common elements in dreams, and what they may (or may not) represent: small furry animals == children death == a changed a journey == death fame == love or career success money == power or sex sex with your SO == sex with your SO sex with the small furry animals == you got issues, pal S’all I remember from Psych 2. ---
**Author:** ![rock\_party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@rock\_party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rock_party)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/50 "2006-08-09T01:45:30Z")
I’ve had the dream where I’m talking to a dead relative before too. I’m talking to them thinking “but wait…she’s dead…but she must not know…well I’m not telling her”. One I havn’t seen mentioned yet is the one where I dream my house has an extra room that I didn’t know it had. Actually it’s a cool feeling. ---
**Author:** ![Baine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Baine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baine)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/51 "2006-08-09T05:47:16Z")
I sometimes dream that I break into the house I grew up in, and then the people who live there now show up and I have to explain what I’m doing in their house. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/52 "2006-08-09T06:40:37Z")
I still sometimes dream about the Nazis coming to get me. I was two years old when WWII was over and my first actual recollection of hearing the word _Nazi_ was when I was six. But we never know what can creep into the sub-conscious of toddlers. The first bit of conversation that I can actually remember is “The war is over.” I’ve read that “the Nazi dream” sometimes translates into other “a creepy evil man is trying to get me and I must run or hide” dreams. One of my classmates was deathly afraid of birds. A shrink suggested that it probably had to do with an association with airplanes and bombs. Please indulge me one recurring dream. For twenty or thirty years I’ve dreamed of going to Tiffany’s. I’ve had that dream all the time – and even talked about it here. Friends even made photos of Tiffany & Co. in NYC for me. I even dreamed that they opened a store here in Nashville in Green Hills Mall. Last week, that’s exactly what they did. And finally, I went to Tiffany & Co. I didn’t get lost. They weren’t closed when I got there. They did let me in. And I bought the sterling ring. _The End_ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/53 "2006-08-09T09:43:16Z")
> [@Ronald C. Semone](#): > > 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? You might want to look at Carl Jung’s \*\*Man and His Symbols \*\* - that falls into the ‘more or less scholarly’ category, from what I recall. I haven’t read it for a good while, but it goes on about archetypal symbols common to humankind, suggesting eternal themes deeply programmed into us. For something more specifically about dreams you could always try Freud’s \*\*The Interpretation of Dreams \*\* - which I haven’t read myself, but is most likely even flakier than Jung. He is likely to dwell on dreams being symbolic representations of anxiety/desire too, so more about the idiosyncratic neurosis of the individual rather than the commonality which Jung, and the OP, are interested in. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/54 "2006-08-09T10:17:53Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > 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’ve had this one; I heard it explained as that your brain is aware that your limbs are motionless or not under your conscious control (because you’re asleep). I have a similar dream; I have to read some important bit of text, but _I just can’t seem to open my eyes_ (although I can see, in the sense that I’m aware of where I am, and I know there’s a bit of paper in front of me) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/55 "2006-08-09T10:27:30Z")
Never had a falling dream. I’ve had the flying one, the variation where you can just barely do it and it’s more like swimming in the air, and also the one where it’s more like leaping over stairs and gradually touching down less and less. My naked dream is always at school and there isn’t much anxiety: oh hmmph, forgot to put clothes on, I really shouldn’t do that, some people get put out about it, but heck who cared? (although I didn’t set out to be a rebel today, I just forgot, but I don’t feel like turning back just to get clothes, so I’ll brazen it out). I guess I’m that California “naked guy” in my dreams 🙂 I get the “terror in slow moton” trying-to-run dream. I get so frustrated trying to run that I go down on all fours and grab the grass (somehow it’s always grass not cement or linoleum or something) and try to haul myself forward, since the feet just aren’t propelling me worth a damn. I hate that dream! I don’t need to dream about rotten or shattered teeth, my real-life teeth are bad enough, thank you. My versions of the “test not studied for” kind of situation: I’ve got one where I realize I’m in the wrong section or period of the right class, which means I’m skipping some other class I’m supposed to be in; and I’ve got one where it’s late in the semester and I suddenly remember a course I signed up for but haven’t been attending, and have this “oh shit” moment of realizing it’ll be pretty much impossible to start trying to catch up now. OH, I said I didn’t have a falling dream but I have a recurrent falling UP dream. Kind of like Aunt Marge in Harry Potter: Prizoner of Azkaban, or Calvin in Calvin & Hobbes where he has to grab the tail of a passing airliner to get towed back down. Also a more benign version where I’m walking on the ceiling and carefully stepping over the dividers between rooms and avoiding the ceiling light fixtures. ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/56 "2006-08-09T11:47:50Z")
I’ve had the teeth falling out dream (that one is very convincing - I always have to check my teeth upon waking up - it freaks me out), the telephone misdialing dream, the flying dream (always love that dream) and another common one for me is the plane crash dream. It goes like this: I’m sitting at home on my patio or sofa, when a plane comes through my neighborhood and crashes. I’m one of the first people there but there are never any bodies - just plane wreckage. I’m not afraid to fly, so I don’t get it. I am a student and dream about tests/exams a lot. Not so much as being unprepared for it as being prepared (as in studying like crazy for it) and still doing badly on the test. So far in this thread it seems like many people have related their dreams, but why are some themes common to everyone? For example, i have good teeth and other than wisdom teeth have never lost any adult teeth - it that dream a memory from when we lost our baby teeth? ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/57 "2006-08-09T11:58:16Z")
> [@Baine](#): > > I sometimes dream that I break into the house I grew up in, and then the people who live there now show up and I have to explain what I’m doing in their house. I have that dream all the time! And I always wake up feeling excited, like I did when I was a little kid, witht hat giddy butterflies-in-the stomach feeling I have the naked dream a lot, the trying to run and can only move in slow motion dream and a dream where I am in a car but I don’t know how to drive and but I;m drving anyway. But man, that “wandering in the old house” dream is the best. I thought I was the only one who had that! mm ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/58 "2006-08-09T14:37:19Z")
Unprepared for \<\\>. Check. Inadequately clothed in public. Check. Molasses Escapesub[/sub] Count me in. I don’t think there’s much mysterious about those types of anxiety dreams. I also get (repeatedly) the horribly real teeth-falling-out dream and the plane crash one like **Boscibo** , that is seeing a plane crash, not being on the plane. What do they say about the collective unconscious 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/59 "2006-08-09T14:53:12Z")
Oh, I get the plane crash one now and again, but mine is like this: I’m near an airport and I hear a plane taking off; I turn to look and it’s a very large plane with gigantic (unfeasibly large) engines, climbing very steeply. Before long, it stalls and falls back to earth; the actual crash site is obscured by buildings, but an enormous fireball climbs into the sky. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367/60 "2006-08-09T15:11:19Z")
> [@BMax](#): > > Funny, I get the Army dream too. a phone call telling me that I’m facing criminal charges of desertion because I’ve been enlisted for the last 20 years and the only way out of the charges is to report for duty immediately at the rank of E1. My variant: I forgot to take a required class in high school or college, and that I must return immediately and take it if my diploma is to be considered valid. I also get “oh shit!” dreams about suddenly remembering that I was enrolled in a class which I never attended and never dropped, and that the final exam was in hours. I get repetitive work dreams quite a bit. Even if I wake up in the middle of them, even if I take a few minutes to go to the bathroom, those types of dreams almost always resume right where they left off! I had a nasty hair-falling-out dream a couple of nights ago. Considering that I had a year-long bout with alopecia, and that all of my hair has been back only got a couple of months, it was frightening; almost a nightmare. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dreams-we-all-have/367367.md?page=4)