Most of us have had variations of that dream. Forgot to go to class all semester, never studied, can’t find the class, etc. What’s the earliest recorded reference to these dreams? I couldn’t find any mention of it in Freud’s book.
Here’s the obligatory xkcd reference, from a 2009 comic:
And, here’s a psychology today article, also from 2009:
Weird that they came out the same year.
I don’t know when the earliest reference was, but it was certainly earlier than 2009. The movie Top Secret! came out in 1984.
Here’s a reference in a psychology text from 1983:
He mentions it in The Interpretation of Dreams:
I saw he mentions dreams of taking an exam again, but not being back in school.
I shall closely consider the examination dream and the so-called dream of dental irritation.
Every one who has received his degree after having passed the final college examination, complains of the ruthlessness with which he is pursued by the anxiety dream that he will fail, that he must repeat his work, &c. For the holder of the university degree this typical dream is replaced by another, which represents to him that he has to pass the examination for the doctor’s degree, and against which he vainly raises the objection in his sleep that he has already been practising for years—that he is already a university instructor or the head of a law firm.
I think that’s very clearly the same dream, just filtered through a different cultural lense.
My WAG is that this dream is inherent to the human condition.
I wonder what earlier versions were like. Did people used to dream they were back to being apprentices?
I was thinking, “Oh man, I totally forgot I was supposed to hunt a mammoth this week! The tribe is going to kill me!”
Yeah, I could imagine a hunter waking up remembering how hungry he and his family were two days ago and thinking he will soon starve before remembering that he did bring down a kill yesterday.
Or a farmer dreaming that the frost came early and he has not harvested his crop yet.
But school dreams involve memories from years ago, not last month or week. I think the equivalent would be more like dreaming you need to take your test of manhood but somehow you never paid attention to what your elders taught you about killing your own deer.
Yeah, the dream itself (in some culturally-appropriate form) is probably as old as humanity, but the question here is when is the first published reference to the dream (using “published” broadly; I assume that a personal letter would count, for instance).
I still have the school dream, but not examinations. It is in college, and trying to remember what class i am supposed to be in.
That is one of the variations. When I have those I somehow don’t have access to my schedule, because I either lost it or never received one and can’t seem to figure out how to get it.
That is one of the variations. When I have those I somehow don’t have access to my schedule, because I either lost it or never received one and can’t seem to figure out how to get it.
I wonder if these dreams happen because most of the classes we took are forgettable and nobody remembers what their class schedule was spring semester of their junior year but now you’re dreaming it is the spring semester of your junior year so you should know what classes your in and what you learned. But of course you can’t.
Here’s a fun take:
Oh, and by the way, if you should ever happen to go back to your actual high school to get some field experience, that WILL trigger these dreams.
Yep, same here.
The exam dream is a persistent one. I haven’t taken an exam for 50 years, but I still get the dream, maybe once a year. It’s odd because exams caused me very little anxiety at at the time. Typically I can’t find the exam hall, and time is running out… but I then realise I actually forgot to study for the last year. Once only this was augmented by my realising I had forgotten to put my trousers on. (really)
Many years ago I was talking to an old Cambridge fellow, who must have been 90 or more. After he’d described to me his experiments with psilocybin, we got onto the Exam Dream, and he said that despite being loaded with academic honours, he still regularly dreamed that he could not find the exam hall.
I have dreampt that it was August and I’d entirely forgotten to plant a crop that needed to be in the ground in June.
(IIRC, the crop wasn’t planted yet, but it was actually still June.)
And I’ve also had the variant where I’m in a play but haven’t learned my lines yet.