Showing up for a final exam in college but I haven’t been there all semester.
Farmland/ranchland
Travelling
Hawaii
Tedious tasks (ex. going over statistics in a board room)
And, sometimes, grand, epic dramas that actually have an interesting storyline that I should put to pen someday.
P.S. always in technicolor
Oh - just one more. Because this one is recurring.
I have a dream where I can bend around and suck my own penis. (Actually, when I was 12 I was limber enough that I could… just couldn’t deep-throat it)
In college once I was taking a nap while my roommate and his buddy were quietly playing video games. Had that dream again. When I woke up, they told me that I was making sucking sounds with my mouth. They assumed I was having a dream about sucking breasts.
[sub]i really hope i don’t regret posting this one…[/sub]
**
This one seems to be by far the most common. I had it too, continuing for years after college was over. Any of you clever people out there have a good explanation?
There is one recurring dream I have. I am walking along and suddenly I trip. When I trip I am always falling off a cliff. I always wake up before I hit the bottom. Strange thing is I live in an area that is flat. What cliff could I fall off of?
One other dream involves my best friend who tells me he wants to make passionate love to me. We start, then I’m awake. The next time I see him I am always embarassed. The truth is, I’d really like to make passionate love to him. Damn my moralistic not wanting to make lovers out of friends attitude I guess.
And no my best friend’s name is not Cliff! 
I often have dreams about whatever game or book I’m currently into, especially if I play or read right up to when I go to sleep. I once had a multiply nested dream, where I “woke up” several times before I really woke up. It took me several minutes to convince myself I was really awake after that one. But then, am I really awake after all? You all might just be part of my dream.
I dream alot and most of the time remember my dreams. I have reoccuring dreams that I am in my grandparents house and I am searching for something. I have action dreams involving guns and me hideing as if it were a movie. 90% of the time I know I am dreaming and want to see where the dream will go. The other 10% I am normally afraid and do not realize it is a dream. I never wake myself up from fear tho–wish I could!
Night before last I had a dream that I was held hostage and raped, but wanted to “Stay” with my captor :eek: talk about twisted.
Yep, I’ve had the “forgot to study” dream, too. It finally wore off at around age 35 or so.
I used to have “trapped in a plummeting elevator” dreams. They would repeat over and over all night, until the terror would be replaced by irritation. “Jesus CHRIST, can we PLEASE get this OVER WITH!!!”
As a kid, I had dreams where I was on a huge, rickety wooden roller coaster (think The Cyclone on Coney Island) plunging downward toward a cement stairwell with a closed cellar door at the bottom.
In the middle of dreams, I frequently find myself in a filthy or otherwise unuseable public bathroom. I assume that I have these dreams when I have to “go.”
I still dream that I am in Syracuse (my college town). I know I am in Syracuse, but of course, nothing looks like Syracuse. Sometimes I am wandering around at a loss because I have no dorm room – not surprising, considering my advanced age.
Once when I was in college (living with a roommate upon whom I had a massive crush, although I still thought I was straight at the time,) I had a sex dream in which I was in bed with a smooth, blond, white, silky-skinned, body-hairless boy. I woke up horrified at the thought that I was some kind of pedophile pervert. Years later, when I met my girlfriend and fell in love, it suddenly occurred to me that the “boy” in my dream was, in fact, a small breasted woman, much like my girlfriend. I was so glad to discover that I was not perverted – just gay! (I think my desire for my roommate was creeping into my dreams.)
Hi, Opal! You’ve been reading my mind! I’ve been wanting to start a thread like this since I’m interested in how dreams work. I have a few themes in my dreams:
Apartments: I’ve lived all but the last 6 years in apartments. My “dream apartments” are usually a mix off all the aprtments I’ve lived in. Many times they are in disrepair - leaking water and such.
School: Usually my high school, a quarter-block, 3-story brick affair built in the 20’s. Wide hallways, tall ceilings, numerous staircases. Sometimes it’s my elementary school, a low cinder-block deal built in the 40’s. Dreams set in school usually have the same themes: I’m late for class; can’t find a class; realize I’m 38 and shouldn’t be in class.
Vehicles: I’ll start out driving a car and suddenly end up walking. I also have a recurrence of “Dude, where’s my car”, that is, I can’t find my car. Or I’m on a bicycle that’s several dozen feet tall. I haven’t been on a bike in 30 years.
Elevators: I’ve never had a bad experience in an elevator, but I have a recurring dream in which the elevator car I’m in starts out going up and ends up leaning backward until I’m going horizontal! I usually wake up before this happens.
Hotels and large office buildings: I’ve only been a few hotels and they’re aren’t many office buildings in Savannah. Perhaps this comes from TV & movies?
Did I forget to mention falling dreams? Floating, flying?
Geez…how could I not mention those?
How about clinging for dear life at the end of a long rope out over the cityscape, swinging faster and faster like some super freak out tether ball?
It always ends up that the centrifugal is so strong I lose my grip and I whip out and over the city. Just as I am about to hit the ground I either float gently above the pavement or wake up.
As for an explanation of the “final exam” dream…I think we build in that fear while we are at school. Perhaps it’s a subconscious motivational implant embedded by our early school training and made stronger when we are away from the usual motivators like parents, truant officers and detention. Just a thought.
Bizarrely, Saturday night, I dreamt I was Cecil Adams. Really.
It was a very mixed up dream, and through the course of the dream I could alter my appearance from my own, to Cecil’s or Ed’s
It also involved Mermaids, lakes elves and flying.
I have a lot of flying dreams, mostly I tend to hit things like power lines though 
recently I dreamt I was flying locally but that the neighbours had erected a mesh cage to trap me, however this wasn’t a problem as I was intangible.
If I try to control my dreams I often end up frustrated as it never quite works out, and sometimes in a particularly good dream my brother will appear and interrupt, or start following me around so I cant get on with the dream. Strange.
When I was younger, every time I was ill I had a recurring dream. I would be flying through a glowing blue maze and when I reached the centre the Maze would explode and I would wake up.
Can anyone explain this one?
I had a dream about a week ago that I was playing Accoustic guitar for Jack Nicholson at a outdoor cafe.
Am I insane?
How about work. When I start a new job I often find myself sitting up in bed doing my job. When I realize this, I think, “there aren’t any customers, you can lie back down,” only to find myself sitting up againg later. I mostly never realize I’m supposed to be sleeping and there won’t be any customers until morning when I wake up and go to work.
Flying dreams are wonderful! I ALWAYS have them when I’ve gotten out of a stressful situation like quit a job I hated. I had them for months after I quit college.
When I was a wee lad, my dreams used to inhabit the three-or-four block area surrounding my house. Of course back then, that was my world so no big surprises there.
Now that I have reached the age of adultery, my dreams are all over the place. I’m pretty blessed in the dream department, I rarely have true nightmares, just ones on occasion that fall into the slightly disturbing category, usually a mainfestation of some daytime worry. My dreams usually are amusing (I’ve woken my wife up laughing hysterically in my sleep) or confusing. Last night was cool: I was either living or watching a Blaxploitation sci-fi horror movie called “The Gentleman Zone.”
I take Allegra for seasonal allergies, and I’ve discovered that if I stop taking it regularly, my dreams for the next few days get really surreal. Then if I go back on it, the same thing happens. Nope, no side effects there.
“Or sometimes I’ll be making out with a really cute guy, and suddenly remember that I’m married, and then I have to quickly get myself out of the situation and cover-up my inadvertant actions.”
Cute dream guys?
Perhaps you’d like to come and lie down on my couch? Er… our couch and tell me all about it? It would appear that you may be experiencing some feelings of guilt and may need some vigorous “quality” therapy to deal with that. It’s either that or a good spanking for you. 
Funny, when you told me about making out with Jennifer Lopez it wasn’t as disturbing.
I have bizarre dreams, if there are other women involved they are always nameless and faceless and I pretty much am trying to get the hell away from them.
Last night I was taking shots on Dominik Hasek and scoring every on every attempt. Thing is, I wasn’t shooting pucks but instead, was firing off skate blades. Too wierd.
My recurring nightmare themes are escalators and elevators that get stuck (though rarely fall) and high, exposed, rickety staircases. (Ya think Poddy has a fear of heights?)
I have had a very disturbing series of dreams where I have a body to hide–I didn’t kill the person, I just have this corpse, and I know I’ll get in trouble if anybody catches me with it. I’m frantic trying to figure out where I’m going to put it.
I often have dreams that I’m arguing with members of my family, and I have to scream at them to get them to listen to me. I don’t know where this comes from, since in general my family is very kind and civil and understanding.
I’ve had several dreams lately where I have to go back to high school or junior high (though these are various generic classrooms, not the schools I went to as a kid) and retake pre-calc or calculus or high school physics. The whole time, I’m thinking, “This is ridiculous! I have a master’s degree in astronomy!” The teacher keeps telling me that I’m doing things wrong, and I say, “Listen, I do this stuff every day, and it’s as natural as breathing to me. I’m doing it right.” He just yells at me and tells me to do it like it says in the book.
Usually in my sex dreams we’re just making out intensely and running around trying to find a private place to have sex. Rarely is the act ever consumated. sigh
I had a dream the other night that I was flying naked through a grocery store on a hovering surfboard. Analyze THAT.
I had sleep apnea for at least the last 10 years, so my dreaming was heavily affected/non-existent, however, there are three that come to mind that I’ve had a few times.[list=1][]I haven’t had this one in many many years, but it had to do with shapes, textures, really. There would be two objects and one of them would have this very specific feel and I would try to get the other one to feel that way too, but when I tried to recognize what it felt like, I was stymied. The original shape would shift until it was all pointy edges or sharp or…something. Some strange sensation. It was totally indescribable and I would spend most of the dream trying to figure out or describe to myself what the texture/shape/feeling of the shape was.[]I’m in a huge house down the street and around the corner from my parents house. I’m in the same suburban neighborhood and I know exactly where I am, but the house is not one that is actually there (in fact, there weren’t houses built there until I had left for college.) I’m constantly running up and down stairs and corridors, sometimes I come out to a large garage-like area, but then I have to duck back into the house (which must be truly huge) and trek through a hidden door and up or down some stairs. I can see the house from the outside and sometimes it seems like I’m walking to or from it, but I always find myself running around the stairwells. It seems like I know where I’m going, though, and I don’t recall that anything is chasing me, just that I’m running. I think there are also a lot of secret doors that I know about and use to access the stairs.I’m skiing and an avalanche starts. I make it under a huge overhang and wait it out. Sometimes, I think, there are others there, but I’m not sure. The memory I’m left with is that I’m standing, facing up the mountain and I turn to head down. I think the snow is still flowing and that might affect the next part: if I don’t think I was skiing right, I suddenly am back under the overhang getting ready to turn down the mountain again. I might “reset” a number of times during the dream. I don’t remember anything that happens after I turn to ski downhill, though.[/list=1]
**Common places: **
“School/College” - sometimes my old high school or college, sometimes just generic.
My grandparents’ cottage
Various houses I’ve lived in - mostly the ones from childhood.
Common themes
Running away from “the bad guys” - usually some sort of espionage situation. They’re after me, but I’m not really scared.
Falling in love with someone I met at the above “school” or some other situation (Shh! Don’t tell Mr. Pol!)
Having my teeth fall out :eek:
Being unable to dial a telephone number.
The last theme is one of the “tricks” I use to see if I’m dreaming - I “caught” myself once & turned it into a lucid dream. I went flying - whee!
Sometimes I have semi-lucid dreams where I change something (usually I’m late, so I move the clock hands back) & continue without specifically realizing “Hey - I’m dreaming!”
I think many of my repeating dreams are quite common. See if you can spot your one!
The Back At School For An Exam one
This one is very common. It does wear off over time. I don’t get it half as much as I used to and a few of the more recent times it has occured to me that actually, I’m not at school any more and it doesn’t matter.
The Big House one
Another common one. You keep discovering rooms you didn’t realize you had. I also have a frequent variation on this in that I suddenly remember I have a second house, and I really should go and check on it as I have been near it in months.
The In-A-Hurry-And-Everyone-Keeps-Delaying-You one
I still get this all the time. I had it last night! Basically I’m in a hurry to get somewhere for one reason or another, but people inadvertantly keep delaying me. Usually for some reason I can’t tell them I’m in a hurry, so I can’t just scream at them to go away and have to appear to be taking it calmly, despite going quietly mad with annoyance. It’s usually something like; I really need a shower before I leave in the morning for an important appointment, but can’t get the bathroom to myself. People walk in through what I thought were locked doors, extra doors I didn’t know were there open, plumbers cut off the water to do some work, a dog runs in and decides to lie in the shower and won’t move. This can go on for what seems like hours and is extremely frustrating. No doubt there’s some way-serious psychology behind it.
The Teeth Falling Out One
Hate this one. It’s as simple as it sounds. For no reason you can understand your teeth start going wobbly in your mouth and then fall out.
The Phone Failing On You one
You need to phone the police/fire brigade/ambulance/mother really, really urgently. But you can’t even get a dialing tone on the phone. And you’re going mad thinking the one time you really need the phone and it fails on you. Then it starts working, then it stops 'cos it’s just teasing you! Meanwhile the robbers are getting away/the house is burning down/your neighour is breathing their last/you are having an emotional breakdown.
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve occasionally dreamt that I could float – not fly, exactly – like a blimp, if I inhaled enough air and held it for a few seconds. [IRL, this derives from a game I’d play in the swimming pool, where I would try to maintain an underwater equilibrium with my breath.]
In one, when I was about 10, I was in bed, held my breath, and rose slowly, and then faster & faster, towards the ceiling. Only I hit the ceiling too hard with my forehead, and gasped in surprise, which let out too much air, so i proceeded to plummet, hitting the mattress ass-first.
I woke up in shock and pseudo-pain, but very happy & exhilirated.
I have lots of recurring themes in my dreams, too many to recount in just one post but I’ll have a go at mentioning the main ones!
It used to be that I would have ‘hiding in the house’ dreams where I would be hiding inside my house, for fear that I would be killed or captured or something if I went outside, in others I would be a secret person living inside the house with the curtains drawn day and night and something terrible would happen if anyone found out I existed. In another variation there would be faces crowding in every window leering and jeering and there would be nowhere in the house where I could hide for them, or else there would be kids at the door jeering at me so I would have to run up the stairs to get away from them (we have a glass door so they could see!)
This was all because I withdrew from the world after being bullied/psychologically tortured through my childhood and I literally hardly left the house in real life for a few years. (though I had to go out sometimes but I avoided it when I could) Since I have been getting better and reclaiming my life those hiding dreams have stopped. I’m almost sorry about that because some of them had a really nice feeling of security that I really liked!
Another big thing was running away from some monster/sinister person who was chasing me and getting to my house and not being able to lock the door! and the key would always be too small for the lock and the door would never lock and the monster would be gaining on me and strangely enough nothing ever happened to me! It never caught me! That I think was my mind telling me that my fears were unfounded.
Nowadays I am often dreaming of going back to school and bunking off! Very liberating! (I never dared bunk off when I was there for real even though I should have done 'cause it was a living hell!) I have lots of dreams with having exams and not doing anything for them and having to do essays and not doing them. I think it is my mind telling me that I have finally left that part of my life behind. Yay!
Flying dreams are very common, although I usually can’t fly very well and sometimes I fall to the ground and can’t get into the air again, I often have to grab onto tree branches to stay afloat. In the last flying dream I was riding a broomstick naked! (cool!)
The places in my dreams are usually the places I know in real life, I have a whole dream world that is like a reflection of the waking world but the scenery and geography shift with the specific dream. Sometimes there are original locations but they often have elements of the real world mixed in.
aaand that is the whacky world of my dreams (or part of it, I could write a book on the subject). Ooh I hope this post isn’t too long but my own dreams are something I find soooo fascinating! (I am such an egotist evidently!)