When I’m stressed/anxious about something my sleeping brain seems to produce one of three dreams:
Naked at work/public: it’s always either top or bottom nekkid, never both. And no one else ever points it out, I come to the realization myself after cavorting around in public for a while.
Horrific workplace from early '80s: I worked at a special events company for a few years and it was, somewhat ironically, an absolutely horrible, stressful job (it was run by a married alcoholic couple who hated each other and would have knock-down drag-out fights in the office). When I’m concerned about something at work, I often dream I’m back at this place because I’ve lost my job and it was the only fallback I had.
Bearded lady: I’ve never figured out if this one is directly related to anxiety, but I occasionally dream that I’ve grown a full, luxurious beard and I go to work – as with the nakedness dream, everyone acts normally and I discover my faux pas (beard pas?) myself. Oddly enough, my lesbian colleague – the only other lesbo in my department – has the same dream. I dunno, sexuality anxiety?
Mine always have the same theme: I’m trying to go somewhere and there are obstacles that slow me down.
Once I was walking down a sidewalk and every few feet there was a barrier, or a hole, or a parked car in my way. Then I came to a section of road angled up at 70 degrees, forcing me to climb on my hands and knees.
The setting is different, but it’s always the same feeling of being hopelessly bogged down and unable to move at a comfortable speed.
Being a pianist, I have dreams that I’m soon to perform some piece in front of a large audience, and it’s some piece I cannot play or have no clue how to play.
I often dream of being lost. If I’m on foot I usually know the way I’m supposed to go but I can’t remember how to get to the correct street or take the correct turn. I know when I get around the next corner or over the next hill that I’ll discover I’ve gone the wrong way and I’ll have to walk that much further. If I’m driving, I’ll experience great fear of getting on the freeway (I don’t have that fear in any way IRL). Second most common is getting lost in a shopping mall. I recognize the stores and I know which exit I want to end up at but I walk around and around and can’t find it. Another theme which is downright horrifying is that I’ve lost my house / job and I have to move back in with my parents (which is odd because they’re both deceased). They’re all pretty easy to interpret; I don’t know where the hell I’m going
I used to have this dream when I played in piano recitals (not professional ones, between ages 8-16). Then it really happened! I sat down to play and couldn’t remember how Brahms’ Rhapsody 16 started – and I’d been working on it for a freakin’ year. My teacher had to bring the sheet music to the stage for me
Oddly enough, this dream stopped after the real life debacle.
As a wedding photographer, I have several variations of these type of work dreams: not knowing where my wedding is, all my cameras being out of batteries, being horrendously late to a wedding, etc.
Most of my university-type of stress dreams are gone, but I still very occasionally get them. All basically centered around the face that I either have to take a final for that last credit to graduate, and I have no idea where that final is. Or another variant is having completely forgotten that I had signed up for a class or two and just never showed up to it and never dropped it, so I missed getting the last credits I needed to graduate, etc.
Other more general ones are being in a car where the brakes don’t work and needing to crash into something to slow down, trying to call someone I desperately need to talk to (whether it be the police or a friend) and constantly misdialing the number, trying to run away from something, but not being able to work up any speed so I have to crawl and gather speed by pulling myself forward on the cracks of the sidewalk, etc.
ETA: I see Llama’s dream is similar to my last one.
I still occasionally get the academic stress dream, and it’s always the same. “They” (never clear who) have discovered that I never passed high school government. They are going to take away my high school diploma, which will in turn invalidate my BS, my PhD, and my JD. My one last chance to keep my degrees is to re-take high school government. But the class is at 8 AM, and I keep not being able to wake up in time to get to it.
I passed government 32 years ago. And even if I hadn’t, I think I probably learned enough in law school to pass the exam cold without taking it again. So why do I still dream about it?
I’ve had both of these, plus the naked at work one. My most usual one though is the sudden appearance of severe weather with tornadoes.
Recently I’ve been having an increasing number of lucid/semi lucid dreams. Including one last week where- after realizing it was a dream- trying for what seemed like an eternity to wake up. When I finally did I literally said “finally!”
I suddenly realize that I have to be on a military movement flight and have not packed a single thing. I then realize that I don’t have enough room for all the stuff that I have. When I get to the airport, I have huge difficulty finding out where the plane is.
I often dream that for some unknown reason, I have decided to go back into the military, and it’s just a horror show.
I also have the lost in a city dream quite often (including last night), where I not only don’t know where I am, but can’t figure out how to get to where I need to be, and nobody will help me.
The majority of my dreams are stress dreams, but I’ll be damned if I know why. We’re financially secure and have a good life together with no major health problems.
I haven’t had a stress dream in a long, long time thank goodness. But when I was in college I would dream that I had missed a class or, more frequently, missed a lot of classes. In my dream it would be mid-semester and I’d be looking at my class schedule like, “I haven’t been going to any of these classes!! I don’t have the books, I don’t know what building that’s in!!” and so on. I had that kind of dream quite often and it was pretty unnerving.
In high school I’d dream about going to school partially naked or my teeth falling out. But not often. Most of my dreams recently have just been really boring, not stressful.
I have a simultaneously boring yet stressful dream of trying to scan/file/save documents (which is what most of my job has become), but I can’t remember where anything goes and I can’t read my computer screen or the print on paper. I know this comes from growing older and trying to keep up with more tech-oriented, sharper-sighted youngsters at work.
Oh, yeah, after a stressful day the other day I dreamt I was trying to text out a help message to my husband when I was lost and in trouble, but the text buttons were too small and I kept hitting the wrong keys and trying to delete the wrong words over and over again.
My student nightmare has morphed over the years. For awhile it was I am at college but I’ve never been to my mailbox and don’t have the key, and I have no access to a computer to check email, so essentially I have no information about where I should be when. I also can’t find the administrative building which would have the info. I know I should be at class but I don’t know my schedule or where any of the classes are held.
In more recent years it has been some shortened version of the above, but with the addition of what should be a relief – wait, I already have my BA and for some reason have gone back for another one. It doesn’t matter if I fail out! But wait, my father spent all this money for these additional years and I will have nothing to show for it.
Then there’s the ones where I haven’t gone into work for days and haven’t told my boss.
Or when I try to call 911 but the phone won’t work, or I am trying to write something and just can’t get my hand to work correctly.
Or I am supposed to be packing up to move that day and I haven’t done anything yet and haven’t even arranged for the moving truck. Somehow my father and I are supposed to be packing a whole apartment into his Forester. And the apartment includes a back area that’s filled with library shelves full of books…
I occasionally have this vision of seeing myself in a net shaped like a sphere. The perspective draws back and additional, larger nets can be seen enveloping the smaller ones. The further the view pulls back, the smaller I get. Eventually you cannot see me at all thru all the sphere-nets.
Yes, kids, these sort of visions are in store for you, too, as you get older and take on responsibilities.
Interesting so many people have the school dream; that’s my main one. It’s always the same thing: I am in high school and have to take a final exam, but I realize I haven’t attended the class for a month and I’d have to ace the final just to get a D and pass (and graduate).
I used to have a lot of dreams where my hair was falling out or my teeth were breaking, but I don’t care about balding anymore and I’d rather have all my teeth replaced with implants anyway, so I don’t have those dreams any longer.
After many decades of dreaming of being sent back to high school, I’ve learned to tell teachers " I’ve got a Master’s; I’m not doing this." The same has happened with other similar dreams. It is true that I came closer to flunking out in high school than college or grad school, though. Government wasn’t the problem, though, and my BA was in Poli Sci. Trying to get somewhere and encountering obstacles still gets me, though. Next time I should just duck into a bar and have a few beers.
When I worked as a cocktail waitress, I would often have server nightmares. The worst 2:
I dreamt I had fallen asleep at work after my closing shift, and when the rest of the staff woke me up to start my opening shift the next morning, I already had a full section as well as a full section at the restaurant across the street. Of course, all of the customers were angrily waving me down and I couldn’t keep any of the orders straight and had to make my own drinks so I made everybody Long Island iced teas. At the time I was IRL occasionally getting home from work at 5 am and scheduled to be back in 5 hours.
Second one, dreamt I came home from work to find that my boss had set up tables in my living room, dining room and kitchen and most of them were already seated. I angrily and loudly told him he’d finally gone too far and went to bed and closed the door. Woke up in a panic.
I still occasionally have bar tending nightmares, even tho I haven’t worked in a bar for years. Every time, there will be bar stools set up on the wrong side of the bar so that I have to crawl over people to make drinks. And as soon as I get a drink order, the customer leaves.
I still have the school dreams where I haven’t been to class all semester and have to take a final. Sometimes university but usually it’s high school. Never naked tho. Usually in this dream I rationalize the stress away. I tell myself that I’m pretty sure I already graduated, or I can just take summer school and lie to my parents about why I won’t walk at the graduation ceremony. But most often I tell myself that I probably don’t even need to pass this semester to have enough credits to graduate. That’s likely true, but I don’t really remember and don’t want to think about it too much because I like that my dreaming brain gives me the out.
