Not me. I can remember dreams I had when I was in the first grade. And I am now 60.
I have always been a vivid/lucid dreamer. But it wasn’t until I had to use ant-malaria medication in 2005 that I discovered how crazy vivid dreams can be. After I came back from the sub-continent and no longer had to take those drugs is when I started experimenting with B6, Mugwort, and other supplements.
I had one like that a few weeks ago. In the dream my family was Jewish, or at least my mom was, which by Jewish tradition would make my sister and me Jewish. In the dream I just “knew” we were Jewish. And then I wake up and realize that of course we’re not Jewish – both my parents were raised in Midwestern Lutheran families.
In addition to the common “academic” version, which I have occasionally, I also often have a variation I’ll call the “travel anxiety dream”. In the dream I’m at an airport. I have the vague idea that I’m supposed to be traveling somewhere (because why else would I be at an airport), but I seem to have lost my boarding pass. I can’t remember what flight I’m supposed to be on, or even what city I’m flying to, but I am certain I’m going to miss my flight if I don’t figure it out soon, and there are no gate agents around who can help me.
Oh, I have the airport dream A LOT. I think it’s the grown-up version of the school anxiety dream, the one where you have a test but haven’t been to class all year and can’t even remember where the classroom is.
One time, the airport dream had a surprise twist. After frantically wandering ( in my dreams, I can wander frantically) through the airport, I finally found a security guard, and somehow I remembered what flight I was supposed to be on.
I told him, and he got a funny look on his face and said “You need to call your family NOW”. So I dialed the number, someone answered but before I could say anything I heard my mom screaming in the background “She’s dead! Her plane just crashed and she’s dead!”.
So I guess missing the dream flight was a good thing, just this once.
I have good imagery of my dreamscape, which is very extensive. But to be honest, I think each location was the product of one vivid dream, and I’ve extrapolated the physical relationship between the locations. But visualizing and walking through my dreamscape is my favorite trick for falling asleep.
The one feature that is common to multiple dreams is subway trains, which is not unusual as I lived in NUC for 40 years. But the trains in my dreams are always like roller coaster cars, small and open framed, and the platforms have convoluted designs that always cause me to miss the train I’m trying to catch.
I very rarely remember my dreams any more, but just last night I had one of my three standard cultural-consciousness dreams: I went to a conference at an unfamiliar location and forgot where I had parked my car. I searched for it for what seemed like hours, tromping through various architecturally improbable buildings. Never did find it, and woke up exhausted.
The other two repeat offenders are the “house” dream, similar to what @SharltoCopley relates:
… except that my recurring house is a huge, multilevel money pit that I spend (what feels like) all night (unsuccessfully) fixing up, and that always has hidden levels and/or rooms.
and the Academic Anxiety one:
which I find fascinating because unlike “being chased by a monster” or “falling” it is weirdly specific and it seems to be so prevalent in the US. Is it a recurring dream in other cultures as well? And mine also often finishes up with the “by the way, not wearing any pants” trope.
My husband used to have recurrent “travel” dreams, but these are rare for me.
How many “standard” shared dream themes are there, anyway?
I have several recurring dreams.
I can’t find my car. I’m wandering around a parking lot desperately trying to remember where I parked.
I’m lost in a large building like an office building or a hospital.
I’m in an elevator that starts to malfunction. The floor tilts, or the elevator starts moving sideways instead of vertically (not sure how I’m aware that this is happening).
I’m trying to drive a car but I can’t see out of the windows very well, and the brake isn’t working perfectly. I can slow down the car by pressing hard on the brake but the car keeps drifting forward.
I’m on some rickety stairway or platform high above the ground and am afraid it’s going to fall over. Frequently it does and I wake up when I hit the ground.
I’ve had each of these dreams dozens of times.
I have locations in dreams that are both reoccurring and not real too. There’s a non-existent city adjacent to Exeter, New Hampshire that I’ve driven to several times in dreams, even years after the last time I’d actually been to that part of the state.
Don’t take mega doses of B6. People enjoy the vivid dreams, sure. But it can cause peripheral neuropathy due to Megavitamin-B6 syndrome.
I sometimes get dreams containing features that only exist in a series of dreams; I can’t think of any specific examples but there’s a sort of weird half-realisation that this is the thing from that other dream, but at the same time, there is a conspicuous absence of realisation that the current instance is a dream - it’s like a sort of cognitive dissonance inside the dream.
Which is why I recommend only doing it once a week, if that.
But if done more those negative effects vanish within 2 days of stoping the dosage. Just have to lay off B6 for a while.
I have been doing this for over 40 years. Once one knows how to use it and what dosage works for them it can be safely done without side effects. Just can’t go nuts and mega dose every night.
But there are other supplements that can be used continually. When I’m on a real computer I will list them. By themselves they work great, in conjunction with B6 the dreams are outtasight!
The academic dreams don’t bother me, since at some point I end up remembering that I already have a Master’s. The one that gets to me is when I dream Ms. P has left me (actually in the dreams she’s not Ms. P yet, because we’re just dating). It’s a big relief to feel her snuggled up next to me when I wake up, and I go back to sleep.
I rarely remember my dreams. I do get the impression they are very stressful situations, though. Not like being unprepared for a test, but like I’m being in some sort of adventure.
The naked in public dream seems to be a common one. But how many of us have had a I’m in a crowd and I forgot my mask dream? I’ve had a few at this point.
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For about 20 years one of the biggest things in my life was whitewater kayaking. I’ve noticed that since I stopped about 5 years ago I frequently dream about kayaking but I almost never (like once or twice total) dream about being in the boat and actually paddling. The dreams are always about loading up boats on vehicles or more frequently some kind of convoluted drama about setting up shuttle or being at the campsite and trying to get people organized and moving to get to the river but never getting there.