I get all those anxiety dreams. I also get a variant on the “haven’t been to class all semester” dream, except this time it’s high school; the final is about to start; and I’m stuck at my locker because I can’t remember my combination, soI can put my jacket aaway.
I had several “out-of-control car” dreams when I was around 10-12 years old, for some reason!
Until this thread, I had no idea that the “driving from the back seat” dream was common. I’ve had that dream for years.
I have heard that the “missed class all semester” dream is common. And the footnote in the xkcd strip is exactly right–I’m still having this dream years after graduation.
I had the “class out of control” dream too, back when I was teaching.
I have most of the ones you guys are talking about. (except the backseat driving one) But I also dream that I’m trying to walk around doing my job, but I’m wearing roller skates, so very clumsy. Anyone have that?
I used to get the “haven’t been to class all semester” dream but it’s pretty much been replaced by this variant.
I have to take a plane somewhere for an important meeting and I am dangerously close to the departure time and I haven’t packed, I don’t know where the airport is or sometimes I get to the airport but don’t know what airline or when the flight leaves or even where I’m going.
I have a reoccurring dream where I’m taken prisoner while traveling in China for a crime I didn’t commit. I’m then tortured for information. I have my teeth cut out with scissors, my skin flayed, and boiling wax poured into my ears. It’s always pretty terrifying, and even when I realize it’s a dream I can’t control the outcome. Eventually, what happens is, a group of soldiers come into my cell and give me a lethal injection right in the back of my neck.
It’s probably a pretty unique dream :]
I used to dream with I flapped my arms very fast I could start floating up into the air, I suppose flying. And the higher I got the more difficult it was to control which direction I went, and I could start floating upwards beyond my control, like a balloon, unless I fought it. When I was close to the ground I could control where I went, and the flapping the arms and hovering was fun, but if I got too high I could loose control and float away, most times I had this dream I could end up panicking as I tried to avoid the power lines as I floated upwards, while I at the same time I fought to get back to the ground.
2 that I have. The first I’ve heard is somewhat common:
My arms or legs don’t work right. Either I really need to punch this guy and I just can’t swing my arms, or my legs don’t work right. The more I focus on trying to walk, the less responsive my legs are. IOW, if I don’t think about it, my legs are mostly fine. It’s when I start to notice problems walking and really focus on them that my legs get worse. I don’t fall down or anything. I’m just still legged and they refuse to work.
This is probably less common: I can’t find a private place to poop. I will be in a room full of urinals, with people just peeing willy-nilly. But I’ve got to poop, and I’ve got to have some privacy. Everywhere I go, if I find a toilet, there are suddenly people milling around.
Twenty years out of college, and I STILL have nightmares of not being able to settle down and study the night before an exam!!! :smack: On the bright side, I have never dreamed (drempt?) of my teeth falling out. 
I’ve always had really vivid, wild and strange dreams and I almost always remember them the next day. I used to have the flying dream all the time when I was a child.
Another one I used to have all the time was that I could drop down to all fours and run really fast like a dog. It was always a good dream and it made me feel really free and happy!
I’ve also dreamed the one where something or someone was chasing me and my legs weighed a ton or just wouldn’t move at all. The only reoccurring school dream I had was that I couldn’t remember where my locker was or where my classes were or where I was supposed to be.
The bad one I had a lot was of drowning. Me and a bunch of other people would be walking in single file in a line in waist deep water. I would always stumble, fall and no one would help me up.
When I was a teenager and then into my early 20’s I had really bad nightmares. It was so bad that I dreaded going to sleep at night. I would get really anxious and try to stay awake as long as I could, afraid to go to sleep. I started reading everything I could about sleep disorders, dreams and nightmares and was finally able to tell myself in my dream that “it’s only a dream”. I also started writing it all down the next day and these two things together worked. I stopped having so many nightmares. From all the weird, scary stuff I dreamed, I came to the conclusion that this is where Stephen King and some of these horror fiction writers get their ideas. My poor brain came up with some really bizarre stuff at night and I could have given them some stiff competition if I’d had any writing talent.
I wonder if I should get tested. I sometimes wake up yelling and gasping in the night, because I think I can’t breath.
I feel sorry for you guys with lame flying dreams. Although I can’t stay up for long, I usually get above the treetops in my flying dreams.
Does anyone remember a scene in the movie “Top Secret” where the hero is being whipped (supposedly), drifts into unconsciousness and dreams he has missed the finals and hasn’t studied? He then wakes up, realizes he’s only being whipped, and is greatly comforted.
I never had the backseat driving dream (considering I don’t drive, that’s to be expected) or the teeth falling dream - but I get the “tomorrow is exam day and you have no idea what it’s about”, “today is exam day and you’re 2 hours late” dreams very regularly. Sometimes so vividly that I wake up and get dressed in a hurry before remembering my last exam ever was years ago :/. Guess my life’s not so stressful that my brain’s gone and updated its primal anxiety source 
Re : the falling/flying dream (which I never had either, BTW), I once was told that it could be a result of sleep itself : when you’re fast asleep, your brain is supposed to paralyse your body so you don’t move about too much or hurt yourself. Some people aren’t paralysed much (remember your kid brother who kicked you in his sleep ?) and some only partly, in which case your body reacts by sending the brain messages to the amount of “I can’t move or feel a fucken thing, there’s no bed under me, this is weird, HALP!” , which the brain interprets and/or corrects by sending back the idea that it’s all right, you’re flying, now quit being such a baby.
Bear in mind, this is “guy I met in a bar once” level of information reliability, so do order a few grains of salt.
ETA : oh, and count me as one who’s died in his dreams as well. A few times by suicide, but more often by unknown, crazed assailants. Once, the dream kept going : I got killed, then “possessed” some other body, who got killed by the same guy, again and again. Not fun.
Oh, and @OP : I very often dream about getting arrested and/or thrown in jail, or at least being interrogated. Sometimes because I’ve been mouthing off to the fuzz, sometimes because the pigs are being dicks, and sometimes, quite rarely, because I actually did something bad.
In case you’re wondering, life on the inside’s not so bad. You only gotta chew your first cellmate’s head off, then they leave you alone to write in peace 
I’ve not had any of these kinds of dreams. The closes I come to flying is hovering, about two inches off the ground, and able to slide around like I’m on skates, but with no friction. The downside of which is there’s also no traction, so I have to glide down hills to go anywhere.
And I have a lot of driving dreams. I don’t drive in real life, so I guess this is my way of making up for what I’m missing. In dreams I have driven cars, buses, boats, and motorbikes.