The one recurrent Very Bad Dream I have involves something terrible happening–this could involve being chased by a predator, being “hunted” somehow, or could just be I’m on my way to work or to an important appointment and can’t get there. Either way, the crux of the panic involves not being able to do whatever it is I was trying to do–I’m dialing 911 but keep hitting 811 or 912 or 900, or I’m on my way to work or a date with NajaHusband and get repeatedly sidetracked. The sidetrackings themselves could be more bad things happening, but it’s abundantly clear in the dream (and in retrospect) that the real terror is not being able to finish dialing 911 to save myself, can’t meet my husband no matter how hard I try.
I don’t usually have bad dreams, and when I do they are more uncomfortable than scary, for instance, the Bad Bathroom dream, or the one where I have to do something, in order to save the world–or something like that–only I don’t know how to do it, and I’m sure I cannot do the thing required to save the world. Guess I could call this the It’s All My Fault dream.
I think I’ve missed Naked In Public and Forgot to Go to Class because back in college I modeled for the art dept. and being naked in public was really not all that bad, and I actually had a class I thought I’d dropped but hadn’t really so I had to go take the final pretty much unprepared, and that wasn’t so bad either.
Damn you! I had an elevator dream last night. I was in an old house, converted into a museum, and went to take an elevator to the attic – but when it arrived, it seemed too creaky and ominous, so I didn’t get in. Walking down the stairs, I had to avoid the anarchic traffic of an ore-car railway. One small cast-iron platform with no bucket jumped the tracks and nearly broke my legs.
Stupid museum. (The exhibits were all in enormous safes that took twenty minutes to open, too. Sheesh.)
Oblivion.
I dream of my own non-existence.
I lose my sense of “self” in these dreams.
Doesn’t happen often.
But it was frequent, when I was an adolescent.
I’ve had the naked in public dreams. It seemed like a good idea at the time to just pop over to the mall and hit a really great sale. Maybe I thought it would save time when I tried things on. This one is weird because a loathe shopping for clothes. Sometimes no one notices I’m naked. As somebody up-thread noted, it’s worse when nobody notices.
I’ve had the teeth falling out dream. Usually in the dream I have forgotten to brush and floss for months and have gotten major periodontal disease. One interpretation of this dream is that it’s a result of a feeling of impotence.
I graduated in 1984 and still have the “can’t find my class/locker/locker combination” dream. I too skipped a lot of classes (but only the non-essential ones).
I often have a dream that I’m driving up a very steep or perpendicular hill with the fear that the car will flip over backwards. I have this one so often that it makes me uneasy to drive up steep hills IRL. This one has variations like there is a precipitous drop on both sides of the hill, with no place to turn off. I think I could make a decent guess why I have this one.
I wish someone could tell me how to trigger more flying dreams.
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I’ve cracked this code for myself and it works with a number of the common themes mentioned here. If you have ever felt even a little lucid in your dreams it helps. Here is what I do:
After I’m all tucked in and cozy in bed and have thought all my “must remember that appointment tomorrow - did the dog go out for the last pee?” type thoughts, I tell myself a few things just before I drift off to sleep. I tell myself to be aware of my dreams and learn from them. I tell myself to allow my earthly cares to rest a while just as my body is doing, and that it is OK in fact to release my “self” from my physical body for a time. I instruct myself to recognize any opportunities to “fly” (I’ll explain that in a sec) and finally I ask myself to remember my experiences upon waking.
Here’s how I first learned to recognize opportunites for flight. Once during a “crazy elevator ride” dream (in this case the elevator was rocketing upwards so fast I felt sure it would blast through the roof), I just “let” myself shoot up through the roof and out of the elevator. I found myself warping through space with stars streaming by. I awoke completely energized and feeling terrifc.
I began to be able to do this when I had any kind of traveling dream. My legs feel like lead and I can’t climb up this steep hill? I’ll just fly instead. I feel a sort of swirling sensation as I “leave” my body and blast through space.
Same thing with “can’t contol the car” or “can’t get off this train” dreams. Same thing with the “wandering through the airport, can’t find my gate, gonna miss my plane” scenario. I just tell myself I don’t need the plane 'cuz I can fly and off I go. Sounds kind of stupid/Peter Panish but I basically just think “up”.
As yet I am unable to control where I fly. And if on any flights I have a flickering thought of “wait a minute, can I really fly?” type doubts I am instantly returned to the ground.
I start flying by first walking on stairs that aren’t there - I once dreamed that the gov’t bad guys found out I could fly and Mulder and Scully had to save me. Hee, that one was fun.
I’ve one where I’m driving and it’s pouring and I can’t see and sometimes it’s because my eyes are closed! Eck! I had that one last night and this time I told myself I was going to get off the road and into a parking lot. Got out of the car and examined a nicely restored car with someone else/multiple people. There was more going on, but I’ve forgotten.
I hate the ‘must scream, but can’t’ dream - I get so worked up about making sound I actually do so in real life and wake myself up.
OMG, I came here to relate this very dream sequence! I call it the “Mickey Mouse Hand nightmare”. Thought I was the Only One. Whew. In mine, there is even a smell associated with the puffed-up hand. I cannot describe it, it’s not particularly nasty, just thick and burning-rubbery. I hate that dream.
Defnitely have the phone call dream, and often since childhood, when my parents had a vintage style dial phone that made a loud ratcheting noise when dialled. I dream about trying to get out on a dial phone, hearing that loud dialling noise, yet being unable to complete the call. You’d think that push button phones would have eliminated the nightmare, but no…now all the push buttons don’t function and I can never complete the connection either. Scary.
I wake up screaming once or twice a year, & have for years. Usually I cannot recall the events that make me scream right away, just have that general feeling of unease and doom. Hate this too.
The dream I have of my old childhood home expanding into infinity with mysterious staircases and towers and windows that weren’t there before is actually kind of cool—I enjoy dreaming of the old house in this new and amazing condition, and me wandering around in it, always at night.
But the “single giant balloonish hand” thing is horrid! I am definitely relieved to hear someone else describe it too.
I was reading this thread, wondering why I’ve never once had the tooth dream. If this is true, it certainly explains that!
I often have the exam or actor dream, and it is very evident that it’s about anxiety and particularly not feeling prepared for something. It only recurs when I feel like I’m running behind or not on top of things. And I can understand the “can’t dial” or “eyes are shut” dreams - my exam/actor dreams feature a certain gluey panic that I recognize in those descriptions.
I have the freaking having to pee/no suitable toilets one an average of twice a week. I have a small, sensitive bladder, so there’s no mystery there.
I have a variation on the “can’t run away” dream - someone is after me or attacking me, and my legs are too heavy or the air is like molasses, but this prevents me from fighting, rather than running. Or I’ll punch as hard as I can, but it turns out as a really weak punch that has no effect.
I don’t dream of sex with inappropriate people, just odd people. I was never much attracted to Antonio Banderas till I had a sex dream about him. 
Earlier this week I dreamt about Martin Freeman. The weirder sex dreams are when I dream I’m a man - those are interesting.
I have never dreamt of my teeth falling out, being naked in public, or elevator dreams.
I do dream of zombies once in a while. I think these are my personal “must protect my child” dreams. All the potential car accidents, drownings, pervs, and diseases of the real world get morphed into zombies in my dreams, where I have to barricade them out of the house.
Have you seen Michel Gondry’s latest movie, The Science of Sleep? It kicks ass, and… …here’s a pic of something the property department banged up, which you might be able to relate to.
(It works much better in the actual film, of course.)
I get that one frequently but I think it’s because I still sleep with a retainer (which kinda feels like a mass of gum on the roof of my mouth). I had no idea anyone else ever had that dream.
I get the “have to pee and where’s a toilet” dream but it’s not that the toilets are dirty or broken, it’s that they’re in public. I’m always stuck with toilets that are in the middle of the room and everyone could see me pee.
I also get the “forgot to attend class and it’s now the final exam” one and. in my dreams, I always have a lot of difficulty even seeing the board in class. It’s like the whole room is dark.
The worst bad dream is when something is chasing me (don’t know what but it’s bad). There are houses around but I know if I stop to try and get help and no one is home, the thing will catch me. So it’s a horrible choice I have to make.
I have those!!! :eek:
Check on most all of the other ones, too.
Anybody have bad bridge dreams? You’re driving along on a big high bridge and suddenly large car-sized holes appear in the roadway more and more frequently?
Thanks, AHoosierMama, I’ll give your system a try. I love to fly!
I’ve had sex dreams when I’m the man too. I found it, uh, unsettling. I have also had some dreams that I have a full beard and mustache. Most of the dream centers around me grooming it, deciding whether or not to shave it off but only rarely do I think it a bit odd that I have a beard in the first place.
Add me to the list for:
Have to pee and all the toilets (many in a huge room) are disgusting or not private
Student nightmares:
- Going back to school and can’t find my dorm, the admin building or my schedule, and I think classes have already started
- My thesis is due in a week and I don’t have a topic
- I have to leave for college tomorrow and nothing is packed
- I have a test and recognize nothing because I haven’t been to class
- Can’t remember locker combo
Teeth are loose
Contact lenses won’t go in/come out/fall out
Have to drive over big high narrow bridge with no sides
Need to dial phone and can’t/repeatedly dial wrong
Weird stuff in the sky–usually extra moons
Have to change to get somewhere and cannot get my clothes on or off and it’s hours later and I still am not ready
Dreaming that I woke up and fell back to sleep, repeatedly
Oh, and I occasionally dream about my dead friend Chris, but that can be bad or good. It was a nightmare when I asked him how it was and he said it was just more of the same. 
I have the naked in public dream a lot. I also didn’t realize the tooth dream was so common. I thought it was just me being neurotic about losing my teeth.
My late-to-the-exam dream is a little different from the others. For me, it’s usually a paper I have to write and I haven’t read the book, so I’m trying to skim through it and come up with 20 or so pages in about 8 hours. One time it was on the Odyssey (I’ve never read it). Sometimes I type it on the computer but the printer won’t work. It’s always the only paper I need to graduate and I’m turning it in the day of graduation so I have to keep worrying about whether to bug the teacher to grade it before he goes away for his summer vacation so I can graduate.
I also suspect I am the only one to have nightmares about not having a job after residency and doing additional residencies then having interviewers ask why I wasted my time doing extra years of residency that I won’t need.
I do have to say that the most common one, though, is the one where my alarm clock is ringing and ringing and won’t stop. I push the button, I unplug it from the wall, I open it up and remove the batteries, I cut all the wires, I smash it to bits with a hammer, and yet the annoying buzzing goes on and on and on…
*I should probably mention here that I have been known to sleep through all five of my alarm clocks, my pager going off, the telephone ringing, and people leaving messages asking where I am. *
Before I had kids, I dreamed about trying to run away from a horrible thing (like a rabid St. Bernard–thanks, Stephen King) and only moving as efficiently as if I was waist-deep in water.
After I had kids, when I have bad dreams, it almost always involves one of them. I’ll be in a situation where I have to hide from some nasty beast, often the creature from the Alien movies, that has an incredibly keen sense of hearing and smell. The catch is, I have to hide motionlessly and silently while holding an infant or a toddler. It’s incredibly nerve-wracking, and I usually wake up very shaken and nervous.
A lot of times, I dream that something terrible has happened to one of my kids.
When my oldest was around two, I couldn’t shake the nightmare of taking him to the Grand Canyon and helplessly watching as he plunged off a cliff. After I took him there in real life, I never had the dream again.
Lately the toddler has top billing. Last night I dreamed that he got out of the house in freezing temperatures with nothing more than thin footie pajamas on. Right before I woke up, I was donning coat, scarf, hat, and gloves and looking for a flashlight to go out and search for him by myself.
Another time, I dreamed that he was walking very close to the edge of a high-speed-limit highway when he began to wander right into traffic. I was watching this happen, trying to get to him, but found myself blocked by a group of slow-walking people who seemed oblivious to my pleas to get out of the way. By the end of the dream, I had finally made it to where I could reach out and grab the back of his clothes. Then I woke up yelling and reaching for him.
Yet another tooth-loose-dreamer here. These dreams are always really involved, too – can I find a glass of milk to keep the teeth in? Do I have dental insurance? Will I get to the dentist in time for them to salvage the tooth? The pervasive feeling in the dream is that now it’s ALL OVER. Losing my teeth is irreparable and I will never be able to look normal again.
I get choked by invisible beings in my dreams fairly often. Sometimes I’ll dream that I’m sleeping in bed on my stomach, and something will come and sit on my back and choke me by pulling me up by the neck. A few times I dreamt that something invisible lifted me off of my feet by holding me in the air by my neck. I also dream about drowning or smothering fairly often, too – I wonder if this means I have sleep apnea or something.
Being chased by something or a group of things, and running down long maze-like corridors that have many doors (and each of these doors open into long hallways that are also lined with doors), and I think to myself that there is no way they’ll ever find me, since they’ll never be able to pick the right combinations of doors and hallways to trace my steps…but they always do.
A few times I’ve dreamt that I’ve been outside my lifeless body, or have been someone else, and I’ve had to kiss myself to wake myself up. In the dream, I’m absolutely revolted by this – I know I’ll have to feel the sensation of my own lips against my lips, and this fills me with horror. (Once, though, I dreamt I was a man and I/he was making out with me/my body, and I/he was groping “my” ass, and it was kind of arousing. Which, of course, freaked me the hell out when I woke up – I dreamt I had gotten turned on by squeezing my own ass? What the hell does that mean?)
I have the one where I’m back in school and have to take an exam I’m not ready for a lot. The worst part is, when I wake up, I’m not always entirely sure if my life as I remember it to date or the dream is more real… I have seriously thought about framing the certificate I got when I got my master’s degree in my bedroom for just this reason. (It would have to be within about a foot of my face, though, since I don’t sleep with my glasses on).
I have the “trying to get somewhere, can usually see it, but can’t get there” dream a lot.
My version of the “naked dream” usually doesn’t involve actual nudity (Mr. Neville has teased me about this and said my dreams follow the Production Code). It usually involves me not having my shoes, and needing to get them, but I can’t ask anyone for help, or I’ll get in some sort of trouble for not wearing shoes.
I had one that combined the latter two, shortly before my wedding. I was getting ready to walk up the aisle, when I realized that I wasn’t wearing my shoes. I knew my shoes were in my car, and I went out to get them. When I got outside, the temple parking lot was suddenly about the size of the parking lot at Disney World. I could see my car, but I couldn’t get to it. Then the rabbi came out of the temple and told me that it was 6pm (the wedding was scheduled for 2pm), everybody was all mad at me, and he was leaving.
I have had the teeth falling out dream- I’ve never been so happy to wake up when I ran my tongue over my teeth and found them in place after the first time I dreamt that!
Before every semester begins I have the “class is out of control and I can’t get them to listen” dream. I’m in front of the class trying to start and everyone is talking to eachother. I try to get them to quiet down and someone becomes openly hostile. I yell, cajole, do everything to get the class under control but it doesn’t work.
That dream used really worry me until I realized I was having it like clockwork before each term began. Now it doesn’t bother me too much.
Weak arms/legs so I can’t defend myself or my kids- that one too.
My friend had such a vivid and disturbing dream about her son being in danger that she threw away the shirt he really owned and was “wearing” in the dream- she couldn’t see him in the shirt in RL without expecting the horrible accident she dreamt about to occur.
Dreams are might powerful.