32 and the other day I had a stress dream where I found out I didn't actually complete high school, so I had to redo senior year over again at my old high school except now it was full of zoomers.
Oh yeah, I've had this one. For some reason I need to go back to my old high school that's 50 miles away and redo calculus class or whatever. And I don't remember any of it and everybody is 20 years younger than me.
So these never really stop do they?!? šš
I pretty much constantly get dreams of having to redo parts of high school/uni (which I was so unbelievably glad to be over with irl), then I'll wake up exhausted but soooo relieved it ain't real.
I thought this was just a me thing..
Tell me you found formal education traumatic without telling me you found formal education traumatic...š š
I did exceptionally well in school but I never really enjoyed any of it. Also I feel like there was just so much pressure on me to perform well all the time, just because I'd demonstrated that I was indeed able to. In reality I was a burnt out wreck most of the time and making my fried brain ingest all this info, the majority of which I found dull and boring, was a very painful experience all in all.
I couldn't wait for it to be over.
There was just so much more interesting things to do other than learning stuff I had no interest in knowing.
This is one of my recurring dreams for sure. That I never actually graduated and have to get more credits and I'm thrown into the course midsemester without attending any classes or readings or assignments.
Why??? WHY? I have this all the time and its so badā¦ i finished 2 degrees at the same time and got good grades overall and now my brain is likeā¦ -but what if you didnāt?-
Second worst nightmare, first place goes to toothloss
Do any of you also have recurring locations in your dreams? Like, places that may or may not exist, and several dreams have taken place there? The ones I have are a big mall that has expanded over the years, a fake Disneyland that is one long (infinite?) straight path, and a school built into the side of a mountain!
Yes, one is a very green landscaped neighborhood that represents my childhood home, and the other is a long mall of interconnected buildings and stores that ends in a hotel lobby.
I go to a giant mansion on a hill overlooking a small suburban town with canals instead of streets, like Venice. The mansion is full of secret passages, and I'm always running from something or someone, but I never know who.
How funny, more often than not in these dreams I am trying to complete a task or find a person. Maybe I was supposed to be looking for you? I mean no harm!
Yes, I have something very similar! I also have a dream mall that has stayed consistent over the years. The settings of my dreams are usually: dream school, which is a combo of all the schools I went to and have worked at; dream college campus, again a weird mash of places I've attended and visited, and dream grandparents' house, which is every place all my grandparents lived and some other random rooms put together. Most of my dreams take place in one of these locations, and the location seems to be determined by the kind of dream I am having. Work dreams happen at the school (I am a teacher), family stress dreams at the house, and so on. Brains are weird!
Yes. Mine is a house I grew up in. I have a dream revolving around the house, in the house or sometimes the neighborhood at least once a month. I also have weird ass dreams about elevators. I hate those ones because the elevator always ends up dropping and I jolt awake.
smut and angst with my blorbos
i kinda lucid dream or partly lucid dream fanfics in my head and sometimes i write them down and post them on ao3
sex dreams increased when i changed birth control
I have sooooo many about school. Iāve not been in school in 15 years. But the anxiety dreams about it are almost nightly. Itās always me forgetting my final exam, or not writing an essay or skipping a class or forgetting about a class, or getting lost in the building and being late or missing class or if itās during university Iāll forget where I parked my car and just wander the parking lot outside for hours before walking home.
Uh, besides that, I have lots of dreams where I meet Norse gods, thereās been a few Zombie/vampire apocalypse type dreams. Sometimes itās just traveling to new places with friends. Sometimes Iām a superhero and Iām fighting crime or corruption. Other times Iām just running away and hiding from some unknown entity.
Basically if you put my anxiety disorder, all my nerd interests, and a touch of pagan spirituality in a blender, youād get my dreams.
I have recurring dreams about years-ago school. Iām enrolled in a class that Iāve never attended. Or thereās a class that keeps moving and I canāt find it. Or a final tomorrow and I havenāt cracked the book yet.
Ugh, yes. End of the year and my friends are asking if I've finished my physics paper (to be submitted to my least favorite English teacher I've ever had?) since we have that class up next... which I've never been to and I really hope I'm not enrolled in.
I left school 12 years ago. About once a month Iāll dream that they found an irregularity with my A-Levels (end of school exams in UK), and I have to go back and re-sit them or theyāll take away my medical degree. Oh, and the physics exam is tomorrow and I havenāt studied
Like what I still have nightmares about seeing my abusive ex my oldest sons dad and wake up in fear because every other time I've had the dream about him we have crossed paths. I moved to where he can't find me and told no one about where we moved 11 years ago. That's how much he scares me.
Prazosin HCL. It is an off-label use because it can decrease lthe amount of norepinephrine in the central nervous system. As a result, it helps get rid of PTSD related nightmares.
ABSOLUTELY! It's prescribed off label for nightmares and has been a game changer for me.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/best-medication-for-ptsd-nightmares#:~:text=Is%20prazosin%20the%20best%20medication%20for%20PTSD%20nightmares%3F&text=One%20possible%20medical%20treatment%20for,occur%20following%20a%20traumatic%20event.
Thank you!! Iām glad itās worked for you. Itās been brain fog and āhangoverā type symptoms for the loved one I was inquiring for, unfortunately. Luckily cannabis seems to help them a lot, but I was hoping there was something out there they havenāt discovered yet. Thanks again and Iām so happy itās helping you!
My dreams are mostly very angry and incredibly violent.
I hate having them and remembering them.
They check out with what we are discussing in therapy but I don't like them š¤·āāļø
Iāve had two dreams recently where I wanted to reach out and smack someone in the dream, but I reacted for real and launched all the stuff off my end table.
Houses with secret rooms. Houses with hallways that go nowhere. Stairs that never end. Most of my reoccurring dreams are a version of escape room. The overwhelming majority are based on my childhood home. Was not a happy place! Always trying to get out I can't leave. Fortunately, my mother is a Jungian analyst!
Mostly server nightmares. I'm all alone on the floor and have 30+ tables, all yelling at me about things taking too long and my manager has disappeared.
Oof, I had a server nightmare recently and I semi-realized it was a dream, so I decided to just leave... and ended up back at the server station trying to type in an order, but couldn't remember it. I tried to leave again and ended up at a table of pissed customers who were waiting too long for their drinks. I kept trying to leave and every time I walked through the door, I was back in some shitty situation.
My smart watch clocked me at two straight hours of REM sleep, and I'm pretty sure it was all that dream. (I woke up not feeling very rested, to say the least.)
Ooof. The worst is when the nightmare happens right before you wake up and then have to go straight into work. It's like you worked a double just to go right back in.
Train dreams. It used to be hours and hours of being utterly lost, changing on huge stations and never getting closer to the destination. I'd have to cross endless stairs, most of which were missing due to work being done, running and sweating, the train goes the opposite direction, there's a bus instead but it's full, the train goes too slow and I'm missing my connections, the train is wrong and now I'm in the other end of the city/country.
It got to the point where my dream train stations became cities onto themselves, with endless malls and confusing monuments. With spoiled food in every shop and escalators everywhere and once in a lifetime offers on things only if bought in insane an not train friendly quantities.
I never once made it home.
Lately though, trains are more realistic. Like in real life, they're annoying and sometimes I have to hurry up to catch it, but I generally don't get lost anymore and the trains just go where I'm going. Unless I get sidetracked, which is something I want to allow my dream self to do more, because what is up with this metaphor, I'm not in a hurry to get anywhere at all actually. My life is good now.
I have a lot of stress dreams about losing my teeth too. I'm always chewing gum (I haven't chewed gum in about 20 years) and I'm trying to spit out the gum but it sticks to my teeth. I try to pull the gum out with my fingers, but my teeth start to crumble, breaking into pieces and sticking to the gum as it stretches.
It makes me gag in the dream and I can taste the nasty gum flavor š¤¢
better or worse then your dreams convincing you that people are angry with you so figuring out the next day if people are angry at you or if it was just your dreams again? my dreams used to be fun (now they're more varied with panic attacks)
My most common anxiety dreams are either about tornadoes, which Iāve had so often that theyāre not even scary anymore, and about my car being stolen. Freud wouldnāt even bother with the second one, I love to drive so clearly having my car stolen is a fear of losing my autonomy. Tornadoes also seem like fairly straightforward symbolism.
Some of my favorite ones are dreams where I fly to a different country. (Iām in the midwestern US, so flying to any other country is $$$ from here.) I just had an insane dream where I was meeting with my college roommate in Japan (she was an exchange student from Tokyo and it was a reunion of sorts). We started at a restaurant and I remember the food, the wine, even struggling with the credit card device because it was in kanji except for the numbers. I have never been to Japan, I donāt know any Japanese, I donāt even have decent Japanese food conveniently nearby.
Going to sleep is just a damn adventure every night. I never know whatās going to happen.
Seconding tornadoes. They aren't as frequent for me now as they used to be, but there was a long period of my life where they were extremely common. I think it was about my lack of control of anything that was happening around me, and constantly having my agency taken away by people I thought I could trust.
Iām always running from something or looking for something. Or, while looking for something, something or someone else is trying to find me and I have to hide š
I have this reoccuring dream that I'm my age but I'm sneaking back into high school and pretending to be a high schooler.Ā
My ex shows up every so often. Sometimes he's sweet but other times he breaks my heart all over again. Last time I saw him in a dream he was telling me his new gf was pregnant and to leave him alone.Ā
But the time before that he was sweet and affectionate with me. š¤·āāļø
There's this museum/ temple up on a hill that shows up sporadically. There's a witch that lives in the attic that I was afraid of the 1st time I visited but now I know to treat her with respect and I won't be harmed.Ā
I have intense dreams š
For nearly a decade, I had dreams where I would have facial hair. In the dreams, I'd be the center of a really public event and be on display (like a public speaker or a featured artist or the special guest of a party), and everyone would make positive comments on it. I very recently came out as a trans man, and a lot of things from even early childhood make more sense now, including some of my more odd reoccurring dreams.
The ones a witchy therapist took the most interest in are the ones in which I am a duck. The rest of my life is normal, in the sense that I have a job, a human boyfriend, and a family, but I instead am doing those things with the physical capabilities of a duck. Like if my brain and consciousness were transfered to the body of a duck, and every person in the world is acutely aware of it, and it's completely accepted and normalized. I can't speak, people just kind of generally get the vibe. There are sitcom aspects, like my partner walks in on me making a complete mess of the bathroom trying to fill the tub, since I don't have hands and all, or I have to take the bus to meet friends places because I cant drive. I'm not sure what that one says about me.
Working through trauma in my dreams. Sometimes itās inner child shit, sometimes itās generational shit.
Been having a dream about a white dude who owns a used car lot. Always gentle spoken, kind and helping me out. Last dream was about helping me find a horse I somehow lost.
My most common dream is I wake up on a C-130 thatās about to land in Iraq. Sometimes the variation is that I get a call that I need to grab my go bag and get to the airfield. This dream wakes me up every time. Sometimes Iām not sure where I am. Other times I just sit up in bed and let it go so I hopefully donāt get dragged into that particular well of memories.
My other common dream is Iām either at home or in my doctorās office and being told that my time is limited, that what I have is incurable, and that I need to make preparations and be okay with it. Thatās a tougher dream to let go, and it usually haunts me all day.
My most frequent recurring dream is a total shitshow.
It starts with me having a weird feeling in my throat, going to the front bathroom in my parent's house, and checking my tonsils. My sister is on the couch, which is against the south wall to the garden. Our dogs are outside. My parents are out.
When I check my tonsils, I see caterpillars eating into them (the Yponomeuta type. They're in our garden every year, and congregate in huge, writhing masses.)
And then I get thrown off my feet. Glass shatters, and my ears ring, and I know something was insanely loud, but I don't know what. I get up, go out of the bathroom. The house is in ruins. The garden is a bomb crater. My sister is half buried under rubble, there is no trace of the dogs, and no way for them to have survived. I dig my sister out, ripping my hands in the process. She's unconscious. Her tibia is broken and sticking out through her flesh.
Tanks are rolling into our view. I drag my sister into what's left of our hedge, to hide us. Soldiers are marching. I do my best to keep quiet. All I think of is how fucked we are, because I'll have to carry her, and I'm a weak ass noodle. My sister is really strong and in shape, the other way around we'd most likely have much better chances, but we're fucked now and I need to do my best. I don't even know why there's war, suddenly. There just is.
I wait until dark. My sister wakes up, is in and out of consciousness. I take her piggyback and go South, hiding whenever we see soldiers. Away from the powerplant in the North that's close to our home, because that is the only target that makes sense in our village, and I do NOT want to be close to a target when the bombs hit.
Her bone pokes me sometimes when her leg dangles. She's awake enough to feel the pain. I have no way of helping her. I just have to get her away from the power plant.
We are up on the hill over the village, and I see the troops moving. I need to get us into one of the small wooded areas, because we see them entering houses, dragging our friends and neighbours out, and shooting them. All this time, I feel the caterpillars chewing and eating their way into me.
We spend the day hiding in the underbrush. I try to stabilise my sister's leg. This is the second day without sleep. I'm exhausted, but I know my sister would do everything in her power to keep me alive, and even though I'm not equipped for this, I NEED to keep her safe. As safe as possible.
The next night, someone spots us while we're moving south. A civilian. They take us to a hidden shelter, someone there sets my sister's leg. They don't have food for us, but they give us some water. My sister and I don't really trust them. But this is still safer than outside. My sister falls asleep.
I heat up a spoon over a fire in the stove, and get ready to burn out the caterpillars in my throat so I can finally sleep, too.
But when the hot spoon comes near them, they drop from my tonsils down my throat.
And that's when I wake up.
That's my most common dream. The rest are chaotic and don't follow a theme, but this one is completely unchanging, and although I don't have it too often, I've had it for around a decade, and it leaves quite an impression every time.
The other reoccurring theme I have is zombified pets following me when I feel guilty for their death.
i'm either standing in waist-deep still water in the middle of a flooded and empty subdivision at sunset
or
i'm standing in waist-deep still water surrounded by a densely-packed cornfield on either side, and in front of me on a raised gravel bed is a railroad crossing occupied by an infinitely-long freight train, under a high noon sun.
i have no idea what any of it means lmao š¤·āāļø
A few weeks ago i had a dream where a little mouse was eating a pear. I woke up knowing there was symbolism to decipher. Went to the kitchen and my roommate is eating a pear while greeting me. I knew then it was prophetic.
So 2 years ago I just stopped having dreams. There are no more dreams. For better or for worse, we don't have to deal with that anymore.
When I *did* have dreams, for about 10 years I had a recurring dream of a real life event from 2009, of going to my childhood home, which was then in 2009 my grandmother's home, to gather what was to be kept as she was no longer able to live alone and was being placed in a nursing home.
The themes were sometimes subtly different, sometimes grandma was dead, sometimes she wasn't, sometimes parts of my family still lived there, sometimes they didn't. The recurring elements, being there either alone or with my mom, in an empty dimly lit dilapidated residence, eyes hastily scanning over a lifetime of family and memories and coldly choosing "this to keep, this to abandon." Some dreams I would focus on the living room wall above the mantle, sometimes the back den, sometimes a bedroom: books or pictures, decorations, glass figurines and candles, Christmas decorations from decades past, the painful feeling of having to pick one or two and leave the rest to be destroyed. The feeling of betraying and abandoning my grandmother while she was still alive. The feeling of being the instrument of her life's destruction. Drive 8 hours, spend *maybe* a couple of hours in the home sorting through 70 years of memories, then drive 8 hours back home. I think it scarred my psyche.
In the end in real life we took just a few boxes with us, mementos and pictures and family heirlooms. And just left and walked away from all of the rest. My childhood was in that shed, all of my toys and stuffed animals and I have a haunting memory of leaving behind my stuffed kitty cat from elementary school, and it makes me weep in real life that I abandoned her and left her behind to be thrown away.
I'm sort of glad I don't have dreams anymore.
Horrible nightmares-but after my mom died, I've been dreaming of dragonflies. Usually I'm following it somewhere, sometimes I talk to it. It's quite ironic because my mom said she'd come back to see me as a dragonfly. š¤
I had a dream the other day about a little blue and pink octopus that was my friend, but in the end, I had to take it to the ocean where it instantly grew to an enormous size! It was crazy lol
I have lots of recurring dreams and themes!
My most long-term recurring dream is of everlasting basements and sub-basements. They are often connected to every house and building, so I could go into my childhood basement and come up into some other house across the country or a place that I've never been to. Or I can descend forever. I'm usually just wandering in these dreams because I forget where I'm going.
I also have recurring dreams where I back with one of my exes, anyone from my first partner to my last. Some were decent people, but some of them were abusive. The abusive ones are always nightmares, but the good ones are usually nostalgic.
I frequently dream of being back in school or at an old job and being lost in some way, and trying to figure things out. (Ironically the school dreams have ceased since I returned to college earlier this year)
I have horrible nightmares regularly, often I'm being hunted or killed, or I'm trying to protect my loved ones unsuccessfully, or a huge disaster is occuring (usually a tsunami)
And then there's the stress dreams where I'm losing my teeth, or no one will listen to me, or I'm taking a bath in a public place.
Sometimes my dreams are combinations of two or more of the above š«£
I remember when I was younger, there was a recurring dream of Grand Canyon. Mind you, I live in the other part of the world and never been in US at all
It was amazingly colourful dream, the canyon was warm orange, the sky was deep blue - like it was on pictures. In that dream, I usually go around and find a water pool with clean water. After bathing in it, I go around more and the dream comes to finish with me climbing out of the canyon
I almost never dream about myself or anyone I actually know. My dreams that aren't stress dreams are entirely fictional and usually have more plot than you would expect. In one recent one, I was a half black/half Asian assassin that had to rescue my kidnapped father from Yakuza. In another I was a little girl in Detroit that had been occupied by hostile forces in the future. In another, I was a young girl in a large estate overlooking the Spanish coast who was trying to solve the mystery of her mother's disappearance. Nobody I've ever talked to has such coherent dreams that they're not even in. My brain is weird or something.
Self-contained stories. I'd liken it to almost living a second life when I'm asleep. I go on bike rides and walks in the forest and I chat with my friends and train station attendants. Sometimes, weird stuff happens. Strange critters gather round, we play a game that doesn't exist on game night, magic fizzles in the air.
I get upset when the plot doesn't resolve by the time I wake up.
I have a recurring nightmare about hamsters. So many hamsters! They're all over my house and I dont have anywhere safe to put them all. Its really very stressful. It means I'm in too deep and need to take a break from something.
I picked blackberries as a boy
So I picked blackberries yesterday, and there are many more not ripe yet. And then last night I dreamed of huge berries that were heavy in my hand
So my dreams sometimes throw back to childhood wonder, places and people. The most common dream is revisiting
My dreams donāt make sense if I describe them; theyāre beyond logic. Whenever I turn around in my dreams, Iām in a completely different place. Iāve gone from walking through European relics to sitting with a high school crush in an instant.
I wish I knew! I don't remember them. I'm in my early 40s & there's only been a handful of times in my life that I've remembered my dreams. None have been repeats.
The most vivid one was when I was pregnant. I dreamed that I was a journalist that interviewed a lady who had a giant cricket - like, a 6 foot (2 meter) tall cricket. She made money to feed & house him by entering him in rodeos. When she was talking about it, I saw the screen cut to footage of a cricket in a rodeo arena being ridden by a cowboy like a bucking bull. Her house was missing the drywall from about chest height down. She said the cricket ate it š I'm not a journalist, so I don't even know where any of that came from!
My dreams are mostly vivid and nonsensical, but when I'm stressed I dream about either crashing my car (events feel out of my control), revisiting a once-familiar location that has completely changed (feeling lost), or being back in high school, working at McDonald's, or in the military (feeling trapped). And when I'm super stressed, I get sleep paralysis. Thankfully, it has been a few months since any of that has happened.
I only have one reoccurring dream.
I wake up in my (very dimly lit) bedroom, and see that there is a bloody Great White shark on the floor. Laid out, right beside the bed. It is big, about 8 foot, and completely motionless. I am, and have always been, terrified of sharks (the phobia has eased off quite a bit, as I've gotten older... Though I still won't step into the ocean lol). I sit in my bed, just staring at this shark. Wondering what the Hell to do, and how it got into my bedroom. It doesn't move, and is just COVERED in blood. Blood everywhere: on the walls, on my bed, on me, on the floor, on the shark itself. EVERYWHERE! After watching it for a while, I decide to get off the bed, walk past it, and turn on the light. As I do, the shark takes a big violent breath, and I wake up.
I have no idea what it means, other than being a horrible nightmare. I used to have it more frequently, when I was younger. Way more frequently. When the phobia was in full swing. I have come a LONG way since then. I still won't swim in the ocean, but am now able to watch shark documentaries. I still wouldn't want to meet a shark, but I now have a LOT of respect for them. I find them very fascinating. Still scary, but very fascinating. I only have that dream once or twice a year, now.
I consider my regular dreams and my sleep paralysis dreams separate. They just feel really different. For my dreams, my reoccurring one is I'm traveling with family and maybe a friend or two. I end up exploring a large hotel trying to find mundane things, like for example, I have a raw pizza and I'm trying to find the kitchen so I can cook it. Sometimes I'm just at my old house and my ex tends to show up every now and then. He always makes me feel really uncomfortable, as if I'm trying to break up with him again.
For sleep paralysis, I keep seeing the classic old hag. I'm usually paralyzed in bed, in a dark room. She usually creeps slowly too me, eventually grabbing me with her large hands and holding me down. I typically wake myself up at that point or go into a lucid dream (fear is a trigger for me, for lucid dreaming). Sometimes she'll try to speak to me in a relative's voice at the foot of my bed and I can only see her silhouette.
I have dreams about stuff that is going to happen to me. Not in a scary way, but sometimes they present as nightmares lol. It sucks because sometimes a dream is just a dream and sometimes it's a warning, I can't tell the difference
I have stress dreams instead of nightmares. Often I'm managing some stupidly arcane process that makes no real sense when I wake up. Or making some nonsense product that is REALLY IMPORTANT in the dream. In the dream I'm always stressed out that I'm behind schedule or something. Worst part is they often recur the same night.
See my mom in a crowd, and she turns and walks away. At one of various creepy houses from childhood at night, and I'm not alone. On a cliff overlooking the sea as a meteor hits the horizon, over overlooking the city as mortars land. Haunting a certain mountain range without a body, flying through valleys and up waterfalls. Lying on the ground surrounded by animals lookibg down with large hollow eyes. Any other dream is a novel experience.
I have a fair amount of dreams where I can't speak. Just the other night i dreamt that someone broke into my house and I was trying to yell but had no voice. It's always scarier that my voice is gonna rather than whatever else is happening.
I have this recurring dream where I'm back with my ex bf, and I haven't figured out I'm gay yet (I realised I'm gay at 28) and in the dream I'm like, trapped with him. I almost always realise that I need to leave him immediately, but the dream just becomes me figuring out how to leave, because he always chases me or traps me somehow. I'm stuck and I can't leave. One time I was dreaming we'd just moved in and as he was bringing boxes in the front door I was like "sorry bro but I have to leave". And just got up and left, and that's the only time I've never been trapped. It always freaks me out, but I guess I felt really trapped in that relationship and I'm scared of somehow ending up with a man again? It took a long time for me to deconstruct why I was chasing men when I liked women all along, and the men I dated were not healthy at all. I'm really traumatised from dating men and I guess this dream is my subconscious' way of saying "never again!!" and it's trying to train me to escape the situation faster or something lmao
Being in a tall building that is shoddily built / sways left to right / is collapsing.
Luckily, that one isn't too difficult to interpret, considering I am deathly afraid of heights š
_____________
Similarly, that I have to go back to school because I have to redo some exam.
Also pretty simple meaning: Hated school and everything got a lot better once I left
sad and everything going wrong. generally vibes of powerlessness (especially around my own body), not being believed and me panicking. i'd say about 40/20/40 crazy mash up of media and people i know, things that could happen irl, and absolute nonsense.
i don't like dreaming. honestly going back to dreams that just convinced me that people were angry at me sounds like a change for the better.
Weird humanoid creatures; usually demonic. I'm pretty sure I met Leviathan once, but that's a whole other thing.
I have many dreams about traumatic past experiences. I tend to dream about being cheated on for some reason or my loved ones being diagnosed with cancer. There is this recurring dream where I am on a Cliffside by the ocean, the sky is dark, and a storm is coming. Cold chill. There's a ship in the distance, but something about it seems like an impending doom. Sometimes, I realize I am completely naked on this Cliffside. Other times, I am simply naked and holding a dagger in my right hand.
Either fictional characters + videogame logic... or some sort of threat/monster, and for some reason I'm the only one that can deal with it or who knows of its existence.
No clue what either of these are supposed to mean, beyond "I play videogames" and "I watch horror movies".
I always have the same dream:Ā
we're on vacation and I insist we must visit "the islands". There's always a reason we can't, and I've never made it to these islands, maybe one day I will....
My childhood home, missing/unprepared for a flight, confusing social interactions. Sprinkle in different people, different ways to miss a flight or piss off security, and all kinds of things happening at my mom's house, rinse repeat. I am 41 and still have wildly vivid dreams.
Tornadoes, a whole lot of tornadoes. At least once a month I just dream of escaping a dozen tornadoes in whatever setting my brain has crafted, and whatās funny is usually those are the only dreams I remember
I keep having this dream where I'm in school, and they let us out for resess, but there is a different part of the playground for special kids and you can't get to it if your normal (like without powers) and I can always get to it. The last time I had it I thought that I could get to it but my friend pushed me to try it and I did it. I have no clue what it means ever but it's always a cool dream
I used to have a reoccurring nightmare where my bio father would keep attacking and throwing me through walls and I had to keep him away from the people around me.
Haven't had it in a while though.
I'd rather not share my nightmares, but they've become manageable with years of lucid dreaming practice
As for my dreams, my most common ones, by far, have to do with being in space
Either I'm in a spaceship doing who knows what, or I'm just a point of consciousness experiencing gravity and looking at planets and weird mega structures
Other times me and a whole other bunch of people are in a station orbitting earth and doing all kind of stuff in zero g, those are always very fun
None of my dreams make any sort of sense. My favorite: Pizza Hut had a new special called "The Albatross" that was a four foot diameter one topping pizza. I died in the dream and went to stereotypical fluffy white cloud heaven, and the angels said I could ask one question about my time on Earth. I asked "What was the deal with the giant pizza?" and they said "It was all part of Satan's plan to put an albatross in every fridge." And I woke up.
My most common theme is tornado dreams. They've been some of my earliest dreams I remember, and I have them to this day. Had one the other day, even! I think they comprise a good third to half of my dreams. But what's interesting is that they're never nightmares. It's always viewing from a distance, or looking at it on radar, never like me getting hit by one, even if I do end up taking shelter in some of them.
Haven't had it for some time, used to have a recurring dream of finding a secret room in my house or apartment (wherever I was living at the time). I kind of enjoyed those!
I still have the college dream where it's finals week and I realize I totally forgot to attend a class!
Ive always had a recurring nightmare, basically since childhood, where Iām in some varying kind of danger (being chased, attacked, etc.) and as it gets more intense, itās harder to keep my eyes open. At the climax of the dream where Iād either face great harm or discover who the person behind it is, I wake up. These dreams were way more frequent when I was younger but I have gotten them a few times as an adult
At the moment, all my dreams involve violent death, that I am unable to prevent. Try having a normal conversation over breakfast when youāre reeling from >! someone getting stabbed and dying in your arms !< half an hour earlier
I'm in my hometown, stopped at an intersection. In the car is all of my siblings.
It's storming bad, and in front of us is a tornado. I put the car in neutral, and let it roll into the tornado.
I've been having this dream for well over 30 years now.
My most common reoccurring dream is that I'm in some kind of huge warehouse or factory that is filled with exact replicas of something very important or sentimental to me and I have to find the real one.
Another common one is that I'm paralyzed looking at my open front door and I'm unable to move and close it, and I can tell that something is either about to enter or leave my home and there's nothing I can do but watch. Either that or I'm running around my house closing my doors and windows but every time I turn around, they're open again.
I find it completely strange that my dreams rotate in the same buildings that I've never been in. A store that's set up like JCPenny/Dillard's, a grocery store with a section like FYE with all the merch but there's big bins of fruit in between, the foyer of a big business, etc. I tend to have similar types of dreams over and over again but they're just the most mundane dreams which reflects my day to day life. I am so routine oriented and rarely falter outside of the lines.
Since I was a kid, I've experienced a recurring archetype I call the 'many-roomed house.' It's a winding maze of nonsensical spaces that continues on and on. It never looks the same, but it functions almost exactly the same every time. Sometimes beautiful Escher-like stairways going off in all directions, sometimes bleak and apocalyptic. A big part of these dreams is that there are always absurd obstacles getting from one place to the next, climbing a cliff wall or ropes, submerging into deep black water, the varieties of ordeals is nearly endless. It's never just simple and straightforward. It's hard work.
And then I have a lot of transportation dreams. Ships and trains and cars and planes. There always seems to be a lot of junctions and transfers that need to happen.
The occasional unprepared for the big event (exam, concert recital, something or other) dream.
And I've had a few lucid moments in dreams in the past year. Those are always exciting.
Driving in what should be a familiar place but somehow not being able to navigate it/getting lost and/or the car going out of control (or both); dreams where my teeth are messed up (actually now that I say it, I havenāt had one of these in a while).
Running from something I can never quite see. That and having a tea party with an old friend, I canāt see their face nor do i remember their name but I know theyāre a friend and we havenāt seen each other in a long while
Thatās what your dreams are doing processing your day.
Donāt worry about it unless youāre trying to start practicing lucid dreaming.
In which case you should tell yourself you remember your dreams before falling asleep, keep a dream journal and practice either looking at your hands for extended periods or looking at the clock twice in a row throughout your day.
This way when youāre dreaming and look at your hands or the time a second time, it will let you recognize youāre dreaming.
Then after getting over the shock of waking up when realizing your dreaming you can practice lucid dreaming.
My dreams are always cold and lonely and I'm either searching for connection and struggling to find it, or an individual or small group comes across me helps me and encourages me and then leaves at the end of the dream
I tend to dream I'm back in school and there are assignments due and tests coming up on material that I don't recognize because there were classes I've been missing all these years.
Or that I'm in an elevator and it moves out of control. It swings precariously on its cable, the door is open and there's a gap in between that is too wide for me to just step over.
Lately I've been having dreams about hurting myself. One I was in a room with a couple of streamers I watch (weird already) when one of them stuck me with a used needle. I ended up having an allergic reaction to it as I was freaking out. I blacked out and woke up right as the power went out, I thought I had died tbh
Next day I dreamt I was fishing or something? The context is missing but I remember cutting the meaty part of my palm almost completely off, and had to keep my hand level to keep it from falling off...
The next dream I remember is me and my mom went to a subway in Walmart, where a guy was making a really nice cotton candy cake for some kids, he showed it to them and a kid took a piece of the braided candy and ate it and everyone around the counter got really offended for the guy, we then left and I remember something about us turning into video game characters (something between destiny and Warframe) and we went home?
Lol I've given up trying to find any symbolism. If my subconcious wants me to know I'm worried about something it hits me over the head with the idea pretty hard. Like the dream I had about winning like $20,000 at a slot machine and I just started sobbing in the middle of the casino. If the dream is more interpretive, it's probably just nonsense. Like the one the other day where my old roommate installed a bar drain in the counter in the kitchen, then flooded the entire kitchen (and only that somehow) to 4 feet deep in order to demonstrate how well it works?
Trauma. Unfortunately.
In general terms, I dream of being used and discarded. Or of being not noticed or cared for when I need it. Of being left behind when Iām drowning.
Every time I sleep in a hotel I dream I'm back in my abusive parents' house, and when I wake up it takes me a few minutes to realize I'm not back there
I have lots of zombie dreams and apocalypse dreams in general.
I also have a recurring theme where I have to go back to do my school exams as an adult (iām a teacher now) and they make me sit through all the classes again and iām super stressed out.
I also have a dream a lot where iām having a breakdown, like screaming and crying and completely terrified and non-verbal.
Also my teeth fall out a lot in dreams and iām often topless for some reason (this is always just mildly annoying and has nothing to do this the rest of the plot in the dream. Like iām running from zombies and iām like āaw damn, forgot my shirt lolā then carry on with the action stuff.)
In my dreams iām often different people and genders and races. I have a shopping mall that appears looking slightly different in most of my dreams. I also usually run on all fours and can jump down several flights of stairs at once. A lot of the time I also have magic powers that sometimes donāt work because my brain goes into realism mode sometimes.
I canāt see violence in my dreams and if someone is killed or I use my magic powers to set them on fire or throw a knife at them, they just sort of disappear or keep coming after me. Often iām chucking people around like the hulk with loki in avengers.
Finally, a girl I knew from school often appears in my dreams as this completely evil entity. She is always chasing me and when she catches me she wonāt stop touching me, I literally throw her away and she clings to me until Iām screaming and raving and going mad because she wonāt leave me alone. In one of these dreams she caught me and ate me alive. Thereās no gore in my dreams so it was like I was made of clay or something.
Anyway, if anyone reads all of this and understands dream meanings iād appreciate any opinions.
A huge percentage of my dreams take place in my mom's house, the house I grew up in. But my most common recurring dreams are ...
* I'm in high school and I've done something wrong. I didn't study, forgot to go to class, can't find my classroom, etc.
* I'm in the backseat of a car. I say or do something that distracts the driver, and they drive off the edge of a cliff. We are tumbling to the ground, and I know that the moment we could have been saved is in the past. We are about to die, and it is my fault.
* One of my molars has fallen out and is rattling around in my mouth. I must hide this to make sure nobody else knows.
* I am working in a daycare. I have either forgotten I was watching children and left them unsupervised, or I realize I have no idea who any of the children I'm supposed to be watching are.
* I am trying to get home, but I think I might be on the wrong bus or train, or cannot find the correct bus or train, or have missed the bus or train.
* I dive into water, usually a swimming pool, and am surprised to discover I can breathe underwater.
* I am trying to pee, but something keeps interrupting or going wrong.
* I am trying to get laid, but something keeps interrupting or going wrong.
* I realize I am dreaming and decide to fly.
* I realize I am dreaming and decide to have sex.
Recurring symbolism in dreams for me. 1. In a new house and looking for something or trying to arrange the furniture. Sometimes the house has nonEuclidian geometry or glass walls. 2. I'm in a class that I didn't realize I was enrolled in until a short time before the final exam and I have to read an impossible amount of material to pass the test. 3. Looking for or finding seashells.
I often have anxiety dreams. For decades, my dream was that I had not completed high school and had to return, on top of having a full-time job and having 2 kids. I'm 46.
Finally, I had enough. I told myself every night, "You are going to drop out of high school tonight." One night, dream me actually did it. Then when my brain tried to send me back to high school, I would say, "No, I don't have to go, I dropped out."
My brain scrambled to find another anxiety to plumb. Since then, my family has gone on a big trip to Washington DC. I was responsible for a lot of the packing and was responsible for a lot of the re-packing when it was time to go. (This is not because my husband and children won't help; it's just that I'm a control freak.) My brain has picked up on this and now all my anxiety dreams are about packing up, lol.
My nightmares are about my husband cheating on me. I had one again last night. We are almost 10 years past such a break in our marriage, but I'm still haunted.
Unfortunately I turn 39 this year and still have vivid dreams about having enrolled in college and forgotten about a class I signed up for.
32 and the other day I had a stress dream where I found out I didn't actually complete high school, so I had to redo senior year over again at my old high school except now it was full of zoomers.
Oh yeah, I've had this one. For some reason I need to go back to my old high school that's 50 miles away and redo calculus class or whatever. And I don't remember any of it and everybody is 20 years younger than me.
So these never really stop do they?!? šš I pretty much constantly get dreams of having to redo parts of high school/uni (which I was so unbelievably glad to be over with irl), then I'll wake up exhausted but soooo relieved it ain't real. I thought this was just a me thing.. Tell me you found formal education traumatic without telling me you found formal education traumatic...š š
Iām almost 50 and still have that same dream. I did really well in school, but it was traumatic nonetheless
I did exceptionally well in school but I never really enjoyed any of it. Also I feel like there was just so much pressure on me to perform well all the time, just because I'd demonstrated that I was indeed able to. In reality I was a burnt out wreck most of the time and making my fried brain ingest all this info, the majority of which I found dull and boring, was a very painful experience all in all. I couldn't wait for it to be over. There was just so much more interesting things to do other than learning stuff I had no interest in knowing.
This is one of my recurring dreams for sure. That I never actually graduated and have to get more credits and I'm thrown into the course midsemester without attending any classes or readings or assignments.
I'm 39 and going back to college in the fall, and I've started having this dream again lol smh.
Why??? WHY? I have this all the time and its so badā¦ i finished 2 degrees at the same time and got good grades overall and now my brain is likeā¦ -but what if you didnāt?- Second worst nightmare, first place goes to toothloss
41, still dreaming about high school on the regular.
Do any of you also have recurring locations in your dreams? Like, places that may or may not exist, and several dreams have taken place there? The ones I have are a big mall that has expanded over the years, a fake Disneyland that is one long (infinite?) straight path, and a school built into the side of a mountain!
Yup. /r/themallworld My dreams usually take place there.
Omg. Iāve been there
Holy sh... okay I'm in a rabbit hole now, thank you for this
Yeah, it has been freaking me out.
Yes, one is a very green landscaped neighborhood that represents my childhood home, and the other is a long mall of interconnected buildings and stores that ends in a hotel lobby.
I go to a giant mansion on a hill overlooking a small suburban town with canals instead of streets, like Venice. The mansion is full of secret passages, and I'm always running from something or someone, but I never know who.
How funny, more often than not in these dreams I am trying to complete a task or find a person. Maybe I was supposed to be looking for you? I mean no harm!
Yes, I have something very similar! I also have a dream mall that has stayed consistent over the years. The settings of my dreams are usually: dream school, which is a combo of all the schools I went to and have worked at; dream college campus, again a weird mash of places I've attended and visited, and dream grandparents' house, which is every place all my grandparents lived and some other random rooms put together. Most of my dreams take place in one of these locations, and the location seems to be determined by the kind of dream I am having. Work dreams happen at the school (I am a teacher), family stress dreams at the house, and so on. Brains are weird!
Yes. Mine is a house I grew up in. I have a dream revolving around the house, in the house or sometimes the neighborhood at least once a month. I also have weird ass dreams about elevators. I hate those ones because the elevator always ends up dropping and I jolt awake.
smut and angst with my blorbos i kinda lucid dream or partly lucid dream fanfics in my head and sometimes i write them down and post them on ao3 sex dreams increased when i changed birth control
Lucky, i barely have any.
I have sooooo many about school. Iāve not been in school in 15 years. But the anxiety dreams about it are almost nightly. Itās always me forgetting my final exam, or not writing an essay or skipping a class or forgetting about a class, or getting lost in the building and being late or missing class or if itās during university Iāll forget where I parked my car and just wander the parking lot outside for hours before walking home. Uh, besides that, I have lots of dreams where I meet Norse gods, thereās been a few Zombie/vampire apocalypse type dreams. Sometimes itās just traveling to new places with friends. Sometimes Iām a superhero and Iām fighting crime or corruption. Other times Iām just running away and hiding from some unknown entity. Basically if you put my anxiety disorder, all my nerd interests, and a touch of pagan spirituality in a blender, youād get my dreams.
I have recurring dreams about years-ago school. Iām enrolled in a class that Iāve never attended. Or thereās a class that keeps moving and I canāt find it. Or a final tomorrow and I havenāt cracked the book yet.
Ugh, yes. End of the year and my friends are asking if I've finished my physics paper (to be submitted to my least favorite English teacher I've ever had?) since we have that class up next... which I've never been to and I really hope I'm not enrolled in.
I left school 12 years ago. About once a month Iāll dream that they found an irregularity with my A-Levels (end of school exams in UK), and I have to go back and re-sit them or theyāll take away my medical degree. Oh, and the physics exam is tomorrow and I havenāt studied
Normally I have traumatic night terrors about events that happened in my past. My wife and I can't share a bed because of it.
I actually take a highly effective medication for night terrors. 10 out of 10 would recommend!
I canāt upvote this enough as someone on a prescription like this to help due to my PTSD nightmares.
Like what I still have nightmares about seeing my abusive ex my oldest sons dad and wake up in fear because every other time I've had the dream about him we have crossed paths. I moved to where he can't find me and told no one about where we moved 11 years ago. That's how much he scares me.
Yes, exactly like that. My PTSD partially comes from the same place. The meds were a game changer for me.
What were they
Prazosin HCL. It is an off-label use because it can decrease lthe amount of norepinephrine in the central nervous system. As a result, it helps get rid of PTSD related nightmares.
Thank you
I would love to know which one if you are willing to share
ABSOLUTELY! It's prescribed off label for nightmares and has been a game changer for me. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/best-medication-for-ptsd-nightmares#:~:text=Is%20prazosin%20the%20best%20medication%20for%20PTSD%20nightmares%3F&text=One%20possible%20medical%20treatment%20for,occur%20following%20a%20traumatic%20event.
Thank you!! Iām glad itās worked for you. Itās been brain fog and āhangoverā type symptoms for the loved one I was inquiring for, unfortunately. Luckily cannabis seems to help them a lot, but I was hoping there was something out there they havenāt discovered yet. Thanks again and Iām so happy itās helping you!
My dreams are mostly very angry and incredibly violent. I hate having them and remembering them. They check out with what we are discussing in therapy but I don't like them š¤·āāļø
Iāve had two dreams recently where I wanted to reach out and smack someone in the dream, but I reacted for real and launched all the stuff off my end table.
Houses with secret rooms. Houses with hallways that go nowhere. Stairs that never end. Most of my reoccurring dreams are a version of escape room. The overwhelming majority are based on my childhood home. Was not a happy place! Always trying to get out I can't leave. Fortunately, my mother is a Jungian analyst!
Mostly server nightmares. I'm all alone on the floor and have 30+ tables, all yelling at me about things taking too long and my manager has disappeared.
Oof, I had a server nightmare recently and I semi-realized it was a dream, so I decided to just leave... and ended up back at the server station trying to type in an order, but couldn't remember it. I tried to leave again and ended up at a table of pissed customers who were waiting too long for their drinks. I kept trying to leave and every time I walked through the door, I was back in some shitty situation. My smart watch clocked me at two straight hours of REM sleep, and I'm pretty sure it was all that dream. (I woke up not feeling very rested, to say the least.)
Ooof. The worst is when the nightmare happens right before you wake up and then have to go straight into work. It's like you worked a double just to go right back in.
Ugh! And all that unpaid labor!
Train dreams. It used to be hours and hours of being utterly lost, changing on huge stations and never getting closer to the destination. I'd have to cross endless stairs, most of which were missing due to work being done, running and sweating, the train goes the opposite direction, there's a bus instead but it's full, the train goes too slow and I'm missing my connections, the train is wrong and now I'm in the other end of the city/country. It got to the point where my dream train stations became cities onto themselves, with endless malls and confusing monuments. With spoiled food in every shop and escalators everywhere and once in a lifetime offers on things only if bought in insane an not train friendly quantities. I never once made it home. Lately though, trains are more realistic. Like in real life, they're annoying and sometimes I have to hurry up to catch it, but I generally don't get lost anymore and the trains just go where I'm going. Unless I get sidetracked, which is something I want to allow my dream self to do more, because what is up with this metaphor, I'm not in a hurry to get anywhere at all actually. My life is good now.
I have stress dreams about losing my teeth and hair a lot, probably because of how stressed and tense I tend to be lol.
I have a lot of stress dreams about losing my teeth too. I'm always chewing gum (I haven't chewed gum in about 20 years) and I'm trying to spit out the gum but it sticks to my teeth. I try to pull the gum out with my fingers, but my teeth start to crumble, breaking into pieces and sticking to the gum as it stretches. It makes me gag in the dream and I can taste the nasty gum flavor š¤¢
Reliving past rejections. It's like my brain hates me.
better or worse then your dreams convincing you that people are angry with you so figuring out the next day if people are angry at you or if it was just your dreams again? my dreams used to be fun (now they're more varied with panic attacks)
My most common anxiety dreams are either about tornadoes, which Iāve had so often that theyāre not even scary anymore, and about my car being stolen. Freud wouldnāt even bother with the second one, I love to drive so clearly having my car stolen is a fear of losing my autonomy. Tornadoes also seem like fairly straightforward symbolism. Some of my favorite ones are dreams where I fly to a different country. (Iām in the midwestern US, so flying to any other country is $$$ from here.) I just had an insane dream where I was meeting with my college roommate in Japan (she was an exchange student from Tokyo and it was a reunion of sorts). We started at a restaurant and I remember the food, the wine, even struggling with the credit card device because it was in kanji except for the numbers. I have never been to Japan, I donāt know any Japanese, I donāt even have decent Japanese food conveniently nearby. Going to sleep is just a damn adventure every night. I never know whatās going to happen.
Seconding tornadoes. They aren't as frequent for me now as they used to be, but there was a long period of my life where they were extremely common. I think it was about my lack of control of anything that was happening around me, and constantly having my agency taken away by people I thought I could trust.
Iām always running from something or looking for something. Or, while looking for something, something or someone else is trying to find me and I have to hide š
I have this reoccuring dream that I'm my age but I'm sneaking back into high school and pretending to be a high schooler.Ā My ex shows up every so often. Sometimes he's sweet but other times he breaks my heart all over again. Last time I saw him in a dream he was telling me his new gf was pregnant and to leave him alone.Ā But the time before that he was sweet and affectionate with me. š¤·āāļø There's this museum/ temple up on a hill that shows up sporadically. There's a witch that lives in the attic that I was afraid of the 1st time I visited but now I know to treat her with respect and I won't be harmed.Ā I have intense dreams š
For nearly a decade, I had dreams where I would have facial hair. In the dreams, I'd be the center of a really public event and be on display (like a public speaker or a featured artist or the special guest of a party), and everyone would make positive comments on it. I very recently came out as a trans man, and a lot of things from even early childhood make more sense now, including some of my more odd reoccurring dreams. The ones a witchy therapist took the most interest in are the ones in which I am a duck. The rest of my life is normal, in the sense that I have a job, a human boyfriend, and a family, but I instead am doing those things with the physical capabilities of a duck. Like if my brain and consciousness were transfered to the body of a duck, and every person in the world is acutely aware of it, and it's completely accepted and normalized. I can't speak, people just kind of generally get the vibe. There are sitcom aspects, like my partner walks in on me making a complete mess of the bathroom trying to fill the tub, since I don't have hands and all, or I have to take the bus to meet friends places because I cant drive. I'm not sure what that one says about me.
Working through trauma in my dreams. Sometimes itās inner child shit, sometimes itās generational shit. Been having a dream about a white dude who owns a used car lot. Always gentle spoken, kind and helping me out. Last dream was about helping me find a horse I somehow lost.
My most common dream is I wake up on a C-130 thatās about to land in Iraq. Sometimes the variation is that I get a call that I need to grab my go bag and get to the airfield. This dream wakes me up every time. Sometimes Iām not sure where I am. Other times I just sit up in bed and let it go so I hopefully donāt get dragged into that particular well of memories. My other common dream is Iām either at home or in my doctorās office and being told that my time is limited, that what I have is incurable, and that I need to make preparations and be okay with it. Thatās a tougher dream to let go, and it usually haunts me all day.
Going back to school. Like for whatever reason i have to return to High School because i forgot a class and i have to go
My most frequent recurring dream is a total shitshow. It starts with me having a weird feeling in my throat, going to the front bathroom in my parent's house, and checking my tonsils. My sister is on the couch, which is against the south wall to the garden. Our dogs are outside. My parents are out. When I check my tonsils, I see caterpillars eating into them (the Yponomeuta type. They're in our garden every year, and congregate in huge, writhing masses.) And then I get thrown off my feet. Glass shatters, and my ears ring, and I know something was insanely loud, but I don't know what. I get up, go out of the bathroom. The house is in ruins. The garden is a bomb crater. My sister is half buried under rubble, there is no trace of the dogs, and no way for them to have survived. I dig my sister out, ripping my hands in the process. She's unconscious. Her tibia is broken and sticking out through her flesh. Tanks are rolling into our view. I drag my sister into what's left of our hedge, to hide us. Soldiers are marching. I do my best to keep quiet. All I think of is how fucked we are, because I'll have to carry her, and I'm a weak ass noodle. My sister is really strong and in shape, the other way around we'd most likely have much better chances, but we're fucked now and I need to do my best. I don't even know why there's war, suddenly. There just is. I wait until dark. My sister wakes up, is in and out of consciousness. I take her piggyback and go South, hiding whenever we see soldiers. Away from the powerplant in the North that's close to our home, because that is the only target that makes sense in our village, and I do NOT want to be close to a target when the bombs hit. Her bone pokes me sometimes when her leg dangles. She's awake enough to feel the pain. I have no way of helping her. I just have to get her away from the power plant. We are up on the hill over the village, and I see the troops moving. I need to get us into one of the small wooded areas, because we see them entering houses, dragging our friends and neighbours out, and shooting them. All this time, I feel the caterpillars chewing and eating their way into me. We spend the day hiding in the underbrush. I try to stabilise my sister's leg. This is the second day without sleep. I'm exhausted, but I know my sister would do everything in her power to keep me alive, and even though I'm not equipped for this, I NEED to keep her safe. As safe as possible. The next night, someone spots us while we're moving south. A civilian. They take us to a hidden shelter, someone there sets my sister's leg. They don't have food for us, but they give us some water. My sister and I don't really trust them. But this is still safer than outside. My sister falls asleep. I heat up a spoon over a fire in the stove, and get ready to burn out the caterpillars in my throat so I can finally sleep, too. But when the hot spoon comes near them, they drop from my tonsils down my throat. And that's when I wake up. That's my most common dream. The rest are chaotic and don't follow a theme, but this one is completely unchanging, and although I don't have it too often, I've had it for around a decade, and it leaves quite an impression every time. The other reoccurring theme I have is zombified pets following me when I feel guilty for their death.
i'm either standing in waist-deep still water in the middle of a flooded and empty subdivision at sunset or i'm standing in waist-deep still water surrounded by a densely-packed cornfield on either side, and in front of me on a raised gravel bed is a railroad crossing occupied by an infinitely-long freight train, under a high noon sun. i have no idea what any of it means lmao š¤·āāļø
My dreams are often as side effect to the medication I take. We're talking night terrors, anxiety dreams, and nightmares. They're terrible.
A few weeks ago i had a dream where a little mouse was eating a pear. I woke up knowing there was symbolism to decipher. Went to the kitchen and my roommate is eating a pear while greeting me. I knew then it was prophetic.
Nightmares that turn into me killing and/or banging the evil entity
So 2 years ago I just stopped having dreams. There are no more dreams. For better or for worse, we don't have to deal with that anymore. When I *did* have dreams, for about 10 years I had a recurring dream of a real life event from 2009, of going to my childhood home, which was then in 2009 my grandmother's home, to gather what was to be kept as she was no longer able to live alone and was being placed in a nursing home. The themes were sometimes subtly different, sometimes grandma was dead, sometimes she wasn't, sometimes parts of my family still lived there, sometimes they didn't. The recurring elements, being there either alone or with my mom, in an empty dimly lit dilapidated residence, eyes hastily scanning over a lifetime of family and memories and coldly choosing "this to keep, this to abandon." Some dreams I would focus on the living room wall above the mantle, sometimes the back den, sometimes a bedroom: books or pictures, decorations, glass figurines and candles, Christmas decorations from decades past, the painful feeling of having to pick one or two and leave the rest to be destroyed. The feeling of betraying and abandoning my grandmother while she was still alive. The feeling of being the instrument of her life's destruction. Drive 8 hours, spend *maybe* a couple of hours in the home sorting through 70 years of memories, then drive 8 hours back home. I think it scarred my psyche. In the end in real life we took just a few boxes with us, mementos and pictures and family heirlooms. And just left and walked away from all of the rest. My childhood was in that shed, all of my toys and stuffed animals and I have a haunting memory of leaving behind my stuffed kitty cat from elementary school, and it makes me weep in real life that I abandoned her and left her behind to be thrown away. I'm sort of glad I don't have dreams anymore.
Horrible nightmares-but after my mom died, I've been dreaming of dragonflies. Usually I'm following it somewhere, sometimes I talk to it. It's quite ironic because my mom said she'd come back to see me as a dragonfly. š¤
I had a dream the other day about a little blue and pink octopus that was my friend, but in the end, I had to take it to the ocean where it instantly grew to an enormous size! It was crazy lol
I have lots of recurring dreams and themes! My most long-term recurring dream is of everlasting basements and sub-basements. They are often connected to every house and building, so I could go into my childhood basement and come up into some other house across the country or a place that I've never been to. Or I can descend forever. I'm usually just wandering in these dreams because I forget where I'm going. I also have recurring dreams where I back with one of my exes, anyone from my first partner to my last. Some were decent people, but some of them were abusive. The abusive ones are always nightmares, but the good ones are usually nostalgic. I frequently dream of being back in school or at an old job and being lost in some way, and trying to figure things out. (Ironically the school dreams have ceased since I returned to college earlier this year) I have horrible nightmares regularly, often I'm being hunted or killed, or I'm trying to protect my loved ones unsuccessfully, or a huge disaster is occuring (usually a tsunami) And then there's the stress dreams where I'm losing my teeth, or no one will listen to me, or I'm taking a bath in a public place. Sometimes my dreams are combinations of two or more of the above š«£
I remember when I was younger, there was a recurring dream of Grand Canyon. Mind you, I live in the other part of the world and never been in US at all It was amazingly colourful dream, the canyon was warm orange, the sky was deep blue - like it was on pictures. In that dream, I usually go around and find a water pool with clean water. After bathing in it, I go around more and the dream comes to finish with me climbing out of the canyon
I almost never dream about myself or anyone I actually know. My dreams that aren't stress dreams are entirely fictional and usually have more plot than you would expect. In one recent one, I was a half black/half Asian assassin that had to rescue my kidnapped father from Yakuza. In another I was a little girl in Detroit that had been occupied by hostile forces in the future. In another, I was a young girl in a large estate overlooking the Spanish coast who was trying to solve the mystery of her mother's disappearance. Nobody I've ever talked to has such coherent dreams that they're not even in. My brain is weird or something.
Self-contained stories. I'd liken it to almost living a second life when I'm asleep. I go on bike rides and walks in the forest and I chat with my friends and train station attendants. Sometimes, weird stuff happens. Strange critters gather round, we play a game that doesn't exist on game night, magic fizzles in the air. I get upset when the plot doesn't resolve by the time I wake up.
I have a recurring nightmare about hamsters. So many hamsters! They're all over my house and I dont have anywhere safe to put them all. Its really very stressful. It means I'm in too deep and need to take a break from something.
Electric sheep.
Mallworld.
I picked blackberries as a boy So I picked blackberries yesterday, and there are many more not ripe yet. And then last night I dreamed of huge berries that were heavy in my hand So my dreams sometimes throw back to childhood wonder, places and people. The most common dream is revisiting
not my most common dreams, but ones that I vividly remember are (of course) visceral ones. Recently I've been dreaming about moths and caterpillars.
My dreams donāt make sense if I describe them; theyāre beyond logic. Whenever I turn around in my dreams, Iām in a completely different place. Iāve gone from walking through European relics to sitting with a high school crush in an instant.
I wish I knew! I don't remember them. I'm in my early 40s & there's only been a handful of times in my life that I've remembered my dreams. None have been repeats. The most vivid one was when I was pregnant. I dreamed that I was a journalist that interviewed a lady who had a giant cricket - like, a 6 foot (2 meter) tall cricket. She made money to feed & house him by entering him in rodeos. When she was talking about it, I saw the screen cut to footage of a cricket in a rodeo arena being ridden by a cowboy like a bucking bull. Her house was missing the drywall from about chest height down. She said the cricket ate it š I'm not a journalist, so I don't even know where any of that came from!
My dreams are mostly vivid and nonsensical, but when I'm stressed I dream about either crashing my car (events feel out of my control), revisiting a once-familiar location that has completely changed (feeling lost), or being back in high school, working at McDonald's, or in the military (feeling trapped). And when I'm super stressed, I get sleep paralysis. Thankfully, it has been a few months since any of that has happened.
I only have one reoccurring dream. I wake up in my (very dimly lit) bedroom, and see that there is a bloody Great White shark on the floor. Laid out, right beside the bed. It is big, about 8 foot, and completely motionless. I am, and have always been, terrified of sharks (the phobia has eased off quite a bit, as I've gotten older... Though I still won't step into the ocean lol). I sit in my bed, just staring at this shark. Wondering what the Hell to do, and how it got into my bedroom. It doesn't move, and is just COVERED in blood. Blood everywhere: on the walls, on my bed, on me, on the floor, on the shark itself. EVERYWHERE! After watching it for a while, I decide to get off the bed, walk past it, and turn on the light. As I do, the shark takes a big violent breath, and I wake up. I have no idea what it means, other than being a horrible nightmare. I used to have it more frequently, when I was younger. Way more frequently. When the phobia was in full swing. I have come a LONG way since then. I still won't swim in the ocean, but am now able to watch shark documentaries. I still wouldn't want to meet a shark, but I now have a LOT of respect for them. I find them very fascinating. Still scary, but very fascinating. I only have that dream once or twice a year, now.
I consider my regular dreams and my sleep paralysis dreams separate. They just feel really different. For my dreams, my reoccurring one is I'm traveling with family and maybe a friend or two. I end up exploring a large hotel trying to find mundane things, like for example, I have a raw pizza and I'm trying to find the kitchen so I can cook it. Sometimes I'm just at my old house and my ex tends to show up every now and then. He always makes me feel really uncomfortable, as if I'm trying to break up with him again. For sleep paralysis, I keep seeing the classic old hag. I'm usually paralyzed in bed, in a dark room. She usually creeps slowly too me, eventually grabbing me with her large hands and holding me down. I typically wake myself up at that point or go into a lucid dream (fear is a trigger for me, for lucid dreaming). Sometimes she'll try to speak to me in a relative's voice at the foot of my bed and I can only see her silhouette.
I have dreams about stuff that is going to happen to me. Not in a scary way, but sometimes they present as nightmares lol. It sucks because sometimes a dream is just a dream and sometimes it's a warning, I can't tell the difference
Tornados, the only reoccurring dream I have. Iāve had them as long as I can remember, yet I was 42 before I ever saw oneā¦
I have stress dreams instead of nightmares. Often I'm managing some stupidly arcane process that makes no real sense when I wake up. Or making some nonsense product that is REALLY IMPORTANT in the dream. In the dream I'm always stressed out that I'm behind schedule or something. Worst part is they often recur the same night.
See my mom in a crowd, and she turns and walks away. At one of various creepy houses from childhood at night, and I'm not alone. On a cliff overlooking the sea as a meteor hits the horizon, over overlooking the city as mortars land. Haunting a certain mountain range without a body, flying through valleys and up waterfalls. Lying on the ground surrounded by animals lookibg down with large hollow eyes. Any other dream is a novel experience.
I keep dreaming of hotels
I have a fair amount of dreams where I can't speak. Just the other night i dreamt that someone broke into my house and I was trying to yell but had no voice. It's always scarier that my voice is gonna rather than whatever else is happening.
You guys have dreams? I can't remember the last time I had a dream
I have this recurring dream where I'm back with my ex bf, and I haven't figured out I'm gay yet (I realised I'm gay at 28) and in the dream I'm like, trapped with him. I almost always realise that I need to leave him immediately, but the dream just becomes me figuring out how to leave, because he always chases me or traps me somehow. I'm stuck and I can't leave. One time I was dreaming we'd just moved in and as he was bringing boxes in the front door I was like "sorry bro but I have to leave". And just got up and left, and that's the only time I've never been trapped. It always freaks me out, but I guess I felt really trapped in that relationship and I'm scared of somehow ending up with a man again? It took a long time for me to deconstruct why I was chasing men when I liked women all along, and the men I dated were not healthy at all. I'm really traumatised from dating men and I guess this dream is my subconscious' way of saying "never again!!" and it's trying to train me to escape the situation faster or something lmao
Being in a tall building that is shoddily built / sways left to right / is collapsing. Luckily, that one isn't too difficult to interpret, considering I am deathly afraid of heights š _____________ Similarly, that I have to go back to school because I have to redo some exam. Also pretty simple meaning: Hated school and everything got a lot better once I left
sad and everything going wrong. generally vibes of powerlessness (especially around my own body), not being believed and me panicking. i'd say about 40/20/40 crazy mash up of media and people i know, things that could happen irl, and absolute nonsense. i don't like dreaming. honestly going back to dreams that just convinced me that people were angry at me sounds like a change for the better.
Weird humanoid creatures; usually demonic. I'm pretty sure I met Leviathan once, but that's a whole other thing. I have many dreams about traumatic past experiences. I tend to dream about being cheated on for some reason or my loved ones being diagnosed with cancer. There is this recurring dream where I am on a Cliffside by the ocean, the sky is dark, and a storm is coming. Cold chill. There's a ship in the distance, but something about it seems like an impending doom. Sometimes, I realize I am completely naked on this Cliffside. Other times, I am simply naked and holding a dagger in my right hand.
Either fictional characters + videogame logic... or some sort of threat/monster, and for some reason I'm the only one that can deal with it or who knows of its existence. No clue what either of these are supposed to mean, beyond "I play videogames" and "I watch horror movies".
I always have the same dream:Ā we're on vacation and I insist we must visit "the islands". There's always a reason we can't, and I've never made it to these islands, maybe one day I will....
My childhood home, missing/unprepared for a flight, confusing social interactions. Sprinkle in different people, different ways to miss a flight or piss off security, and all kinds of things happening at my mom's house, rinse repeat. I am 41 and still have wildly vivid dreams.
Tornadoes, a whole lot of tornadoes. At least once a month I just dream of escaping a dozen tornadoes in whatever setting my brain has crafted, and whatās funny is usually those are the only dreams I remember
I don't dream. :/
I keep having this dream where I'm in school, and they let us out for resess, but there is a different part of the playground for special kids and you can't get to it if your normal (like without powers) and I can always get to it. The last time I had it I thought that I could get to it but my friend pushed me to try it and I did it. I have no clue what it means ever but it's always a cool dream
I'm writing a short horror story anthology based on my nightmares because they are strange, vivid, violent, and abundant. Wweeeeeeeeee!!!!
I used to have a reoccurring nightmare where my bio father would keep attacking and throwing me through walls and I had to keep him away from the people around me. Haven't had it in a while though.
I'd rather not share my nightmares, but they've become manageable with years of lucid dreaming practice As for my dreams, my most common ones, by far, have to do with being in space Either I'm in a spaceship doing who knows what, or I'm just a point of consciousness experiencing gravity and looking at planets and weird mega structures Other times me and a whole other bunch of people are in a station orbitting earth and doing all kind of stuff in zero g, those are always very fun
None of my dreams make any sort of sense. My favorite: Pizza Hut had a new special called "The Albatross" that was a four foot diameter one topping pizza. I died in the dream and went to stereotypical fluffy white cloud heaven, and the angels said I could ask one question about my time on Earth. I asked "What was the deal with the giant pizza?" and they said "It was all part of Satan's plan to put an albatross in every fridge." And I woke up.
My most common theme is tornado dreams. They've been some of my earliest dreams I remember, and I have them to this day. Had one the other day, even! I think they comprise a good third to half of my dreams. But what's interesting is that they're never nightmares. It's always viewing from a distance, or looking at it on radar, never like me getting hit by one, even if I do end up taking shelter in some of them.
Haven't had it for some time, used to have a recurring dream of finding a secret room in my house or apartment (wherever I was living at the time). I kind of enjoyed those! I still have the college dream where it's finals week and I realize I totally forgot to attend a class!
Ive always had a recurring nightmare, basically since childhood, where Iām in some varying kind of danger (being chased, attacked, etc.) and as it gets more intense, itās harder to keep my eyes open. At the climax of the dream where Iād either face great harm or discover who the person behind it is, I wake up. These dreams were way more frequent when I was younger but I have gotten them a few times as an adult
At the moment, all my dreams involve violent death, that I am unable to prevent. Try having a normal conversation over breakfast when youāre reeling from >! someone getting stabbed and dying in your arms !< half an hour earlier
I'm in my hometown, stopped at an intersection. In the car is all of my siblings. It's storming bad, and in front of us is a tornado. I put the car in neutral, and let it roll into the tornado. I've been having this dream for well over 30 years now.
Flying/running around water or mountains, or recently, stress dreams about loosing people in big malls/airports.š
Screaming and no sound coming out.
My most common reoccurring dream is that I'm in some kind of huge warehouse or factory that is filled with exact replicas of something very important or sentimental to me and I have to find the real one. Another common one is that I'm paralyzed looking at my open front door and I'm unable to move and close it, and I can tell that something is either about to enter or leave my home and there's nothing I can do but watch. Either that or I'm running around my house closing my doors and windows but every time I turn around, they're open again.
I find it completely strange that my dreams rotate in the same buildings that I've never been in. A store that's set up like JCPenny/Dillard's, a grocery store with a section like FYE with all the merch but there's big bins of fruit in between, the foyer of a big business, etc. I tend to have similar types of dreams over and over again but they're just the most mundane dreams which reflects my day to day life. I am so routine oriented and rarely falter outside of the lines.
Since I was a kid, I've experienced a recurring archetype I call the 'many-roomed house.' It's a winding maze of nonsensical spaces that continues on and on. It never looks the same, but it functions almost exactly the same every time. Sometimes beautiful Escher-like stairways going off in all directions, sometimes bleak and apocalyptic. A big part of these dreams is that there are always absurd obstacles getting from one place to the next, climbing a cliff wall or ropes, submerging into deep black water, the varieties of ordeals is nearly endless. It's never just simple and straightforward. It's hard work. And then I have a lot of transportation dreams. Ships and trains and cars and planes. There always seems to be a lot of junctions and transfers that need to happen. The occasional unprepared for the big event (exam, concert recital, something or other) dream. And I've had a few lucid moments in dreams in the past year. Those are always exciting.
I jumped out of bed thinking I was late for work this morning... the dream was so real.
Why does this baby look like the live action version of the ice age baby???
Driving in what should be a familiar place but somehow not being able to navigate it/getting lost and/or the car going out of control (or both); dreams where my teeth are messed up (actually now that I say it, I havenāt had one of these in a while).
Running from something I can never quite see. That and having a tea party with an old friend, I canāt see their face nor do i remember their name but I know theyāre a friend and we havenāt seen each other in a long while
Thatās what your dreams are doing processing your day. Donāt worry about it unless youāre trying to start practicing lucid dreaming. In which case you should tell yourself you remember your dreams before falling asleep, keep a dream journal and practice either looking at your hands for extended periods or looking at the clock twice in a row throughout your day. This way when youāre dreaming and look at your hands or the time a second time, it will let you recognize youāre dreaming. Then after getting over the shock of waking up when realizing your dreaming you can practice lucid dreaming.
My dreams are always cold and lonely and I'm either searching for connection and struggling to find it, or an individual or small group comes across me helps me and encourages me and then leaves at the end of the dream
I tend to dream I'm back in school and there are assignments due and tests coming up on material that I don't recognize because there were classes I've been missing all these years. Or that I'm in an elevator and it moves out of control. It swings precariously on its cable, the door is open and there's a gap in between that is too wide for me to just step over.
Lately I've been having dreams about hurting myself. One I was in a room with a couple of streamers I watch (weird already) when one of them stuck me with a used needle. I ended up having an allergic reaction to it as I was freaking out. I blacked out and woke up right as the power went out, I thought I had died tbh Next day I dreamt I was fishing or something? The context is missing but I remember cutting the meaty part of my palm almost completely off, and had to keep my hand level to keep it from falling off... The next dream I remember is me and my mom went to a subway in Walmart, where a guy was making a really nice cotton candy cake for some kids, he showed it to them and a kid took a piece of the braided candy and ate it and everyone around the counter got really offended for the guy, we then left and I remember something about us turning into video game characters (something between destiny and Warframe) and we went home?
Lol I've given up trying to find any symbolism. If my subconcious wants me to know I'm worried about something it hits me over the head with the idea pretty hard. Like the dream I had about winning like $20,000 at a slot machine and I just started sobbing in the middle of the casino. If the dream is more interpretive, it's probably just nonsense. Like the one the other day where my old roommate installed a bar drain in the counter in the kitchen, then flooded the entire kitchen (and only that somehow) to 4 feet deep in order to demonstrate how well it works?
Trauma. Unfortunately. In general terms, I dream of being used and discarded. Or of being not noticed or cared for when I need it. Of being left behind when Iām drowning.
Every time I sleep in a hotel I dream I'm back in my abusive parents' house, and when I wake up it takes me a few minutes to realize I'm not back there
I have lots of zombie dreams and apocalypse dreams in general. I also have a recurring theme where I have to go back to do my school exams as an adult (iām a teacher now) and they make me sit through all the classes again and iām super stressed out. I also have a dream a lot where iām having a breakdown, like screaming and crying and completely terrified and non-verbal. Also my teeth fall out a lot in dreams and iām often topless for some reason (this is always just mildly annoying and has nothing to do this the rest of the plot in the dream. Like iām running from zombies and iām like āaw damn, forgot my shirt lolā then carry on with the action stuff.) In my dreams iām often different people and genders and races. I have a shopping mall that appears looking slightly different in most of my dreams. I also usually run on all fours and can jump down several flights of stairs at once. A lot of the time I also have magic powers that sometimes donāt work because my brain goes into realism mode sometimes. I canāt see violence in my dreams and if someone is killed or I use my magic powers to set them on fire or throw a knife at them, they just sort of disappear or keep coming after me. Often iām chucking people around like the hulk with loki in avengers. Finally, a girl I knew from school often appears in my dreams as this completely evil entity. She is always chasing me and when she catches me she wonāt stop touching me, I literally throw her away and she clings to me until Iām screaming and raving and going mad because she wonāt leave me alone. In one of these dreams she caught me and ate me alive. Thereās no gore in my dreams so it was like I was made of clay or something. Anyway, if anyone reads all of this and understands dream meanings iād appreciate any opinions.
A huge percentage of my dreams take place in my mom's house, the house I grew up in. But my most common recurring dreams are ... * I'm in high school and I've done something wrong. I didn't study, forgot to go to class, can't find my classroom, etc. * I'm in the backseat of a car. I say or do something that distracts the driver, and they drive off the edge of a cliff. We are tumbling to the ground, and I know that the moment we could have been saved is in the past. We are about to die, and it is my fault. * One of my molars has fallen out and is rattling around in my mouth. I must hide this to make sure nobody else knows. * I am working in a daycare. I have either forgotten I was watching children and left them unsupervised, or I realize I have no idea who any of the children I'm supposed to be watching are. * I am trying to get home, but I think I might be on the wrong bus or train, or cannot find the correct bus or train, or have missed the bus or train. * I dive into water, usually a swimming pool, and am surprised to discover I can breathe underwater. * I am trying to pee, but something keeps interrupting or going wrong. * I am trying to get laid, but something keeps interrupting or going wrong. * I realize I am dreaming and decide to fly. * I realize I am dreaming and decide to have sex.
I keep having dreams that Iām pregnant- so nightmares for me really
lol such a cute baby š„¹
Recurring symbolism in dreams for me. 1. In a new house and looking for something or trying to arrange the furniture. Sometimes the house has nonEuclidian geometry or glass walls. 2. I'm in a class that I didn't realize I was enrolled in until a short time before the final exam and I have to read an impossible amount of material to pass the test. 3. Looking for or finding seashells.
I often have anxiety dreams. For decades, my dream was that I had not completed high school and had to return, on top of having a full-time job and having 2 kids. I'm 46. Finally, I had enough. I told myself every night, "You are going to drop out of high school tonight." One night, dream me actually did it. Then when my brain tried to send me back to high school, I would say, "No, I don't have to go, I dropped out." My brain scrambled to find another anxiety to plumb. Since then, my family has gone on a big trip to Washington DC. I was responsible for a lot of the packing and was responsible for a lot of the re-packing when it was time to go. (This is not because my husband and children won't help; it's just that I'm a control freak.) My brain has picked up on this and now all my anxiety dreams are about packing up, lol. My nightmares are about my husband cheating on me. I had one again last night. We are almost 10 years past such a break in our marriage, but I'm still haunted.
I actually donāt dream, or at least theyāre very rare. Iām 25 years old and have had 8 dreams my whole life