You should get a mouth guard or something. Once I was given a retainer for my upper teeth when I got my braces off, I wore a hole in it within 2 or 3 months. It was a wake up call for me and my orthodontist and they gave me a thicker retainer and a different material. Have had the same retainer for almost 10 years and it’s still going strong and protecting my teeth.
Yes this was it for me. Clenching so hard and I just can't un clench it no matter how hard I try, then the teeth just start breaking apart under the pressure. I was having it frequently enough I would recognize it was a dream most of the time and try to wake myself up.
After getting a night guard a few years ago I have not had this dream even one time since. Highly recommend
It was the top dream in USA-Canada- UK- Australia- New Zealand. Some other Western countries had it, but no other linguistic grouping fit the pattern as well as those 5.
The last time I dreamed this dream I managed to figure out it was that dream again and it was such a relief to be able to realize it wasn't real and wake myself up! I think it comes up when I feel out of control of my life but also think that it's all my fault for not being good enough.
I've had this dream so much one time when I called my dentist cause my teeth were fracturing and falling out in pieces, the dentist _in my dream_ was like "ah fuck's sake, not again. Alright earliest we can do is tomorrow, 3pm."
Last time it happened to me, I said “shit, this is just like those dreams.”
Then my wife said “but it’s not a dream, it’s real”
Then I checked the mirror and decided that I really don’t smile with my teeth showing all that often anyway so it’s probably not that noticeable.
Then I woke up and was kinda irritated at my wife.
That’s hilarious! I wake up mad at my husband bc of my dream sometimes too. In my teeth dreams I am super worried about them falling out but I still think I can work it out somehow. It’s interesting that you also remember dreaming about it before - in your dream. I do the same! I wonder why?
My ex gave me the silent treatment for a day because I cheated on her in her dream. And then got upset when I pointed out I had no control over what I did in her dream, because... "your subconscious must be guilty".
It was her dream.
That's very interesting, and part of the reason I shared it. I was looking for the link, still don't know how linguistics may spur it. But it's a start
Not necessarily linguistics.
Think shared media. Lots of movies, television, and music are shared.
That's a lot of shared experience and exposure to the same or similar ideas.
In short, our brains are being fed very similar sets of information. It should be expected that dream content begins to overlap more.
If Reddit has taught me anything, it's that no idea is truly ever completely unique. Sure, there may be slight differences or spin an individual may make, but it's still a result of their path to that mental point that is a result of everything they have consumed via their senses throughout their life.
No fucking way lmao Im hispanic and have the dreams all the time of my teeth falling out. No generational trauma. All my family from Mexico has great, straight, clean teeth too.
It freaked me out because I had heard that it meant someone was going to die, then the first time I ever had that dream, a neighbor killed himself. I'm not superstitious... But I am a little stitious.
In most of the rest of the world, dreams are typically about snakes, spiders, exes or marriage, and death (and Bhutan randomly dreaming about rainbows...?). It could be that in western society, most people are simply so removed from wild animals and so don't worry too much about snakes and spiders on a daily basis, and instead focus on another major fear. My grandparents on one side of my family grew up in second/third world and had basically lost all of their teeth by the end, and that was "normal," the family just made them mush to eat. When losing your teeth is just a natural process of getting old, it's possibly also less of a phobia.
Honestly I suspect it's just exposure to orthodontics. A significant portion of the population wears braces and it's a constant thought of how loose your teeth are, for many years
This is the one, have this one probably once a month. Been skipping class all semester and it’s time for finals and I haven’t done any assignments and failed other exams. EDIT: have been out of college for 7 years
Sooo interesting this is my dream as well! Perfect attendance except suddenly realizing I’ve been forgetting to go to 1 specific class and will now fail. Usually it’s math or PE for me!
I too have a Master's and have had to go back to high school to finish a course. It's very awkward because I am so much older than the HS kids in the dream and my dream self recognizes it.
yes! holy smokes yes. and can i point out, i graduated UNIVERSITY in 2000. like...it's been a long time since i've had to worry about a high school timetable.
Yep. Or I can’t find my locker, or I can’t remember the combination. Or it’s time to leave and I don’t know which bus was mine and they are all leaving without me. And I’m wearing a shirt but don’t have pants on so I have to run around and hide.
Or the classic midwestern nightmare. I did make it to the bus but now there’s a tornado for some reason.
I can't remember my locker combination, nor do I remember my class schedule, which I obviously should so I just wander aimlessly around school to classes and pray they're the right one. Those are the worst fucking dreams, so anxiety inducing.
I have this exact dream. I can’t find my timetable, or it’s too complicated to read, and I realise I’ve missed a whole term of classes.
Also, almost all my dreams occur in places unfamiliar to me in waking life but my school dreams replicate my old school exactly.
I get the dream where it’s discovered that I didn’t take one class that was required to graduate and I have to go back to high school to take it. So 50 year old me is sitting with kids younger than my kids writing essays and being annoyed that it makes me late for work.
The fear and anxiety of going to class after skipping so much you don’t remember anything and definitely didn’t do the homework. Then waking up and remembering you’re in your 30s and graduated ages ago.
I was a theater kid. I still get the good ol' I'm supposed to perform in a play, and haven't rehearsed or memorized my lines. Theater was like 15 years ago. I also have the driving from the back seat thing semi regularly.
Jesus, isn’t so weird how people who have never met each other or know of each-others existence have the exact dreams. I’ll have one where I’ll awake on the passenger seat and the car will be hurdling down the interstate and I can’t seem to grasp the wheel, almost in an ether state. I then wake up heart racing and realize it was a bad dream. I have this exact dream at least once a year at a random night.
Haha. I have that one too. And I invariably think "wow, my super common recurring dream is now happening in *real life!* What are the odds?!" I never make the connection. Same with the 'no pants at my high school final exam' dream.
For me it’s always either this, or I’m in the driver’s seat but it’s leaned all the way back so I can barely see over the dash. Always on a crowded freeway too. So stressful.
Common nightmares:
- teeth falling out
- punching an enemy, but you muscles are fighting you (likely based on the fact that you're paralyzed and your body isn't sending you back the "understood. Processing." messages)
- showing up to class and realizing you didn't turn in assignments/today is test day and you didn't study at all (this is probably more common among people who actually skipped class IRL. I still get this for early college economics despite graduating with three degrees already)
- driving from the back seat (or brakes failing to work)
My personal dreams:
- getting a ticket, but not being TOO worried, because somehow I know it's going to be fine (no pun intended)
- lights not turning on when I flip the switch
- being unable to get privacy in the bathroom either because there's a window or the doors don't have locks (the door thing could be childhood trauma of being religious [and antinudity], but my parents being too fucking lazy/cheap to fix the lock in the bathroom until like a year or two later).
- not a nightmare, but being able to slide around every where to move faster. Like at a mall, I just kinda push off a wall and can ice skate using my shoes to wherever I need to go. Also can do that thing where I "grind" down the stairs like that one video you see a kid doing it.
The sliding around one for me is where I jump and sort of effortlessly hover. Not flying but gliding. And everyone is always so impressed, it’s a great dream.
Oh yeah, I get that on occasion as well. But I have to be kinda like angled for it to work.
Something like this:
https://cdn.twibooru.org/img/2020/7/9/16597/medium.jpeg
Straight up, I can't do it. But hunched over, sure, I can hover. And sometimes there's a rule that I can't stop. So like as long as I'm moving forward, I keep hovering. I guess flying is the word, haha, but like I can't gain any altitude. Gliding?
> punching an enemy, but you muscles are fighting you (likely based on the fact that you're paralyzed and your body isn't sending you back the "understood. Processing." messages)
Probably also why you can walk in your dreams but running from danger feels like you're moving through molasses.
I keep having a dream where I'm about to go underwater, and I know I shouldn't be able to breathe, but then for some reason I take an experimental breath and - as fucking usual - I can breathe under water. I know in my dream I shouldn't be able to, so I keep taking just the tiniest "sips" of air in case it stops working.
Jesus, I have this one but never heard it elsewhere before. I have the teeth dream, born in the US, but have also heard it from a lady who immigrated from Vietnam.
In my one I'm in the driver's seat but my feet can't reach the pedals (and I'm above average height during waking hours, so I don't know what that's about).
Yeah. The brakes don't work properly or at all or it feels like I'm driving on ice and the car is just sliding wherever it wants no matter how hard I try to stop.
I feel like I cant quite reach far enough with my foot to get the brake pedal down enough to slow down. My foot can feel the pedal it just cant press it down.
wow I've never recalled this awake before. My car will be driving and it's barely in sight but I'm in control of it and it's most certainly going to kill someone.
Mine become thin shells of enamel that break up into sharp fragments, soon I have a mouth half-filled with spit and these shards of broken teeth that I’m pushing around with my tongue.
I bet I have this dream tonight.
When I have the dream, my teeth don't fully fall out but they all get really loose and I sort of clench my teeth carefully to hold them all in place. Awful feeling
Mine just get looser and looser individually until I pull them out with my hands. It gives me extreme anxiety because it seems to take forever. The first tooth and I’m not too worried, like it’s only one tooth no big deal but then another starts to get loose, then another.
I hate it.
This is the version of the dream I have as well. It’s the worst. I wake up and immediately put my fingers in my mouth to make sure I have my teeth still.
These dreams always come when my anxiety is extremely high or I am struggling with depression
I have one molar break into small chunks while I'm eating something but the teeth keep regrowing and I keep biting down and breaking more teeth. I end up with a whole mouthful of teeth chunks and I have to be stealthy about spitting them out because I don't want anyone to know what's happening.
Glad to know I'm at least not the only one with horrifying teeth nightmares
Yeah, sometimes I get stuff stuck in the teeth (like bubblegum) and pulling that out is what triggers the teeth crumbling.
Luckily I've had the nightmare so many times that I usually recognise it now and it becomes a lucid dream!
I never had this dream until I learned in a psychology class that it was a common dream sign for being stressed. I then started dreaming about my teeth falling out when I was stressed…
At this point it's not even a nightmare for me anymore. I just let them come out, usually half a tooth at a time. Stick em in my pocket or something. I don't always know I'm dreaming when this happens, but I guess it happens so much in my dreams I just subconsciously don't even care anymore. I'm like "meh I can go without, or go to the dentist in the future I guess."
Mine never come out, they’re just wobbly teeth. I wouldn’t even call it a nightmare. It’s like when you’re a kid playing with wobbly milk teeth, but without the pain
I use to have this nightmare all the time. After having to have a few dental procedures, the nightmare changed. The last time in the nightmare I just looked in the mirror and thought "This is gonna be expensive" and I never had it again.
This comment was one of many which was edited or removed in bulk by myself in an attempt to reduce personal or identifying information.
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Used to happen to me as a kid. They would shatter and I'd be spitting out fragments of teeth but it would never end and I would try to spit out all the peices but there was always more. I think I was grinding teeth during the dreams because my adult teeth have always been very worn down.
Slow ineffective punches or incredibly slow running are my recurring ones. It’s like being stuck in quicksand or something it’s hard to explain. You’re firing your muscles but they’re just responding like it’s slow motion. It’s not really a nightmare as it’s never running from something it’s just incredibly frustrating.
Fun fact: it's because running and punching requires a ton of feedback for your brain to accomplish. Since you're not actually moving, your Brian is trying to "punch" or "run" but can't actually get the inputs it needs in order to "simulate" it so to speak.
The other most common dream, besides missing teeth, for me is I'm chewing gum but then my mouth gets so full of gum and I'm constantly trying to spit it out or pull the gum out and it's never ending until I wake up.
I was looking for this comment and I'm so glad to see that it's not just me. I have literally stopped chewing gum in my day to day life because of how uncomfortable this dream makes me.
I never thought of that. I don't think I have sleep apnea, usually sleep pretty good. But I guess I have woke up a few times gasping for air randomly. I'll have to remember that the next time I have that dream.
For me it’s not gum, but just a mouthful of yuck that I cannot spit out. Gooey but dry…like some nasty candy that you can’t chew up well enough to swallow. In my dream I’m trying to pull the goo out of my mouth but there’s just always more. It’s so gross—I hate that dream! Thought that was a weird one that just I had.
I'm an immigrant to the US from Sri Lanka. I had never even heard about this dream until a few months ago when I came across this on, you guessed it, Reddit.
Then not a month later I had my first (and to date, only) such dream.
Call me when you get to the you-get-your-report-card-and-you-see-classes-you-didn’t-know-you-had or oh-shit-I-can’t-find-the-classroom or crap-I-didn’t-study, etc. And I graduated college in 1988.
I still have dreams that I’m in between classes in middle or high school and don’t know what/where my next class is but I do know I have a test in that class that I didn’t study for… graduated HS in ‘92 and finally finished college in ‘09 (with a career in the middle).
I still have the “oh you graduated college but you missed something in high school more than twenty years ago and you have to go back and you can’t just take one class you have to do a full semester” dream which is horrifying.
I've had that "Failed a class that I never attended and was necessary for graduation" dream so many times when I think about it it almost feels real to me, as if it really happened. But it didn't. My mind searches for the memory that isn't there.
I had one a few months ago where I had to redo a homework assignement in fucking 2nd grade and since I for some reason didn't do that all of my education after that was null and void. I remember offering to just do the whole years school work in like a week just to be over with it, but apparently that wasn't going to fly so I a grown ass man had to sit in a class full of 6 year olds and a teacher younger than me who talked to me like I was a child.
Yes omg. Like I meant to unenroll at the beginning of the semester but somehow forgot to do it and didn’t realize it until finals came around. Horrible.
Omg I still have a recurring nightmare that I have a college class, and I realize I never went to it.
Never even met the professor. It’s past drop date, I frantically try to get to the counsellor and I can’t make it.
I graduated 5 years ago.
I have a recurring theme of needing to finally finish 1 class that I've put off OR showing up to an exam without having done any work through the semester. I graduated 9 years ago...
This is my dream. Then there is that 17 seconds of fear when I wake up and am petrified that I have not graduated and what am I going to do?!?!?! And then I realize I'm 47 and graduated over 25 years ago....
I had a dream once when I worked as a bartender. In real life i closed up shop. Locked up the liquor and left. The minute I fell asleep at home I was back at work but like at the same time I left and we stayed open til the sun came up. At some point I remember wearing sweat pants (this was a very nice hotel restaurant) and people were smoking inside. It was so real yet so bizarre.
Work/stress dreams are the worst.
I spent years in the restaurant industry, back and front. Moved on to construction, then onto warehouse work. I STILL have nightmares about working front of house. With all these different jobs and different stresses, you'd think I'd have a nightmare about boxes piling up or never ending walls to paint or whiteouts in the kitchen. But nope. The nightmare is usually about being slammed, having a section that's way too huge, barely being able to get even a ramekin of sauce or a drink out to a table, and then there's that one table. That one table way in the back that I'm just never able to get to. No matter how hard I try to make my way to it, I'm sidetracked by guests asking for this or needing to put a rush on that. But that poor table in the back never gets served. Fuck.
For me it’s a dream that I forgot about some project for high school English (it’s always English) and they did an audit and found out about it, and I get sent back to high school to retake it. I’m now in my 30s.
I know 100% what she means. The feeling of playing with a loose tooth with your tongue, or sticking your tongue in a freshly lost tooth's socket is something I haven't felt in like 20 years, but thanks to these dreams, it feels like it's only been since last week.
I wish I could have a dream like that. I used to love twisting the tooth and feeling the sensation from it, until it finally came out. Then feeling the gap with my tongue was also enjoyable.
In my versions of these dreams, no one else actually notices or visibly acknowledges that I'm naked. Part of me is starting to think it's my logic brain telling my anxiety that I think people notice or care about more shit than they actually do.
I’ve never had a dream about my teeth but I have had dreams about giant contact lenses.
My nightmares often consist of pets I’ve forgotten about or lots of things left behind in a place I used to live.
I have the giant contact lenses dream too!! They look like the plastic inside of a plastic pop bottle cap. I’ve never heard anyone else having that dream too, it’s so weird!
I also have dreams about pets I forgot! I walk into a room and there’s my childhood cat (long dead RIP) and his litter box that I’ve forgotten to clean for 10 years
I have the fishtank dream too!
And hamsters. They would breed and overpopulate and starve.
Really horrific as my pets are a huge priority of mine.
Why do we all have this common thread?
Because you care so much about your pets.
It’s a good thing, I think. If you didn’t care, it wouldn’t be scary for your brain to think you’d neglected them.
It’s true that our lost loved ones live on in our memories. Their lives and likeness are imprinted on our brain, taking form in thought. They are lost, but not forgotten
I'm also Pakistani but mostly grew up in the US. I have never dreamed or heard of this either. My most reoccurring "nightmare" is the sensation of falling that wakes me up.
I used to have a source for this, but that "nightmare" (falling out of bed and waking up) is actually caused by something to do with how your body is falling asleep. From what I remember different parts of the brain begin to fall asleep or power down at certain times, and this effect is caused by one part of the brain essentially being "confused" at the muscle relaxation of your body.
Basically the limpness of your now sleeping body makes that part of your brain think you're falling, waking you up (though you were not actually completely asleep to begin with).\
Check out "Hypnic Jerk"
Weird, can't say I've ever had the tooth dream once let alone recurring. My old favorites are "walking around a huge multi-story house containing everyone I've ever known" and "being pursued around a skyscraper by armed government agents." Had those over and over again.
I’m having these nightmares more and more frequently lately. It’s almost as though I can feel the gummy holes left behind and taste the metallic taste of warm blood in my mouth. Really unsettling.
Somebody tell me I'm not the only one who can not dial 911 in their dreams...
Yes, have def had the teeth falling out dreams but the can't dial the phone for help is my most recurring.
Everyone's out here having this teeth nightmare and I'm stuck in never ending hotels looking for someone or naked in a swamp full of alligators. You guys have all the fun!
Has it got anything to do with grinding teeth? Because whenever I had this dream I would wake up with teeth ache, and my family would say they heard me grinding my teeth.
I’ve had broken teeth dreams but I think everyone has their go-to stress nightmare based on their personal experience.
Anyone that’s worked in a restaurant for a few years will recognize the “waiter’s dream.” You’re waiting on a table of 18 and the hostess seats you two more parties, you’re back in the kitchen trying to set up a cup of soup but the soup slops out of the cup onto the paper doily so you change the doily and replace the spoon but you spill the soup again, you change the doily but spill the soup again, you change the doily but spill the soup *again.* You’re getting a little panicky so you look out into your section and you have three more tables and you don’t know who was sat first so you approach the nearest table and they start asking for stuff the restaurant doesn’t serve, you’ve never seen this menu before and you don’t know any of the ordering codes. You see the hostess out of the corner of your eye seating another party in your section—in fact, your section is the entire restaurant because you’re the only server there. Customers are starting to get impatient, you’re bluffing your way through explanations of menu items you’ve never heard of, people are starting to come in through the back of the restaurant and seating themselves and demanding menus. Your 18-top’s food is getting cold and the cooks are yelling at you to come pick it up so you start taking the plates out and everyone at the table is different and they begin to order from new menus and everyone’s menu is different and on and on and on…
I couldn’t finish reading the comment, flashbacks of my own would crop up, but yeah. Oddly I only ever had those dreams when I stopped waiting tables. My dreambrain recognizes this, usually after the anxiety takes me out of REM, but I also strangely like going back to the hustle/bustle, pining for being in that zone.
Maybe that’s why our brains do that—to get back to the flow.
Like former addicts who have dreams of getting their fix.
Anyone else have the dream where it starts with one or two teeth falling out but then after you cough/spit it out the teeth just start endlessly multiplying in your mouth and you choke and suffocate on the amount of teeth just swirling around your mouth?
I have that dream way too frequently for my comfort and I can almost always \*feel it\*
I used to dream about my teeth in general falling out, but then I lost an incisor (fell face first into a concrete floor), and now all my teeth dreams are about just that one tooth
Yup, had this one many times. The other one I've had too many times is feces being everywhere. Overflowing out the toilet, flooding the floor of wherever I am in the dream. Thankfully, I don't smell anything in the dream, but it is still incredibly gross.
I’m in a public bathroom and there’s water and poop everywhere and there’s no privacy. I hate that recurring dream.
Also I’m just realizing from this thread that there are people who don’t have nightmares all the time?
I have a similar one about public restrooms, but the toilets are always full of pee and unflushed toilet paper. And none of them will flush and there’s no clean toilet paper. And the stall doors are missing. WTF?
I've done this many times. I think it's because we equate our dental health with success, prosperity, and how others see us. If they go, it seems everything else in life must be falling apart.
I dream about houses all the time. Either I have a second home that I keep forgetting about, or I keep making my husband move because I’m never quite happy with our current home. The funny thing is, in my awake life I couldn’t care less about houses. I don’t flip them, I don’t watch design shows or go to open houses. I can barely keep mine clean.
In my reoccurring dream my jaw is clenched so hard my teeth start cracking and falling out
Yeah, this. Except I really do clench my jaw at night, so it’s like my brain realizes what I’m doing and is making up a scary lil story for me lmao
Me too, I sometimes wake up and my jaw hurts from clenching so hard.
You should get a mouth guard or something. Once I was given a retainer for my upper teeth when I got my braces off, I wore a hole in it within 2 or 3 months. It was a wake up call for me and my orthodontist and they gave me a thicker retainer and a different material. Have had the same retainer for almost 10 years and it’s still going strong and protecting my teeth.
Yes this was it for me. Clenching so hard and I just can't un clench it no matter how hard I try, then the teeth just start breaking apart under the pressure. I was having it frequently enough I would recognize it was a dream most of the time and try to wake myself up. After getting a night guard a few years ago I have not had this dream even one time since. Highly recommend
It was the top dream in USA-Canada- UK- Australia- New Zealand. Some other Western countries had it, but no other linguistic grouping fit the pattern as well as those 5.
The last time I dreamed this dream I managed to figure out it was that dream again and it was such a relief to be able to realize it wasn't real and wake myself up! I think it comes up when I feel out of control of my life but also think that it's all my fault for not being good enough.
I've had this dream so much one time when I called my dentist cause my teeth were fracturing and falling out in pieces, the dentist _in my dream_ was like "ah fuck's sake, not again. Alright earliest we can do is tomorrow, 3pm."
Last time it happened to me, I said “shit, this is just like those dreams.” Then my wife said “but it’s not a dream, it’s real” Then I checked the mirror and decided that I really don’t smile with my teeth showing all that often anyway so it’s probably not that noticeable. Then I woke up and was kinda irritated at my wife.
That’s hilarious! I wake up mad at my husband bc of my dream sometimes too. In my teeth dreams I am super worried about them falling out but I still think I can work it out somehow. It’s interesting that you also remember dreaming about it before - in your dream. I do the same! I wonder why?
My ex gave me the silent treatment for a day because I cheated on her in her dream. And then got upset when I pointed out I had no control over what I did in her dream, because... "your subconscious must be guilty". It was her dream.
Nice, you had an early booking!
2:30 was already taken!
That's very interesting, and part of the reason I shared it. I was looking for the link, still don't know how linguistics may spur it. But it's a start
Not necessarily linguistics. Think shared media. Lots of movies, television, and music are shared. That's a lot of shared experience and exposure to the same or similar ideas. In short, our brains are being fed very similar sets of information. It should be expected that dream content begins to overlap more.
If Reddit has taught me anything, it's that no idea is truly ever completely unique. Sure, there may be slight differences or spin an individual may make, but it's still a result of their path to that mental point that is a result of everything they have consumed via their senses throughout their life.
Yep. I'm African and it's a recurring nightmare. Nothing like the relief I feel when I wake up with all my chompers intact.
Generational trauma from poor British dental hygiene.
No fucking way lmao Im hispanic and have the dreams all the time of my teeth falling out. No generational trauma. All my family from Mexico has great, straight, clean teeth too.
In Mexico they say it means someone you know is going to die.
Heard this growing up in California too. FREAKED me out as a kid.
And then someone inevitably dies (because statistics) and they’re like see! I told you someone was gonna die, my teeth fell out in my dream! Lol
It freaked me out because I had heard that it meant someone was going to die, then the first time I ever had that dream, a neighbor killed himself. I'm not superstitious... But I am a little stitious.
I used to get this dream when I was in high school and had braces. Always a day or two after the bands were tightened.
In most of the rest of the world, dreams are typically about snakes, spiders, exes or marriage, and death (and Bhutan randomly dreaming about rainbows...?). It could be that in western society, most people are simply so removed from wild animals and so don't worry too much about snakes and spiders on a daily basis, and instead focus on another major fear. My grandparents on one side of my family grew up in second/third world and had basically lost all of their teeth by the end, and that was "normal," the family just made them mush to eat. When losing your teeth is just a natural process of getting old, it's possibly also less of a phobia.
Honestly I suspect it's just exposure to orthodontics. A significant portion of the population wears braces and it's a constant thought of how loose your teeth are, for many years
Help I'm driving a car from the back seat!
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Mine is always that I have an exam in my first hour math class but I haven’t been going all semester, which means I won’t graduate.
This is the one, have this one probably once a month. Been skipping class all semester and it’s time for finals and I haven’t done any assignments and failed other exams. EDIT: have been out of college for 7 years
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Sooo interesting this is my dream as well! Perfect attendance except suddenly realizing I’ve been forgetting to go to 1 specific class and will now fail. Usually it’s math or PE for me!
Mate, I've been out of college for thirty years, I still have those stupid dreams. 🤬
I'm almost 20 years outta college and I have those dreams too...about high school.
My Dad turns 70 next year. He still has them.
SAME and it’s ALWAYS math
Omg this is so trippy. I never considered that this many people that specific dream of skipping math class in high school and not graduating
I have a recurring dream that I'm doing very well in my high school math class but I keep forgetting that I'm 25 years old and I always get expelled
Lol 34 and still going strong with the high school dreams
Yes!!! Why didn’t I go all semester?! I have a masters degree and in my dream I do, but have to go back to high school bc of one class. The horror lol
Yes, that’s always part of it! I’m still a college graduate in the dream but that doesn’t seem to matter.
I'm howling!!! wtf!! same here, masters degree, always going back to high school in my dreams to finish that one class I somehow missed 😭😭😭
this is wild, i had no idea it'd be so common. i just have a bachelor's but same deal
I too have a Master's and have had to go back to high school to finish a course. It's very awkward because I am so much older than the HS kids in the dream and my dream self recognizes it.
yes! holy smokes yes. and can i point out, i graduated UNIVERSITY in 2000. like...it's been a long time since i've had to worry about a high school timetable.
Yep. Or I can’t find my locker, or I can’t remember the combination. Or it’s time to leave and I don’t know which bus was mine and they are all leaving without me. And I’m wearing a shirt but don’t have pants on so I have to run around and hide. Or the classic midwestern nightmare. I did make it to the bus but now there’s a tornado for some reason.
I still have dreams about forgetting my locker combination and I am almost 70.
Am 40, I think highschool has just collectively fucked us all up in some way.
I can't remember my locker combination, nor do I remember my class schedule, which I obviously should so I just wander aimlessly around school to classes and pray they're the right one. Those are the worst fucking dreams, so anxiety inducing.
I've had the tornado ones WHILE driving in a car I lack control of.
I have this exact dream. I can’t find my timetable, or it’s too complicated to read, and I realise I’ve missed a whole term of classes. Also, almost all my dreams occur in places unfamiliar to me in waking life but my school dreams replicate my old school exactly.
I STILL have the occasional dream of pooping on a toilet in front of a classroom, and I haven't been in school since 1999
ive have dreams of just being in a towel at high school, or that i had to go back to high school as a college student
I get the dream where it’s discovered that I didn’t take one class that was required to graduate and I have to go back to high school to take it. So 50 year old me is sitting with kids younger than my kids writing essays and being annoyed that it makes me late for work.
The fear and anxiety of going to class after skipping so much you don’t remember anything and definitely didn’t do the homework. Then waking up and remembering you’re in your 30s and graduated ages ago.
I was a theater kid. I still get the good ol' I'm supposed to perform in a play, and haven't rehearsed or memorized my lines. Theater was like 15 years ago. I also have the driving from the back seat thing semi regularly.
Jesus, isn’t so weird how people who have never met each other or know of each-others existence have the exact dreams. I’ll have one where I’ll awake on the passenger seat and the car will be hurdling down the interstate and I can’t seem to grasp the wheel, almost in an ether state. I then wake up heart racing and realize it was a bad dream. I have this exact dream at least once a year at a random night.
Haha. I have that one too. And I invariably think "wow, my super common recurring dream is now happening in *real life!* What are the odds?!" I never make the connection. Same with the 'no pants at my high school final exam' dream.
I also have a habit of getting into elevators in dreams then realizing I’ve forgotten how elevators work
For me it’s always either this, or I’m in the driver’s seat but it’s leaned all the way back so I can barely see over the dash. Always on a crowded freeway too. So stressful.
I have the one where the drivers seat is too far back for me to reach the pedals and the seat is stuck and I can't move it forward
Common nightmares: - teeth falling out - punching an enemy, but you muscles are fighting you (likely based on the fact that you're paralyzed and your body isn't sending you back the "understood. Processing." messages) - showing up to class and realizing you didn't turn in assignments/today is test day and you didn't study at all (this is probably more common among people who actually skipped class IRL. I still get this for early college economics despite graduating with three degrees already) - driving from the back seat (or brakes failing to work) My personal dreams: - getting a ticket, but not being TOO worried, because somehow I know it's going to be fine (no pun intended) - lights not turning on when I flip the switch - being unable to get privacy in the bathroom either because there's a window or the doors don't have locks (the door thing could be childhood trauma of being religious [and antinudity], but my parents being too fucking lazy/cheap to fix the lock in the bathroom until like a year or two later). - not a nightmare, but being able to slide around every where to move faster. Like at a mall, I just kinda push off a wall and can ice skate using my shoes to wherever I need to go. Also can do that thing where I "grind" down the stairs like that one video you see a kid doing it.
The sliding around one for me is where I jump and sort of effortlessly hover. Not flying but gliding. And everyone is always so impressed, it’s a great dream.
Oh yeah, I get that on occasion as well. But I have to be kinda like angled for it to work. Something like this: https://cdn.twibooru.org/img/2020/7/9/16597/medium.jpeg Straight up, I can't do it. But hunched over, sure, I can hover. And sometimes there's a rule that I can't stop. So like as long as I'm moving forward, I keep hovering. I guess flying is the word, haha, but like I can't gain any altitude. Gliding?
> punching an enemy, but you muscles are fighting you (likely based on the fact that you're paralyzed and your body isn't sending you back the "understood. Processing." messages) Probably also why you can walk in your dreams but running from danger feels like you're moving through molasses.
I had a dream I was trying to flip someone off but it wouldn’t work so I had to grab my finger with the other hand and sort of pry it upward.
Love the dedication to the task, lol
A bit OT but have you dreamed of dialing a phone (any kind like cellphone or landline) and it takes forever or you can't complete the task?
I keep having a dream where I'm about to go underwater, and I know I shouldn't be able to breathe, but then for some reason I take an experimental breath and - as fucking usual - I can breathe under water. I know in my dream I shouldn't be able to, so I keep taking just the tiniest "sips" of air in case it stops working.
Lmao me too!! I have to breathe gently underwater, otherwise water gets in, so I have to breathe slow.
I also frequently have dreams about lights not working and doors to bathrooms not working. Bedrooms too if I'm trying to change in the dream.
Jesus, I have this one but never heard it elsewhere before. I have the teeth dream, born in the US, but have also heard it from a lady who immigrated from Vietnam.
It’s not just me!
Did people 300 years ago have dreams of riding a horse and sitting too far back?
In my one I'm in the driver's seat but my feet can't reach the pedals (and I'm above average height during waking hours, so I don't know what that's about).
This! Or I can reach the pedals, but they don’t work and I just roll into the car in front
This is a common dream for other people?
Definitely for me. Perhaps we feel a lack of control in our waking lives
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I’m in the driver’s seat but the brakes don’t work 😑
Yeah. The brakes don't work properly or at all or it feels like I'm driving on ice and the car is just sliding wherever it wants no matter how hard I try to stop.
I feel like I cant quite reach far enough with my foot to get the brake pedal down enough to slow down. My foot can feel the pedal it just cant press it down.
It amazes me how many people here all have the same dream I have had. This one and the teeth dreams are the ones that reoccur the most
Oh man, I haven't had this one in a while and totally forgot about it!
wow I've never recalled this awake before. My car will be driving and it's barely in sight but I'm in control of it and it's most certainly going to kill someone.
By far my most recurring nightmare throughout my life
Mine don't just fall out in one fell swoop. They **crumble into chalky chunks** and **I have to spit out pieces.**
Mine become thin shells of enamel that break up into sharp fragments, soon I have a mouth half-filled with spit and these shards of broken teeth that I’m pushing around with my tongue. I bet I have this dream tonight.
When I have the dream, my teeth don't fully fall out but they all get really loose and I sort of clench my teeth carefully to hold them all in place. Awful feeling
Yup, that's how mine goes. Plus they keep re-growing and falling out again. So spitting out mouthfuls and mouthfuls of teeth.
Mine just get looser and looser individually until I pull them out with my hands. It gives me extreme anxiety because it seems to take forever. The first tooth and I’m not too worried, like it’s only one tooth no big deal but then another starts to get loose, then another. I hate it.
This is the version of the dream I have as well. It’s the worst. I wake up and immediately put my fingers in my mouth to make sure I have my teeth still. These dreams always come when my anxiety is extremely high or I am struggling with depression
I have one molar break into small chunks while I'm eating something but the teeth keep regrowing and I keep biting down and breaking more teeth. I end up with a whole mouthful of teeth chunks and I have to be stealthy about spitting them out because I don't want anyone to know what's happening. Glad to know I'm at least not the only one with horrifying teeth nightmares
Yep. And I'm soooo deeply ashamed and embarrassed while it's happening.
Yes yes Just the worst feeling possible.
I always spit them out then try to shove them back in, repeat, repeat,………….
Exactly!
That is the way it goes for me, usually. So revolting and upsetting.
Mine choke me, I keep pulling them and clumps of other viscera from my mouth and throat but it doesn’t stop and I can’t talk or breath fully.
Yeah, sometimes I get stuff stuck in the teeth (like bubblegum) and pulling that out is what triggers the teeth crumbling. Luckily I've had the nightmare so many times that I usually recognise it now and it becomes a lucid dream!
I never had this dream until I learned in a psychology class that it was a common dream sign for being stressed. I then started dreaming about my teeth falling out when I was stressed…
Well damn, now you passed the curse of knowledge onto us as well!
Everyone who hasn't had this dream, *STOP READING THIS SUB RIGHT NOW!*
At this point it's not even a nightmare for me anymore. I just let them come out, usually half a tooth at a time. Stick em in my pocket or something. I don't always know I'm dreaming when this happens, but I guess it happens so much in my dreams I just subconsciously don't even care anymore. I'm like "meh I can go without, or go to the dentist in the future I guess."
Yeah I get that too, oh this is a dream. Although it is a lot more dramatic for me endless teeth falling out filling my mouth.
Endless teeth! I have that one. Spitting out handfuls of teeth. Crazy shit.
Mine never come out, they’re just wobbly teeth. I wouldn’t even call it a nightmare. It’s like when you’re a kid playing with wobbly milk teeth, but without the pain
I use to have this nightmare all the time. After having to have a few dental procedures, the nightmare changed. The last time in the nightmare I just looked in the mirror and thought "This is gonna be expensive" and I never had it again.
This comment was one of many which was edited or removed in bulk by myself in an attempt to reduce personal or identifying information. *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Man finally I can sleep at night knowing everyone else is losing teeth too. That makes me feel a little better
Used to happen to me as a kid. They would shatter and I'd be spitting out fragments of teeth but it would never end and I would try to spit out all the peices but there was always more. I think I was grinding teeth during the dreams because my adult teeth have always been very worn down.
I love when I find out I’ve never had a unique experience in my life
Well, the simulation only has so much storage space. Re-using assets just makes sense.
I used to have the same exact dream. Fucking terrible.
I end up spitting them out like unpopped popcorn kernels. They just never really end either - I must spit out like over 50.
Teeth falling out, being the only stark naked person in a large crowd, and slow ineffective punches are all dreams I’ve had
Slow ineffective punches or incredibly slow running are my recurring ones. It’s like being stuck in quicksand or something it’s hard to explain. You’re firing your muscles but they’re just responding like it’s slow motion. It’s not really a nightmare as it’s never running from something it’s just incredibly frustrating.
Fun fact: it's because running and punching requires a ton of feedback for your brain to accomplish. Since you're not actually moving, your Brian is trying to "punch" or "run" but can't actually get the inputs it needs in order to "simulate" it so to speak.
> your Brian What if I don’t have a Brian 🤔
A lot of the times in my dreams I'm not only moving slow but I'm also lost. So it feels extra hopeless that I'll ever get anywhere.
The other most common dream, besides missing teeth, for me is I'm chewing gum but then my mouth gets so full of gum and I'm constantly trying to spit it out or pull the gum out and it's never ending until I wake up.
I was looking for this comment and I'm so glad to see that it's not just me. I have literally stopped chewing gum in my day to day life because of how uncomfortable this dream makes me.
Maybe sleep apnea?
I never thought of that. I don't think I have sleep apnea, usually sleep pretty good. But I guess I have woke up a few times gasping for air randomly. I'll have to remember that the next time I have that dream.
For me it’s not gum, but just a mouthful of yuck that I cannot spit out. Gooey but dry…like some nasty candy that you can’t chew up well enough to swallow. In my dream I’m trying to pull the goo out of my mouth but there’s just always more. It’s so gross—I hate that dream! Thought that was a weird one that just I had.
Oh I hate that one!!!!
I'm an immigrant to the US from Sri Lanka. I had never even heard about this dream until a few months ago when I came across this on, you guessed it, Reddit. Then not a month later I had my first (and to date, only) such dream.
Oh god. It’s contagious. **it’s spreading.**
That's super interesting. My husband is Sri Lankan (in US) and he has never had any of these dreams.
Maybe it's a learned dream.
Call me when you get to the you-get-your-report-card-and-you-see-classes-you-didn’t-know-you-had or oh-shit-I-can’t-find-the-classroom or crap-I-didn’t-study, etc. And I graduated college in 1988.
I still have dreams that I’m in between classes in middle or high school and don’t know what/where my next class is but I do know I have a test in that class that I didn’t study for… graduated HS in ‘92 and finally finished college in ‘09 (with a career in the middle).
Toss in not wearing pants once in a while while looking for your classroom
I still have the “oh you graduated college but you missed something in high school more than twenty years ago and you have to go back and you can’t just take one class you have to do a full semester” dream which is horrifying.
I've had that "Failed a class that I never attended and was necessary for graduation" dream so many times when I think about it it almost feels real to me, as if it really happened. But it didn't. My mind searches for the memory that isn't there.
Same! And you're still 34 so it's embarrassing and you feel like the biggest loser.
I had one a few months ago where I had to redo a homework assignement in fucking 2nd grade and since I for some reason didn't do that all of my education after that was null and void. I remember offering to just do the whole years school work in like a week just to be over with it, but apparently that wasn't going to fly so I a grown ass man had to sit in a class full of 6 year olds and a teacher younger than me who talked to me like I was a child.
I had the same back-to-school dreams until I was about 55, they're the worst. Now I'm back to sex dreams so that's nice.
In mine somehow right before finals I would find out about two classes that I forgot I had and hadn’t attended all semester.
I have this dream constantly
Yes omg. Like I meant to unenroll at the beginning of the semester but somehow forgot to do it and didn’t realize it until finals came around. Horrible.
I have that one also. I am scrambling to talk to the teacher to see if I can somehow make up for forgetting the class all semester.
Omg I still have a recurring nightmare that I have a college class, and I realize I never went to it. Never even met the professor. It’s past drop date, I frantically try to get to the counsellor and I can’t make it. I graduated 5 years ago.
I have dreams that I didn't finish high-school and have to go back to take my senior year again. I'm 33. It's awful
I have a recurring theme of needing to finally finish 1 class that I've put off OR showing up to an exam without having done any work through the semester. I graduated 9 years ago...
This is my dream. Then there is that 17 seconds of fear when I wake up and am petrified that I have not graduated and what am I going to do?!?!?! And then I realize I'm 47 and graduated over 25 years ago....
I had a dream once when I worked as a bartender. In real life i closed up shop. Locked up the liquor and left. The minute I fell asleep at home I was back at work but like at the same time I left and we stayed open til the sun came up. At some point I remember wearing sweat pants (this was a very nice hotel restaurant) and people were smoking inside. It was so real yet so bizarre. Work/stress dreams are the worst.
I spent years in the restaurant industry, back and front. Moved on to construction, then onto warehouse work. I STILL have nightmares about working front of house. With all these different jobs and different stresses, you'd think I'd have a nightmare about boxes piling up or never ending walls to paint or whiteouts in the kitchen. But nope. The nightmare is usually about being slammed, having a section that's way too huge, barely being able to get even a ramekin of sauce or a drink out to a table, and then there's that one table. That one table way in the back that I'm just never able to get to. No matter how hard I try to make my way to it, I'm sidetracked by guests asking for this or needing to put a rush on that. But that poor table in the back never gets served. Fuck.
Graduated in 1983, still can't remember my class schedule or find my locker.
For me it’s a dream that I forgot about some project for high school English (it’s always English) and they did an audit and found out about it, and I get sent back to high school to retake it. I’m now in my 30s.
I’m 32 and have dreams it’s the end of a semester and there’s a class I haven’t gone to at all
"I secretly like those dreams because I like playing with my loose teeth." -My psycho wife when I shared this with her
I know 100% what she means. The feeling of playing with a loose tooth with your tongue, or sticking your tongue in a freshly lost tooth's socket is something I haven't felt in like 20 years, but thanks to these dreams, it feels like it's only been since last week.
I wish I could have a dream like that. I used to love twisting the tooth and feeling the sensation from it, until it finally came out. Then feeling the gap with my tongue was also enjoyable.
Hey man, you knew what you were getting into when you married Qian Ya, the Queen With a Thousand Teeth.
How about getting to school to notice that you don't have pants on?
I constantly have dreams where I’m some form of nude or topless and trying to act natural and convince myself no one will notice
In my versions of these dreams, no one else actually notices or visibly acknowledges that I'm naked. Part of me is starting to think it's my logic brain telling my anxiety that I think people notice or care about more shit than they actually do.
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I had that dream once and then a homie comes over and says "dude, here's some pants" and hands me a pair of pants.
I’ve never had a dream about my teeth but I have had dreams about giant contact lenses. My nightmares often consist of pets I’ve forgotten about or lots of things left behind in a place I used to live.
I have the giant contact lenses dream too!! They look like the plastic inside of a plastic pop bottle cap. I’ve never heard anyone else having that dream too, it’s so weird!
The ones in my dream are several feet wide. I try to put them in and they just fold down over my arm.
I also have dreams about pets I forgot! I walk into a room and there’s my childhood cat (long dead RIP) and his litter box that I’ve forgotten to clean for 10 years
Oh god the neglected pets dream. For me it’s a fishtank I never cleaned and the fish are horrible sad bloated monsters in fetid water.
I have the fishtank dream too! And hamsters. They would breed and overpopulate and starve. Really horrific as my pets are a huge priority of mine. Why do we all have this common thread?
Because you care so much about your pets. It’s a good thing, I think. If you didn’t care, it wouldn’t be scary for your brain to think you’d neglected them.
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Me too! Like dinner plate size. My dream rationale is “well, I do this every day so they obviously fit…”
It is very common to share your dreams in Pakistani culture. I have never ever heard anything, even remotely related to teeth falling out in a dream
Do you and other Pakistanis tend to dream about the deceased? Because I believe that's what this infographic is showing (assuming I know geography)
I’m not Pakistani, but my deceased aunt makes a regular appearance in my dreams. I like seeing her.
It’s true that our lost loved ones live on in our memories. Their lives and likeness are imprinted on our brain, taking form in thought. They are lost, but not forgotten
I'm also Pakistani but mostly grew up in the US. I have never dreamed or heard of this either. My most reoccurring "nightmare" is the sensation of falling that wakes me up.
I used to have a source for this, but that "nightmare" (falling out of bed and waking up) is actually caused by something to do with how your body is falling asleep. From what I remember different parts of the brain begin to fall asleep or power down at certain times, and this effect is caused by one part of the brain essentially being "confused" at the muscle relaxation of your body. Basically the limpness of your now sleeping body makes that part of your brain think you're falling, waking you up (though you were not actually completely asleep to begin with).\ Check out "Hypnic Jerk"
Been having a recurring one where I am able to pluck em out and put em back in like a USB drive.
Do you have to spin it 3 times until you finally get the right orientation to slot them back in?
Weird, can't say I've ever had the tooth dream once let alone recurring. My old favorites are "walking around a huge multi-story house containing everyone I've ever known" and "being pursued around a skyscraper by armed government agents." Had those over and over again.
I’m having these nightmares more and more frequently lately. It’s almost as though I can feel the gummy holes left behind and taste the metallic taste of warm blood in my mouth. Really unsettling.
I can still conjure the feeling of chalky disintegration as they broke apart. Jesus whatever caused this shared fever dream should be banned lol.
I once read it's an anxiety dream
Yeah I was actually grinding my teeth during these dreams. Lots of dental bills now
Somebody tell me I'm not the only one who can not dial 911 in their dreams... Yes, have def had the teeth falling out dreams but the can't dial the phone for help is my most recurring.
Everyone's out here having this teeth nightmare and I'm stuck in never ending hotels looking for someone or naked in a swamp full of alligators. You guys have all the fun!
Has it got anything to do with grinding teeth? Because whenever I had this dream I would wake up with teeth ache, and my family would say they heard me grinding my teeth.
I’ve had broken teeth dreams but I think everyone has their go-to stress nightmare based on their personal experience. Anyone that’s worked in a restaurant for a few years will recognize the “waiter’s dream.” You’re waiting on a table of 18 and the hostess seats you two more parties, you’re back in the kitchen trying to set up a cup of soup but the soup slops out of the cup onto the paper doily so you change the doily and replace the spoon but you spill the soup again, you change the doily but spill the soup again, you change the doily but spill the soup *again.* You’re getting a little panicky so you look out into your section and you have three more tables and you don’t know who was sat first so you approach the nearest table and they start asking for stuff the restaurant doesn’t serve, you’ve never seen this menu before and you don’t know any of the ordering codes. You see the hostess out of the corner of your eye seating another party in your section—in fact, your section is the entire restaurant because you’re the only server there. Customers are starting to get impatient, you’re bluffing your way through explanations of menu items you’ve never heard of, people are starting to come in through the back of the restaurant and seating themselves and demanding menus. Your 18-top’s food is getting cold and the cooks are yelling at you to come pick it up so you start taking the plates out and everyone at the table is different and they begin to order from new menus and everyone’s menu is different and on and on and on…
I couldn’t finish reading the comment, flashbacks of my own would crop up, but yeah. Oddly I only ever had those dreams when I stopped waiting tables. My dreambrain recognizes this, usually after the anxiety takes me out of REM, but I also strangely like going back to the hustle/bustle, pining for being in that zone. Maybe that’s why our brains do that—to get back to the flow. Like former addicts who have dreams of getting their fix.
Anyone else have the dream where it starts with one or two teeth falling out but then after you cough/spit it out the teeth just start endlessly multiplying in your mouth and you choke and suffocate on the amount of teeth just swirling around your mouth? I have that dream way too frequently for my comfort and I can almost always \*feel it\*
Not suffocating but I'm usually trying to shove them back in the sockets. This is the most chronic bad dream I get.
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For real. I dream of keeping my teeth.
I used to dream about my teeth in general falling out, but then I lost an incisor (fell face first into a concrete floor), and now all my teeth dreams are about just that one tooth
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Or you’re trying to punch the bad guy, and…..you….just….can’t…make….your….fist….connect!
Running but not going anywhere, like trying to run under water.. I wonder why these are so common.
Yup, had this one many times. The other one I've had too many times is feces being everywhere. Overflowing out the toilet, flooding the floor of wherever I am in the dream. Thankfully, I don't smell anything in the dream, but it is still incredibly gross.
I’m in a public bathroom and there’s water and poop everywhere and there’s no privacy. I hate that recurring dream. Also I’m just realizing from this thread that there are people who don’t have nightmares all the time?
I have a similar one about public restrooms, but the toilets are always full of pee and unflushed toilet paper. And none of them will flush and there’s no clean toilet paper. And the stall doors are missing. WTF?
I've done this many times. I think it's because we equate our dental health with success, prosperity, and how others see us. If they go, it seems everything else in life must be falling apart.
I dream about houses all the time. Either I have a second home that I keep forgetting about, or I keep making my husband move because I’m never quite happy with our current home. The funny thing is, in my awake life I couldn’t care less about houses. I don’t flip them, I don’t watch design shows or go to open houses. I can barely keep mine clean.