Why do I keep dreaming about failing my Finals?

[Unfucked]

Sat my Finals over 20 years ago, got a low 2:1 but already had a graduate milk round job lined up so not too disappointed. I’m still ticking along fairly happily in that career, still happily married to my uni boyfriend, life was good before Covid and hopefully will be again.

Yet I have begun having a recurring nightmare at least once a month that I have failed my Finals, or have mixed up the exam timetable, or missed the bus to the exams. Always wake up heart racing, drenched in sweat, and then an overwhelming sense of relief.

What is my psyche trying to tell me please?

I sometimes get a teeth crumbling away dream which feels horrific at the time and leaves me clutching my mouth when I wake up. So that’s fun.

Haven’t had the exam one for a while but it does crop up now and again. Sometimes I discover I missed an essential exam and so am not actually qualified to do the job I’ve been doing for the last 20 odd years.

I used to dream I was at university doing some kind of extra year and/or returning after having a baby, with the baby, wondering how I was going to catch up with studies and look after the child - let alone house it in my college room

I used to have this one a lot.

Possibly about managing work and family life? It never occurred to me in my dream that there would be on on-site nursery...

Also get recurring dreams about history exams, not having done coursework, revision etc. Got a good history degree in 1984!

Slightly off script but not long after I’d had my first child I went away for a girls weekend in Center Parcs. I woke everyone up one night because I was sleep walking, looking under beds as I couldn’t find my baby.

I only have those dreams when Im pregnant!