Do you have any recurring nightmares? And if so do you think that they mean anything?

[NoLeafClover]

Mine seem to be on a constant rotation at the moment.

Number one. I'm back at school and about to sit down to an exam, realise that I'm utterly unprepared. Or it's the run up to a big exam and I'm trying to cram in two years worth of studying in a night.

Number two. I'm arguing with my family. Always back in my parents house, almost always a row with one of my siblings, and my Mum and Dad berating me and leaping to their defence. I guess the meaning behind that one is fairly obvious.

Three. I'm in a busy shop, restaurant, street, whatever. Somebody starts setting people in the crowd on fire. I usually wake up gasping for breath just as they get close to me.

Four. I'm in a lift, which either gets stuck between floors, or the doors open when the floor of the lift is about a foot below the floor I want to get out on to. Or the lift starts out on a high floor then plummets, and I wake up just before it hits the bottom. Oh and a recent one was that I was in a lift in a department store, it reached the floor I wanted to get to, but when I stepped out of the lift I was standing on a tiny ledge around the edge of the building and couldn't move.

I'm sleeping in one or two hour segments at the moment, and every time I wake up, I'm absolutely sweating after one of the above dreams. It's really getting to me.

Does anyone else have vivid, awful, recurring nightmares like this?

That fire one sounds particularly unnerving.

I do have a couple of regular nightmares, but not every night, and certainly not every one or two hours. Are you feeling anxious during the day too? (Apart from at the lack of quality sleep.) If you are, maybe try to tackle that. GP? If you're not, perhaps look at your sleep hygiene.

Oh I'm anxious all day, every day, relentlessly. I've been like that since I was a tiny child. I've talked to my GP about it, been diagnosed with anxiety and ocd, but I thought I had a handle on it. I'm guessing these dreams mean that I'm not as on top of it as I thought I was.

I'm sorry to hear that. Your nightmares may be a way of processing your anxiety, but what you describe does sound excessive and If your sleep is so interrupted, that can't be good. Talk to your GP again if it doesn't settle down.

Are you taking beta blockers? Or nicotine replacement? Or even just Nytol? All those gave me crazy nightmares.

When there's a lot going on in my life, I tend to have recurring dreams/nightmares. It took me well into my 20's to start working with them instead of freaking out (sometimes in advance) over nightmares. Because let's be honest, sleep is sacred and something messing that up, needs to be adressed. Either mentally or practically. (since you're afterwards drained by trying to pinpoint what the heck is wrong, you will end up feeling like your sleep isn't doing you any favours)

You could train your brain on dreaming and take it into another direction. You could try putting effort into lucid dreaming.

When you remember most aspects of dreams you recurrently have, a dream dictionary/explanation might be worth looking into.
Usually this gives people the reassurence they're not going insane (trust me I needed that!) and there are several things that can be explained through dreams, about what is lacking/worrying/not okay in real life.

What do you think you could do with your dreams? Or should do?

From what happens in your dreams, I seem to get the vibe that you hate being in a position where you don't control the outcome/cannot move into a better "place"/feel stuck. Does that relate to your personal real life, or is it just the opposite?

Also, how come you're only sleeping in blocks of 2 hours? Stress also could be a reason why you keep having the same dreams.

Just saw the anxiety post. Also, like a pp mentioned, beta blockers, nicotine patches or Champix pills to get off the cigarettes, migraine medications, heavy painkillers,... Can all add up to your dreams.