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Original poster

What's your top 3 recurring nightmares?

225 replies

ImSoMagical · 28/01/2022 14:25

So I had all 3 at once last night 🤣.
1 - I'm barefoot in a public toilet
2 - I'm swimming far out in the ocean terrified of fish and sharks
3 - a tiger and/or lion is in my house.
Think I'll go check up what that means......

OP posts:
Tomselleckhaskindeyes · 28/01/2022 19:27
  1. i've still got an assignment to do to get my degree (i graduated 26 years ago!!)
  2. My friends and i murdered somebody and the body had been found years later 😱
  3. My teeth are falling out
Fireworksatforty · 28/01/2022 19:28

I only have one and it's the same thing in different places/countries.

I'm always on the ground watching a plane crash. Sometimes it's nearby and sometimes I'm miles away watching it. It's always really vivid and freaks me out! Haven't had one for ages though.

ZittiEBuoni · 28/01/2022 19:28

inheritancetrack I too have that feeling that it must be some kind of buried memory for ages after waking up. It takes a long time to shake it off in the morning.

RavenclawsRoar · 28/01/2022 19:31
  1. Tsunami
  2. The ocean (in a menacing way - in a boat during a storm, swimming and a shark appears, drowning)
  3. Trying to get to my children but things keep happening eg car breaks down, I get lost, someone gives me a lift but they keep stopping to do other things and won't listen when I say I need to hurry.
millievanille · 28/01/2022 19:33

I live in a massive house and I'm aware one of the rooms is haunted so I never go in there, but I have to go in to tidy it up and I see the ghost. I always wake up screaming.
I'm at school and I know there's a lesson I never go to, but I have no idea what lesson it is or what room it's in. I feel really bad about it and seem to vow about ten times to start attending, but I never seem to make it
I also have the teeth falling out dream. They become loose and hang out and im trying to hold them in. Im always relieved when I wake up from that one!

inheritancetrack · 28/01/2022 19:42

@tinkywinkyshandbag and @ZittiEBuoni I'm so glad I'm not the only one! For years in the beginning I really really believed I had done this and suppressed the memory, and spent half the morning trying to work out who it could have been.

Asperula · 28/01/2022 19:49

Being at the top of an unwieldy, massive structure. Sky scraper height
Terminal illness
Being chased by the nazis

Asperula · 28/01/2022 19:53
  • Needing to desperately dial a number for some reason but hitting the wrong numbers and having to start all over again! 😫
I have that too
supermum87 · 28/01/2022 19:58

As others have said.

  1. Trying to dial 999 but keep choosing the wrong numbers on my phone.
  2. Being naked in public for a while then only at the end realising it's not appropriate Confused
  3. Being out somewhere, shopping etc and realising I've left my children (now aged 5 & 6) home alone
Trolltrotters · 28/01/2022 20:05
  1. my teeth falling out
  2. trying to dial a number and can get through
  3. sitting a GCSE exam (I have a phd which was fairly hellish so fuck knows why anxiety dream about GCSEs

Can I have a fourth?

Being new out of university without a job and living at my parents/having no money at all

McScreamysGhostPants · 28/01/2022 20:11

I have a recurrent dental dream. But it varies slightly. Sometimes my back teeth are loose and as I'm jiggling it I raise that my tether are attached on a pliable metal strip and are attached by heavy duty poppers. They come undone one by one and I have a twisty copper strip of teeth hanging out of my mouth as I am doing it. Or my wisdom teeth are loose and as I unpick them they are on string and it's meters long. The tooth is out but the string is firmly attached to my gums so I have to rest the teeth on my tongue while I find help. The other one is that my front teeth are cracked and as I wobble then my teeth splinter like match sticks and come out in really long slivers. I have to keep digging and it's a huge relief when they are all out and I'm bloody and gummy with a pile of tooth splinters on my palm.

Other recent dreams are driving to fast on country lanes and I lose control and have a fatal slow motion car crash. I feel my ribs popping and am paralysed while I die alone.

When I'm mentally unwell , or as a sign I'm slipping- I see feet under the gap of the door. Listening at the door, the weight shifting from foot to foot. I know his hand is resting on the door handle and the second it moves to open is when I wake up. I know It's pointless to try to sleep after that .

IHateCoronavirus · 28/01/2022 20:25
  1. that I’m trying to get to my children in a hurry but I’m lost in corridors and the stairs are convoluted, going up and down but never to the place I need to be. Sometimes they are uneven or broken and I feel unsteady and scared of falling, like a sense of vertigo.
  2. that I am swimming in a dark ocean/sea and I can see killer whales underneath me getting closer.
  3. that I am driving but for some reason cannot control the car as I normally would, either that I am trying to drive it from the back, or that I am powering it with my feet, or that the breaks don’t work or the road is narrow and flanked with water. It changes but it is always the car and always about lack of control.
IHateCoronavirus · 28/01/2022 20:27

Sometimes I have a dream where I can’t close/lock windows and doors. I am going from room to room trying to lock them in time, but there is someone ominous outside trying to get in and it is only a matter of time. I often wake up shouting from those dreams.

DarleneSnell · 28/01/2022 20:35

@Weredone I almost tagged you after reading your hamster one! I also had hamsters and occasionally I dream of them in with the rabbit, all starving and forgotten in the filthy hutch. So glad I'm not the only one and would love to know what it means!

JenniferAllisonPhillipaSue · 28/01/2022 20:53

I used to have a recurring dream that I'd be walking somewhere, look down, and find I had no shoes on. Funnily enough that stopped after I left XH and moved in with (now) DH; so I'm no longer trying to escape somewhere unprepared ...

My current two are:

Trying to phone or text somebody - not the emergency services, just a friend - and being unable to press the right numbers on the pad.

Having to leave holiday accommodation at the end of a holiday, and family (invariably my parents but sometimes DH) are nowhere near ready to leave. It takes them hours, I end up having to organise them, apologise to the cleaners/owners, that kind of thing. It's as though leaving comes as a surprise to them. As they are not like this in real life, I do have to wonder what it signifies about my opinion of them ...

Crackercrazy · 28/01/2022 20:59

@ALongHardWinter

1) All my teeth/hair falling out. 2) Going into an exam and not having done any revision. 3) I'm desperate for a wee but can't find a useable toilet anywhere, every one I find is in an absolutely disgusting state,or there's no door on the cubicle. Inevitably when I have this dream,I wake up busting for a wee.
I have the same no.3 dream too, for the very same reason. Sometimes, if I manage to find a loo (in my dream) and do a wee, I then struggle to pull my knickers/trousers up and end up panicking about that!
DomingoinLittleOakley · 28/01/2022 21:26
  1. Teeth falling out - fairly regular
  2. A weird thing where I either feel really big, or really small in comparison to the things around me.
  3. Being on the toilet in a public space where everyone can see me, or sitting at my desk at work and suddenly realising I am naked from the waist up.
driftcompatible · 28/01/2022 21:28

I've gone out somewhere and realise I've forgotten my trousers or am noticeably not wearing underwear eg very short skirt.

I'm on top of a sky scraper and it's swaying and I'll certainly fall off eventually and die

I've gone out quite far away like a 30 min drive and realise I've left my baby and toddler at home alone because I forgot no one else was in or I forgot to arrange childcare. I try to immediately get home but loads of stuff slows me down like traffic jams, floods etc.

Also - weirdly - I have a frequent reoccurring dream that when I'm dreaming and just after I think 'oh fuck this again' but can NEVER remember what it is. I just remember I have one that circulates a lot.

wishiwasinfiji · 28/01/2022 21:37

This is fascinating for me, I rarely dream and never have nightmares (not that I remember ever anyway).
Lots of people dreaming about teeth falling out. They must mean something? Maybe fearing a loss of something in real life?

UserBotTrending · 28/01/2022 21:44

Another recurring dream i had was that id no shoes and i had to choose between men's brogues covered in mud or broken flip flops or red patent high heels and nothing seemed right! In the dream i felt terribly lost because i couldnt get clean shoes i could walk in!

healthierlungs · 28/01/2022 21:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DukeofEarlGrey · 28/01/2022 22:01

Yy to the exam one. Particularly when I was a new graduate. I used to dream I had failed to revise for an exam or else overslept and missed it. What is that about? It's surprisingly common on this thread!

Also dreaming that I am back with the ex. I find that validating though. I wake up knowing that I did the right thing.

Original poster
ImSoMagical · 28/01/2022 22:04

I don't know how to tag people but there are some interesting ones! When I was little a recurring one was when my dad came home from the pub he would bring Mr and Mrs giant snail/woodlouse/slug and me, my sister and mum would have to make them tea and cake!

OP posts:
Lightstoobright · 28/01/2022 22:07
  1. Teeth falling out
  2. Missing an important meeting
  3. Blocking a toilet or trying to flush things that shouldn't be flushed and causing a blockage
freshcarnation · 28/01/2022 22:10

I have the neglected pets one quite often

Late for work and being slow to get dressed although the office has already started, I end up driving the wrong way up motorways and get later and later

And the most recurring dream is that it's late on Christmas Eve and I've done no shopping so am desperately trying to get to a supermarket or petrol station to buy presents and food for the whole family. I've had that for years