What are your regular or frequent dream themes ?

[TheTecknician]

I don't mean the same actual dream recurring but subjects. Mine are:

Lifts. Inside, going very fast, up or down and often sideways!
On a ship in rough seas.
Aeroplane crashes.
Snakes.
Fish in clear water.
Parents, both now long gone.
Friends from years or decades ago.
Our old family dentists. The detail is different every time but essentially the same theme.

Quite a mix!

Getting lost, either on foot or driving.
Losing the dog on a walk (had this one this morning, DH's dog really)
Getting trapped underwater, in a boat or car, really scary and vivid.
Seems they are all stress dreams. 🤔

I only ever have two types. One is always set in a care home type establishment and I'm late doing the drugs round, have lost people, otherwise very stressed. Very chaotic and busy. I spent my working life as a nurse in care homes, so it's undoubtedly related to that.

The other is where we're moving house and the new house has lots of different, contrasting type rooms and I'm trying to figure out how to relate to each room. Also, I have neighbours who have horses and chickens etc. Sometimes people are involved.

Very, very occasionally I'll have a third type where I'm having to navigate through a rough city or sketchy area either on foot or on the bus. Very industrial type settings with people who'd probably throw stuff at you.

Finding myself unprepared in academic situations (nothing traumatic happened in real life!) Eg remembering I'd forgotten to go to university for 6 months the night before my finals etc.

I also have the 'unprepared academic' type. It's almost always A-level geography homework I've forgotten or left too late. I left school over thirty years ago so goodness knows why this is still a thing.

Another is driving, often a bus and barely in control or attempting to drive a car from the passenger or back seats. I'm sure a mental health expert would have a field day with my variety of nocturnal adventures.

I've recently started dreaming a lot about my kids when they were very young. They are all adults now, but in my dreams they are small and I am responsible for them, or they are early teens. I think it's because three of them are getting married relatively soon and my brain is trying to deal with them no longer being 'mine', if you see what I mean.

Flying, not as frequently as I would like.
Being at festivals and conferences, with groups of friends.
Discovering parts of my house (various houses) that I didn't know were there, exploring.
Or finding out that there is a tiny half derelict cottage tucked into our gardens that we have forgotten about.
Sometimes the activities in the dream take place in a familiar dream version of real life places, my home area or places I've lived. They are recognisable but more fantastic.

I don't think I have any themes, they all seem totally random. Recent ones have included finding out my cat is actually a Scottish wildcat and having to release him into the wild,
watching a friend walk down a cobbled street (think old Hovis advert) arm in arm with Take That and doing that walk the Monkees used to do whilst all the neighbours came out and cheered, and something about going out for an indian meal that was very vague.
The only time I ever had a theme was when I'd get the same recurring dream every couple of weeks about not being dressed in time for my wedding. The wedding was months away, but it was exactly the same every time, every detail, and things would always be preventing me from getting ready on time. Then I'd be franticly asking other people in the house to help me, but they couldn't hear me. My mum and sister would walk past me, talking to each other and completely ignoring me. It was very stressful, but I never had it again after the wedding.
Classic stress dream, I guess!

I have a reoccurring dream. I had it the other day.

I’m studying for e.g. a degree. I am struggling with the maths, I don’t understand it, so I skip the lectures. I’m coming up to exam and I know I’m going to fail the course because I hid from the maths, buried my head in the sand. Plus I realise that I’ve started to revise for all exams too late.

I always wake up thinking “oh fuck” then realise it’s not really true.

I’d love an explanation of this although I kind of get the gist.

Have GCSE exams coming up and haven’t revised at all !

Also I’m doing an A level course in a subject I’m hopeless at - chemistry

Also a piano exam I’ve not practised for

In a Sunday school play I’ve not rehearsed for

Lots of dreams about ufos and lights in the sky. It’s fascinating what the subconscious brings up at night as I never think of ufos in the daytime.

Nightmares about being back with my ex, although we split 10 years ago.

Dreams where I’m high up somewhere, usually at the top of a flight of rickety or broken stairs. Everyone else is going down with no problem but I usually can’t - either physically or because I’m too scared.

IRL I usually bound down tube escalators at full speed, so it’s strange.

Being late. Forgetting to follow a procedure. Not reporting something I should have.

I used to have flying dreams, don't really get them any more!

Im quite stressed these days so my dreams are always a bit shit!

I don't generally remember any dreams, but when stressed I dream about teeth....
one that my teeth have gone soft and wobbly, (not very useful for teeth!)
another that the dentist has a secret cellar where he cuts open my head and implants a microchip

That I really need the toilet but every toilet I find is unusable. It’s either filthy or not private.

Another one is that my teeth have moved and become really crooked.

Planes falling out of the sky. I'm never in the place, always standing on a field watching them crash.

Tsunami's - weirdly I'm always under the tsunami with loads of other people in a airlocked bubble, we can see the massive wave above us but we are safe so go about our daily business.

I have IBS and a very recurring dream for me is I'm at random service stations and desperately need the loo as my tummy is upset but every single cubicle in the service station loos are either locked or full of loo roll.

I experience false awakenings too which scare the hell out of me.

Moved into a house I don’t like.
Walking round and getting lost eg hotel, hospital.
Trying to run or drive but don’t move.
My best friend from school dies and I’m told I have to move in with her husband and look after her kids

Some don’t take much working out 🙄

Nuclear attack
i am given a gift box that contains a tarantula, which immediately makes a beeline for me, as I try to get rid of it the room slowly fills with more and more tarantulas.

im not sure which is worse, but I wake tearing at the bedclothes

Being bitten by my sister's dog - makes no sense, I generally love dogs, he's really placid and friendly, and has never bitten or tried to bite me or anyone else! Always jolts me awake right as he bites down and takes me ages to fall back asleep

Wow, PPs have mentioned a few of mine - the tsunami, the unusable toilets, and the extra rooms in a house. I also dream about my deceased parents, and also trying to make urgent phone calls but not being able to type the number in correctly, I keep making mistakes and can never get through to whoever it is I'm trying to call - often my Dad.

I have the occasional flying dream, too - though it's often more hovering than flying, and simply powered by a belief that it's possible (in my dream) - as soon as I stop being able to believe in it, I stop being able to do it. I love those dreams.

I once dreamt I was Moses, leading the masses through the Red Sea - but it somehow turned into an underground sauna/spa/bath-house (I am not religious at all!) - and I really enjoyed that one too. The mind is a strange place!

Water - sometimes it's calm and sunny, sometimes rough ad stormy. Rivers, sea, swimming pools - water features a lot in my dreams. (I have always swum a lot, so there is a lot of water in my life anyway.)

Running away dreams.

Houses with complicated layouts and sometimes secret rooms.

Recently, I've had a few dreams about climbing stairs or steps that turn into steep slopes that are difficult or impossible to get up.

I've also had the unusable loo dream a couple of times recently, which I never had before.

I assume my subconscious is trying to tell me something, but who knows what?

My teeth being damaged or falling out. I wake up, run my tongue around them and realise it’s a dream.

Drinking dreams. I last drank many years ago but I’m a recovering alcoholic and it’s a common one.

Christmas Eve and I’ve bought no presents at all
caged animals that I’ve forgotten for weeks and I’ve just discovered them, they are always barely alive
a massive house with many floors, old like a museum. The first floor has glass cabinets with spooky exhibits. The rest of the house is normal but gothic
driving an out of control bus
mass shootings in a high street
my dead parent still being alive, but I’ve not bothered to visit and they are really upset and cross with me

bundle of laughs my dreams

I think many of these dreams just go to show how anxious most of us are much of the time, and only allowing the feelings to come out during sleep.

I have loads of recurring dream themes.

I need the toilet and can't find one or I can find one but it's absolutely disgusting or it's a toilet that's in full view of everyone.
I'm on a bus and my journey is never ending or I'm on the wrong bus and don't know where to get off, I'm late or can't get to my destination.
I need to make an urgent phone call but there's a weird force and I can't press the right numbers. It's always a situation where I have to dial a number the old fashioned way. It's so frustrating and stressful.

In my dreams I'm almost always a teenager and if my children are in my dreams they are always as they were as small children but they are teens themselves!

Driving and struggling to control the vehicle.
Moving house or packing to go away and struggling.
Teeth dreams.
Toilet dreams.
Finding new rooms.
Work dreams.
Academic failure dreams.
Performance/acting dreams where I haven't rehearsed.