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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to ask you about recurring dreams

50 replies

NotNob · 01/05/2015 20:50

I have a recurring dream, slight variances but always in the same vein.

It is a few days before my exams (usually A levels) and until this point I have completely forgotten to revise. I am terrified and have an impending sense of doom; I must pass them but realise there is not enough time. I feel literally crushed by the weight of the paperwork. I always wake before the exam.

This is probably a classic anxiety dream - I was very conscientious at school but the stress of A levels made me ill. But this was 20 years ago fgs!!
Anyone else get recurring dreams? Do you attach any importance to them?

OP posts:

Wantsunshine · 01/05/2015 20:55

I have a recurring dream that I have had since I was about 6. I am now in my 40's! It is so vivid and real and I am in WW2. Sometimes I am just going about my day, sometimes I have been posted to various places. The village I live in in my during this time I know all the names, addresses and the ins and outs of their lives. I am almost tempted to google to see if they are real people. No idea if it's anxiety but it's been going on for so long it might be my very own imaginary eastenders!

fruitmedley · 01/05/2015 20:56

I get that one - I think it's related to my degree when I didn't do enough revision and actually walked out if a couple of exams! I also get one where I'm desperate for the loo but none of the cubicles have doors on so I can't go - another classic anxiety dream.

Original poster

NotNob · 01/05/2015 21:02

Must require quite an imagination, wantsunshine! How interesting.

I am quite predictable with mine; if I'm under the weather or under pressure in some way.

Glad I'm not the only one, fruitmedley. I have also had the toilet one before.

OP posts:

SpongeBobJudgeyPants · 01/05/2015 21:06

Not mine is similar. I dream I have left it too late to do my dissertation, and variations thereof. Sometimes I dream there was a particular class I was meant to take, but have missed all the sessions, and don't even know which room I should have been in to take it. Fruit mine too! Left it far too long to start my dissertation, which was stupid of me. I've always assumed classic anxiety dream, hooked onto RL stuff.

gertatron · 01/05/2015 21:07

I get this dream. In mine, the french a level exam is days away and I have missed 90% of french lessons and have not revised. I have stayed at school an extra year just to get this french a level. Weirdly I never even did a level french. I get this every couple of months.

Another more spooky one I get all the time is about a haunted bedroom, almost always at the top of a new house or converted outbuilding. I walk in and am almost crushed by a menacing presence. Bizarre!

sparklepopsicles · 01/05/2015 21:07

I dream I am dying a lot! It's quite unerving. I do normally wake up just before I die. Apparently it means I am losing my identity. DH has the exam dream all the time

CharlesRyder · 01/05/2015 21:08

I also get the 'exam' dream related to my degree. I realise I have not left enough time to be able to sit enough papers and submit my dissertation and that there is nothing I can do- dream usually involves stressful attempts to come up with excuses/ strategies to get more time. Then I wake up and have to firmly tell myself I have my piece of paper and they can't take it away now!

At times of profound change I also have a dream where I am moving into a new house and, although it seems wonderful to everyone else, there is something terribly wrong with it that only I know. Think horribly dangerous psychopath bricked into the attic or network of tunnels under the house with an evil family living in and preying on the household. For some reason I can't express the problem to anyone.

Babymamaroon · 01/05/2015 21:08

NotNob - that is almost exactly the same as my recurring dream!

FarFromAnyRoad · 01/05/2015 21:10

This is so interesting! I've had a recurring dream for about 20 years now - like others, slight variations in detail but always the same dream about moving into a big old house - huge with lots of rooms, high ceilings, old fashioned kitchen, the same rectangular swimming pool every time and I'm gardening. Always gardening. Happily so, but always bloody gardening. So odd - can't make head nor tail of it!

Babyroobs · 01/05/2015 21:15

I have a recurring dream that I realise I have not handed in a major assignment and cannot pass my degree without doing it, I have only a few days to complete it or I don't pass, I have no idea where to start or what it is even meant to be about, I am running through my Uni campus ( Igraduated 20years ago!) desperately trying to find a tutor to help, but can't find anyone, it's horrible. I have anothe recurring drema where all my teeth start to crumble one by one and I'm desperately trying to find a dentist, the longer it takes the more start crumbling. I wake up in a cold sweat, mor like a nightmare really. I've had this dream since teenage years.

SpongeBobJudgeyPants · 01/05/2015 21:33

I think the teeth falling out is a common dream, but I can't remember what it means.

StampysLoveGarden · 01/05/2015 21:35

When I was with abusive x I dreamt I lost my handbag. EVERY night. A handbag represents identity and financial security. I'd lost both.

StampysLoveGarden · 01/05/2015 21:37

I did really badly at school and I never get the exam dreams. EVER. I think it's cos I knew in advance I'd do badly, I did do badly and I survived it. So what's the point dreaming about it!! My mum who did very well academically gets those dreams!

SpongeBobJudgeyPants · 01/05/2015 21:37

Baby Here ya go meaning of teeth falling out dreams

Asleeponasunbeam · 01/05/2015 21:39

I have exactly the same exam one. I've forgotten to go to all the lectures, or haven't done any of the coursework/ revision. Haven't ever really pinpointed what it means for me, but it is fairly frequent - and I'm frequently under stress!

Mousefinkle · 01/05/2015 21:41

I had one when I was a child that was absolutely petrifying, I used to wake up sweating and screaming . Can still remember it vividly now... I was walking through this village holding hands with my mum and all of a sudden the buildings turned into these massive steam roller type things that were rolling really quickly through the streets crushing everyone in its path.

I had a lot of sleep issues as a child though- sleep walking and talking a lot and then insomnia. I still dream very vividly now almost every night without fail. I haven't had many recurring ones since though I do tend to dream that I'm back at secondary school a lot and wake up thinking "thank God that's just a dream" .

Babyroobs · 01/05/2015 21:43

Thanks SpongeBob, that's very interesting.

DrHarleenFrancesQuinzel · 01/05/2015 21:50

I have the toilet dream regularly.

I've not had the exam one, but I do dream about being late. In RL if I'm later than 10 minutes early I get all panicky as I hate being late. Anyway in my dream I'm never just minutes late, but hours. Sometimes it's people (usually my parents) making me late.

Another one is I'm trying to speak to DH on the phone, but I can never get hold of him. Either the line is bad or there's no answer or the phone doesn't work.

I've also had the same as gertatron with the menacing presence. I was playing hide and seek and found a secret room. In this room there was an old Victorian pram and the sence of spookyness. I've only dreamt that once though.

iklboo · 01/05/2015 21:53

I'm in a play but don't know the lines & no-one has a script I can crib from (anxiety)

I'm out walking & can see hundreds of constellations and millions of stars (very peaceful & relaxing dream). I love having this one. Sometimes I can make myself dream it.

SenatusPopulusqueRomanorum · 01/05/2015 21:54

I sometimes have the exam dream. My main recurring dream is in the same vein : it is the end of the year, sometimes I am in high school (I was a boarder), sometimes at Uni. I need to vacate my room by the next day / week and nothing is packed, the cupboards are full, I don't have access to a car and I don't know what to do.

I often dream that I am in a stationary car that suddenly starts moving, and I have no idea what to do. I have been having this dream since I was about 7 years old and the feeling of panick and helplessness is still the same.
(I am nearly 34 and I still haven't learnt to drive).

SilverBirch2015 · 01/05/2015 21:55

I have two different themed reoccurring dreams.

The first is not unlike the exam ones. We are about to go on holiday and need to get to the airport. Not left enough time, I haven't washed clothes or packed, rushing around throwing unsuitable clothes in suitcases, sure will not arrive at airport in time. I also have a similar one pre-Christmas, presents and food not bought and wrapped or prepared and its 4pm on Christmas Eve.

The other theme is about buying a new house. Very expensive and large, move in and discover secret additional rooms that are either not secure, delabidated or haunted. We were flooded 8 years ago and this dream has only manifested itself since then, so I suspect it indicates a sort of echo of that horrible experience.

Worst reoccurring dream I had was during a very difficult period in my life. Was a dream about having killed someone (unknown) in the dream, and anxious that the body I had hidden years ago would be discovered. It was a horrendous and still makes me shudder to think something so awful could be hidden in my mind.

ByEck · 01/05/2015 22:05

I often have the crumbly teeth dream, and so do most people I've mentioned it to. I'm a teacher and every holiday, about halfway through, I start dreaming that I've forgotten to plan my lessons and I'm being observed. Sometimes I'm naked too!

My most disturbing recurrent dream is one from childhood. It was a delerium dream and I still feel shades of the terror when I'm running a temperature.

In the dream, I'm in a square, black tunnel. Rolling towards me are boulders with pins sticking out of them. They're small enough to hurdle at first, but the get gradually bigger until the last one fills the entire tunnel and I wake up. Horrible.

I have the toilet dream when I need a wee. I sometimes wake up on the point of releasing my bladder, though I've never actually wet myself yet

Original poster

NotNob · 01/05/2015 22:09

These are so interesting! Although not in any way traumatised by my exam dreams (they are more tedious), I am reminded through your recounts of other dreams. There are common themes - feeling overwhelmed, crushed, running out of time, powerlessness. It's actually comforting how common anf similar they are

Perhaps more pertinent to my personal life, I also have recurring drinking dreams. I'm a recovering alcoholic and sometimes dream I have taken a drink. Of course I'm horrified. Don't need that one interpreting!

OP posts:

Asleeponasunbeam · 01/05/2015 22:26

Oh, I'd forgotten my poor neglected pets dreams!

I usually find a room in the house that I'd forgotten about, and in it are some caged pets (rats or hamsters, both of which I've had). In the dream I've forgotten about these poor creatures and go to their cage to find they're still alive, but terribly skinny.
It's much more horrible than it sounds!

MumsKnitter · 01/05/2015 22:28

I have a recurring dream that I have moved back into a house I lived in almost 20 years ago. It was tiny, and I now have 5 children, so I worry about how we will squeeze in. I always say "This is so strange! I used to dream about this happening, and now it really is!" It never occurs to me in the dream that it is just me dreaming it again.

I saw a few months ago on Right Move that the house has had the attic converted, and is now bigger, and haven't had that dream since.

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