Nightmares about dissertation

[ViaRia01]

This is really more of an ‘Am I being UNUSUAL’

So, last night I had another nightmare about my dissertation. My memory of the dream was short, vague, and not especially troubling. It’s been a while since last had one but they used to occur quite frequently and they used to be worse and more stressful. In basic terms, in the dreams I realise have my dissertation due in [x months] and I haven’t started/ am not close to finishing. I feel stressed and stupid and annoyed at myself.

I graduated in 2010. Surely after 15 years, you’d expect to be ‘over it’ by now?!

Does anyone else / Has anyone else had this?

I used to have nightmares where I had to go back to high school because the rules had changed and you couldn't graduate until you'd completed x, y or z. It was horrible, I would get so het up in the dream that I was being forced back - I didn't particularly like school but it was more the injustice of it!

From what I've read, dreams are mostly just your brains way of working through worries/issues from your waking life, but not in an obvious or linear way. It's not really about school or your dissertation but about something else that is causing you anxiety or stress in some form.

Yes! Kind of .... I sometimes dream that I never finished my degree and didn't graduate. Other things like I have a final exam and I have never been to a lecture and don't have any notes on the subject. I graduated in the 90's so not a clue while I still have these dreams.

I got the same dreams for about 10 years after I graduated, not having started my dissertation and it being due imminently. Or that i have not been attending one of the compulsory modules. They eventually petered out.

Yes it's a common theme. Mine are usually revolving around me not having turned up to classes in the months leading up to exams, then being worried that the exams are only a couple of days away and I need to cram in months of learning into an impossibly short timeframe.

I believe it's related to real life feelings of being unprepared or under-resourced for a work project (for example). My subconscious brain is processing my concerns in the form of dreams, the dreams are a translation of current worries into a previous experience either I have had, or would have had if I actually had not attended lessons.

I used to have these sorts of dreams about school for most of my life. They stopped completely about 10 years ago. When I started thinking about it, I realised that 10 years ago I completed my degree (as a mature student so 15 years after I left school) and got a professional job, performed well and stopped being shamed by my parents for wasting my time being (insert whatever "unworthy" profession I was doing at the time). All it was is nothing but internalised shaming I experienced from others.
Do you have any particular areas in your life where you feel inadequate or being criticised for by others?

This is a very, very common type of recurring dream. Some people get similar dreams where they are about to sit an exam at school and suddenly realise they are totally unprepared. It's not even really about your dissertation - it's just your brain expressing general anxiety and using your dissertation as a symbol.

I get dreams where I'm at school and suddenly realise there's a lesson I should have attended every week for years but have somehow never remembered to go to it, but I have to sit a GCSE in the subject in a few week. I left school in 1994 and was never in the slightest bit nervous about exams even when I still having to sit them, so it's really not a dream about GCSEs; it's a dream about being unprepared and fucking up in general.

Had a terrible panic dream the other night where I was waiting backstage with my son to go on and perform some comedy sketch. I said to him “I don’t remember the script!” and he just laughed and and said “Course you do, you wrote it!” And I heard the introduction and the curtain came up, and I woke up sweating 😯

I finished my postgrad 11 years ago and used to wake up dreaming that I had essays to write! I then woke up relieved that I never had another essay to write again.

Joke's on me as I'm starting another degree in September!

I graduated at a similar time and I'm a bit of a cold sweat just reading that op 😬

Think it's quite a common thing, either dissertations or final exams or some other performance. My most recent one was about having to go on stage and sing Hallelujah and I was freaking out about not knowing the words to all the verses. In real life ofc I should have been freaking out about my ability to sing it at all, but my dream self clearly felt I had the vocal skills just needed those lyrics...

I often dream about forgetting to go to all my lectures at university and having to sit my finals completely unprepared.

I also worked in a restaurant straight after university and get dreams about more and more people coming in to sit down in the restaurant whilst I am the only member of staff until I am having to serve 100s of people.

I am 58!

Me too

I dreamed about a level retakes for a good 15 years