Like most normal people (right?), I continue to have school-themed anxiety dreams, well past my graduation. I never had the one where you show up naked, but I’ve certainly had the one where you have to write the final exam for a class you haven’t taken. Way more frequent for me, for whatever reason, is the one where it’s not even time for the exam yet when I belatedly realize I’ve been registered for a class that I mysteriously have not been attending. (The real irony that this should still be part of my dream life thirteen years after I was last enrolled in any kind of school is that, throughout my undergrad education, my dad was the university registrar, so that if that had somehow actually ever happened, he probably could have taken care of it for me.)
Lately, though, I’ve noticed a new kind of anxiety dream recurring. I’ll be going about the weird business of my dream, whatever it may be, when I realize it’s afternoon on a weekday and I forgot to go to work. The rest of the dream then turns into me trying to think up plausible reasons I can email to my actual, real-life boss and my actual, real-life reports for why I just straight-up blew off work that day. Last night, it was that my dream-husband, actual Larry David, had fallen out of bed and struck his head on the floor with sufficient force to break the skin of his poor old bald pate, so I had to take him to the hospital. What made that a pretty good excuse is that all of that had occurred in my dream, except the part where I took Larry to get his injury checked out by a medical professional. Even in my own dreams, I’m a crappy wife!
Anyway: if my subconscious is anxious about work (which is happening now) rather than school (which, as I mentioned, I haven’t attended since the Pleistocene Era), maybe this means I’m finally growing up? Don’t tell me if it’s not.
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I keep having dreams where my life is vastly different, but I’ll still remember my real life, so I’ll get very confused.
“So I’m seven months pregnant… I don’t even remember being one month pregnant. I don’t even want kids. When did I decide to keep this thing? How am I paying for this? There’s no room for a baby in my apartment. What the hell was I thinking?”
I enjoy the fact that once I became a teacher, the school anxiety dreams flipped to having to teach a class that I didn’t know I had to teach.
The one that I keep having is that somehow I ended up not completing enough credits for the degree and they’ve revoked it. I would have to go back & finish it, but because some of my classmates & I lost a lawsuit against the university, if I went back, I’d get hit with some major legal bill that would bankrupt me. God. I’m getting all chilled just thinking about it.
Oh my god, I thought I was the only one who had those two school-related dreams – having to take an exam for a class I didn’t take and realizing nearly all of the way through the semester that I’ve been enrolled in a class I haven’t been attending. I have one of those two dreams at least twice a month, and I’ve been out of college for 12 years and law school for three (though the dreams are always about college, though a law school prof often shows up). Weird. Or . . . not so weird, now that I know I’m not the only one.
My problem is that on two occasions in college, I did find myself registered for a class that I had more-or-less forgotten about. So those dreams are extra terrifying.
Mine are always high-school related. I’m running late for a class and I can’t remember which locker is mine. I know the lock combination, but not the locker number, and I have to try locker after locker. I get so stressed out during that dream.
It really makes me feel better that I’m not the only one having these dreams. I’ve been out of college since ’96 and law school since ’99 and I have these dreams a couple of times a month with the same scenarios you guys have described – it is either right before graduation and I’ve just been notified that I’m 1 credit short, or else it is the week before finals and I haven’t been to class all semester/haven’t read any of the books. The weird thing is that the dreams are so incredibly realistic that it is as if I’m reliving college all over again. I’ve been trying to figure out what my subconscious is trying to tell me…perhaps I’m better off not knowing haha.
Oh, yea! Regular people (non-academics) keep having this dream, too. I thought it was just those of us who refused to leave the school environment.
I usually combine the school, job, and aging anxiety dreams into one ultra-neurotic dream where I forgot to show up for the job I had back in high school because I ran off to college and never came back (that part’s true, I guess). My boss is invariably annoyed that I am 20 years late for my opening shift.
I have a similar dream to the work dream — it’s where I’m trying to get to work on time, but it keeps getting later and later as I’m in the car. And the “need to write a bunch of last-minute papers for the class I forgot I was in” still comes around at least once a year or so.
The funny thing is that I really have no reason to be anxious about work punctuality in real life, since I don’t think anyone would bat an eyelash if I showed up at noon with a flimsy explanation.
Your school and work dreams are the exact same as mine. I’ve heard that they’re supposed to mean you feel unprepared for adulthood, but fuck, who doesn’t?
The night I have a school dream where I know my schedule, remember where my locker is, show up to class, and can decide what to get in the cafeteria before lunch ends/the cafeteria lady yells at me for not being ready, I’ll have a party for myself because I’ll know I’m a grownup.
I’ve had both the dream where I’ve suddenly realized I’m enrolled in the class I haven’t been attending all semester and the forgot to go to work one.
Additionally, I have a cat herding dream. Usually I’m trying to get my cats to stay in somewhere to avoid danger or stay out of somewhere dangerous and I can’t get them all in (or out) at the same time.
Terrible dreams, all of them!
Honey Wheeler! I haven’t thought about my Trixie Belden years in ages, but I had a definite literary girl crush on Honey Wheeler. Also, those books taught me the vocab word “jalopy.”
I still have the dream where I show up to class, thinking it’s the first day, but it’s actually the final exam and I’ve unknowingly missed the entire semester. No fun.
I’m getting married in October, so I’ve had a few wedding anxiety dreams. The last one, we were at a local theme park getting married and my dress maker called to say it was an emergency and I had to meet him in the parking lot. So I ran through a bunch of mud puddles to get there quick, only to find out that he brought some dude who wanted me to take some boudior portraits right then. On my wedding day! It was so strange.
And then in the middle of fighting with those two, I remembered that I had forgotten to bring rice or bird seed or anything for people to throw at us. For some reason, this was very important and I was totally upset that I’d forgotten it. “Luckily” two chefs from the kitchen of this them park said not to worry about it, and they’d find us some rice. They came out with this giant pot of cooked spanish rice! Then I woke up. lol
Here’s the opposite version of that dream: last night, I dreamt that it was Monday and I went to the office. I was halfway through running an editorial meeting before I remembered that I wasn’t supposed to be there.
LOL. I’ve been on a 2-week streak of anxiety dreams (for no apparent reason). So this post totally cracked me up. You hit the nail on the (sleepy) head. I keep dreaming I’m taking a test and I haven’t even been in class the whole semester nor have turned in any of the assignments. And I also dream about not going to work and realizing it’s already noon and I hadn’t called in to my boss.
I like Erin’s comment that it must mean we’re unprepared for adulthood. I’m 44 1/2 and I’m STILL not ready for it.
I am having problems lately with my anxiety, cannot relax, and have difficulties falling asleep easily. When I am under this form of mood with lots of anxiety, I have so many disrupted dreams and it feels like I have slept 12 hours, in fact I have slept only two hours :( This is driving me insane! Is there anyone else that is experiencing the same?
I also suffer from tinnitus and when I don’t sleep peacefully, the ringing of my ears gets louder and I am sleepy the entire day. Some claim it’s Sleep Apnea!
PLEASE HELP HOW TO MANAGE THIS! :(