For Retired Folks: What Do You Dream About?

[friar1610]

I've been seriously retired for about 5 years and would never seriously consider going back to work (unless it were in a low-stress job doing something I was really committed to).

I find that I occasionally dream about work-related things.
- Most of them put me back in the Navy (where spent 28 years). Either, I'm back on active duty before I retired or there is a chance to go back on active duty but I realize I'm much older and don't really want to do it.) Most of these dreams revolve around one particular duty station where I was the head guy.
- Fewer of them have me considering a return to a job in the private sector. These dreams are less appealing than the ones in which I think about being back in the Navy.

For the record, I don't want to go back to work, either in the Navy or in private industry. But I find these dreams curious.

Do any other retirees dream similarly?

 

[73ss454]

Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat dreaming I'm back at work. Then I realize it's not real and go back to sleep and wake up when ever I want to.

 

[Dawg52]

My girl.


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[Khan]

Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat dreaming I'm back at work. Then I realize it's not real and go back to sleep and wake up when ever I want to.

I had those dreams; they tapered off after a while. On the rare occasion that I dream I am back at work, I realize I am dreaming and that I am retired; and in the dream I explain to everyone that I am retired and that this is only a bad dream.

 

[Martha]

I retired a year and a half ago. I just had a work dream this week where the senior lawyer that used to supervise me when I was an associate was calling my clients and telling them I had screwed up on their work. It was one of those dreams that feel very real and man was I relieved upon awaking.

 

[Moemg]

Funny you mentioned this last night I had this dream ( I'm a retired RN mostly Operating Room ) that I was working on this really complicated brain surgery and I had tables of instruments in front of me and I was trying to remember when everything got used and all the little extras .

 

[Rambler]

I'm not retired yet, so I only have nightmares about work, and dreams of FIRE!

R

 

[audreyh1]

I had those dreams for quite a few years. They were always really complicated as to how I somehow got "trapped" back into working.

I think it's been over a year since the last one. They're pretty rare now.

Audrey

 

[haha]

Funny you mentioned this last night I had this dream ( I'm a retired RN mostly Operating Room ) that I was working on this really complicated brain surgery and I had tables of instruments in front of me and I was trying to remember when everything got used and all the little extras .

This is an intersesting dream. Perhaps not all of us but many of us may mourn the inevitable passing of skills that were highly prized and very useful to us economically and personally, once we no longer use them regularly.

I don't miss the scheduling and pressure of workdays, but I do miss the feeling of being on top of my game and master of my own fate.

Ha

 

[audreyh1]

I don't miss the scheduling and pressure of workdays, but I do miss the feeling of being on top of my game and master of my own fate.

Ha

Uh.....wait!

Nothing has made me feel more master of my own fate than financial independence and not having to report to a boss!!

Audrey

 

[Moemg]

I don't miss the scheduling and pressure of workdays, but I do miss the feeling of being on top of my game and master of my own fate.

Ha

That was another reason I retired . I saw too many people hang around until they were way off the top of their game and I just did not want that to be me .

 

[UncleHoney]

I don't really have dreams very often that I remember.

But once in a while I'll have a moment during the day when I revert back to my working days. This morning I was fixing some toast and tea and I got to thinking, "you better get cracking, it's Saturday and Monday will be here before you know it".

That feeling only lasted for a few seconds and then it was gone.

Now I'm back screwing around on the computer and in a little while I'll mosey out to my shop and see if the paint is dry on my latest project.

 

[haha]

Uh.....wait!

Nothing has made me feel more master of my own fate than financial independence and not having to report to a boss!!

Audrey

True that bosses are no fun, but I think it would hard to establish that a person with $2 million and current work skills and a job is not in a more secure and autonomous position than a person with $2 million and no job or current work skills.

But whatever works for you is fine by me.

Ha

 

[audreyh1]

True that bosses are no fun, but I think it would hard to establish that a person with $2 million and current work skills and a job is not in a more secure and autonomous position than a person with $2 million and no job or current work skills.

But whatever works for you is fine by me.

Ha

Good, because I definitely don't see it that way.

In the first case, that person has serious obligations = not that autonomous.

I grant you that the first person has more financial security (at the moment - that job could disappear at any time) but that's exactly the tradeoff you make when you retire.

Audrey

 

[Nords]

I find that I occasionally dream about work-related things.
- Most of them put me back in the Navy (where spent 28 years). Either, I'm back on active duty before I retired or there is a chance to go back on active duty but I realize I'm much older and don't really want to do it.) Most of these dreams revolve around one particular duty station where I was the head guy.
- Fewer of them have me considering a return to a job in the private sector. These dreams are less appealing than the ones in which I think about being back in the Navy.
Do any other retirees dream similarly?

The first few years of ER were mostly nightmares-- reactor scrams with screwups as the engineering officer of the watch, scrambling to get to periscope depth on station when not-so-good things were happening, inport duty officer while we were trapped at Subic Bay during a volcanic eruption, squabbling with the somewhat combative personalities I encountered. I'd usually wake up shouting orders to casualty procedures or running or blocking punches. Spouse says I used to grind my teeth a lot.

I'm sure that those events all contributed in their own little ways toward a desire to stop going to work.

The only nightmare I seem to have anymore is one where the sewage system backs up all over the house. That certainly relives several different work experiences (shore duty as well as sea duty) but it's not so traumatic. Otherwise it's mostly good dreams-- flying (surfing) or running or reliving the events of the day.

Haven't ground my teeth in a couple years.

 

[Zipper]

I've been retired from teaching for 11 years and still dream of "Classes from Hell" and feeling helpless as admin lurks in the background.

The funny thing is, in reality, I never had any bad years and I always got along with my bosses.

 

[Purron]

I've had a number of work related dreams. Most of them involve stressfull situations in the office. Glad they are only dreams!

 

[haha]

Here's my last night's dream. I am being prepped for some kind of fat removal surgery. (I'm not exactly fat, but that doesn't seem to matter to these Docs.) I think, damn, maybe I could die from the anesthetic (Some recent deaths from dental anesthesia have popped up in the local papers).

I woke up, happy to not be having surgery. I wonder if maybe this takes off from Moe's dream about the surgical tools?

Ha

 

[Zipper]

I used to have nightmares about going bald.

I still have a full head of hair.O0

Unfortunately @ 65 it's amost all white.

 

[Rambler]

I used to have nightmares about going bald.

I still have a full head of hair.O0

Unfortunately @ 65 it's amost all white.

I used to have nightmares/dreams about going bald, when I was a teenager...unfortunately the dream came true...heh heh heh

R

 

[travelover]

I have two recurring dreams.

In the first, I'm back on my old paper route, except that I realize that I've forgotten to deliver the papers for some time and am wondering how mad my customers are going to be. I suppose this is a variation of the basic responsibility dream.

In the second, I have purchased an enormous old house and am hesitant to explore the furthest reaches - attic and so forth. The details vary somewhat from dream to dream, but the place is always in serious need of expensive repairs and I'm wondering if I was crazy to buy it.

 

[limpid lizard]

I have yet to have a dream about work, but then I have only been retired 16 months. Work was something I did to meet my responsibilties as spouse and parent. I was very good at what I did, but for the most part, on the way up I viewed my superiors as seriously flawed people more caught up in their own problems than aware of them. In 30 plus years I never had a mentor and only met one person that I thought I could train. In an economic shudder, they laid that person off and he found a much more lucrative career. I suppose that if one could just dream about the joy of leaving such a job, I would enjoy doing that.

The most common theme in my dreams is my ex. Whenever I am in a position where I have to make a serious decision that involves an interaction with another person, her visiting in my sleep lets me know that my subconscious thinks I am going to get raked over the coals. Sometimes I think I must be nuts to let a dream influence a financial decision, but nonetheless, I start looking for the hidden costs.

 

[rs0460a]

When I wor*ed, I would have dreams - very vivid, very negative, and I would remember them when I awoke.

Since I retired I either have one of two conditions:
1. I don't dream.
2. I have less stress, therefore I don't remember them.

Both conditions are much better than my "past" ...

- Ron

 

[Billy]

Haha

True that bosses are no fun, but I think it would hard to establish that a person with $2 million and current work skills and a job is not in a more secure and autonomous position than a person with $2 million and no job or current work skills.

I agree with Audrey’s response, even though I understand Ha's perspective.

Having freedom to do what one wants to do, having the self confidence to be able to describe and implement one’s self in terms other than one’s profession… priceless.

Money -- necessary, important, useful -- but not everything that life is made of, and not everything that life needs to be measured by.

RE: the dreams -- We owned a restaurant for a decade. These were some of the most stressful years of my life. The financial responsibility was enormous and the hours were long.

These days, I still have what I call my ‘restaurant dreams’ and they only come when I am stressed. Doesn’t matter what triggers the stress, my psyche responds by having a ‘restaurant dream.’ I have them less often, but they are always an accurate barometer of current pressure in my life.

Akaisha
Author, The Adventurer’s Guide to Early Retirement

 

[rs0460a]

We owned a restaurant for a decade. These were some of the most stressful years of my life. The financial responsibility was enormous and the hours were long.

Been there - done that (as a "family" business) ...

I'll be quite graphic in my opinion (it really sucked!)

Can't say more than that ...

- Ron