Do Work Nightmares Ever End?

[WestUniversity]

It may have been 15 years or so before they really went away.

Ugh…

 

[Ronstar]

I’ve only had a few nights where I’ve dreamt about work. Once last week where I woke up thinking I had to go to work. It took several minutes for reality to set in.

 

[Redbugdave]

It's been 7 years and on rare occasions have a work dream/nightmare. It feels good to wake up to reality. Funny thing...being awake I look back and those work days seem like a dream. Did I really do that?

 

[audreyh1]

Ugh…

Well at least the frequency kept reducing during that time.

Yes, waking up is such a relief!

 

[Midpack]

It may have been 15 years or so before they really went away.

So only five more years to go.

Mine are some completely unsolvable problem, it’s like hitting my head on a brick wall over and over and over. I’ll never understand why my brain does that to me, but again it’s only a couple times a year now…

 

[jollystomper]

I guess I am fortunate, the nature of much of my job made all of my work-related dreams pleasant .

 

[Lsbcal]

So only five more years to go.

Mine are some completely unsolvable problem, it’s like hitting my head on a brick wall over and over and over. I’ll never understand why my brain does that to me, but again it’s only a couple times a year now…

I will now put on my psych hat.
/Psych hat on

Your issue is anxiety about something else in your life. Your brain decides to pull up a known situation where such anxieties actually played out. So you have to go and solve the anxiety situation you have now.

/Psych hat off

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

I still occasionally have college dreams. The ones where I have missed a bunch of classes and can't find the room where the final exams are scheduled. Always very disturbing.

I had a work dream something like that. I dreamt that I'd been AWOL from the job for weeks or months, but nobody seemed to care. When I finally did show up, there wasn't anything for me to do. I was still getting paid. I wasn't frantic or even worried -- just uncertain what my status was. Weird.

 

[Gumby]

I did not have dreams about work when I was working, and that pleasant state of affairs has continued in retirement.

 

[RetireeRobert]

Never really had nightmares about work after I retired. I did have some recurring dreams where I was back at work, doing some project I didn't really want to do, and either knowing I could walk away at any time, or a few times my dream was I actually used most of the project budget up and then "did" walk away and leave them in the lurch! After awhile though, even that recurring w*rk dream quit, and it has been years since I dreamt about anything w*rk related.

 

[yhoomajor]

I get both - college nightmares and work related nightmares.

Typical college nightmares are that semester finals are almost here and I haven't attended most classes and now I am scrambling to figure out which books to study, on exam day

Work related nightmares are almost every other day: sometimes a better solution to difficult problem at hand - I get the better solution in my semi-sleeping (nightmare)mode dreaming about work and that wakes me up.

Oh well. life is adventurous, in different ways for different people

 

[rk911]

It’s rare, but I still have dreams a couple times a year where I’m still in a horrific crisis at work. After almost 10 years, I’d think that would’ve ended by now. Again, it’s rare, but still

coming up on 16-yrs for me and i still have occasional work dreams (no nightmRes, though).

 

[audreyh1]

I still occasionally have college dreams. The ones where I have missed a bunch of classes and can't find the room where the final exams are scheduled. Always very disturbing.

Yeah I had those dreams for a long time too!

 

[skyking1]

The unfortunate truth is my work nightmares will follow me to my grave. I have worked hard at excepting the outcome of to many bad situations, and pretty sure there will be a few more added to pile before the end of the year.

I don't do your job, but I have been put into some situations. Thank you for doing this work and sorry for your burden.

 

[Helen]

I never had work nightmares. I still have college ones occasionally even though that was 25 years ago.

I seldom remember my dreams. I woke up this morning panicked because I realized I wasn't going to graduate from college. I received by BS in 1982 and retired in 2013

 

[RetireeRobert]

Thinking of dream/nightmares, I did for years, even into my forties, have nightmares about college and upcoming finals and not being prepared. And sometimes of being short of credits so that I wouldn't graduate when I was supposed to. Then having to come back in the Fall and the needed classes were not offered, making graduation not possible.

Nightmares no doubt from the real life circumstances of getting a letter the summer after my senior year that "I would not graduate" because my grade average for math classes was 2.4 and math majors needed to have a 2.5 in university math classes to graduate with that BS Math degree!

I will be forever grateful to my Dad. Upon hearing this news he called the dean of the math department at the University for a meeting. My Dad basically threw my case on the mercy of the court, the Dean. The Dean had been ill-disposed to my Dad's pleadings, and saying all I had to do was come back in Fall and take one or two math courses to get that grade average up to the required 2.5. My Dad pleaded I might not have the chance to come back (Vietnam war and draft in full force at the time). But at the last minute, almost as an aside, my Dad mentioned how I had very good grades in the community college math classes which credit had transferred to the university, but they did "not" figure into the math classes grade average. I had gone to community college for two years, and the math classes I took there did not count into the university's grade average (a situation clearly spelled out in university materials). But the Dean took pity and said "Maybe that is a way around it". A few weeks later I got my BS degree in math.

That college degree led to the very prosperous life I have since led, to my ability to retire early, and to my fortunate circumstances now in retirement. And it all followed that almost accidental and last minute aside remark my Dad made to the Dean.

A real pivot point in life. I often wonder how my life would have turned out except for my Dad's going to bat for me.

 

[old medic]

I don't do your job, but I have been put into some situations. Thank you for doing this work and sorry for your burden.

Thanks.... I don't really consider it a burden... I look at it as an Honor, Helps with the perspective. I actually am more concerned about my sleep pattern than my dreams. I have work 12 hour rotating shifts for over 30 years, and get to nap on nights... AKA jet lag every week... so I can get a 4 hour nap and run another 24 hours... Its rare for me to sleep 6 hours straight. most off nights Im wide awake 1-3 in the morning....
Even thought about finding a 9-5 job for a while to try and rest myself...

 

[WestUniversity]

Well at least the frequency kept reducing during that time.

Yes, waking up is such a relief!

I’m ready for them to stop but so far no end in sight. Oh well, when I wake up I’m back to being a happily retired individual with plenty of things I WANT to do…

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I used to occasionally have dreams involving work, usually something like I'm traveling and can't find any of my clothes in the hotel room and my plane is leaving in ten minutes. Or maybe a dream about work people, which is not surprising since they were the folks I saw day in and day out. But now, over four years later, that has stopped (thank goodness!).

 

[sengsational]

Never had work dreams. Exam day without attending class, yes, very occasionally.

The college one that's related is that I know it's a certain day of the week, and I know I have classes, but don't have a copy of my schedule, so don't know where the class meets.

Most of my dreams are not tense, but if they are, it's usually because I'm looking for something and not able to find it. These seem to be more rare now that I punctuate my waking hours with many intervals of mindfulness. If I do remember a dream, I grade myself on my reactions to the dream situation. Rarely get a "A", often an "F", but I think my GPA has been steadily increasing.

It's like lucid dreaming: you must make a lot of effort while awake to get a change while sleeping.

 

[scrabbler1]

Typical college nightmares are that semester finals are almost here and I haven't attended most classes and now I am scrambling to figure out which books to study, on exam day

My last college nightmare was about my not being ready for a final exam..........BUT I had already dropped the class months earlier!

 

[pacergal]

I am sure I dream, but I do not remember them anymore.

I don't remember ever having a work dream/nightmare, but do remember the occasional school one where I forgot to study!
And, when I was younger, I seemed to have the "falling one a cliff" one frequently--where I had the sensation of falling and woke up just before landing/hitting the ground. Hated that one!

 

[homestead]

I blame this thread for my dream last night. I went to the university store in my dream and bought a large package of new ibm cards.

 

[tenant13]

Interestingly, my work related nightmares followed me from my youth days of being a waiter: it was always about being alone on the floor, the door opening and the restaurant instantly filling up with a mob of hungry diners. If I was particularly stressed out, the dream would throw in additional curves: large tables of 10 or more people, drunk kitchen staff or me forgetting an order. This lasted for years, well into my real career (which gave me no nightmares - real or imaginary).

 

[Dalmore]

I've been "Out of Office" for 11 months now and I find that I dream about my old work environment all the time, very vividly. What I've come to realize is that I have always dreamt about work, but the memories of the dreams blurred with the reality of being in the office. I still dream about my first career, working in a paper mill, and that was over 25 years ago. This is why I don't trust lawsuits based on "repressed" memories, sometimes it is hard to distinguish memory of reality and memory of dreams.