Do Work Nightmares Ever End?

[Midpack]

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

 

[Alan]

I stopped dreaming about work immediately after retiring and I also stopped napping during the day and evening.

I had plenty of bad work experiences to have nightmares about so I have been very pleasantly surprised to leave it all behind, apparently for good as I am in my 12th year of retirement.

 

[lesjrp]

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

I have very strange dreams in the morning which I think is my brain is telling me to get up. Especially after having waken up earlier, and started listening to a book on tape. Then my I fall asleep at some point and my dream won’t shut up because it’s the guy talking on the book on tape but saying something different. The dreams know how to irritate me, so I eventually get up.

 

[RobbieB]

Never dreamt about work when I was working. And guess what?

 

[CoolRich59]

I'm lucky in that I never had w*rk dreams either before or after retiring.

On the other hand, w*rk was often a nightmare in and of itself.

 

[Franklin]

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

Hello Midpack. you are not alone. I have those dreams (usually a crisis at work) and my sleep doctor says they are common. Had one last week and it covered "everything that could have went wrong went wrong".

 

[marko]

RE'd 15+ years ago and still have the occasional dream. Odd because I seldom think of work anymore.

I spent 200 days a year for 30 years travelling internationally and all of my work dreams are about wandering around in five star hotels: lobbies, suites, ballrooms, dining rooms and hallways, prepping for a meeting, looking for a room and such. Nightmares? No.

 

[Amethyst]

I have literally never dreamed about the actual work I did.

Have had a very small number of dreams in an office setting, but really about something else, e.g. family matters.

Never dreamt about work when I was working. And guess what?

 

[geeky_grrl]

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

 

[skyking1]

I never really had nightmares when I was doing construction in the dirt, but any amount of rain that I could hear in the night would keep me awake worrying about what that was doing to my job.
A few years ago I took on a crane job in Seattle that was just not rain sensitive in the least, other than me getting a little wet
It wasn't very long that I could sleep right through a rain because I no longer had that mentality of worrying about mud.
So I guess I can relate to your story midpack.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I do have some dreams about work. Once I had a very vivid dream that went into work on a Monday and my boss said didn't you read your emails over the weekend, you were supposed to be on plane to Hong Kong right now for some crisis. Then I woke up and was glad to be retired and have control over my own time. Even though that actually never happened, close enough stuff did.

I also still have dreams about forgetting to go to class or not completing assignments in college.

 

[W2R]

I stopped dreaming about work immediately after retiring and I also stopped napping during the day and evening.

I had plenty of bad work experiences to have nightmares about so I have been very pleasantly surprised to leave it all behind, apparently for good as I am in my 12th year of retirement.

Same here, except that now, I do often take a brief nap in the late afternoon. Never napped until after retirement.

 

[Amethyst]

These dreams plagued me for years until around age 50. There I was, facing an exam, never having attended class, wondering how the heck I was going to study for an entire semester in the next 10 minutes.

Suddenly, I realized, "Hey! You're 50 years old, you have a good job and a Master's degree. You don't need this stupid class!" and promptly walked out. Never had that dream again.

I also still have dreams about forgetting to go to class or not completing assignments in college.

 

[steelyman]

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

I still show up for final exams after never attending the class (!).

 

[old medic]

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.

 

[old medic]

The unfortunate truth is that my work nightmares will follow me to my grave. I have worked hard at finding acceptance to the outcome of to many bad situations, and am sure there will be a few more to add to the pile.

 

[Car-Guy]

The frequent nightmares about work, quit about the 1st week after I retired. Actually I think it was after the 2nd or 3rd day.

 

[Aerides]

While I was working, I'd have the occasional restaurant-waitress nightmare (you have 12 tables, haven't even put their orders in, everyone is getting mad, you don't even know what their orders were...) all that from having spent maybe 18 months doing that decades ago.

ETA: it's a known thing, the waiter's nightmare: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=waiter's nightmare

Now I'm retired, I occasionally have old job work dreams, but never a nightmare. A little lucid too, like I'm aware I've retired (or I'm about to) so why am I there? Why am I getting on this plane... why did I take on this project if I'm not really working... stuff like that.

 

[scrabbler1]

Like DayLate and geeky_grrl, I have more recently had nightmares about my days as a college student back in the 1980s than I have had work nightmares.

 

[Walt34]

I've been retired for 19 years (this July it'll be 20) and the ONLY time I've ever had work-related dreams or nightmares is when somebody on this forum starts a new thread on the subject.

 

[Plantman]

I have work dreams about once a week and college dreams a couple of times a year. A lot of them don't turn out well. I hate them but I don't know how to stop them.

 

[WestUniversity]

So far mine haven’t stopped and I’m 2 plus years in. Dreams always have the same elements, late for a meeting, agreed to request to consult after retirement, meetings with my supervisor, moves to new offices, ever changing deadlines, etc., etc., etc.

I have a whole new understanding for veterans and PTSD nightmares. While I’m simply reliving issues with my job, they relive battles involving life and death and images I can’t even begin to imagine. From what I have read it’s stress related. My main reason for retirement was stress related health problems.

My dreams are about 3 to 4 nights a week. My hope and prayer is that given enough time and distance they will decrease or diminish completely…

 

[tmm99]

My work nightmare stopped a couple of years after I retired. My new nightmare - I'm talking with a group of people in a crowded place and suddenly realize that I have no mask on...

 

[donheff]

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.

 

[audreyh1]

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