Dreams about work

[Amethyst]

I had those "finals" dreams for years, along with "naked in public" and "evil car that won't respond to the brake." All are said to be based on the fear of losing control.
In my 50's, for whatever reason - I started having clapback dreams, where I a) reminded myself that I had a master's degree and a good job and didn't need to take any $#!) finals; b) calmly put on some clothing and walked away; c) told the car it had better straighten out, or I'd sell it to the scrap man.
None of these dreams has returned.

I graduated from college in 1977 and had the “ forgot I registered for a class and it is finals week” nightmare for decades. Probably have not had it for 5 years now. My twist was that it was my last semester of college and I needed the class to graduate. The class was always high level math, my worst subject and no way to B.S. your way through the final. Just awful!

 

[blueskyk]

I never had a name for the clap back dream!...at some point in my bad dream travels, I recall thinking “this isn’t really working for me” and began imagining different twists to them (during waking hours).
The next time I found myself in a dream at Sears trying to purchase a refrigerator and suddenly realizing, “hey, somehow I forgot to put on clothes”, I calmly looked at the salesman and said, “Whoa Dude, you are seriously overdressed”... I can’t really recall a bad dream after that.
I don’t seems to be a big dreamer but weirdly, the other night I dreamed Mark Zuckerberg handed me a blank check and said I could spend it on whatever I thought was useful. I thought for a moment and replied, “I don’t think this is going to go well because I think it would be super useful to make Facebook disappear- that s*** isn’t helping anybody”. I handed him back the check and then realized, Wait! WTF! I was given a whole life to live and could make all kinds of choices about it - I won the lottery!!!

 

[athena53]

"Forgot to go to class" would be generous in my dream, Mine was more like skipped class for the whole semester. At finals my problem is I can't even remember where the class meets. Had it for decades. I agree that somebody must have done some research on this.

My question for others who have/had this dream is do you or did you also suffer from the impostor syndrome.

Yes, those were my dreams! Before ER I had the classic "showing up in my nightgown to work" dreams. Six years out from ER, I still occasionally get the college ones. Skipped classes, never bought the book, fallen hopelessly behind.. and I was a diligent student. I'm always relieved to wake up and remind myself that I have a degree. The only post-ER work one I remember was when I had a new job, couldn't find my desk, didn't know what my objectives were, etc.

Hadn't heard of the impostor syndrome but I wouldn't be surprised if, deep down, that was behind my dreams.

 

[JoeWras]

One variant I had on the finals dream was one of defiance. I knew I blew off class, and now it was time to pay the piper. I believe this would be a type of "imposter syndrome" mentioned above.

I've never had the naked dream, and it isn't because I'm comfortable being naked -- I'm not. I only had the "brakes out" dream once or twice. My dad was terrorized by this regularly. I think his generation had it more because the technology wasn't as developed as today (dual master cylinder, braided brake lines) and "brakes out" was a very real possibility back then. Not so much today.

So I did a search about "The Dream" and here an author from Psychology Today says there is no known research about it! She has hypothesis about the dream in the linked article.

Maybe I should go back to school and do research on this. Oh wait, that would mine final exams. Never mind.

 

[donheff]

I forgot to mention my post retirement OMY work dreams. I had a common one where I was hired back by the head of HR (who was my deputy when I was head of HR). It was supposed to be part time but it kept going full time and I never did any work. I would constantly think that I didn't need this and should just quit but I kept going for years. The same dream popped up occasionally for years but I haven't had it lately. I had similar dreams about smoking after I quit 40 years ago. I would dream that I had a relapse after 3 or 4 years and now had to start over from scratch.

 

[Badger]

Although it has been 50 years since undergrad, I once (maybe more but I can't remember) dreamed of forgetting the Organic Chemistry final and arrived with only 30 minutes left and unprepared. It just about put me in a cold sweat as I woke up. That was quite a few years ago and it still is vivid. I usually forget dreams about 5 minutes after I wake up. Not sure why I had the dream since I did well in Organic Chem. I never had a dream about grad school and only had a couple about work but they weren't bad.



Cheers!

 

[Car-Guy]

I can't recall the last time I had a dream about work but they are few and far between these days. Of course I've been retired almost 10 years now soooo. I do recall having dreams (nightmares) about work while I was still on the job.

 

[REWahoo]

Retired for 15 years and I still have the occasional work dream.

 

[sengsational]

The "evil car, brakes out"...had a laugh at that one! My driving dream, which has a brake idea going on, is where I'm somehow responsible for driving, but I'm not in the driver's seat (so can't reach the brakes). I'm always amazed at how the car manages to stay on the road, hehehe! As technology advances, it will become less amazing, I suppose.

If you can recreate a similar situation while awake, you can "take control" while dreaming.

For example, if you sometimes dream that you enter a room and the lights don't work, think "what if the lights don't come on" before you flip the switch during the day. Make it a habit. Then the habit might happen during a dream and you can "call BS" on the situation (lucid dreaming). There are tons of techniques you practice while awake that increase chances of becoming lucid. My issue is keeping engaged enough to remain lucid (or you fall out if lucidity...back to traditional sleep), but too much excitement and you wake up. My most successful transition scenario is realizing I'm under water, looking at coral or reef fish, and feeling myself breathing (without scuba equipment). Easy transition to lucidity. I have the "lights don't work" all the time, but I don't practice during the day so that one doesn't have a great success rate.

 

[O2Bfree]

I had similar dreams about smoking after I quit 40 years ago. I would dream that I had a relapse after 3 or 4 years and now had to start over from scratch.

I quit when I was 27 and still get that dream occassionally at 58. Stores around here used to sell single cigarettes, and I dream about going to the store to get "just one smoke". But they don't sell singles anymore so I buy a whole pack, intending to smoke one and toss the rest. Then I know I'm in trouble because I want another and I realize I won't toss the pack because a pack of smokes is around $8 here and I'm too cheap to waste them.

The next time I found myself in a dream at Sears trying to purchase a refrigerator and suddenly realizing, “hey, somehow I forgot to put on clothes”, I calmly looked at the salesman and said, “Whoa Dude, you are seriously overdressed”

I don't have trouble with the naked in public dream either. In fact, I'm usually trying to take my clothes OFF and saunter around naked. Must be a streaker at heart!

 

[pacergal]

I have not remembered any dreams for the last several years, hopefully I am getting proper sleep--lol.
I have had the "failure" dreams--in high school and realizing I didn't have enough credits to graduate a week before end of year and in college with the exam one.
The ones I hated when I was quite young, were of falling off a cliff and waking just before I hit bottom, heart racing and having difficulty breathing! Not Fun.

If I do have any of those dreams (nightmares?), it is usually associated with stress or being unable to control something going on in my life.

 

[Amethyst]

I had those sometimes, scary. Also flying dreams, not at all scary.
Both disappeared by age 9, probably as puberty approached. I think they could be remnants of infancy (babies are said to instinctively fear falling).
The reason I recall so much about dreams, is that my family would describe and discuss our dreams with great interest. I had one when I was 8 that everyone teased me about for years, because it involved weird machines with funny names.
My dad had the evil car dream, too, and he loved cars.

The ones I hated when I was quite young, were of falling off a cliff and waking just before I hit bottom, heart racing and having difficulty breathing! Not Fun.

.

 

[W2R]

I never have those "naked in public" or "I forgot about a class at university" dreams.

Instead, I used to have dreams about falling from outer space to earth. Sometimes it is from the Space Shuttle, and the worst one was when I was driving in a mountainous area, went around a blind curve and my car unexpectedly went over a cliff and suddenly I was in outer space, falling, and knowing these were my last moments. I haven't had a dream like this for a long time, though.

Oh, and also sometimes I dream about the (real) time I was a half hour late for my thermodynamics final exam due to zero available parking spots on the entire Texas A&M campus at that moment in time, apparently.... That was awful but (in real life) the professor let me work a few minutes longer to make up for it, after everyone else had to quit. So, it all worked out and I got my B.

 

[Rocket Man]

As a follow up, I have never had the work dreams or the naked in public dreams. However, reading the other posts, I was reminded of the other recurrent nightmare I used to have other than the college exam. It is a variation of the car brake scenario. In my nightmare I am driving too fast down an unknown road and I get to a tight curve with not enough time to slow down, so I am about to roll the car on the curve and go off the road into oblivion. That is when I wake up, in a panic. ( and I am always a very conservative driver)

 

[Gumby]

I occasionally have dreams in which I am flying. I just lean into the wind and fly like a kite. They are quite enjoyable dreams.

 

[JoeWras]

( and I am always a very conservative driver)

There's your problem.

I'm convinced we get these dreams to reinforce the terrible "what if" scenario that we would never follow. Good drivers get bad brakes. Great students get final exams out of nowhere. Etc.

Bad students and crazy drivers have dreams about something else.

 

[Amethyst]

I was taught in Psych 101 that our subconscious mind uses dreams to communicate with us, trying to help or preserve us. It's you, talking to you. It can only communicate with symbols, though it sometimes manages a few words (usually nonsense) or even a musical tune. You (conscious you) have to work out what the symbols mean. From person to person, the same symbol might mean something different, and the message can have many levels.

 

[Koolau]

Surely some doctoral student has done a thesis on this, right? This crazy dream is so pervasive, it has to say something about the human condition.

I had that dream up to 10 years after college finished. And reading this thread, I know I'm not the only one.

Who do you know actually "forgot" to go to class, but suddenly remembered last day? Nobody, right? You know people who intentionally didn't go to class though. I knew a few.

But this "I forgot I had a class and suddenly remembered during finals week" is just crazy crap, yet so consistent among students.

I not only have had this dream BUT I almost DID IT. I was in some sort of situational depression (thought I was flunking a class in my LAST semester at university - it really messed with my head.) SO, I was preparing for a final (in that flunking class) when my best buddy at school REMINDED me that we also had a LAST TEST before the final. I had forgotten that and had not planned to attend - nor had I studied for it specifically. Can you imagine? As it was, I just barely passed the course - a very long and nightmarish story in and of itself (think in terms of it being the era of the draft for cannon fodder in VN.) So, yes, I'm betting it has been done, but YMMV.

 

[LRDave]

Over the course of 1.5 years retired, I've had many work dreams. They are evolving, though. I am encouraged that at the end of most of these work dreams, I realize I am retired and don't need to work. I hope that means these dreams will diminish.

As with many others on this thread, I still often have university dreams of forgetting something major or being unprepared for some major exam/event. Pretty amazing how universal this dream is in western society.

 

[easysurfer]

I still have dreams of work but not as much as when I first FIRE'd. Also, in the dream, I'm more aware that I've retired as usually that's what happens as I wake up.

A former team member/supervisor is often in the dream. I think because earlier in my career were in in the trenches together on several projects. Sadly, I found out that the person passed away earlier in the year. That knowledge has come a a few times in the dreams. So, the psychological explanation is my mind is sorting that out. A spiritual explanation is that's an after death communication (ADC). Take your pick .

 

[mystang52]

Work and college dreams still occur on occasion; I wouldn't quite call them nightmares but the dreams are stressful. But I have a recurring dream about no brakes with a slight variation. I'm moving the car in reverse and can't get the car to stop even if I try to put the car in Drive. I'm sure there's some Freudian element at play.

 

[easysurfer]

Work and college dreams still occur on occasion; I wouldn't quite call them nightmares but the dreams are stressful. But I have a recurring dream about no brakes with a slight variation. I'm moving the car in reverse and can't get the car to stop even if I try to put the car in Drive. I'm sure there's some Freudian element at play.

Not related to work but I have a recurring out of control driving dream. In the dream, my view is of my car up in a distance and I try to control the car using a remote control. But I see the car getting closer and closer to other vehicles and gaining speed. Often the car wipes out .

 

[davebarnes]

I dream that I am in quarterly sales meeting and I have not sold a single item (average sales price of $250K) in 2 years, but I have not been fired.
Everyone treats me normally. Just weird.

 

[foxfirev5]

I occasionally have dream about forgetting about my sophomore Physics classes until the last week of the semester, then not remembering where they were. However it's not much of a dream since it actually happened. I was not in a good place in 1975.

Heck the first time I saw Animal House I thought it was a documentary film. Just remember there's still time to change the path you're on. As I digress.

 

[RobbieB]

I have never ever dreamed about work. Never. Work stress has kept me awake more than a few times, but has never popped up in dreams.