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Posted on 07/23/2024 9:12:58 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Dreams are absurd and unpredictable. However, while we each have our unique dream experiences, there’s a lot of commonality in what we dream about. Many of us share the same feelings of desire, nostalgia, and stress that are often the root cause of so many dreams — but why do we often get the same dream repeatedly? Here are the most common recurring dreams and what they might mean.
Credit: shapecharge/ iStock
More than 50% of people experience these unpleasant dreams. Being chased in a dream may mean you’re avoiding something important in real life, or that you’re refusing to accept something you disagree with. If you’re the one doing the chasing, it may mean you feel like you’re falling behind in life and need to catch up.
Being transported back to school just in time for an exam you’re unprepared for is a common recurring dream. This situation usually represents real-life deadlines, which manifest as exams in the dream world. If you feel anxious about a work project or an upcoming major life event, that sense of unpreparedness can creep into your dreams.
Falling is one of the most common recurring dreams. It often indicates a deep sensation of helplessness. If you feel powerless at your job or like you’re losing control of your personal life, you’re more likely to experience a dream where you’re falling. If the falling is accidental — such as tripping off a cliff — then that may relate to a lack of stability and security.
Dreams are as personal to the person in question. I don’t believe that the symbols in your dreams can be generalized to fit other people.
I have always been a vivid dreamer, and remember my dreams most of the time. So I’m often interested in dreaming information.
I’m still being haunted by dreams of having to take a math test and it’s been many years since high school! Second most common dream, I’m lost in an endless corridor of rooms that keep winding around and around and I have to get somewhere but I can’t.
I dream of past jobs.I’m retired now but I dream of working where I used to 30 and 40 years ago. and of where I worked just 3 years ago.
Nightmares in other words. (just kidding)
So it's a mix of fun, adventure, and great anxiety as things don't ever work out entirely as planned.
I have a strange recurring dream. My car is out of control and I open the door and drag my foot to slow the car. The road grinds off my foot up to the ankle. That’s when I usually wake up. Had this dream off and on for 70 years.
Over the years I have learned that I can stop having bad dreams while I’m in the middle of them. I just remind myself that it’s a dream, not reality, and that I can wake up and stop the bad that’s around me. It works.
Only one of the dreams listed do I have commonly. The “unprepared for a test” dream. And I haven’t taken a test in 40 years. :)
That sounds like a metaphor for life feeling out of control.
Same with me. And when I wake up I'm very glad I'm retired. :)
Do you do a lot of organizing where things don’t go the way you hope they would?
I have two versions of the same recurring dream/nightmare.
In one I am in my underwear and far from home and hiding so nobody sees me in my underwear as I try to get back home.
In the other I find myself on foot on deserted streets in a really bad neighborhood late at night and am trying to get home alive with no one seeing me.
This piece reads like a freshman paper in Psych 101
That may be the source.
I’m back in College and I’m missing classes and even possibly tests because the Campus is so huge it is easy to get lost.
I will sometimes start dreaming the moment my head hits the pillow and I’m in a halfway wake states. Often I end up dreaming, during that state, of the creepiest and crawliest insects or reptiles you can imagine eating each other.
It is often vivid enough that I can’t stay in bed and have to get out at all costs.
Total pseudo science but enjoyable topic.
I don’t really have dreams much, or remember them.
I’ve never had any of those type of dreams... All my dreams are fun and interesting, so much so, I always wish I hadn’t woken up out of them. I feel like that ‘s a real blessing.
I had the exam dream numerous times for decades after I finished school - the key feature in my case was that I’d been cutting the course all term long, and didn’t even know the date of the final exam until I’d already missed showing up for it.
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