My Top 10 Recurring Dreams:
10) I’m falling.
9) I am suddenly reminded of a really cool car (or two) I bought in the past and somehow have since misplaced.
8) I’m crawling through the narrow crawlspaces of some old building.
7) I am back in high school, heading into an exam I suddenly realize I’ve failed to study for.
6) I’m in Tokyo.
5) I’m in a weirdly familiar Bizarro version of my hometown.
4) One of the dogs has gotten loose and I am scrambling to locate them.
3) I’m informed that because of a test I didn’t take back in high school, I never graduated and, as a result, all of my life’s accomplishments have been rendered null and void.
2) I am reunited with one of my past dogs after discovering they never really passed away and have been alive all along.
1) I’m in Vegas.
And you? What are some of your personal recurring dream scenarios?
Recurring dream themes:
— Living in my childhood home, as a 60-something adult, with my parents, sibs, and others
— Witnessing an airliner crash in the backyard or crop fields around the childhood home (never happened in real life)
— Once again parading with a street-samba group, as I did in the ‘90s
— Returning to Miami International Airport as an immigration inspector (my 1980–1982 job)
— Working with SG-1 at Cheyenne Mountain
I’ve had number 3 plenty of times. My version of 7 involves suddenly realizing that I haven’t been to class in years, or suddenly realizing that I haven’t been to an old job or a job I never had in years.
After my parents divorce I had nightmares for decades about them getting back together and me being the only person who recognized what a huge mistake that would be.
Your number 1 most is in Vegas? LOL
My dreams are mostly either sci-fi stuff, food/restaurants and friends invading my dreams.
My purse is stolen. This one is so annoying thinking about all the things I have to replace and worry about.
My car is stolen. But it’s never my current car. It is always an old one I had. I’m usually just standing there looking at the empty space where my car was parked. Another very annoying dream.
Or bad weather, including a tornado, hit where I am. (usually at work – a strange building I’ve never worked at before).
And of course, the dream I am in church sitting in front row, half naked, with nothing on above the waist. Why, why, why??? Do you know how embarrassing this one is?!!!
My recurring school dream is I can’t find my classroom. I have a big test. I haven’t been going to the class and never studied for the test or turned in any assignments, AND… I’m naked! I think the dream gods love to torture me.
Lately I have been dreaming about my parents, who are both deceased. In my dream they are back and mad at me for selling all their stuff. …ooops sorry…
I use to dream I was falling a lot when I was younger. That one stopped.
I worked as a teacher for many years, and a recurring dream is being unprepared to teach a class.
A variation on a standard theme!
Let me tell you about my dreams when I was a teenager or in my 20’s. (I dream A-LOT, sometimes multiple ones a night, and can remember most of them. At least for a day or two. I can wake up briefly then go back to sleep and continue the dream – if I want to.)
I use to dream I was running. Running, running, running. Mostly in open fields or down streets. I was usually being chased – by the police.
I use to dream I was trapped in a house, at night. It was dark and I could not find my way out.
I use to dream I was at my grandma’s house. She had an old house and I thought it was haunted. In reality, only the upstairs was actually haunted. I would not go up there at night, only during the day. The basement never bothered me. I would go to her house all the time in my dreams.
I use to dream someone was behind me and about to shoot me in the back. It would make my back physically stiffen and seize up and would wake me up every time.
My dreams are so entertaining. Some can be a horror show. When I have a bad dream, I wonder if I am screaming out loud, and if the neighbors can hear me. Sometimes I realize I am just dreaming and can wake myself up to stop it. Sometimes I can control it and make it end the way I want it to. Most of the time I’m just along for the ride…
Ah, lucid dreaming.
I have a lot of overlap with your list, but I’ve also had this one where I’m trapped on a high floor of a building with no stairs, only an open elevator shaft with no car in it, just a dark hole and it looks like the only escape is to jump down into the void.
Interesting.
You’ve got a great memory for dreams. Do you write them down when you wake up?
I’ve certainly had the test I haven’t prepared for dream and falling perhaps more than once, but generally I don’t know that I have recurring dreams. I don’t often remember them.
Cheers, Chev
I rarely remember my dreams but when I do, they’re very familiar.
I’ve had 2, 3, 4 and 10. Here are the dreams I remember the most:
I’m back in college and have no clue what classes I’m taking or my major.
Frankenstein’s monster is chasing me.
We lost our home in ? and we’re back living in a previous crappy apartment/house. I hate that one.
(this one is the weirdest) I’m walking with a group of survivors of in a post world wide disaster and I find a “piece of the sun” on the ground. Yeah, I don’t understand that one either.
Oh and speaking of world wide disasters, I’m reading “Lucifer’s Hammer” (I had the dream before reading this). Have you read it? It’s good but very depressing.
Our warm temps have gone. Back to wearing long pants and sweat shirts. ☹️
Loved Lucifer’s Hammer.
A piece of the sun?
I’ve had Gilder’s plane crash in fields behind childhood home dream. I only had it once, but since someone else had it, too, that’s a recurrence.
My dreams are often influenced by what I’ve watched or read that day and involve the characters. They may flow from one fictional setting to another. I often know it’s a dream, but that doesn’t make it lucid.
I also dream about having more cats than we actually do and having to keep track of them and remember to feed all of them. It’s “our house” but it doesn’t look like any house we’ve ever had and is always different. Sometimes there are tunnels for the cats to get lost in. I also get anxiety dreams about feeding goldfish the right amount on time and recording everything I want to record from various channels, of which there are far more, and far more shows airing at the same time, than in reality, although it’s been years since we had goldfish or VHS tapes.
Sometimes I’ve had a dream where two of the shows I watched (ex. Once Upon a Time and Agents of SHIELD) were definitely, 100% confirmed to be having a crossover, and then when I woke up I realized it wasn’t true. Those were ones where I didn’t know I was dreaming.
I can often fly in my dreams, and I have no fear of heights like I do in real life. The same’s not true when I dream about huge spiral staircases on either side inside a big important building I’m in, though.
The only Doctor Who episodes that have given me nightmares are “Blink” and “Listen”. The dementors from Harry Potter used to appear in my nightmares. When I was a very little kid, I was afraid of the Jabberwock and, especially, the Big Bad Wolf (which is a character I object to now because real-life wolves aren’t bad at all).
I’ve never had dreams about academic failure. I’ve almost never experienced it in reality, so maybe it’s just not something it would occur to me to be afraid of. I’ve felt publicly naked and exposed in dreams, though (even though that’s never happened to me in reality either), albeit in a minor way.