Recurring dreams

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Gaz{M}

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I need your tips on how to deal with or eliminate recurring dreams.

For me, it's always the same dream. I'm at University and I haven't attended any lectures the whole year and the big exam is coming up in a few days (usually Maths 2 or something very difficult and complicated that I couldn't possibly learn in a few days). I have had this dream now 3 nights in a row this week. It is tiring and stressful and takes a big emotional toll on me. When I wake up eventually, I feel so irritated because I realise I have had a job now for nearly 15 years and haven't written an exam for as long!

Has anyone else had this dream and what did you do to stop it?
 
Gaz{M} said:
I need your tips on how to deal with or eliminate recurring dreams.

For me, it's always the same dream. I'm at University and I haven't attended any lectures the whole year and the big exam is coming up in a few days (usually Maths 2 or something very difficult and complicated that I couldn't possibly learn in a few days). I have had this dream now 3 nights in a row this week. It is tiring and stressful and takes a big emotional toll on me. When I wake up eventually, I feel so irritated because I realise I have had a job now for nearly 15 years and haven't written an exam for as long!

Has anyone else had this dream and what did you do to stop it?
Click to expand...
Are you sure you aren't me? I'm really familiar with that particular dream - even down to the Maths II exam :laugh:
It's a symptom of stress/anxiety in general, the sleeping brain latching onto something which makes the most sense to it at the time, rather than trying to unravel all the comlpex or hidden causes for stress.
Best I can tell you is to tackle your mental and emotional health. Routine nightly meditation, a little extra exercise and a great deal of introspection has helped me.
 
I think you have something that you need to complete (a task, job or whatever). So your stressed and its playing on your subconscious part of your brain (maybe you associated with stress during exams way back when). Get whatever is causing stress done, go exercise in the evenings or ask your doctor for some sleeping pills.

Puts away Dr.Phil glasses
 
As far as i understand and have experienced it, dreams are your way of filing thoughts/memories and dealing with matters that are prevalent in your life.

There have been times when work was so busy i ended up dreaming about network issues and unhappy clients.
Currently the only dreams that disturbed me was the re-occurring where my kids were in danger and I was helpless to protect them.
After getting another dog, increasing security barriers around the house/etc, I now sleep like a baby with no more bad dreams :-)
 
Aquila ka Hecate said:
Are you sure you aren't me? I'm really familiar with that particular dream - even down to the Maths II exam :laugh:
It's a symptom of stress/anxiety in general, the sleeping brain latching onto something which makes the most sense to it at the time, rather than trying to unravel all the comlpex or hidden causes for stress.
Best I can tell you is to tackle your mental and emotional health. Routine nightly meditation, a little extra exercise and a great deal of introspection has helped me.
Click to expand...

It is so bizaare that my brain has nothing recent to latch onto, and only remember the exam stress as the worst thing ever.

S.Claus said:
I think you have something that you need to complete (a task, job or whatever). So your stressed and its playing on your subconscious part of your brain (maybe you associated with stress during exams way back when). Get whatever is causing stress done, go exercise in the evenings or ask your doctor for some sleeping pills.

Puts away Dr.Phil glasses
Click to expand...

I do have a lot of unusual tasks/chores to complete at the moment. But they are not due to a lack of preparation or learning, so it is strange that the exam is the "reference" material. At least I'm managing to sleep quite well. It's just the dreams that are so draining.
 
OCP said:
As far as i understand and have experienced it, dreams are your way of filing thoughts/memories and dealing with matters that are prevalent in your life.

There have been times when work was so busy i ended up dreaming about network issues and unhappy clients.
Currently the only dreams that disturbed me was the re-occurring where my kids were in danger and I was helpless to protect them.
After getting another dog, increasing security barriers around the house/etc, I now sleep like a baby with no more bad dreams :)
Click to expand...

Security worries definitely tax parents. I too have had much better sleep since upgrading my security system and adding cameras. Now bumps in the night are less alarming.
 
Gaz{M} said:
It is so bizaare that my brain has nothing recent to latch onto, and only remember the exam stress as the worst thing ever.

I do have a lot of unusual tasks/chores to complete at the moment. But they are not due to a lack of preparation or learning, so it is strange that the exam is the "reference" material. At least I'm managing to sleep quite well. It's just the dreams that are so draining.
Click to expand...
Perhaps that period of your life is anchored to something and that something was triggered recently? It may help to keep a daily journal of everything you think, do, eat etc.
 
mercurial said:
Perhaps that period of your life is anchored to something and that something was triggered recently? It may help to keep a daily journal of everything you think, do, eat etc.
Click to expand...

Very insightful - anchoring. My parents are visiting, and they are heavily associated with that time of my life...Mmmmm.
 
I have a similar one where my marks got lost and I have to go back to my high school to redo my A Levels, just typing this and I feel a wave of dread spread through me, weird.....

Anyway dream interpretation is a "contested" idea to put it politely, don't read much into the actual dream, focus on sorting the insomnia and restlessness.
 
ScottulusMaximus said:
I have a similar one where my marks got lost and I have to go back to my high school to redo my A Levels, just typing this and I feel a wave of dread spread through me, weird.....

Anyway dream interpretation is a "contested" idea to put it politely, don't read much into the actual dream, focus on sorting the insomnia and restlessness.
Click to expand...
Agreed, interpreting dreams to "mean something" isn't scientific, but as people have said, the emotions or anxiety is the link it seems. Not the actual content or story so much.

Sympathy on the wave of dread. It sucks. Brain, why you so uncool, bro?!
 
According to most psychologists who specialise in dreams, the Unconscious is a symbolic processor. It's not the literal meaning of the content but the symbolic or representational meaning that needs to be uncovered. That meaning lurks in the Unconscious, so it's not directly accessible - if it were it wouldn't be unconscious. It is common cause amongst psychologists (my wife is a ClinPsych) that what pops into the conscious is a disguised and symbolic representation of what's really going on in the Unconscious.

For that reason it's very unlikely that the recurring maths exam dream has anything to do with a maths exam. Rather, as is normal, you have some or other unresolved issue/s, and your brain is testing and trying pathways and mechanisms to resolve & integrate those conflicts by modelling along paths it had previously used (such as your ancient maths exam). What the symbolic representation of the maths exam actually means can be very individual, and that can take a while under expert guidance to uncover.
 
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