<p>My blood pressure just went through the roof. I have 5 of the above mentioned dreams, some are recurring to point of being exactly the same down the most minute detail, while others are variations on the themes. I clearly should be medicated. No wonder I am always exhausted.</p>
<p>I only have the looking for the bathroom dream. Since I spend a lot of time on this quest during waking hours, I’m not sure it is actually an anxiety dream for me. In my case, clean sometimes becomes beside the point, especially in the dream. Sometimes I dream about bathrooms, decades ago, in rural Italy where we traveled during a pregnancy. One of them is especially memorable. It’s not a nightmare, though.</p>
<p>It’s freaky that so many people have the same half dozen dreams. </p>
<p>I also have weird dreams about moving into new homes and discovering rooms that I did not know were there, and other odd dreams about moving into new houses. I keep considering some significant life changes, so I can pretty much guess how that impacts my dreams.</p>
<p>EPTR: I have lucid dreams, so I do not need to call them to mind during the day to re-invent new endings. I can change dreams while I sleep. For example, if I’m dreaming about being late for school and having to run or find a bike to desperately try to get to a class on time, I can remind myself that I am an adult now and drive a car. Or wake myself up if I realize that a dream is turning into a nightmare. I think I developed that ability by working through PTSD flashbacks by telling myself I knew the end of the story and did not have to watch the entire episode over again.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Probably started by me, lol.</p>
<p>I have woken from a long, rambling dream, only to back to sleep and re-enter the dream where I left off. They aren’t necessarily bad dreams, but the fact that they continue after I woke and thought I was done with them feels rather strange.</p>
<p>I have all sorts of variants on your #1 dream. I call them “not prepared” dreams. Every single one of them focuses on being thrown into a situation (presentation, exam, work meeting) for which I have not prepared and literally have no idea what I am doing. </p>
<p>I also have dreams of driving and the brakes don’t work - - but I don’t have that one as frequently.</p>
<p>So you are not alone!!</p>
<p>Fairly often, just as I fall asleep I go back to the dream I had the night before.</p>
<p>It is really weird that the same anxiety dreams are so common. I have the academic one (I forgot to go to a class all semester and just remembered it is on my schedule and I am hopelessly behind), the lack of a clean bathroom one ( just did that one last night) and the teeth falling out one (incredibly real - I feel the loose teeth in my mouth). I find that they occur randomly - and not necessarily on a night that I feel particularly stressed.</p>
<p>My nightmarish dream is the rollercoaster one, I went down so fast I didn’t know where I was ending up. I hate rollercoaster in real life. I used to have a book on how to interpret dreams. I think it’s still in the garage. I actually could interpret my dreams, your subconcious and how it’s related to real life fears. It’s not always what it seems.</p>
<p>I can’t find the classroom! IRL, when I am asked to give a talk, I do a drive through during the day time so I know where I am going. I also do this when going to a new MD; I give myself plenty of time to get lost. </p>
<p>I have the math one every now and then – maybe every couple of years. Always it is math. And I used to have the tornado dream when I was younger – quite frequently. Even after we moved away from the midwest to California. Today I took a nap and had a new anxiety dream — I was driving through water with a couple of my kids and then completely submerged and was pushed along under the water, very turbulent, for a ways. And then, it turns out, we didn’t drown, but came out of the water in an unknown place, which was under ground, sort of like a subway station. So, at least we survived! It is so obviously reflective of what is going in my life right now. We will survive this turn of events, but don’t know what lies ahead. </p>
<p>I’ve had the crumbling teeth dream, and it’s pretty upsetting, but it usually happens when I’m overdue for a cleaning. :)</p>
<p>Count me in for the final exam dream, the unclean bathroom, the can’t get somewhere in time (usually involving trains), and the extra rooms in the house dream. I also have a dream where I’m driving across a rickety suspension bridge, in major city traffic, and the bridge just crumbles, until I have only a tiny strip to drive on. </p>
<p>I also dream that I’m back in college, in the dorms, but as a fully grown, married woman. That one is not anxiety producing, but it’s depressing.And that I go to the beach on the last day of summer, and the ocean starts swallowing up the beach. </p>
<p>It’s kind of comforting to think that these dreams are so common. And I hope I don’t ever find that clean bathroom,either!</p>
<p>Sometimes I don’t even remember the college dream until later when I realize that I am worrying about graduating (in my version I need the class for graduation, and my whole family is coming for the festivities). I then have to remind myself that I graduated in 1971!</p>
<p>I knew plenty of people had the ‘forgot to go to class/forgot to study dream’. I also have the dream in which my teeth crumble in my mouth like Tic Tacs. And I have the ‘I can’t find a clean bathroom’ dream. I had no idea so many people had such similar dreams. </p>
<p>I thought I was the only one with the unclean or not private bathroom dream!!</p>
<p>Of course I have the final exam dream but it’s usually my whole schedule. I haven’t gone to any classes. </p>
<p>I also dream I need to call someone urgently but keep messing up while I dial and need to start over. Very frustrating. And indicative that I grew up before cell phones when you had to actually push seven or ten digits to call someone! </p>
<p>surfcity, yes about the phone dialing! And trying to read something, desperately, and the words dissolve into gibberish.</p>
<p>I also thought I was the only one with the unclean bathroom dream! </p>
<p>I have quite a few of those other ones as well as one in which my husband surprises me by selling our current home and buying back our old home that is much smaller and needs A LOT of work!</p>
<p>The math class that I forgot to go to is actually always back in high school, even though I am older in the dream, and I won’t be able to graduate high school. I have never have the teeth. I have dreams where I am hours late for work, and I forgot to call. Also has anyone had one where you are trying to put a sweater or jacket on and it takes forever to get your arms through?</p>
<p>WOW! I think it is really weird that so many have the same dreams. I mean, it is understandable that most people have anxiety dreams at some point but the fact that the imagery and symbolism is the same is remarkable!<br>
kkmama, I also have the dream that we have moved into a new house. In most of these, my H has “surprised” me with a new house and at first glance it is a great house but then I discover something weird about it. One of the dream houses had a giant concrete pillar in the middle of living room. Another was on the ocean and had a dock right at the back steps but it was a public dock and boat after boat kept pulling up to it with crowds of people on my stairs.</p>
<p>I also have the crashing plane/helicopter one. They just fall out of the sky.</p>