# Recurring nightmares.



## Rocky (Oct 5, 2020)

On another thread, someone used the term "recurring nightmare" to describe a problem that they had with Blueberry wine. I brought to mind recurring nightmares that I used to have. Two come to mind and I am wondering if others have any they would like to share.

1. I dream I am crawling into a tunnel that keeps narrowing. My arms are at my side and I get to the point where it is too narrow to move forward and I am stuck and can't move backward. Scary!

2. I dream I have to take a final exam in a class that I cut most or almost all of the semester. The course is required to graduate and I know nothing about the subject. I am concerned, a. that the Prof won't let me take the exam, and b. even if he does, I have no hope of passing the exam. When I wake up and realize that I have already graduated, the feeling is great.

I should say that I no longer have any type of bad dreams and they seemed to cease after I started using a CPAP machine for sleep apnea. It could be a case of _post hoc, ergo propter hoc,_ but I am convinced it is somehow related.

How about any of you? Any recurring nightmares that you are willing to share?


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## olusteebus (Oct 5, 2020)

I have had the recurring dream you describe as number 2. Hell, I didn't even know the way to the class. It is very uncomfortable, isn't it.


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## Boatboy24 (Oct 5, 2020)

#2 was a reality for me. 

Actually, I have had that one multiple times. I just thought I was reliving my reality.


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## BernardSmith (Oct 5, 2020)

I guess I am a romantic in that I think that rather than dismiss a dream as being caused by sleep apnea (or some other presumed cause) I prefer to focus on what the dreamer takes to be the meaning of the dream for themselves - that is to say, not what the dream "means" but what the story means for the one who has the dream: if you are stuck and can go neither forward or backwards in a dream, what might "being stuck" have meant for you when you had that dream? If you are dreaming about needing to take a test that you are certain you cannot pass what might that that dream have said to you at the time when you had that dream? I am not asking you to provide me with any answers in any voyeuristic way, but for yourself, you might want to ask yourself (or you may have asked yourself) what those dreams meant....


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## Rocky (Oct 5, 2020)

BernardSmith said:


> I guess I am a romantic in that I think that rather than dismiss a dream as being caused by sleep apnea (or some other presumed cause) I prefer to focus on what the dreamer takes to be the meaning of the dream for themselves - that is to say, not what the dream "means" but what the story means for the one who has the dream: if you are stuck and can go neither forward or backwards in a dream, what might "being stuck" have meant for you when you had that dream? If you are dreaming about needing to take a test that you are certain you cannot pass what might that that dream have said to you at the time when you had that dream? I am not asking you to provide me with any answers in any voyeuristic way, but for yourself, you might want to ask yourself (or you may have asked yourself) what those dreams meant....



Interesting idea, Bernard. I did not delve into what the dream meant at the time. I do know that I am extremely claustrophobic and I always thought that had a lot to do with the "stuck in the tunnel" dream. Also, when I went to college (many, many years ago) I tended to cut classes like it was a bodily function. Perhaps the dreams were my subconscious telling me that someday you are going to pay for this. In any case, the dreams have not recurred. In fact, since going on the CPAP, my dreams have become pleasant and mostly funny. I used to get up in the morning and say to my wife, "I don't feel like I slept at all!" When I was sleep tested, they found that I was waking up 60 times an hour, or once a minute. Turned out, I did not sleep at all!


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## BernardSmith (Oct 5, 2020)

In that you say that you suffer from claustrophobia did being stuck make you feel claustrophobic or was it simply that you felt , as you wrote, "stuck". I am not, myself claustrophobic, but I would think that when exposed to narrow spaces one would feel i
ncredibly anxious about being in a tight space and not so much stuck... and you don't need to be constrained to feel anxious...and you don't need to be stuck to be unable to move... BUT if that dream speaks to you about claustrophobia then that's what it says...


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## sour_grapes (Oct 5, 2020)

Okay, let me address #2:



> 2. I dream I have to take a final exam in a class that I cut most or almost all of the semester. The course is required to graduate and I know nothing about the subject. I am concerned, a. that the Prof won't let me take the exam, and b. even if he does, I have no hope of passing the exam.



I am a college professor. To calm my students, I frequently relate the following about "anxiety dreams." I, too, used to have dreams like yours where I was a student: I know we have an exam, I am not sure what time the exam is, I can't find a pencil, I cannot find the building, after I find the building, I cannot locate the correct room....

Sadly, not much changes when you "are on the other side of the desk." Now, my dreams are: I know I scheduled an exam, I forgot to write the exam, I cannot find the xerox machine to copy the exams, I am not sure what time I scheduled the exam for, after I make the copies I am late for the exam, I cannot find the building, I cannot find the room in the building, when I finally get to the room none of the students are there...

Sigh.


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## Rocky (Oct 5, 2020)

I am a college professor. To calm my students, I frequently relate the following about "anxiety dreams." I, too, used to have dreams like yours where I was a student: I know we have an exam, I am not sure what time the exam is, I can't find a pencil, I cannot find the building, after I find the building, I cannot locate the correct room....

Sadly, not much changes when you "are on the other side of the desk." Now, my dreams are: I know I scheduled an exam, I forgot to write the exam, I cannot find the xerox machine to copy the exams, I am not sure what time I scheduled the exam for, after I make the copies I am late for the exam, I cannot find the building, I cannot find the room in the building, when I finally get to the room none of the students are there...

That is hysterical, Paul. It is good to know that there is justice in the World and that Professors suffer as much as we did. The other aspect of the dream which I cannot fathom is that the class is not in my major and is usually something that I took as an elective and need to pass for total credit hours.

BTW, what and where do you teach if you can disclose?


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## bstnh1 (Oct 6, 2020)

WOW! Guess I should consider myself lucky. I rarely dream. And when I do, I usually remember very little about it.


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## Neb Farmer (Oct 6, 2020)

Dreams are like free movies! Some are better than others, but all in all , cheap entertainment. You have to love that!


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## dralarms (Oct 6, 2020)

I’ve had some doozies. Not sure if they would be considered nightmares but some I’ve had are pretty weird. Had one where we (family and I) were in another country and I had left something in the hotel room that we had to have, went back to get it and the family left without me (took all the money and my passport). Funny thing is my wife wont fly (or get in a boat for that matter) and I haven’t had a passport since 1983 when I turned it in when I got out of the military.


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## cmason1957 (Oct 6, 2020)

The dreams I don't like are the ones my wife sometimes has, where I do something not so good and then she wakes up mad at me. I have gotten in trouble more than once for those.


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## dralarms (Oct 6, 2020)

cmason1957 said:


> The dreams I don't like are the ones my wife sometimes has, where I do something not so good and then she wakes up mad at me. I have gotten in trouble more than once for those.


I tell her I’m not responsible for her wild dreams and to get over it. After 34+ years of marriage I guess I’m tired of the crazy dream madness.


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## johnnash (Oct 6, 2020)

cmason1957 said:


> The dreams I don't like are the ones my wife sometimes has, where I do something not so good and then she wakes up mad at me. I have gotten in trouble more than once for those.


Been There!
Whew...
What the .....


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## winemaker81 (Oct 7, 2020)

Rocky said:


> I do know that I am extremely claustrophobic and I always thought that had a lot to do with the "stuck in the tunnel" dream.


I have sleep apnea at the level you do, so I fully appreciate your situation. Dream #1 may have had a lot to do with your reality, e.g., your reality of not breathing directly influenced your dream.

Sporadically I have claustrophobic dreams. It just occurred to me that when waking up from one, my mask was askew a large part of the time. I did not notice a correlation until now. Huh.


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## efBobby (Oct 7, 2020)

I don’t think I have ever had recurring dreams even when I was younger but the neater ones were the lucid dreams; however now typically I rarely dream or rarely remember them anyway.

Generally the chances of remembering them are greater if they are interrupted but it’s a double edged sword since they are also forgotten very quickly too.


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## winemanden (Oct 30, 2020)

Rocky said:


> On another thread, someone used the term "recurring nightmare" to describe a problem that they had with Blueberry wine. I brought to mind recurring nightmares that I used to have. Two come to mind and I am wondering if others have any they would like to share.
> 
> 1. I dream I am crawling into a tunnel that keeps narrowing. My arms are at my side and I get to the point where it is too narrow to move forward and I am stuck and can't move backward. Scary!
> 
> ...


I was in a similar situation years ago to no 1. when our newly formed rescue team were training with the Fire Brigade. Wearing breathing apparatus, an air bottle on my back I had to go into an 18-inch square manhole and crawl through a sewer pipe into the hot chamber and out through a manhole at the other side. I still don't know how I contorted my body to get from the manhole into the sewer pipe, and from the sewer into the manhole at the other end. 
Man that was a living nightmare imagining that I was running out of air, and they'd have to dig me out of there. Still it had to be done although I'm sure I was 10 pounds lighter when I got out, due to the sweat I lost.
No wonder they call Fire fighters Heroes.


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## Rocky (Oct 31, 2020)

winemanden said:


> I was in a similar situation years ago to no 1. when our newly formed rescue team were training with the Fire Brigade. Wearing breathing apparatus, an air bottle on my back I had to go into an 18-inch square manhole and crawl through a sewer pipe into the hot chamber and out through a manhole at the other side. I still don't know how I contorted my body to get from the manhole into the sewer pipe, and from the sewer into the manhole at the other end.
> Man that was a living nightmare imagining that I was running out of air, and they'd have to dig me out of there. Still it had to be done although I'm sure I was 10 pounds lighter when I got out, due to the sweat I lost.
> No wonder they call Fire fighters Heroes.


Yikes! That was frightening just reading of your experience. I am sure I could not have done that. What is more, I would have lost more than 10 pounds, counting the sweat and other bodily material!


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## winemanden (Nov 1, 2020)

Rocky said:


> Yikes! That was frightening just reading of your experience. I am sure I could not have done that. What is more, I would have lost more than 10 pounds, counting the sweat and other bodily material!


It was a once a year course we had to pass to qualify for wearing breathing apparatus. We did all sorts of things, Blind searches, sometimes wearing Chemical suits, and one time they filled the 4-storey training tower with foam. We had to start at the top, testing each step feeling our way down to the ground floor, find something they had hidden and work our way back up to the top.
It was crazy at times. We had one exercise that was a simulated explosion in the basement of an old abandoned Mental Hospital, a maze of tunnels and heating pipes. All good fun in the end. 

The really crazy thing was that there was a big fire at work one weekend when no one was there except a security guard; six fire appliances in attendance. Half the laboratory burned down, and we never had chance do our bit. As they say 'That's life!'


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## Snafflebit (Nov 1, 2020)

sour_grapes said:


> I am a college professor. To calm my students, I frequently relate the following about "anxiety dreams." I, too, used to have dreams like yours where I was a student: I know we have an exam, I am not sure what time the exam is, I can't find a pencil, I cannot find the building, after I find the building, I cannot locate the correct room....
> 
> Sadly, not much changes when you "are on the other side of the desk." Now, my dreams are: I know I scheduled an exam, I forgot to write the exam, I cannot find the xerox machine to copy the exams, I am not sure what time I scheduled the exam for, after I make the copies I am late for the exam, I cannot find the building, I cannot find the room in the building, when I finally get to the room none of the students are there...
> 
> Sigh.



Exam anxiety dreams were a part of life during my electrical engineering classes. I feel a sense of shadenfreude (tinged with a little guilt  ) reading about @sour_grapes professor anxiety dreams!


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## Rocky (Nov 2, 2020)

Snafflebit said:


> Exam anxiety dreams were a part of life during my electrical engineering classes. I feel a sense of shadenfreude (tinged with a little guilt  ) reading about @sour_grapes professor anxiety dreams!


It is strange, but I don't remember ever having such dreams during the time I was in college. It was only many years after I had graduated that they began. The great feeling was when I awoke, I had this tremendous sense of relief. Almost made having the nightmare worth it!


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## hounddawg (Nov 13, 2020)

#1-in 1967 thru 1969 i had 2 recurring dreams, First,, I'm in the house we lived in i was 6 thru 8 y/o i dreamed that a overpass ran thru a field and some old houses, about 200 yards away, it does now exactly as it looked and where it is, 
second same area, i kept dreaming i was in a beige jet with a row of windows that had a maroon stripe and a blue stripe, at 30,000 feet the engines failed, just before we hit the ground I'd awake, I've never flown, as a child i had no way to know what a 727 looked like or at what height it flew at, unlike most of yawl i grew up very country and we had a black & white phillco TV that only got 1 channel,,, KAIT channel 8, 
Dawg


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