4 ms·

My favorite are the dreams I have before a semester starts: it is the end of the semester, and I've just discovered I've forgotten about an entire class for mos

by all2 5y ago

My favorite are the dreams I have before a semester starts: it is the end of the semester, and I've just discovered I've forgotten about an entire class for most of the semester. Then I wake up.

kelseyfrog 5y ago
I have the same shared trauma response. Really does have me thinking back to my school years and trying to grapple with the two opposing feelings of "that was a lot of fun" and "gosh, why is it still giving me nightmares?"
ballenf 5y ago
My version of that dream has me unsure where the class meets (I have a syllabus but can't decipher it somehow) and not sure if I have the right textbook for the class. I keep trying different classrooms but they all just allow me to enter without a hint of whether I'm in the right one.
jvanderbot 5y ago
I still have those dreams -- except now I know they are going to take away my degree, and thus job.
jonsen 5y ago
As a student or teacher? I've had exactly this recurring dream, forgetting to teach a class. What a nightmare when they are not ready for the exam.
jerf 5y ago
I'm in my 40s. For a good long while, my recurring school dream was that my high school discovered that I didn't actually finish correctly, and because that invalidates my college degrees (in dream logic land), I can't do my job until I go back and finish high school properly. For some reason in the last six months to a year it has shifted to the idea that I signed up for a full semester's worth of courses, while still trying to work my full time job, and I'm flunking all of them because I keep going to work and never attending the classes or doing the homework. Either way, coming up on nearly 20 years since I've been in any kind of school and my subconscious is still freaked out about it, one way or another. By contrast, my subconscious appears to not give a flip about whether I'm doing my paying job correctly. Don't tell my boss.
- geodel 5y ago
  Wow, seeing so many comments high school/college exam dreams do seem universal. I have had these dreams like forever. To think about high school was almost 25 years ago. Another theme for me is not able to board on plane. More than missing flight it is about being stuck to places where I do not want to be.
- elisaado 5y ago
  It's pretty bad that school elicits such stressful responses from us that we remember and relive them 20 years later. edit: typo.
- aceazzameen 5y ago
  Oof. Same here. Why does this happen all these years later? High school years must have really messed a lot kids up.
- FooBarWidget 5y ago
  I still have regular dreams about not passing high school exams. Worse: in my dreams I have to study to pass for high school exams, and work my day job, and take care of the family at the same time. Because of the commitments outside of studying, in the dream I worry about not being able to study. Then I wake up.
- zby 5y ago
  Maybe it is a bit more metaphorical - you just have to learn something.
ck45 5y ago
This is extremely common, I googled a lot about it some years ago. I have it in two versions, the first one is that I have to repeat a maths course in school, being aware about the age difference with the other students, the other one is missing a course in university and not having graduated. The latter one feels so real that in the beginning I had to remind myself about having been at the graduation ceremony :)
- mnadkvlb 5y ago
  holy crap, i had the ‘missing a course’ nightmare roughly every 2 months for 2 years after graduating.
  - advantager 5y ago
    I've had variations on this dream several times. I was talking to my father about it, and he still occasionally dreams about this. As a 67 year old, 5 years retired, 40 years after graduating...
    - machawinka 5y ago
      This scares me, I don't want to be having these dreams in my 60s, do you know if there any kind of therapy? this is a bit like a mini PTSD
- throw10920 5y ago
  I wonder why it's common? Easiest explanation would be extreme stress/mild trauma from the stress of college...
  - colordrops 5y ago
    I'm guessing that it's because (at least at my university), the college class experience is pretty anonymous. No one is taking roll and won't notice if you don't show up. You sit in class as an observer, mostly quiet, almost like a disembodied ghost. The experience is already very dream like and easy to dissociate from. This in addition to the stress of the experience makes it prime dream material.
unsui 5y ago
I'm genuinely curious why this dream pattern seems to be quite distributed across many people. I still regularly have the dream where I realized after graduation that I had missed an entire college class or test (often varies depending on the specific dream), but this then nullifies my graduation and all my subsequent work. Also over 20 years ago, but still a regular visitor to my dreamscape. Taking very liberal inspiration from the idea of something like Jungian archetypes, more along the lines of there being attractors in the informational dream-space that create narrative clusters linked to common emotions (such as anxiety), I can imagine of set of emotion-to-dream-narrative mappings that would lead to some of the regularities often seen in distributed recurring dreams: - losing one's teeth - riding naked in the subway - being late to a class or missing a class/test entirely etc. Just wondering if there has been any research on this that doesn't try to fall on the old standbys of Jungian archetypes, collective unconscious, and other similar handwaving
robotnikman 5y ago
For some reason this is a reoccurring dream for me as well, and its been a few years since I've taken a class.
skc 5y ago
My version is me running late for an exam and then frantically searching for the exam room the entire time as the clock ticks down. The wave of relief and euphoria that overcomes me when I wake up is literally spiritual.
selimthegrim 5y ago
Had those about high school recently and I'm 35 and in grad school.
felipemnoa 5y ago
>>it is the end of the semester, and I've just discovered I've forgotten about an entire class for most of the semester. Then I wake up. I used to have this exact same dream for years after graduating from college.
blarg1 5y ago
I wish someone had told me about these dreams before I went to school/uni, so I wouldn't have ever slacked off causing me to have these worries in the first place.
- rossnordby 5y ago
  If it makes you feel better, they can still happen anyway! yay!
mszcz 5y ago
Oh my, I'm not the only one! I occasionally have a dream that, at the end of a semester, I'm not going to pass because I forgot about some class! The realization, upon awakening, that I'm not in college anymore is wonderful ;)

by all2 5y ago

My favorite are the dreams I have before a semester starts: it is the end of the semester, and I've just discovered I've forgotten about an entire class for most of the semester. Then I wake up.

kelseyfrog 5y ago

I have the same shared trauma response. Really does have me thinking back to my school years and trying to grapple with the two opposing feelings of "that was a lot of fun" and "gosh, why is it still giving me nightmares?"

ballenf 5y ago

My version of that dream has me unsure where the class meets (I have a syllabus but can't decipher it somehow) and not sure if I have the right textbook for the class. I keep trying different classrooms but they all just allow me to enter without a hint of whether I'm in the right one.

jvanderbot 5y ago

I still have those dreams -- except now I know they are going to take away my degree, and thus job.

jonsen 5y ago

As a student or teacher? I've had exactly this recurring dream, forgetting to teach a class. What a nightmare when they are not ready for the exam.

jerf 5y ago

I'm in my 40s. For a good long while, my recurring school dream was that my high school discovered that I didn't actually finish correctly, and because that invalidates my college degrees (in dream logic land), I can't do my job until I go back and finish high school properly. For some reason in the last six months to a year it has shifted to the idea that I signed up for a full semester's worth of courses, while still trying to work my full time job, and I'm flunking all of them because I keep going to work and never attending the classes or doing the homework. Either way, coming up on nearly 20 years since I've been in any kind of school and my subconscious is still freaked out about it, one way or another. By contrast, my subconscious appears to not give a flip about whether I'm doing my paying job correctly. Don't tell my boss.

geodel 5y ago
Wow, seeing so many comments high school/college exam dreams do seem universal. I have had these dreams like forever. To think about high school was almost 25 years ago. Another theme for me is not able to board on plane. More than missing flight it is about being stuck to places where I do not want to be.
elisaado 5y ago
It's pretty bad that school elicits such stressful responses from us that we remember and relive them 20 years later. edit: typo.
aceazzameen 5y ago
Oof. Same here. Why does this happen all these years later? High school years must have really messed a lot kids up.
FooBarWidget 5y ago
I still have regular dreams about not passing high school exams. Worse: in my dreams I have to study to pass for high school exams, and work my day job, and take care of the family at the same time. Because of the commitments outside of studying, in the dream I worry about not being able to study. Then I wake up.
zby 5y ago
Maybe it is a bit more metaphorical - you just have to learn something.

ck45 5y ago

This is extremely common, I googled a lot about it some years ago. I have it in two versions, the first one is that I have to repeat a maths course in school, being aware about the age difference with the other students, the other one is missing a course in university and not having graduated. The latter one feels so real that in the beginning I had to remind myself about having been at the graduation ceremony :)

mnadkvlb 5y ago
holy crap, i had the ‘missing a course’ nightmare roughly every 2 months for 2 years after graduating.
- advantager 5y ago
  I've had variations on this dream several times. I was talking to my father about it, and he still occasionally dreams about this. As a 67 year old, 5 years retired, 40 years after graduating...
  - machawinka 5y ago
    This scares me, I don't want to be having these dreams in my 60s, do you know if there any kind of therapy? this is a bit like a mini PTSD
throw10920 5y ago
I wonder why it's common? Easiest explanation would be extreme stress/mild trauma from the stress of college...
- colordrops 5y ago
  I'm guessing that it's because (at least at my university), the college class experience is pretty anonymous. No one is taking roll and won't notice if you don't show up. You sit in class as an observer, mostly quiet, almost like a disembodied ghost. The experience is already very dream like and easy to dissociate from. This in addition to the stress of the experience makes it prime dream material.

unsui 5y ago

I'm genuinely curious why this dream pattern seems to be quite distributed across many people. I still regularly have the dream where I realized after graduation that I had missed an entire college class or test (often varies depending on the specific dream), but this then nullifies my graduation and all my subsequent work. Also over 20 years ago, but still a regular visitor to my dreamscape. Taking very liberal inspiration from the idea of something like Jungian archetypes, more along the lines of there being attractors in the informational dream-space that create narrative clusters linked to common emotions (such as anxiety), I can imagine of set of emotion-to-dream-narrative mappings that would lead to some of the regularities often seen in distributed recurring dreams: - losing one's teeth - riding naked in the subway - being late to a class or missing a class/test entirely etc. Just wondering if there has been any research on this that doesn't try to fall on the old standbys of Jungian archetypes, collective unconscious, and other similar handwaving

robotnikman 5y ago

For some reason this is a reoccurring dream for me as well, and its been a few years since I've taken a class.

skc 5y ago

My version is me running late for an exam and then frantically searching for the exam room the entire time as the clock ticks down. The wave of relief and euphoria that overcomes me when I wake up is literally spiritual.

selimthegrim 5y ago

Had those about high school recently and I'm 35 and in grad school.

felipemnoa 5y ago

>>it is the end of the semester, and I've just discovered I've forgotten about an entire class for most of the semester. Then I wake up. I used to have this exact same dream for years after graduating from college.

blarg1 5y ago

I wish someone had told me about these dreams before I went to school/uni, so I wouldn't have ever slacked off causing me to have these worries in the first place.

rossnordby 5y ago
If it makes you feel better, they can still happen anyway! yay!

mszcz 5y ago

Oh my, I'm not the only one! I occasionally have a dream that, at the end of a semester, I'm not going to pass because I forgot about some class! The realization, upon awakening, that I'm not in college anymore is wonderful ;)