Today we're taking an intimate journey into the nighttime meanderings of... my brain. Here are five dreams that I have over and over again, as well as my armchair psychologist interpretation of each. Don't worry, it's strictly PG-rated!
1. The Broken Toilet. In this dream, I am in a public place, searching for a restroom. The lines are all too long, there are only men's rooms, or the stalls are all occupied. When I finally find an empty stall, the toilet is either broken or it's overflowing with nastiness onto the floor. Or the only clean toilet stall has no door and I must do my business in public view. At this point, I typically wake up, thank goodness!
Frequency: Once a month.
Interpretation: This one is a clear frustration dream. I'm looking for something or trying to accomplish something, and I'm thwarted at every turn. There's clearly an element of performance anxiety as well.
Notes: My husband has this same dream. We are obviously a match made in heaven.
2. The Forgotten Lines. In this dream, I have a small part in a play that is underway. My entrance is coming up, and I have forgotten my lines. I am running around, trying to find a copy of the script so I can review my lines... but no one has a copy. I get more and more frantic until I wake up.
Frequency: Once every few months.
Interpretation: This one arises because I'm worried I've forgotten something, am overlooking something, or am concerned about completing something. Obviously another performance anxiety dream.
Notes: I have been in several performances and have never forgotten my lines. Just a side note. :)
3. The Chemistry Exam. In this dream, it's the day before my final AP chemistry exam in high school -- and I haven't been to class all semester. I am running around, trying to find notes from someone to borrow. I also haven't done any of my labs, so I am trying to recreate a lab notebook.
I am afraid if I flunk, I won't be able to graduate, so I am also trying to check with the secretary to see if I have enough credits, even if I flunk this class. (Usually, I'm one short).
Frequency: Once every other month.
Interpretation: Once upon a time, I was writing an article on dream interpretation, and I asked a dream expert to interpret the meaning of this dream for me. She said that it's another performance anxiety dream -- that it's very common for high-performing people to dream about not succeeding, and school is a common place for these dreams to take place. She also said that the TYpe-A people who have these dreams would never be unprepared like this - so the very fact I'm having the dream is a good sign!
4. The Old Boyfriend. In this dream, I'm trying to convince my college boyfriend that I am not a rotten person and that he shouldn't hate me. He doesn't believe me.
Frequency: Once or twice a year.
Interpretation: Not sure on this one. Is the Old Boyfriend a stand-in for someone else I'm trying to make amends to? Is it remorse for acting badly? Or is it simply the result of too much Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey before bed?
Notes: The old boyfriend in question recently ran for Congress. I think he lost. But maybe I'm trying to get him to forgive me so I can further the political interests of Work-at-Home scrapbookers everywhere. We could be a strong political action committee if we put our minds together!
5. The Colin Firth Dream.You don't think I'm going to describe this one, do you?
Frequency: Not nearly often enough.
Interpretation: Well, duh.
Notes: I don't know why it's never one of the Hughs, but it's always Colin. I think the Hughs are jealous, don't you?
Okay, your turn. What's one of your recurring nighttime meanderings?
I wish I could remember my dreams to interpret them! I'd settle for just the Colin Firth version :)
Posted by: Lee | 02/22/2010 at 11:37 AM
I have the at school, didn't study for a test dream also, but haven't had it in awhile. Also, the forgetting my locker combination dream. Another recurring dream I have is I'm driving and I can't control the car, can't get it to stop no matter how hard I slam on the brakes. Quite frequently, the car is going backward. I never crash though, just keep on going until I wake up. So, doc, how crazy am I? ;) lol!
Posted by: Rebecca | 02/22/2010 at 01:33 PM
I remember having the same dream the night before the first day of school. I was on a chess board and then all of sudden this big ball (ala Indiana Jones) would start rolling toward me and I'd run and run and run from it. Woke up exhausted on the 1st day.
Posted by: jen@odbt | 02/22/2010 at 01:54 PM
If I shared my dreams, you would be VERY worried! I really don't have recurring dreams, just very strange ones. But if the TV is on, I'll dream about what is being said. So this morning Tiger Woods visited my brain. NOT FUN!! He was a jerk there, too.
Posted by: Michelle Moore | 02/22/2010 at 02:39 PM
When I was in grad school I dreamt that I was constantly being chased. A fellow student said it was clear that I was stressed and that my life felt out of my control. Well, she pegged that and coming to terms with that made those dreams go away.
Posted by: Scrapycandy | 02/22/2010 at 03:48 PM
I have your 1, 2 & 3 all the time. I'll add in my own #4: elevators, while running away from someone. And the elevators go upways and sideways and slantways. And #5 swimming pools. All kinds of swimming pools. Nothing every seem to be the same except the pool. And bonus #6 parking the car, leaving the kids in it, going off somewhere and then not being able to find the car later.
Posted by: Misty M. | 02/22/2010 at 05:50 PM
Dreams. Weird stuff. I have the toilet dream and the test dream, too. About every other month. Another dream I used to have as a kid that I have about once every other year -getting in an elevator and riding forever, until my head turns into a coconut. It elicits waking up in a panic even though I recognize the dream. I frequently dream about sleeping through my alarm, too.
I dream about projects I'm working on, chores I'm worried about, or TV shows I watched before sleep. Like the other night? I dreamed about herding cows in a Mercedes while trying to get away from an assassin. (Top Gear and NCIS) Wish the assassin was Colin Firth. I don't think I'd run very fast.
Posted by: FuzzyCricket | 02/22/2010 at 05:54 PM
I have the broken toilet dream too. Mostly I am trying to find a bathroom and have to go really bad. When I wake up I do have to go.
Posted by: Cathy Doerr | 02/22/2010 at 08:29 PM
In San Diego, on the beach, they don't have doors on the stalls on any of the public toilets. We lived their when I was two weeks overdue with my first baby. I had to pee so bad and so often I got over my fear of exposure and learned to pee in public. Strangely this very literal experience has kept that dream at bay ever since.
My dreams are all about pain - car accidents, falling down stairs, getting hit with things; and it's always my back. I think it's my brain's way of trying to deal with the discomfort I've been in.
Posted by: Nicole Maki | 02/22/2010 at 09:32 PM
Love your recurring dreams! Too funny you should post about this because I have written some journaling about a recurring dream that I use to have when I was a kid. I'm just waiting to be inspired to make my page. I don't have any recurrent dreams any more (or at least that I remember). For a while I used to have a version of your chem exam dream, but in mine I'd arrive too late for my exam (whatever it was). I've never really figure out what happened next with this one and how it would end because I would wake-up right away. I think that even just dreaming of not making it to an exam is enough to freak me out completely! LOL
Posted by: Nathalie | 02/23/2010 at 12:31 AM
I read about your scrapping project at Make & Meaning and was really taken by your belief that crafters and artists should be paid. More impressive is that you insisted upon compensation despite their initial rejection. Really, I don't even know if I could that far. But, when I think of how often I'm asked to work for free, I thank people like you!
Posted by: Lydia, Clueless Crafter | 02/23/2010 at 08:47 AM
I have the bathroom dream recurrently (no idea how often, about 4-6x a year maybe), I don't think it ever occurred to me anyone else would dream that lol. The conditions are always appalling, often no privacy (ie. no door), overflowing toilets, the location is rarely the same, although a girls locker room at a college or high school has been featured more than twice. Like Cathy, I always wake up having to use the restroom pretty bad lol. I also recurrently dream of being chased, but feel like I'm running in water, barely able to move through it, usually waking before I get caught. Lately I've been dreaming of my children in danger from various sources. Once my ex getting mad and driving off like a maniac in a parking garage and slamming into a cement post (kids were fine, him, not so much), but most often we're trapped somewhere, a house, or a field, or abandoned building, either by warfare or aliens, and a few times the ex has been with us trying to protect them too. Yes, I have very strange dreams LoL.
Posted by: Cdncntrygrl | 02/23/2010 at 12:02 PM
ps. I've had the Colin Firth dream too ;)
Posted by: Cdncntrygrl | 02/23/2010 at 12:03 PM
OMG Lain - the Colin one is hysterical....I too was wondering why it wasn't one of the Hughs! I have the "unprepared for a test dream" , the running cause I'm being chased dream and occassionally I can fly....not sure what that means - should I have been in Avatar?? LOL
Posted by: KarenP | 02/23/2010 at 12:29 PM
Your old boyfriend ran for Congress too? I know that mine lost. I also think he would be great for Congress, but I had such a huge sense of failure in my own life when I found out he was running. When we were dating, we had a semi-rivalry going about who was more successful at what, so having my life be less conventionally successful than his was weird.
Posted by: Fun Mama - Deanna | 02/23/2010 at 01:50 PM
Don't we all have the Colin dream?
Posted by: Jennifer Evans | 02/23/2010 at 03:58 PM
I've had this one dream every few months since I was a little kid. Everyone in the dream is puffy. It's a bit hard to describe it. Kind of like we're all the cloudy looking white tire guy or the stay puff marshmallow man. Yet still not like that. I know, I'm not making sense. But everyone in the dream looks like that and I'm running from something. I don't know what though. I'm 30 and the dream still occurs.
Posted by: Amanda in TX | 02/23/2010 at 11:08 PM
You crack me right up! I too have the missing the exam dream but my more frequent one is my teeth falling out but then growing back in the next day and then falling out again....and I have it way too often - can you tell me what it means Freud? I mean Lain?!!
Posted by: Cori-Lyn | 02/24/2010 at 12:02 AM
I love your dreams! Wish mine were as good! My main dream is that I can fly
Posted by: Gab | 03/07/2010 at 04:53 PM