Yep,,,,see one of the kids and something bad is going to happen and I run and run and cry out and can't save them. I always wake up crying and very upset. DH always pats me and I go back to sleep. Not a pleasant thing to have recur. Used to have the same thing you are having...trying and trying to finish something or get somewhere and it is like moving in slow mo. Everyone has these according to my psychologist friend that I ran with for many years. It is so obvious that our real life is carrying over into our unconscious. So I try to resolve the day stuff so the night stuff is gone or less. Meditation helps. c

I have a reoccuring dream that I had signed up for a college class and never attended it. It was a class I had to have for graduation and at the last minute I was told if I took the final and passed it, I would be given the credit and could graduate but no one would help me with notes or materials to study. Guess it reoccurs cause I always wake up and never get to take the test to see if I passed.

I've had night terrors .... luckily DH is really really wonderful about getting me to lie back down and go back to real sleep ...

Yes -- recurring dreams for years and years ... worse when I'm under stress ...failing tests, corridors of doors, lost and wandering in towns and cities etc. All the usual ones ...

My mum has had the same dreams for years too ...

Before I left my last job, I had recurring dreams where I was always having to lead people to safety, and I really didn't want to do that, I was tired of always having to step up and take charge. I didn't realize that was what my emotion was until I started writing down my dreams every morning and I noticed the emotion behind the dream symbolism. Then I realized that it mimicked what I did at work, I reluctantly had to teach and mentor people and got no credit for it...it wasn't part of my job, and I actually got flack from my boss for doing it!

When I quit and got a different job, I stopped having those types of dreams.

When my ex husband and I had been seperated, I had recurring dreams of me trying to call him on the phone, but I couldn't dial the number right, or there would be some reason that I could't get through to him...and that was literally how I felt about our communication.

I think your dream is definitely a symbol of your anxiety and feelings of being overwhelmed. I felt that once I started to address my dreams, I had fewer of them, I had to make a conscious effort to address the emotions. I also found that this dream interpretation dictionary is pretty neat, it helps me when I have some weirder than usual occurance in a dream to figure out what my subconscious is wrestling with.

Here is a link that might be useful: dream dictionary

It has been years since I have had a recurring dream, but I used to have them all the time. Falling, flying, teeth falling out. The teeth dream was the worst because I would actually dream that I woke up only to find that it wasn't a dream and my teeth were really gone. I sure hope this conversation doesn't trigger those dreams again. :)

I also had awful dreams after 9/11. It was always my young nephew and I in the WTC and I had to carry him down the stairs to get out. That dream only stopped when I took the time to write it down. Once it was on paper I never had that dream again.

One of my first nightmares, when I probably 3-4, was my plastic piggy bank looked up me and started talking. The nightmarish part was I could not manage to dial the phone all the way to "0" to get help.
Most of you remember rotary phones, right?:)
I still have that type of dream on rare occasions, even almost 50 years later.

I've also have had quite a few where I am plummeting to Earth, but at the last terrifying second miraculously learn I can fly. Those dreams are part nightmare, part WOW! that was great!

I have had the "didn't study for the final exam for the class I need to graduate" dream, the "can't dial the phone" dream, the "teeth falling out or crumbling" dream, flying dreams, etc. Sounds like I'm in pretty good company!
I have also had the dream where I realize that I'm either fully or partially nude in public, and back in my waitressing days I would dream that my entire station was full and I was unaware of it and everyone was mad at me. I also occasionally have a dream where I suddenly have to drive the car, and I'm in the backseat and none of the controls work properly. The dreams that bother me the most are the ones where I yell at someone in my life and I feel just horrible the next day.

Since I was 5, after watching the Wizard of Oz I've had the same recurring nightmare, I take shelter in my basement and my house caves in and I'm stuck living down in a dungeon alone and no one finds me. Sometimes it changes and instead of a tornado its a nuclear disaster and I wrap myself in aluminum foil. That version started after I saw a movie about a nuclear winter I should have never seen ad a child. I have had a fear of natural disasters my entire life. Can you all guess which version of the dream I had about a week ago? Yep, a hurricane. Maybe that explains why I was so terrified when I was awaiting Irene's arrival.

I also get those panicky dreams once in a while; they take different forms,
I'm walking in a large building, hospital or large store, and trying to find the exit in order to get to my car, or I lost my purse, I encounter people and they don't help me, I ask for directions and they ignore me , I want help and no one steps up; I see blank faces on people.

I rarely dream but when I do, those are the ones I remember vividly.
I'm so relieved when I realize it's only a dream.

Polly - I first watched the Wizard of OZ at about the same age and I have never liked it. It didn't give me nightmares but it did scare me, especially the tornado scenes. I didn't mind the witches, OZ, the munchkins etc. but for some bizarre reason Judy Garland also made me uneasy. I think it's because even as a child I knew she didn't look like she should be wearing a child's dress and she looked 'huge' to me. Even now I don't care to watch it.

For years mine has been tearing layers of walls off...wallboard, bricks, wood. The building or areas are never the same. Tried to connect this, but different events occur when the dream happens. Never have figured out why it repeats.

I can easily remember most of my dreams so it's odd, now that I'm thinking about it, that I don't remember having any recurring dreams. One will probably start tonight!

Maybe my life is so charmed I don't have any issues to work out in my dreams? hee, hee... I don't think that's true. I just have a bad memory for negative things. Denial is not just a river in Egypt.

I can still clearly picture one dream I had as a kid - I guess because I haven't worked out the symbolism yet.

My biggest "nightmare" was when I was struggling through college algebra and I would wake up and try to convert the numbers on the clock to an algebraic formula.

The postings about the Wizard of Oz reminded me of my big childhood fear. I was terrified of Michael Jackson's Thriller video. I would picture his creepy hands grabbing my feet through the basement stairs. Yes - lots of spooky dreams about that video!

Another recurring dream that I have is that I discover a hidden or secret part of my house. Sometimes it's part of the yard with beautiful gardens, other times it's an entire floor or wing of the house that I didn't know existed.
I suppose that means I have some sort of untapped potential.

The Tornado Dream is a recurrent theme I've had for decades: they're off in the distance and approaching, but never hit directly.

But I have some fun recurrent themes that I love. The beautiful swimming pool: it's big, a lovely shimmering shade of turquoise, quiet, perfect temperature, and I have it practically all to myself! So refreshing & calming to swim in. And the house dream: we buy a fixer upper, usually a contemporary gem, that has a room we never noticed before; the room is usually an indoor pool or a wonderful old rec room with an adjacent kitchenette.

Not sure what it is with the pools: I enjoy them a lot but I'm not an avid swimmer.

Ooohh I love this post.

Terriks - you reminded me of another dream I used to have a lot. It was a secret room to my mom's house. It had a spiral staircase that opened to a grand suite with beautiful views. It was decorated for a princess. For some reason, I was the only one who ever found the room in her house. She didn't even know about it. Fun!

Happily, my only recurring dreams are good ones --

When I was divorcing my first husband, I remember dreaming about open windows, with snowy white billowing lace curtains, fresh breezes coming in and lovely spring flowers outside. Night after night of wonderful, happy dreams that weren't hard at all to interpret. (So why was it so hard to make that darned decision!)

Then there's the one where I'm either flying (more like floating, because I'm completely vertical and not doing any work - just drifting like a balloon) or figure skating (which I can't do at all!) -- again, lovely relaxing dreams.

Now the one-off dreams can get kind of weird!

I was saying above that I rarely dream but the same night I read this thread I dreamed I was picking out really thick coarse hairs out of my upper lip, I can't figure out where that one came from, it was gross.... but I remember in my dream I was so relieved they were out.

I am so envious of those peaceful floating dreams !!

Terriks--I have a similar recurring dream to yours. . . in the dream I forget about this enormous, fully-furnished living room in our current house. Just when things become desperate in the dream, I stumble upon this room which I had forgotten about and find exactly what I needed.

Used to have another recurring one, until we adopted our son. . . was applying for a job; needed a really-difficult college course which I'd not taken. I would wake up with a sinking feeling, knowing how hard that class would be, especially now that I was many years past college. Always felt immense relief when I realized it was just a dream and I'd successfully graduated from college. Interesting that it never recurred once we adopted our son.

It's really interesting to find out that some of the recurring dreams I have are common. I repeatedly have a dream where I can't get out of the house to go somewhere I want to go. It's not that the doors are locked, but that I can't find my keys, or the phone rings, or somebody is doing something that stops me. My mother is always in that dream! LOL.

Just last night I dreamed that I lost a tooth. Glad to find it was still attached in the morning.

I only had the one about not being prepared for a test one time and for some reason, Tom Cruise was in that dream. Was he in a scene like that in a movie?

When my job was eliminated I had dreams about it for months. I dreamed that I went to work and everyone around me was wondering if I knew I no longer had a job and what was I doing there. No one had the courage to tell me. Another time I dreamed that I volunteered to work there (ha!)and another time I dreamed that I went to work to babysit for the president's grandchild. Thank goodness those dreams have stopped.

I've also dreamed that I could run really really fast (picture a cartoon character) and I ran so fast I could fly. I liked that one.