Hey there, just a quick note from LE to say sorry I haven’t been around much, but marking exams is taking up all my time. After I’ve finished that, I have to get ready for a conference presentation.
I had one of those anxiety nightmares the other day where I was giving my talk, and when I got up to the lectern, I had brought a legal dictionary instead of my talk…and my mind just went blank. Mind you, it’s those kind of nightmares which give one an incentive to be fully prepared.
Do other people have these anxiety dreams? Various women tell me they have packing nightmares (where they are frantically packing for a move or a holiday) and exam anxiety dreams seem to be a staple for all.
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Yes… I’m marking exams too, and yes, I’ve had one of those lovely anxiety dreams, ‘though my one featured getting to my speech and drama exam, and having to ask the examiner if I could come back another time after I had memorised a poem and a book extract. I sat my last speech exam in my last year at school, way back in 1983, and at the time, I was fully prepared. The dream is making me wonder what task is lurking unattended to right now that I haven’t even really become aware of.
Do other people have these anxiety dreams?
Are there any other kind? 🙂
I’m on the other end of examination system at the moment. I have plenty of anxiety, although it seems to be staying out of the dreams for the moment.
For some reason when I do have anxiety nightmares, I’m always back in school. The dream usually involves me forgetting to do some assignment (even though I don’t think I ever actually did forget one). Not exams though. The other type of anxiety/fear based dream I get is being chased and trying to close a door, but the door won’t line up with the doorway so I can never quite get it shut properly…
Flying dreams are my best and worst. On a bad night, my wings stop working and I crash into the ocean. The deep sea really scares me!
ps. has SL fallen down a rabbit hole or something? Long time no see.
I have this recurring dream that somehow I didn’t finish my A-Levels properly, and they’re making me do them again, but I haven’t had a chance to study. Or I’m doing an exam, but my arm is broken and I can’t write.
As for flying, I don’t have that one so often, but when I do, often there’s a moment where I find I can go faster by “breast stroking” in the air, which is hilarious. I never fall, thank goodness.
Mel, I don’t know what is up with SL. I spoke with her about two or three weeks ago when she said that she had exams and was working very hard. Since then I’ve heard nary a thing. I hope she’s okay.
Flying dreams are my best and worst.
In The Sandman, the King of Dreams takes a mortal girl flying. At first she has a blast and then she remarks, “Freud said that when you’re dreaming you’re flying you’re really dreaming about sex.”
And Dream replies, “Really? What does it mean when you dreaming about having sex?”
I have been having “bad” dreams about my budget presentation. Nothing worse than presenting a expansionary budget in a shrinking, post GFC world. How to build anything when the bean counters are expecting cuts to everything.
As to being prepared, I find I can prepare down to the last sentence but can never do a “dry” run. I need the adrenaline challenge of the main event. I do many IT presenatations and dread having to trial a presentation. Nothing like reading an audience or working in a few topical ad-lib comments to keep everyone awake.
Bryan, so true – the adrenaline makes all the difference. Quite often I find that I end up saying things which are quite different from what I’d originally planned – because inspiration hits. Good luck with your budget…
Desipis – those school dreams don’t go away with age, even when you have other more scary experiences to dream about.
A variation is being told 40 years after you left school that you did not do one exam in, say, French and that you must take it now or all your qualifications will be nullified.
That’s my one, Ken! I need to resit A-Level history, and I just can’t remember anything about Louis XIV these days…
Last night I had a very odd anxiety dream. To wit: I was back in high school, and our drama club was putting on a play about the Mitford family (is there even a play about the Mitford family???). I was playing the father, and half way through I forgot my lines. How weird is that?
I wonder why people revert back to the school setting for anxiety dreams. Is it because school was a time of high anxiety and therefore the two are irrevocably associated, or is it that school is a safe environment where we were able to focus on learning and solving the problems of the time?