One of my favorite quotes is "the best vacations are the ones that make everyday life feel like a vacation". While it's kinda dark, I feel like there's some truth in it. I also think the same logic can be applied to dreams. Imagine waking up from a dream where you're a billionaire hedge fund manager with Steph Curry's shooting ability and you're dating Alicia Vikander. Real life is going to seem pretty dull after that, right? But when you wake up in a cold sweat from a literal nightmare? Normal Life could not be better...
That brings us to the point of this week's post, ranking the top ten recurring nightmares that we're all so very thankful for. Of course, this is very subjective but I'm usually right about things and this is no exception.
Coming in at #10 is the classic dream where for whatever reason your chompers decide to pack up and leave. For me this dream tends to occur when I'm a little stressed out, but if I'm being honest, my subconscious could do a little better. I'm never particularly bothered in the dream, if anything it's just inconvenient. It ends up just being another thing I have to deal with.
I'm an adept swimmer and I don't think I've ever had this one. I mean, I don't even remembering learning how to swim because I was so young. You think that guy is going to be haunted by drowning nightmares? Not a chance. I imagine it's pretty distressing though so that's why I'm giving it a spot on this list.
Frequently, when I was growing up, I would have dreams about gigantic horrifying wild animals roaming outside of my house. In the dream it just meant I had to wait to play outside which was pretty awful. In the very very minimal research I did for this post, I didn't encounter anyone else that had this one. Maybe it's because I grew up in the woods, I'm not sure. I'd like to see what a shrink says about this one though!
Prior to turning 16 and getting my license, I used to have nightmares about driving illegally. Why was I doing it? I don't know. Why didn't I just drive home? Again, I don't know. My dream logic never is great. Since learning how to actually drive this dream has transformed into my vehicle running out of gas in the middle of congested traffic. Maybe I should stop seeing how long I can drive on E in real life?
Unfortunately this one has become more common as I've gotten older. The worst part is the deceased always wants to talk to me about stuff from the past and never about how they came back from the dead or what being dead is like. This dream might be the only exception to the rule mentioned earlier, there isn't a whole lot of catharsis after waking up from this one.
This is an all time favorite for me. I'll be doing something normal like hanging out at a parade and get hit by something or fall. I feel fine in the dream but when I look in the mirror my face is completely disfigured and that's when the panic sets in. Luckily for me, the dream never lasts long after that. Instead, I wake up to see that there's only 3 minutes before my alarm goes off and I have to face the day. Sometimes, I think I'd prefer the dream.
I think watching the weather channel while growing up caused me to develop an irrational fear of tornadoes. To be fair, who wouldn't after watching some of their highlight reels? I mean those guys run through neighborhoods like it's nothing. Naturally, this fear would sometimes manifest itself while I was sleeping. I haven't had this dream in years but it always happened the same way - tornado would destroy my house and then I'd wake up.
Now we're getting to the fun ones. I have two variations of this one on a semi-regular basis. The first is that I'm looking for something in an old abandoned house. What am I looking for? I never actually know.(makes things kind of difficult, right?) The house is always filled with clutter - just like an episode of American Pickers and for some reason I'm in a hurry. The anxiety is tremendous. The second iteration is me looking for something at the bottom of a lake in the middle of the night. I repeatedly take big breaths and swim to the bottom only to come up with handfuls of clay. Again, I have no idea what I'm looking for. Why is it in the middle of the night? No idea. Maybe bring a scuba suit next time, genius.
Brutal stuff. This one is truly terrifying. For me, it's a big scary guy chasing me through a building. Just like Ed Sheeran's hit song "Thinking Out Loud" my legs don't work like they used to. The guy catches up to me and the dream ends. I'll wake up and rationality returns - it's just that my covers were too tight. I kick them off the bed and fall back asleep ready to outrun the guy in round 2.
I know what you're thinking, how is this possibly #1 on a list where teeth falling out was #10? Hear me out, this is #1 because it's realistic. Every couple of months I'll dream I'm in a new semester of college. Everything is going surprisingly well, almost too well. Two thirds of the way into it I learn that there's a course that I'm enrolled in but haven't been to yet. The panicked thoughts come flooding in - "how many exams have I missed?", "can I make up the homework?", "Am I going to get kicked out of school?". The funny thing is nothing like this every happened to me in real life. Don't get me wrong, I've been a derelict from time to time in my life but never anything like that. I can't help but smile after waking up from this one.
Like, Comment, Subscribe. Which ones did I miss? Let me know your favorite nightmares in the comments!