Recurring dreams

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Do you have any recurring dreams? How about recurring themes or motifs?

For more than a decade, I've had a recurring theme of zombies. In these dreams, the world has always already gone full zombie apocalypse and I'm one of the few remaining, sneaking about here and there and killing zombies just fine. I encounter a small group of hapless humans in need of assistance and have to make the choice. Inevitably, I stop to help them, and inevitably they vanish one by one. This usually takes place in a massive apartment building or office complex.

I also have a similar recurring demon theme, except in these ones, I'm not in just one building, there are no humans left, and the demons cannot be killed, only fled.

I also have a recurring motif of large, maze-like houses/mansions (and sometimes other buildings), which follows me from one dream to the next. I used to have a specific recurring dream in a specific mansion, until I discussed it with my mother a year or so ago, and discovered that she had the same exact dream from a different perspective. We even drew the house in question (separately), and they were nearly identical. I was fascinated by the phenomenon, while she was creeped out. I used to have the dream every 3 or so months like clockwork, but haven't had it since discussing it with her.

I'm curious about the experiences of others. It doesn't have to be something weird like sharing dreams with other people (though that would be very interesting to hear about). What do you dream about over and over again?

Ever since I dropped out, I've been having recurring dreams about school. In the dreams, sometimes my mom forces me to go back, and other times I go willingly. The school is either my elementary school or my junior high, or some combination of both. No matter which building it is, it is always much larger and labyrinth-like than it was in reality. In some dreams, I am on my way to a class, but I can never find out where it is. In other dreams, I'm not looking for a classroom, but the counselor's office. Sometimes I find it, sometimes I don't. If I do find it, the counselor doesn't help me with my problems. Other times I know exactly where my classes are, but I deliberately skip them so I can go to the art room and work on a project. I sometimes go out to recess or the cafeteria. In the cafeteria, I see my former friends and eat with them.

Closely tied with the school dream is another recurring dream - dreams about my former best friend. To make a long story short, we hurt each other emotionally and quit being on speaking terms about 5 or 6 years ago. In my dreams, I see her at school. I am always happy to see her, and she is either indifferent or happy to see me. We make up and she agrees to be my best friend again. I tell her about my current interests and ask her if she likes them too. She is usually indifferent to them or doesn't know what I'm talking about. After school, we go to her house, which in the dream looks like a cross-section of a doll house. Sometimes I see her family members in her house. Sometimes, instead of going to school or her house, I go on vacation to Japan with her and her family since that's where they are from.

Another recurring dream is about the mall. Like the school, I recognize it, but it is much larger and more elaborate than its real life counterpart. There are many different shops and kiosks and I go into many of them looking for something to buy. However, I never buy anything because I either don't have enough money, or I'm looking for a specific item and it's nowhere to be found. A lot of times, there are big musical productions happening right in the middle of the mall. To date, I've dreamt about seeing Cry-Baby, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Phantom of the Opera taking place in the mall (in one dream, I even got the part of Allison Vernon-Williams in a production of Cry-Baby). A lot of times I eat at the food court, and there are so many different choices of food that it's difficult for me to pick one. Sometimes the mall dreams combine with the school dreams - I skip school to go to the mall, which is conveniently attached to the school itself.

I used to have a recurring dream a few years ago that I was being choked and I kept loosening my clothes (always my school shirt) to the point of almost taking them off but it never worked. I used to have recurring dreams before then that I was mostly blind. Both of these were quite distressing.

Now I get dreams with the same plot, but in different settings and with different "supporting cast". What happens is I am with my best friend and we start getting romantic and holding hands and hugging, everything is going well but then he always changes into something I no longer find desirable. What usually happens is he shrinks to really small or he gets younger and becomes a kid, he has changed into other things like he turned obese once, once he turned into a dog, once he turned into a downs kid. Thankfully on the last one I mentioned he changed back to his normal self, but 90-odd percent of the time he doesn't change back and the good dream is ruined.

At the moment I'm having a lot of special interest related dreams, so that means dreams with apes as characters or something with a primatology theme, or maybe famous scientists that I like being characters. The other night I dreamt about Jane Goodall and I was reading some article about her and there were family dramas or something (not things that have ever been mentioned in real life.)

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I have a lot of special interest related dreams too. In my case that means dreaming about Tim Burton movies. I usually dream about being a kid in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, or about what would happen if there was a sequel to The Nightmare Before Christmas.

I have reoccurring dreams about places that I used to work, or that I'm still living in the 2 story house that I've moved out of in 2006.

I often dream about my teeth falling out or about turning up to an exam I've done absolutely no work for. I hear these are extremely common themes. Also, I often dream about being late for something (usually a soccer match, with me on the sidelines watching as the game starts while I'm struggling to tie my shoelaces, and then I remember I've left something in the changing rooms, and so on and so on).
Pretty boring huh?

I had quite vivid reoccuring dreams in my childhood that thankfully stopped happening when I reached adolescence. They involved these kinda "demon" like creatures chasing me and I would sometimes be in my own house or bedroom. I found the appearance of these creatures quite disturbing and normally I would wake up screaming the house down when I had these dreams it would never progress to the point where they caught me or got hold of me the mere sight of them would be enough to cause me to wake up.

One time I absolutely terrified the rest of my family when we were on holiday. I literally sat up screamed at the top of my lungs with my eyes wide open in absolute terror then collapsed back on the bed and fell back to sleep The strange thing was I was fully conciouss when I did that but i seemed to be operating on autopilot because when i collapsed and fell back to sleep again it was completly involuntary, quite a bizzare experiance.

I have many recurring dreams of being submerged under deep water... usually with sharks or ice above me. I think sharks are cool and maybe know more than I should about them, but needless to say am terrified of them in my dreams. I've been ripped and torn in my dreams but usually the dreams are about them being in my way to the surface. Oddly I can breathe water in my dreams so I'm not so sure why I'm trying to surface so desperately. There are usually Great whites, Greenland sharks, or tiger sharks in my dreams... I haven't really seen others yet. My last one I had was a month ago after killing a great white that was stalking me. That dream was above water and it was stormy above the water and I had a harpoon gun. I guess killing the large great white has ended those dreams for now.

Yeah, me too and I am much much older than you.
I still have dreams where I am back in high school and looking for the right class, and yes the school is a scary labyrinth.

And yet I dropped out of school over 40 years ago!! !!

Since then I have had several successful careers, married and raised a family.

Yet I still have these bizarre and scary dreams where I need to graduate from high school.

In the dreams sometimes I am young and sometimes I am my real age.

IdahoRose, all I can say is get on with your life and try not to let it bother you.

My most recent recurring dream theme involves snakes. Understandably, I dreamt about them a lot after I got my first "pet" snake, but that was years ago and I still dream about them. I'll often get bitten by a venomous snake and will tell my mum I have to get to hospital within a few hours or I could die, and she won't even really care and will just take her time getting ready to go (which is nothing like what she would really be like!).

I also often have snakes and other reptiles escaping from their enclosures and I have to juggle them, trying to get them all back where they are supposed to be. Very stressful!

Some very interesting dreams! I find it particularly fascinating how many people have mentioned labyrinths.

I find it interesting that I'm not the only person who has these kinds of dreams! They don't upset me at all; it's just really annoying when I have school dreams several nights in a row, because I like to dream about different things.

I have a strange recurring theme that is a little scary in the dream, but fun to think about later.

It starts in the old house I grew up in, and there is an animal. The first time it was birds with four legs and normal wings. One bird would begin to split in half, from the tip of the beak to the tail, into two birds. They emit an ear piercing noise while doing it. I usually spend the dream grabbing birds and wrapping them in wire so they can't split.

Another time it happened with giant spiders, except the head and first pair of legs fell off the body, and both pieces grew into complete spiders. I've got a fairly strong fear of spiders so I did nothing but run from these.

That is very interesting. Sounds quite unique, and like it should be a metaphor.

I have the same type of dream almost every night. However, it follows different "storylines".

It is usually in a shopping mall which is attached to my school (confusing, right?). They're all usually horror dreams too.

Naturally I dream a lot about my family and pets.

School has also haunted my dreams since I began in 1st grade. I quit high school, but the school dreams have continued and pop up every now and then. Almost always I am forced there or I am there and don't wanna be there. I am never happy about being there and I never wish to stay. In quite a few dreams I have played truant a lot and/or am thinking about it.