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| dream... (Photo credit: Norma Desmond) |
IN the comment section of my previous post, Eve said:
I've had dreams that seem to last for hours and hours...have you ever had a dream where you're running from something, or someone..it seems to last all night long, and when you wake up you're actually tired because you've been 'running' all night?
Thinking back on my own dreams I don't recall many times where I woke up tired after a dream where I was running from something--in fact, maybe never. However, many times I have awakened from dream sleep feeling very worn out much as though I had spent a long hard day at work. There was probably a good reason I felt this way when I woke up--I was dreaming of work.
In recent months I have been having an especially large number of dreams about work. These dreams typically involve stress caused by not being on schedule or feeling pressured by upper management. In some of these dreams I may be back traveling with a road show as I did during the 1980's. At times I am lost or delayed by peculiar events. I realize that I will be late for the show and an audience will be waiting. My tension is increased by confusion, indecisiveness, and forgetfulness. I become frustrated because I am unsure of what to do or how to do things.
In other dreams I am working in a scenario similar to the warehouse where I was manager in my last job. There are things I can't remember--processes, products, product locations, customers, and even workers who I manage. I attempt to achieve tasks that were once familiar to me, but now are things I no longer understand. I am concerned about my job performance and fear repercussions from the company owners. Losing my job becomes a burdensome worry in the dream.
My interpretation relates these dreams mostly to my state of unemployment which I have been in for four years now. During the first two years I collected unemployment and looked diligently for a job without success. After the unemployment benefits ran out I gradually spent less effort looking for work and trying to consider other ways to make money. I will begin collecting social security in March. I still hope to find a good source of income, but if I don't then I suppose I can consider myself officially retired.
The long period of joblessness would account for my sense of uncertainty if I were to rejoin the workforce. Since my previous jobs were of such long duration, I use them as a reference point and model for any new job situation in which I might find myself. In my dreams I return to the jobs that I have known in the past, but having been away leaves me with a sense of insecurity. This sense of insecurity and my own having forgotten what my jobs may have entailed leads to anxiety, apprehension, doubt, and stress. A night filled with these encumbrances causes fretful sleep and mental turmoil which wearies me and causes me to wake up tired.
Have you experienced similar dream sleep problems? Do you ever awaken in the morning feeling tired as though you hadn't slept? What do you think causes you to wake up tired?
I have sleep problems at the moment through stress and worry, so I do awaken more tired than when I went to bed. I have a self help cd to help, I think I'm getting there only time will tell.
ReplyDeleteHave a good day and I hope you had a wonderful birthday yesterday,
Yvonne.
I used to have dreams where I was being chased. Suddenly, I'd develop a way to fly to escape.
ReplyDeleteI wake up tired every day, whether or not I've had 4 hours of sleep or 10. I've had a lot of dreams with frenetic activity in them but I'm not sure that made me tired or not. I used to dream about running to get my bus when I was in SF, because every night I had to run 3 or more blocks to get my bus and I hated to have to take the later one. So I'd dream about running down Market Street, except I couldn't run on my two legs more than a couple steps. I'd stumble. The only way I could run was if I used my arms and legs to gallop/run, like an animal. How strange.
ReplyDeleteYvonne -- I did have a wonderful birthday, thank you. I was so surprised by all the nice Facebook greetings I received. Relaxation exercises are probably good for better sleep. Hope you achieve peaceful sleep.
ReplyDeleteEm -- That sounds like a very good dream message. I don't recall ever having dreams about flying, but I've heard it's a very good thing to have one.
JoJo -- That is very strange and it sounds strangely familiar. I have a vague recollection of similar type dreams where I will be running or moving in a rather odd manner. Thinking about your comment I'm pondering as to whether if we are already tired or stressed when we go to sleep, during the previous day, or have expectations of a difficult day ahead, perhaps one of those factors could be what creates the stress dream. That would make more sense that a random dream generated that leaves us feeling drained. Very helpful comment, JoJo.
Lee
Yes, I have had them. Many times. I relate their meanings to actual concerns I have. The problem is, as you said, poor sleep doesn't make things better. I got an advice that helped and I pass it to you. It's basically PNL. When you are already in bed, lights turned off, you run a check list over your body. i.e. Feet - relaxed; calves-relaxed; thighs-relaxed, etc. You tension that part and then you relax it. When you are done with all of your body, you "program the brain" by saying I rest fully, I have a dreamless sleep, I recover my energy, I am at peace with life, etc. The one who provided the advice insisted I should always speak in present, like it is happening now. Hope it helps you. It has actually eased some of my most tormented nights.
ReplyDeleteI have had bouts with 2 a.m. insomnia, and the cause is worrying about something. And, yes, I wake up tired.
ReplyDeleteAl -- I actually kind of like these dreams even though I often find them perplexing. They are like revisiting the past, but feeling out of place due to my trying to become a part of that past. Oh, and I don't believe there is such a thing as totally dreamless prolonged sleep. Sooner or later the dreams will come though we might not remember them.
ReplyDeletePaula -- I too have had some of those nights, but fortunately not very often. Sometimes I have no idea what triggers them, but I will wake up and think of some usually absurd thing and one thought leads to another. It's kind of nuts really.
Lee
I suppose you lucked out, because I just got an error after writing a fairly long comment. Not even going to try to duplicate it. Suffice to say, I dream once in a while, and when I do, it's all good!
ReplyDeleteI have sporadic work dreams. My husband woke me up the other night because he was pushing the buttons on his C-Pap machine. He said he was having a dream where he had to enter numbers in a certain order. His C-Pap machine was off, on, off, on.
ReplyDeleteAnd we were both tired the next day.
MJ -- I hate it when that happens! Strangely enough I can usually memorize my comments after I compose them so I am able to replicate them and I have a difficult time remembering what 4 things to get when I go to the grocery store. The writer's mind at work I guess. Good dreams mean that things are well in your life--or you're in serious denial. Thanks for commenting.
ReplyDeleteSusan -- I guess work becomes so much a part of us that it's what we most commonly dream about. Even now after having been not working for the past 4 years I still dream about work most of the time. When I was a kid I dreamed about school a lot. The mind processing what we are closest too.
Lee
A little of both, I suppose. lol Seriously though, I took a dream analogy class in college. Oh, but it was intriguing - kept a dream journal and everything.
ReplyDeleteMost of the time, I don't dream, but when I do, it's usually to work something out. My dreams are like, "Duh! You idiot! What's wrong with you, man! You know what you need to do! Now get off you butt and just do it already!" They problem solve for me, which is one of the reasons it's all good.
MJ -- I wish they'd had a class like that when I was in college. I used to keep a dream journal back then and dreams were one of the main reasons I started out with a major in psychology. I maintain, and I think research backs me up, that we all dream-it's a necessity for our mental health. I'd say the ones that help you are the ones you remember and the others are tucked away in the recesses of your mind and not worth your remembering them.
ReplyDeleteLee
I had a double major going when I went (SJSU)- Child Development & Psychology. Along came my 1st child, due around Spring mid-terms. I had a choice. Get 1 degree in December and hope I go back for the 2nd one - of which I would have earned the following semester, or hope my daughter didn't arrive when I was supposed to be taking tests. I opted to take 1 degree - never went back to get the 2nd one. No regrets. All those psyche classes have served me well over the years, and teaching was a perfect job, while raising the kids. Like I said, it's all good:)
ReplyDelete