Some examples of responses given by participants in a survey conducted by American dream specialist Kelly Bulkeley and Harris Interactive among 2,252 Americans.
The nightmare where we lose control
- “I’m in charge of organizing an event and I can’t find the place where it’s happening,” says a participant.
- “I often dream that I am completely unprepared for an important meeting. Everyone is sitting and staring at me expecting something that I seem to ignore.”
The nightmare where we get fired
- “I dreamed that someone took my parking space at work.”
- “I got fired in a dream. »
The nightmare of being chased by someone (or something)
- “I dreamed that I was being tracked at my workplace. I couldn’t get out and the other employees told me to do impossible things.
- “Computers were running after me screaming ‘program me’! “, reveals a developer.
- “Once I dreamed that my colleagues had become zombies. I had to climb the stairs at full speed to the third floor. There, I tried to take the elevator to get out. »
Other work-related bad dream themes that often come up
- arriving naked at work
- not wearing the appropriate attire for an important meeting
- to be late
- not being able to go out
- make mistakes.
The bright side of nightmares
For Kelly Bulkeley, nothing abnormal in that. “Dreams accurately reflect what torments people during the day”he writes in his op-ed published on the Huffington Post.
According to Louise-Frédérique Sainker, coach author of Tell Your Dreams, Dream Interpretation Guide, “these nightmares can be evidence of great stress (if you dream of arriving late, for example), of an indication that work encroaches too much on your private life (when you dream of meeting naked in the middle of the open-space, in particular); but it may also be a sign that we are preparing for an evolution”.
Several researchers […] hypothesized that one of the functions of dreaming is to simulate potential real-world threats, with the aim of helping one prepare to deal with them should they ever materialize.
Kelly Bulkeley
According to Louise-Frédérique Sainker, it would even be good to have nightmares about work. “Often, people who dream of getting fired get raised, she says, because there are reversed dreams of some kind. »
How to avoid nightmares about work?
For those who prefer to avoid nightmares, however, Kelly Bulkeley has a method: “every night, once in bed, with the light off, take a moment to think about the creative forces of your imagination for dreams”. So, what do you want to dream about tonight?
First publication: August 30, 2013. Updated on 7/27/2022
