I had it again last night. I’m on a sit, and somehow – despite it being my reason for actually being there – I manage to get distracted and completely forget to feed any of the animals for the duration of the sit. In fact, I think I forget there are even any animals to look after until I hear the home owners’ car coming up the drive – cue panic, and a terrible sense of impending doom. Luckily my alarm went off this morning just in time to save me from having to witness the results of my neglect, but why does this keep happening, and am I the only one?!
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You’re not the only one. I’ve had a similar nightmare. It’s like I somehow was disconnected from the reality around me and had no control over the situation.
I can’t explain why this happens to you but I think I understand why it happened to me. This was in the context of a sit where I felt I might be supervised by the host’s parents, who lived next door. It was a slight feeling on my part and I debated with myself that there was no real evidence, so I guess I was feeling a bit uncomfortable and my brain played that trick.
This type of nightmare of being powerless to control a particular situation has been recurring since I was a child, in different contexts. For example I would be late for an exam, have no pen and/or be half naked. Every time it happens, I’m in the middle of that situation without having any idea how I got there. It tends to happen when I’m stressed or trying to figure something out.
Are you, by any chance, a thorough person?
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Stress dreams can represent the situation (like sitting) or something unrelated. But whatever the cause, you’re feeling stress in your life.
Personally, I’ve never dreamt about sitting. If it stressed me out, I just wouldn’t sit, since I do it for enjoyment.
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@Becca I am no expert, apart being a vivid dreamer myself, but it seems to me that these dreams are because you are a very diligent and conscientious person, and the last thing you’d do (or not do!) is what your dreams are about.
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As you have mentioned yourself, the content of the nightmare isn’t necessarily the cause of stress.
There are also other possible explanations apart from stress or no explanation at all. When we dream in REM, our brain is really active in the areas associated with memory. But the content of our memory includes personal experience but also what we read, watch etc, so there may not be any association with real events in our lives. If there is some kind of connection, this would be personal and not valid for everyone or even valid from dream to dream in the same person.
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Yes, agreed. There are various causes for dreams.
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Aaah, yes… I’ve got a lot of work on at the moment and it’s a struggle to juggle! So probably stressing about forgetting to do something important.
On a more positive note, I did once dream about a lovely dog I’d looked after on a sit, who was very keen to introduce me to a younger dog of the same breed in the dream. Spookily, three days later I had a message from the home owners asking whether I’d like to do their sit again, and when I looked at their listing, they had indeed got a second pup to match the first!
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It’s funny. I’m not sitting now. I haven’t for a couple of months but last night I had a dream where I had somehow got into the fifth day of a sit and I hadn’t sent any pictures or updates. I felt really confused and didn’t know how I could have been so distracted I was also surprised that I didn’t have any messages from the owners either.
I guess, in this case, just the fact of participating in this thread made my brain create this dream. No underlying worries and no sit either.
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Yup. That sort of thing happens, unfortunately.
If I have a stress dream, I consider what’s stressing me anywhere in life and consider how to deal with that issue, so maybe ease the stress dreaming, which is just a symptom.
If I did that by process of elimination and only sitting was stressing me, then I’d figure out how to address that. But because sitting is only icing to me, I wouldn’t spend much effort doing that. If that weren’t a quick solve, I’d just not sit.
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I’ve also had this dream both about unfed pets on our sits and about our own pet budgies when we had them. The stress angle is an interesting one that I will reflect on next time. Thankfully I’ve never forgotten to feed any pets in reality!
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This sounds like a grownup version of the dream of not studying for the test - a dream I recurringly had as a child.
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At one time I repeatedly dreamt that I had forgotten to feed the goldfish in the attic, and I’d wake up in a panic. (There were no goldfish in the attic. I didn’t have any goldfish) Later I learned that dreams like that are common during perimenopause, which I had been going through at the time. Shifting hormones.
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I work in accounting and it’s a common thing for my accountant peers to have dreams about missing deadlines, forgetting to file a reports, and even transposing numbers. I have a friend that works in sales and travels often, who has regular nightmares of missing a flight. It’s a bizarre phenomenon, yet common. I think it’s our brain still processing important matters, even while we’re asleep.
I haven’t had that one but, as a retired teacher, I used to have recurring dreams about being late for classes, not being prepared, still trying to find materials after the class has started, not being able to find the classroom… I still occasionally get them.
I’m a retired teacher too and I used to have those, especially being unable to find the classroom but the day I retired I stopped dreaming about school altogether. Never again. I am really surprised because I used to have lots of dreams related to school.
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I have had a similar dream @Becca .
In my dream the sit is going well including the pets that I am taking care of but after some days I remember that there were also some other pets in another part of the home that I had completely forgotten to feed / look after !!
So I go searching for this other part of the home and when I find it - there is a whole menagerie of pets who not only have survived ( despite my neglect ) they’ve had babies ….!!
… I’ve had this dream more than once but as far as I can recall it has only happened when we are between sits and don’t have any pets to take care of …
@Dace @Newpetlover I’m also a retired teacher and had similar dreams. Even after 15 years of being retired, I can still have flashbacks of some of the students and their antics! I love meeting them down the street and learning about their life after school. One of them is a successful chef (I taught Foods) and it’s so lovely to be hugged when I go to her cafe.
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