# Sleep and Dreams > General Dream Discussion > Nightmares and Recurring Dreams >  >  Common Dream Categories- Why?

## Baron Samedi

I notice a pattern of certain dream categories that are common to a lot of people. 

I am very curious as to why these are. Here are the ones I have noticed so far.  Feel free to add to the list, and discuss why you think certain categories are common. What is interesting to me, is a lot of these dream themes are not common occurrences in waking life.

Flying Dreams

Teeth Falling Out Dreams

Naked in Public Dreams

Being Chased Dreams

Killing Dreams

Outer Space Dreams

Geometric Shapes Dreams

Battle Dreams

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## TheWeirdnessSymposium

Going back to your old school or a place of work.

Deceased relative is still alive somewhere.

Looking for your partner but you can't find them.

Having to make urgent phone call but the phone doesn't work.

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## Baron Samedi

Funny you should mention.
I dreamed last night that I was in the Green Room of the auditorium where I went to high school. I alsoe dreamed of my sixth grade teacher.  

I think the strangest common one is the teeth falling out one.  Well, we do all experience this as children, but that pretty much only happens once.

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## Kordan

I think that it says somewhere here that dreams of being naked in public, having our teeth fall out/crumble, being chased, device failure, excessive conflict, and a number of other things are actually a sign of stress and/or anxiety (I forget which). 

Others, such as seeing a deceased relative, meeting old "characters" from one's life, and going back to places of past commonality can be signs of nostalgia or wishful thinking...

That is, unless your tenth grade math teacher was a complete sadist, or your great-grandfather told long and pointless stories (you *know* the ones I'm talking about), or your high school was a junk heap and you'd never go back for ANYTHING...I'd count these latter ones in with the stress/anxiety category.

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## Calypso

My dreams always involve comradery and guns.

I always seem to be well supplied in my nightmares its funny, I always have a bunch of friends or guns or something in all my nightmares

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## TempletonEsquire

We often look at dreams from the predictability of our own waking life.  That is why having your teeth fall out seems odd for us, because in waking life that would be a major event that would impact us in all kinds of socialized ways.  Yet in dreams, it can happen a lot.

It's important to look at dreams as a closed system.  Things like anatomy or social standards have completely different uses in dreams.  DCs don't conform to our expectations of people, animals, or even furniture, yet I believe there exists a standard from which they do conform to.  Since there are common themes and archtypes in dreams, there must be common rules.  These rules may be so complex and temporal though to intellectualize them would need a format that is adaptable by the millisecond.  Such a thing can only exist in the mind, and really would form a way of thinking then communicable tenets.  And thus the personal nature of dreaming.

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## Baron Samedi

> We often look at dreams from the predictability of our own waking life.  That is why having your teeth fall out seems odd for us, because in waking life that would be a major event that would impact us in all kinds of socialized ways.  Yet in dreams, it can happen a lot.
> 
> It's important to look at dreams as a closed system.  Things like anatomy or social standards have completely different uses in dreams.  DCs don't conform to our expectations of people, animals, or even furniture, yet I believe there exists a standard from which they do conform to.  Since there are common themes and archtypes in dreams, there must be common rules.  These rules may be so complex and temporal though to intellectualize them would need a format that is adaptable by the millisecond.  Such a thing can only exist in the mind, and really would form a way of thinking then communicable tenets.  And thus the personal nature of dreaming.



So why do you think so many of us have naked dreams?

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## DeeryTheDeer

I've had so many dreams of screaming but not having much of a voice or no voice (including last night), as well as dreams where I was too weak or gravity felt too heavy to walk/run/climb onto anything (also including last night).

Dreams of school are also common.

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## lucidreamsavy

I have had CHANGING dreams before, where I'm changing in public, with both guys and girls, but never being naked.

I have had so many teeth dreams, it's not funny.  A couple of my teeth would fall out, I'd be grinding my teeth, be getting braces, lots of times.  I still do get them sometimes, I've had my braces for a year and a half (I'm still supposed to have them on for a year) and I've had lots of teeth pullin out (11 to be exact, all but 4 baby teeth) and I've had braces before, and lots of other crap, so, this probably accounts towards my teeth dreams.

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## Robot_Butler

What about the one where you find out you actually need to take one last test to graduate?  Turns out, you never turned in that last project for that class you forgot about.  I get that one a lot.

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## TempletonEsquire

> So why do you think so many of us have naked dreams?



Clothes are not necessary in a purely temporary plane.  Neither are life and death circumstances.  In the purely temporary, there is only aware and unaware.  If you are aware of your nakedness, and you reflect that against your own standards of being clothed, you'll be shocked and look for clothes to put back on.  If you are naked but unaware, then it will mean nothing.

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## Morrigan

Flying is a common dream of mine (thankfully when Lucid).I have read that it means feeling care-free.I doubt that is the case for me somehow.

Driving off of bridges uncompleted, or damaged was one type of dream in my earlier life that was a nightmare. 
I was sold to a circus in one set of recurring dreams, and was chased when trying NOT be taken by them. Lots of recurring dreams being chased.

I DID have a "oops..Somehow I forgot to put my clothes on" dream. Now I find it very amusing the the setting for the dream was in a church.  ::lol:: 

Morrigan

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## Robot_Butler

I've always assumed the "oops i forgot to dress" dream has something to do with our morning routine.  When you first wake up, one of the first things you do is get dressed for the day.  It makes sense that it is on your mind when you sleep.  I think it is even worse for people who sleep naked, or nearly naked.  A part of you knows you are not in your normal state of dress.

Same thing with the "crumbling teeth" dream.  The last thing you do before going to bed is brush your teeth.  Focusing on your teeth for 5 minutes right before bed is bound to incubate some dream content.

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## Kordan

> So why do you think so many of us have naked dreams?



It makes us feel vulnerable, and it is often a sign that we have some insecurity, be it of our bodies, or something else. In many cultures, there are few things more degrading than being without clothes. Clothing is a form of protection, both literally and symbolically. Even in the most "primitive" (I hate that term) societies, clothing is used to cover up and protect what are, arguably, the most important parts of the body, being the genital areas. This may be a cultural development (as in reproduction, etc became taboo) or it is simply a practical evolutionary instinct (as in, to reproduce, you need these things, and need to protect them from damage). It may be a combination of both factors. 

If we consider it to be a cultural norm, it is interesting to think about how that cultural norm has such a large effect on us in our dreams. It makes one wonder how much of our dream content is impacted by societal and cultural pressures...

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## Midnight Traveler

I frequently find myself out in public with no pants.  These dreams have never become lucid even though I should do a reality check if I find my pants missing!  I have read that this is due to insecurities.  But I don't think of myself as an insecure person in my waking life.  So I don't know for sure why this keeps repeating.

Seth

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## lucidreamsavy

> I frequently find myself out in public with no pants.  These dreams have never become lucid even though I should do a reality check if I find my pants missing!  I have read that this is due to insecurities.  But I don't think of myself as an insecure person in my waking life.  So I don't know for sure why this keeps repeating.
> 
> Seth



I think that your mind stretches your insecureities in a way (know what I mean?).

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## apocalypse

> Going back to your old school or a place of work.



Dreaming of your school and recognizing it, even though it looks nothing like the your actual school or work place.

Deja Vu's

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## Metaphyz1k

> I notice a pattern of certain dream categories that are common to a lot of people. 
> 
> I am very curious as to why these are. Here are the ones I have noticed so far.  Feel free to add to the list, and discuss why you think certain categories are common. What is interesting to me, is a lot of these dream themes are not common occurrences in waking life.
> 
> Flying Dreams
> 
> Teeth Falling Out Dreams
> 
> Naked in Public Dreams
> ...



To help understand this, I think we can further divide these types of dreams into subcategories. 

Anxiety/Death dreams:
Teeth falling outKillingBattleBeing chasedNaked in public

Dreams of transcendence:

FlyingOuter spaceGeometric shapes

It is obvious that we all experience anxiety and a fear of death. This quality is not only unique to humans, as we have observed countless times the parallels between our behavior and animal behavior. Anxiety, we know, has been gained through evolution. On the most fundamental level, we are inherently concerned with our survival both individually and as a species.

Dreams, although there is much mystery still surrounding why we have them, are manifestations of our most basic fears and desires. It is only natural that we often experience scary and life threatening situations during dreams, as this is probably helpful from a survival standpoint. Dreams also provide a relief from the stresses of everyday life, which further allows us to see the connection between dreams and anxiety.

On the other hand, humans are unique in our ability to think and reason, experience emotion and consciousness, and act intuitively. I believe this is why we experience dreams of transcendence. We are sometimes allowed mind blowing experiences that reveal to us realities far beyond human understanding. 

This is what makes dreams so amazing- they can reflect our most basic qualities of being alive, or conversely, they can involve profound and extremely complex experiences that no one can quite put their finger on or begin to explain.

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## John11

> What about the one where you find out you actually need to take one last test to graduate?  Turns out, you never turned in that last project for that class you forgot about.  I get that one a lot.



I've been out of school for 2 and a half years, but I still get things like this.  I'll go to a class and have a test I didn't know about;  I'll go to class and realize there's something due that I didn't know about (or have a false memory of putting it off and then forgetting about it);  I'll have this overwhelming fear that there is a class that I'm supposed to be going to but I haven't for many weeks or months.

None of that stuff ever happened in school either and it was never a worry of mine...


Another recurring thing I have all the time is being in a car and the break/accelerator/steering wheel being very unresponsive.

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## Baron Samedi

> Clothes are not necessary in a purely temporary plane.  Neither are life and death circumstances.  In the purely temporary, there is only aware and unaware.  If you are aware of your nakedness, and you reflect that against your own standards of being clothed, you'll be shocked and look for clothes to put back on.  If you are naked but unaware, then it will mean nothing.



Hmm.. I used to have a lot of naked dreams.  But, then I was like. Hmm, no one seems to notice. I don't really care, I guess.

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## TempletonEsquire

> Hmm.. I used to have a lot of naked dreams.  But, then I was like. Hmm, no one seems to notice. I don't really care, I guess.



Well luckily your clothing standards are lax enough that you are not as easily distracted by being naked.  I'm fairly certain that nakedness is a distraction to the mind to keep it less aware of our surroundings.  When we are naked, usually we focus on being naked and will not try to see through the illusion.  A reality check on nakedness would be a good way to go lucid.

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## blank530

teeth falling out is stress

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## Baron Samedi

> Well luckily your clothing standards are lax enough that you are not as easily distracted by being naked.  I'm fairly certain that nakedness is a distraction to the mind to keep it less aware of our surroundings.  When we are naked, usually we focus on being naked and will not try to see through the illusion.  A reality check on nakedness would be a good way to go lucid.



I actually used to have those naked dreams when I was more insecure about my body. (Think 5'6", 105 pounds) when I was a teenager.  I would never get lucid. I would just think, "Hmm, no one seems to care that I'm naked, I guess I shouldn't."

I think it was a way for my subconscious to help me deal with my physical insecurity.  

I have also had naked dreams with a unisex shower theme.  Both genders are naked showering together in a gym, or at opposite ends of a gym a locker room, but we can see each other. I get confused as to which side I am supposed to shower on, then I usually decide to shower on the side with the most women. haha

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