Does anyone else have nursing nightmares while sleeping?

Nurses Stress 101

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Specializes in Med Surg, Parish Nurse, Hospice.

I have been having vivid dreams, really nightmares about nursing. It seems some weeks I will have 3 or more and then none for several weeks. I have been a nurse for 37 yrs and within the past year changed jobs to a non patient care field. I continue to work as a nurse, but no hands on care. My dreams almost always take place in the hospital that I worked at for 30 years. Last night my nightmare included smells. I wake up with the covers wrapped around me and usually in a panic. The dreams usually involve a lot of work that isn't getting done. My former co workers are often in the dreams. Does this happen to others? It isn't a big deal, but does bother me and I often feel like I have worked all night in my sleep. Any ideas or suggestions? Is my mind trying to work out something or am I just CRAZY!

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I have had "work nightmares" while sleeping. They can be truly terrifying.

However, I admit that most of the "work nightmares" I've had have been while awake. ;)

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They never seem to go away.

I imagine I'll be having them until the day I die, even if that's at 104 (and no, I won't be working at that age).

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

I used to have such vivid nightmares about work that when I woke up, I was just as tired as I would've been had I actually done what I was dreaming about!

I once called in, needing a "mental health day", and went back to sleep. Well, I should've gone in, because I worked a whole 12-hour shift in my sleep and was exhausted when I woke up again. And I didn't even get paid for it. :(

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

I've had the "work" dreams -- more often when I was home on medical leave and taking narcotics. They're both exhausting and terrifying. (Terrifying because the work for which I was responsible somehow kept piling up and piling up and I could never find my patients!)

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Oh my gosh, I have nursing nightmares all the time- also about work not getting done, trying to work in absolutely impossible, overwhelming situations, no supplies, being assigned to a hundred pts, getting lost in a hospital, not being able to find my way back to my unit, etc.

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Oh gosh YES. For some reason I have these dreams about me coming in for my shift and looking at the assignment sheet with me vs 100 patients. I used to wake up frightened like no other.

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Specializes in Psych, LTC/SNF, Rehab, Corrections.

Yeah. I dream of call-lights that won't shut off, phones that won't stop ringing and I'm yelling under my breath, 'What the he -- I just answered it!"

I dream of pt's chasing me. I work psych, so....

It's not really nightmares that I'm having, I don't think. I mean - I don't wake up fearful.

More, like...rattled, jumpy and "bothered". In general.

I even look 'bothered' coming out of that sleep. I've caught sight of myself in the mirror and seen my brows furrowed. Sometimes, I'm even scowling before my brain clears and I think, "Oh, right...it was just a dream."

They never seem to go away.

I imagine I'll be having them until the day I die, even if that's at 104 (and no, I won't be working at that age).

Oh - hell, no.

Can you imagine having Alz/dementia and being stuck in a work-delusion?

Kill. Me. Now.

I want the kind of dementia reality that allows me to be on an eternal cruise.

We used to have a resident like that. We gave her slips of paper to keep her occupied. She used to write us up and tape handwritten "memos" to the nurse's station addressing the nursing staff. She fired me twice, before she left.

I was too through. LOL

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Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

I have them too. Just like everybody else.

Just another hazard of the job I hadn't considered.

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Specializes in retired LTC.

Not nightmares. And not occurring in a work setting. Just having co-workers in my dreams somewhere I am. And I do have them freq.

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Anxiety dreams related to work are universal. Nurses just have more anxiety to dream about!

Don't think they ever stop, I've been out of the hospital for a few years , a friend retired 10 years ago... and we still have them regularly. Just another nursing perk for us.

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Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.
Not nightmares. And not occurring in a work setting. Just having co-workers in my dreams somewhere I am. And I do have them freq.

Sounds like a nightmare to me.:nailbiting:

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