Recurrent dreams about work.

[dudette10]

I have recurrent dreams that always have one of the same two themes: forgetting a patient or seeing it's 1600 on a 0700-1900 shift and realizing that I haven't set eyes on my patients at all. Occasionally, my subconscious will throw in an assignment that requires me to walk a long distance between two buildings for my patients, and I always seem to get lost along the way until I'm frantic.

Its always the same, and it seems so real. I will sometimes mercifully wake up and need to shake it off. I don't think this type of dreaming is unique to me, so please share your recurring dreams.

[Karou]

Sometimes it is hard to tell if my dreams are actually me dreaming, or if they are my thoughts as I am drifting off to sleep.

When I go to bed I start analyzing my entire day. Every medication, intervention, assessment, ect... What did I miss? Did I forget to report something? Sometimes I will realize something small that I forgot or could have done better/different. Once I realize what that is, I can hardly sleep from anxiety thinking about it.

I reach a point where I do sleep and no longer am controlling my thoughts.... I will start dreaming. Then I will wake up suddenly, heart racing, realizing something random that I did not realize I had forgotten. This can be hours after going to sleep. Whatever it is that woke me is usually I have no memory of thinking about prior to going to sleep. Something like forgetting to warn the oncoming nurse to be alert for a pending lab result. Random stuff.

Then there are the totally off the wall work dreams. Often I am having to respond to an emergency situation and I am doing it badly, or floating to an unfamiliar unit/hospital. Sometimes I dream of running down the halls with never ending beeping IV's, monitors, bed alarms, ect... Actually I even hear these as I drift off to sleep.

Most of my work dreams involve things I am anxious about/fear in real life.

[iluvgusgus]

I have nightmares similar to yours, I dream that I have pts on 3 different floors, that I dont know where anything is, Im running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Ive dreamt that I got an all new assignment halfway through the day just because another nurse wanted my assignment and it really upset me.

[Mulan]

Any work related dream is not a dream but a nightmare, IMO.

I don't think they have anything to do with anxiety.

I have had them even when I had been on a hiatus from work for months or years.

[emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

When I was a new ICU nurse I dreamed an entire 8-hour shift.

Did your dream include a meal break?

[annie.rn]

I've had the same type of recurring dreams on and off for my 20 + years of nursing. When I was a new nurse I dreamed I was trying to silence a PCA alarm but no matter what I did I couldn't. I woke up kneeling on my bed pressing imaginary buttons on the wall :-)

[annie.rn]

Any work related dream is not a dream but a nightmare

Ha,ha! So true!

[KeepItRealRN, BSN, RN]

I have a dream a once a year or so where I get a letter from my School of Nursing that says I didn't turn in a paper for a certain class and that I will have an (I) in complete until I do so. And until I complete my assignment my diploma is on hold as is my license. I would think if it is true the statute of limitations would have run out after a couple of decades.

[amoLucia]

I have freq dreams with past co-workers in them. Dreams are not work-related just that an ex-coworker is in it. Happens quite regularly.

[WoosahRN, MSN, RN]

I have some freaky work dreams. I do ECMO and since I started that (year and a half) I have ECMO dreams. My work dreams are very vivid. And some have a creepy "prediction" vibe to them.

Once had a dream that I had bilateral pneumos. I was in a library and the librarian did a needle decompression. When I went to work that night (in between shifts), my patient had blown bilateral pneumos and had a needle decompression on one side and a chest tube placed on the other.

Twice I've had ECMO Massive Air dreams and no kidding, the next night come back to find out that day shift had massive air. Also if I start having ECMO dreams, and we have no patients on, seems like we get one very soon after. So when we're slow my coworkers tell me I need to have an ECMO dream and get some patients in there!

Most of the dreams correlate with just being stressed or working a lot. But I really feel like I should be getting paid for them!

[unicoRNurse]

I had nighmares almost every night my entire first year of nursing school. I was always studying or writing papers, at clinical and trying not to kill anyone, forgetting to go to clinical, oversleeping, showing up having not written a paper that I just learned was due that day, not having my uniform, etc. I woke up stressed and exhausted nearly every day. The worst part was that I would frequently "dream up" assignments and exams, and several times I would wake up literally unable to tell if the assignment was real or a dream. More than once I had to consult my syllabus in real life to determine (then confirm with another student) that the assignment/exam wasn't real. (Second year was much better, thankfully.)

Unfortunately, I've started up with these kinds of stress dreams again in the last week or so. I just got my license last week, and now I dream (multiple times a night, because I'm waking up several times a night as well) that I am pouring over lists and lists of numbers, which are codes for different jobs, none of which I am qualified for... Don't have to work too hard to find the meaning in that one, huh?

[QuiltDog]

When I was working in a hospital setting, I had frequent work-related dreams. In these dreams, I had an assignment but for some reason was not keeping up with it. I was aware of time passing and tasks undone. The dream I vividly recall to this day involved the same general theme. I needed to write down my patients and their meds, but I could not find any paper. I was searching through an old-fashioned type secretary desk with about a million little drawers. Not a single piece of paper could be found. All the while, I am aware of time passing quickly, and my anxiety is mounting.

Sometimes when I had this dream, I would wake up with a start. It would take a few minutes to realize that I was not in fact at work, but home in bed.

I have been out of hospital nursing for over ten years. I noticed a marked decrease in this type of dream since then. Whether related or not, I am also much less stressed and anxious at work.

Great topic!!