A friend went to Florida for a trade show for her business. She texted how exhausting trade shows are and texted, “You remember, don’t you?”
I certainly do. In fact, I have recurring dreams about setting up for them.
In the 80s and 90s I had a sales company representing jewelry and gift manufacturers. For the San Francisco Gift Show I had seven connecting booths (700sq ft), starting with a coveted corner booth. Prime real estate. It took myself and my team two days to set up.
So, yes, I know how exhausting trade shows were; prep to finish. The recurring dreams I’ve had were getting the back panels to the trade center via paddling them across San Francisco Bay. Always being out of time to set up. Always missing jewelry. I could never get back to sleep after those dreams. And it’s been 40-plus years since my last trade show.
What kind of recurring dreams do you all have?
Teeth falling out? Being chased or pursued? Being naked in public? Falling? Failing an exam or being unprepared? Being trapped or unable to move? Discovering a new room in a house? (That’s one I never heard of.)
When I looked up some dreams and what they mean, I got so caught up in them all that I can’t try and list any meanings. Instead, I’ll refer everyone to read Freud and his explanations and how he saw dreams as a way to “fulfill unconscious wishes, even if those wishes are socially unacceptable or repressed”…the explanation of his ideas go on and on and I’m in no way capable of understanding them.
I just know that when I was a kid, I had dreams of diving into the pool (was I in a race?) and I hit the bottom of the pool and knocked out my teeth. When I actually broke my front tooth, that was the last time that my losing teeth while diving dream poked into my head.
My father had such bad nightmares that my mom would lock my brother and I in our rooms at night. His golfing buddies, when they had an away golf tournament, would put furniture in front of the windows of the hotel rooms. That’s how they dealt with his nightmares.
When my brother and I were at my dad’s house for a weekend, he told us to get out of the house because an atom bomb was coming down on us. We got out of the house in our PJs, in the snow. My brother had the clarity to go to the country club we belonged to (we had a private gate right across the street) and called our stepmother to let us back in. Nothing was ever explained.
I learned from an Oprah show with Dr. Oz that those nightmares were actually night terrors caused by stress, sleep deprivation and changes in sleep schedules plus some underlying medical conditions.
Apparently night terrors are most common in young children, between the ages of 3 to 7, decreasing significantly after the age of 10.
It is also said that while they can occur in adults (mostly males), it’s less frequent and may be result of stress or an underlying neurological condition.
Wish I had known all this while my dad was alive. I would have liked to talk to him about them.
Research says that “Nightmares are bad dreams that can be remembered upon awakening. Recurring dreams are simply dreams that repeat and can be either pleasant or disturbing and may be related to stress or unresolved issues.”
I’ve had some dreams that I wish were recurring, like the one where Jamie Fraser from Outlander romanced me!
What’s a girl to do?…perhaps set up a dream scenario with Jamie, or just try for a good night’s sleep.
Lucy Llewellyn Byard welcomes comments lucywgtd@gmail.com
