Being back in school is one of the most common dreams among adults of all ages.
In dream surveys, being in school often ranks in the top five categories subjects’ dreams, even among adults out of school for decades.
For one informal survey that included 128 people, respondents said they had dreams of high school (73%), college (34%), elementary school (12%), middle school (7%) (with a total of more than 100% if added because some had recurring dreams in more than one setting). 98.4% of respondents viewed their school dream experiences as somewhat unpleasant or very unpleasant, with some feeling their dreams went beyond anxiety to a panic level.1
There are all sorts of articles online about the meanings of dreams like these from psychological meanings to mystical meanings. Perhaps the dreams highlight unresolved childhood or young adult insecurities. Maybe there are lingering feelings of guilt, inferiority, or worries that misdeeds may be found out. Some dream superstitions say that to dream of teaching at school is a sign of good fortune while dreaming of being a student may foretell setbacks in business or work, especially if you dream of forgetting your lessons.2
The meaning of dreams has been puzzled over for centuries. Ancient Egyptians thought that dreams were either communications from the gods or prophecies of the future. Dream interpretation as a psychological field of study was scientifically established with Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams, which laid the foundation for many of his theories of the unconscious mind. Many experts now disagree with Freud’s conclusions and others believe that dreams don’t signify anything at all.3
Dreams are the stories our unconscious mind creates while we sleep. It’s thought that everyone dreams, though some people say they never remember having had any dreams. While dreams sometimes seem fantastical or illogical, they usually involve elements from waking life – involuntary clips, images, feelings, and memories that occur during the REM (rapid eye movement) period of sleep.4
My school dreams have occurred occasionally for years with variations usually on two specific themes:
- trying to get registered as a new student in the high school I graduated from in real life, or
- failing to attend the same difficult college class, usually math of some sort, over and over, knowing that it’s happened before.
Unlike school dreams for many, mine never has any anxiety or panic.
Both themes have foundations, I suppose, on aspects of my school years.
In 1965, we moved crosstown in North Platte, Nebraska, and I had to switch to a different junior high school. Then, going into high school two years later, I had to enroll in a much larger school in the middle of Houston, Texas. I only attended there one semester, moving to a smaller school just outside Houston. I really didn’t want to change schools, but my mom and step-dad promised that, after that move, I wouldn’t have to. We lived in 4 different rundown places between January 1968 and my graduation in May 1970, all of them in the same school district – and I didn’t have to change schools.
When I enrolled as a freshman at the University of Houston, I was driving a new-to-me used car that I had just purchased with my meager savings. Before classes even started, though, I totaled it on the way home from work when I hit a horse that was tied up on a too long rope that allowed it to go into the middle of the road.
I was able to make it to classes my first semester by catching a ride with another student from my area. Transportation home was by city bus and the closest stop was several miles from home. I was too introverted to try hitchhiking, so usually walked the entire distance. In the second semester, transportation was more difficult and, after a few weeks, I just stopped going. I didn’t understand I had to officially drop my classes and ended up on academic suspension.
Years later, I went back to school in part to finish what I had failed to complete. As a non-traditional student, I received an Associates Degree and a Bachelor of Science degree.
None of my school dreams are related to either of those
- They Dream of School, and None of the Dreams Are Good – Peter Gray Ph. D., June 29, 2019, Psychology Today (accessed June 23, 2019)
- What Does a Dream about Going Back to School Mean? – Craig-Hamilton-Parker, October 21, 2019, Dream Meanings, Dreamsleep.net (accessed June 23, 2019)
- Dreaming – Psychology Today (accessed June 23, 2019)
- ibid.
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I have never wanted to go back to school. When I was in school I wanted to finish and get out as soon as possible.
Attending classes of some kind or another was “normal” for me. After “dropping out” of college in early ’71, I went in the Navy less than a year latter, where I was in one school or another for just short of two years before I was assigned to a submarine. Short courses and continuing training classes continued on a somewhat regular basis until I got out. Then, when I went to work at a civilian facility, there was a year for reactor operator class and almost the same for senior reactor operator class. For my entire career there, I attended a week of operator continuing training every few weeks as well as other required classes and courses. Of course, as an instructor, the classroom and simulator were part of my work environment.
I guess I had “schoolin'” of some sort from ages 5 to 55 – when I retired from my career job.
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