*The Building: Finding myself in a large, long building with many rooms/halls, often located near a large body of water, and I'm wandering through it trying to find my way to the back, where something/someone mysterious and important awaits. (I never quite get there.)
*The Forgotten Room: Finding a room/section of the house that's been totally forgotten and abandoned--in older dreams this was often located in the basement, but nowadays it's usually upstairs. I feel really excited about this discovery, and even though the room is old and decrepit, I have hopes of cleaning it up and turning it into my own private space. ETA--in older variants, I would discover crypts/tunnels in the basement, which often led through some outdoors location (physically impossible since they're underground).
*Darkness Falling: Being outside and suddenly it gets pitch black--the sun is still visible, but it's just this dull disk in the sky and it doesn't illuminate anything. The wind picks up and I start trying to find my way back to the house but it's so dark and so difficult to get anywhere.
*The Forgotten Hamster: Suddenly realizing I have a pet (usually a hamster) that I've completely forgotten about--sometimes I even have a new pet that has taken its place. I locate the old pet and it's relatively healthy, but its living quarters are filthy and it's out of food and water and I feel so guilty and awful for forgetting it.
*Not Ready For School: Showing up at school/college and suddenly remembering I haven't studied for a test or something important--I then wonder, WTF am I doing back in school?? I don't want to be in school! :? In a variant of this, I show up at school/college and have no idea where my class is or even what it is, and I spend my time wandering around trying to find it. Another variant is I can't find my locker or remember the combination. ETA--yet another variant (or possibly a variant of
"The Forgotten Room"?) involves me wandering around the "back area" of the school where I've never been before, coming across weird classrooms, really narrow halls/dead ends, mysterious boiler rooms, etc. I know this area has always been here, and it's not abandoned or anything, but for some reason I've just never visited it. (Similar to "the back" in my
"The Building" dreams.) I associate this area with the part of my high school which housed the shop classes, music class, etc., where I never went IRL.
*The Public Bathroom: Needing to use a public bathroom, but something is always wrong with it--the stall walls are too short, it's in plain view of everybody, the toilet is filthy/overflowing, the stall is too small, every stall is in use, etc.
*The Malfunctioning Phone: Trying to make a phone call, often to 911. The numbers keep changing or I keep dialing them wrong, and I get very frustrated and upset. (This is due to the fact that you can almost never read the same thing twice in a dream.)
*The Malfunctioning Camera: Possible variant of the above, trying to take a picture of an amazingly gorgeous scene, but I have problems with my digital camera--I can't find the right view, the camera menu is really weird, the gorgeous scene changes/becomes less beautiful in the time it takes me to get the camera ready, etc. Very frustrating. In another variant, I'm on a trip someplace where IRL I would always have a camera on hand, but in the dream I suddenly remember I have no camera, and I'm very upset.
*Sinkholes: Sinkholes suddenly appearing in the house, in weird/impossible locations, and I'm afraid everything is going to cave in/collapse.
*Sky Phenomena: Seeing weird phenomena in the sky--multiple moons, black planets, moving stars, glowing clouds, bizarre cloud formations/images (one time the sky had a flower pattern), ice covering the sky, UFOs, etc.
*My Forgotten Former Life: Finding something that I wrote or something I own (maybe even pictures of myself) but I don't remember writing/owning it (or taking part in the pictures). I suddenly realize there are whole parts of my life that I have no memory of, and it frightens me.
*Tornadoes: Tornadoes. Often multiple ones at once. I'll spend the dream running around frantically trying to prepare to hide from them, but strangely, by the time the dream ends it's like the tornado threat has passed without anything actually happening.
*Running Dreams: Trying to run. It's like running in slow motion. I end up going onto all fours and almost dragging myself along.
*Forgetting How To Drive: Suddenly finding myself driving a car. I don't know how to drive, so this never goes very well.
*Flying Dreams: Flying (not as common for me as it is for other people). In my dreams it's more like floating, and it's very awkward--I always end up dangling in midair, trying to navigate with much difficulty, like a marionette on strings. Maybe this is because I have acrophobia (fear of heights).
*Forgotten Mackinac Island: Exploring Mackinac Island and I come across some rock formations or such that I've never seen/heard of before. I always find this exciting.
*The Malfunctioning VCR: Trying to record a show on TV (I haven't had this dream since quitting my recording habit, but it used to be frequent). I can never find the right channel, or put the VCR on the right mode, or find the right place in the tape to start recording, etc., and I end up missing part of the program.
*Naked In Public: Being in public and I suddenly realize I'm not dressed appropriately, there are holes in my clothes, I have menstrual blood on me, etc.
*Not Ready To Go: Trying to get ready to go somewhere. I spend a lot of time trying to find decent clothes but most of them have holes or are too small; I might also spend time trying to decide what CDs or books, etc. to bring along, but have a lot of trouble picking any. In an older/schooltime variant of this dream, I would spend a lot of time packing and unpacking my bookbag, or putting stuff in/taking stuff out of my locker. I usually end up making everyone else run really late so we don't get to go anywhere, they leave without me, or I miss the bus (if it's a school dream).
*Bad Teeth: Teeth going bad/falling out. This is a common dream for many people, though it has personal relevance for me since my teeth really are bad.
*Bath Problems: Trying to take a bath. I like the water really hot, but in my dreams I can't feel extremes of temperature, so I can get the water to be only lukewarm. This frustrates me and I keep running the water and keep running the water without luck. (Oddly, often I'm at least partially clothed while I'm in the tub.) This dream would be a good opportunity to do a reality check and go lucid, but I never do.
*Feeding The Birds: I'm trying to fill the bird feeders like I do IRL, but instead of sunflower seeds, all that's left in the bag is mostly dregs (sunflower seed dust and stuff). I feel guilty.
*Fires: Little fires are springing up everywhere and it's hard to put them all out; as soon as one is extinguished, another springs up. (I had this dream frequently as a child, but not so much anymore.) Nowadays this dream often involves wildfires or the roof catching on fire.
ETA, @
Callsign reminded me:
*The Watchers: Strange people, often children, are outside my house, peering in the windows. I race around the house trying to close blinds/curtains but it seems like one is always partly open and they can always see me. :afr I might try to hide in a room where there are no windows just to escape their view, but it's like there's always a window partly within sight. The people might even try to get in the door, which of course I've accidentally left unlocked. I don't get a feeling that they intend to
hurt me, but I'm terrified anyway. This dream might illustrate my social anxiety.
*Body Farm Land: There are corpses (human or animal) just lying around in public, rotting. Like they just belong there. I'm horrified by this and try to shield my eyes/not look directly at them, but it seems like they're anywhere I turn, for example, on the front porch.
ETA,
@Callsign reminded me yet again:
*The Real Internet: The Internet or some aspect of it becomes a real-life location/thing. For example, this forum once appeared as a journal I and everyone else wrote entries in; or certain webpages become buildings/rooms I wander into; or a webpage might become three dimensional and I manipulate it somehow; etc.
...
Not proofread yet. I might add more later as they come to me. I find dreams so fascinating.
ops