Why Do You Keep Having the Same Dream? Recurring Dreams Explained
You’re back in high school. You haven’t studied for the final exam. You can’t find your locker. Or maybe your teeth are falling out again.
If you find yourself having the exact same dream—or variations on the same theme—night after night, or even year after year, you are experiencing a recurring dream.
What is a Recurring Dream?
A recurring dream is a dream that repeats over time with little to no variation in the storyline, characters, or emotional tone. Research suggests that between 60% and 75% of adults have experienced recurring dreams.
In the realm of psychology, particularly Jungian analysis, recurring dreams are seen as a message that hasn’t been received. Your subconscious mind is trying to draw your attention to an unresolved conflict, an unacknowledged emotion, or a persistent stressor in your waking life. Because you haven’t dealt with the issue while awake, your brain keeps bringing it up while you sleep.
Common Themes in Recurring Dreams
While the specifics of a recurring dream are unique to the dreamer, the underlying themes are remarkably universal:
- Being Chased: Indicates avoidance. What are you running from in your waking life? Is it a difficult conversation, a deadline, or an emotion you don’t want to feel?
- Failing a Test / Being Unprepared: Often linked to performance anxiety and the “imposter syndrome.” This dream frequently occurs before a big presentation or life event where you feel judged.
- Teeth Falling Out: Generally relates to a fear of losing power, status, or attractiveness, or anxiety about communication (having said the wrong thing).
- Losing Control of a Vehicle: Suggests that you feel your life is veering off course and you have no ability to steer it back.
How to Stop Recurring Dreams
The key to stopping a recurring dream is to decipher its message and address the underlying waking-life issue.
- Write it down immediately: Keep a digital dream journal like Dream Decoder by your bed. Record the dream as soon as you wake up, capturing as much detail as possible.
- Identify the emotion: Don’t focus so much on the literal events of the dream. Ask yourself: How did I feel in the dream? Do I feel that same emotion anywhere in my waking life right now?
- Look for the trigger: Does the dream happen after a specific event? Do you have the “failing a test” dream every time you take on a new project at work?
- Change the ending: This is a technique called imagery rehearsal therapy. While awake, vividly imagine the dream, but consciously change the ending to something positive or empowering. If you are being chased, imagine turning around and asking the pursuer what they want.
Tracking these dreams is the first step to resolving them. A tool that analyzes your entries for patterns can do the heavy lifting of figuring out why your mind keeps returning to the same scene.