Stress Dreams

A little dark humor. When I have stress dreams, they often take place at West Point. It is usually some version of a final exam coming up, and I haven’t studied or been to class all semester (yes, I know that could not happen at West Point, but it is a dream after all).

So, a few nights ago, in my dream I am back at West Point and for some reason, our dog Carmen is with me. School cancelled one of my classes for the semester, so there was nothing to learn, BUT we still need to take the final for the class. I am running around trying to find my classroom in Thayer Hall, and of course I can’t find the room. I run from door to door with Carmen chasing after me, but none of the rooms is the right one. 

 Eventually, I woke up in a sweat. 

 Stress dreams usually happen in response to something going on in your real life. It turns out a stress dream related to college (missing class, being late for an exam, oversleeping) is fairly normal. Other common ones include falling, someone or something chasing you, or suddenly realizing you are naked in front of other people. 

 I happened to mention the dream, jokingly, to some other West Point graduates I know. It turns out I wasn’t alone. Several grads relayed their own version of a similar dream. Here, without attribution, are some of their comments: 

• “I have dreams like this too. I have a reoccurring one where I’m registered for EN302 (an engineering class), but haven’t gone to a single class. It’s the end of semester and a term paper is due, but I haven’t started on it, yet no one seems to care, and I’m freaking out.”
• “Same dream – about taking a Term End Exam (TEE) for a class I never attended. I’m …running through Thayer Hall LOOKING for the exam room!!” 🤣
• “I have these nightmares, and a version where my classmates and I have graduated and come back as lieutenants or captains and must do a semester of classes and requirements. In the dream I’m worried I’m going to fail, but I’m already commissioned and graduated so it is unclear what the stakes are.”
• “That is weird as I also dream about missing classes and exams. I just goof off and then I think I am not going to graduate, now what do I do? And I never go to the first class after lunch, but I don’t get in trouble for it … until exam time.”
• “I’ve had similar dreams for years, along with ones where the Army decides I need to “re-certify” my Ranger tab and I am stuck in an endless loop of recycling through the training.”
• “My USMA stress dream is usually this: It is the morning of the Physical Training (PT) test and I am heading to the cadet gym. The problem is that it is 60-year-old (current) me with my body that hasn’t run for decades. Of course, while at West Point, I was the class PE goat (bottom of the class), so it makes sense I was more worried about that than some TEE.”
• “Same dream, except I wake up in Old South (a dorm area at West Point) and the place is deserted as I run to class.”

 I should note not everyone who responded to my dream story had the same experience. One graduate who returned to West Point as a professor (P) had this to say: “I guess being an old former P means never having TEE nightmares 😂.” 

 The best advice may have come from an ‘83 grad. “Y’all need to eat a slice of sourdough bread with butter and drink a glass of milk before bedtime. It worked for my kids, and it might work for you.”

 So, there you have it folks. In addition to sharing so many other common things with my fellow members of the Long Gray Line, a stress dream about West Point is just one more.