Two Anxiety Dreams

Dream One:  I dreamt that I was riding in a car that was going down a freeway.  Ahead was a complex intersection where we were going to turn around and go back the direction we had come from. In order to make this turn, it was a case of getting into the right lane and than making a pair of left turns – right to get off the freeway, then left and left again to get back on the freeway going in the opposite direction.  The driver of the car, whom I never actually saw in the dream, reversed the directions, attempting to go left and then right-right. This made the already complex turn even more complex.  Eventually we made it through the intersection, but it was time consuming and frustrating.  The dream ends once we are safely turned around and heading back in the direction we came from.

Dream Two:  I am in the parking garage on 3^rd street in downtown San Jose, near the Camera 3 theatre. I am coming down one of the stairwells on my way to my car.  I am apprehensive because, in the dream, there have been a series of robberies at knife-point in the stairwells of the parking garage. I am not so much afraid as I am apprehensive.  As I go from each floor to each floor I am mentally playing out response scenarios if I encounter a robber.  “If they are here, then I am going to do this and go here…”.  I play out each scenario in my mind as I go down each floor.  Eventually, I reach the floor where my car is parked.  I walk to my car without incident and the dream ends just as I arrive at my car.

Following this pair of dreams I awake at about 3:30 AM.  It feels like it is later in the morning, so I actually check the clock to see if it is time to get up.  I briefly consider getting up, but decide it is way too early, so I lay there in bed, trying to go back to sleep, thinking about the pair of dreams.  They were both classic anxiety dreams and they ramped up my anxiety a little bit, but not significantly.  They were not high anxiety dreams or nightmares.  Both dreams had a successful resolution after a period of apprehension.  In the first dream, we were able to successfully and safely turn around following the wrong turn.  In the second dream no robber appeared and I was able to make it safely to my car.  In neither dream was I denied the opportunity to reach the goal, in fact I passed through both dreams and arrived at my destination safely after the period of stress and anxiety.  After a while I was able to fall back asleep.