The Most Common Recurring Dreams & Nightmares in Each New England State
I’ve had nightmares all my life. The best advice I can give is to have something to do or someplace to be as soon as you wake up. But when I don’t? Not fun.
I have dreams and nightmares so vivid, they sometimes stick with me all morning. Since 2010, I’ve had a recurring nightmare about a bridge over a major river catching fire and collapsing (a friend later traced this back to witnessing the massive fire that led to the redesign of the Hampton Beach boardwalk).
Since I was eight, I’ve had a recurring dream that I am housesitting for the wrestler The Undertaker. Just as he is arriving home, I either break or spill something, and try to hide before he can put me in a body bag.
As it turns out, though, all I’d have to do is threaten The Deadman with this vegetable.
It seems like everyone I know in New England has at least two or three recurring dreams. My dad, a longtime Navy and Delta pilot, used to dream that an airliner went down in the marsh behind our house, and he had to choose between running into the house to call 911 or rushing out to the plane to help people out.
Jay Leno has often talked about a recurring “nightmare” (his words) where he looks out the window at a blizzard and finds he’s still living in Boston, and his career and move to California never happened.
Longtime Boston weatherman Mark Rosenthal says his most common recurring dream is that he’s trapped inside a tornado – proof that no one is immune to work dreams.
So, I found two studies – one conducted by a mattress company, the other a vision specialist (as our eyes play a key role in R.E.M sleep) to help find out what we’re all dreaming about.