Retired and still having work stress dreams?

[man-from-nantucket]

After 8 years operating Navy nukes (S1C staff pick up and 2 boomers), spent 3 long months at Shoreham (helped load fuel, and was the 1st operator to run the new Colt diesel). Then I 'Escaped from New York' to work 30 years at the Clinton Nuclear Power Station helping to finish the plant's construction and to eventually retire as a control room Senior Reactor Operator. I was going to run the 'secret' plant under the MK, but Ron Desantos ruined that aspiration.

Thanks. Fellow retired SRO here, although PWR. Enjoy retirement!!

 

[OKW Lover]

I've been retired for 12+ years now. I occasionally have dreams about work but I wouldn't call them stress dreams. More like dreams about a specific task and how to do it better.

Also for the Nuke's here - I worked 39 years for a major public utility and during the course of that time visited just about every one in New England.

 

[Akck]

I just had a work dream, but it wasn’t for anyplace I’ve worked. While I’ve done data migrations to new systems, this was for a payroll system, which I’ve never done. No one I’ve worked with was in the dream.

 

[kathy884]

Anyone else still having them? I'm a relatively new retiree, 3 1/2 years, but I still have work stress dreams every few weeks. But a former co-worker who has been retired 20 years says he still has them.
I worked 3 places over my 45 year career, and the dreams are variously at each company. Even my first employer, which I left 35 years ago.
The dream is pretty much the same, it's 10 minutes before a newscast and I am just sitting down to start writing it. Sometimes it is at a computer, sometimes at a typewriter. That normally would be 6 hours work.

I've been retired since July and just had my first one since retirement two nights ago. It's wild too, I haven't had an arthritis flare up in four year (my rheumatologist says my arthritis is in remission), but my knuckles on my one hand were a little swollen when I woke up. It wasn't bad enough to take anything for it, etc. but it's wild how stress can affect us physically too.

I know what triggered the dream too. I am Power or Attorney for an Aunt who is having a horrible time in assisted living and in hospice with all her allergies and my one hour phone call with her (she lives six hours away from me), my thoughts about a mini trip to see her and what I am going to try to do for her, and the BIG to do list of things she wants me to do for her and her pain / anxiety really got to me, and I'm 99% sure that's what triggered this particular dream and the swollen knuckles. Crazy.

I've told myself again and again that her stress, misery, and anxiety while I try to have empathy and be compassionate is not going to affect my joy. And that being retired, I'm going to enjoy my other activities, exercise, and volunteer work (not have her stuff encroach on that) and just slowly work thru the list of things I have to do for her (prioritizing items) and methodically working her list down. I've made great progress too and am keeping up with her stuff.

Hey and I didn't have that stress dream last night and overall I think I've done a pretty good job at not letting her stuff affect me. The truth is though we are only human and for me I do care about others and as hard as I try sometimes their stress and anxiety does affect me from time to time. It's a fine balancing line between being empathetic and distancing yourself and having needed boundaries.

At work (I was in IT) and other times too (a seemingly overwhelming to do list, deadline pressures, people to keep happy who are hard to keep happy, etc.) is what would at times trigger a stress dream. They weren't regular dreams for me, but I would get them a few times a year when I was under a lot of pressure and I always felt like I knew exactly what triggered them and would laugh about that.

 

[tvguy]

I've been retired since July and just had my first one since retirement two nights ago. It's wild too, I haven't had an arthritis flare up in four year (my rheumatologist says my arthritis is in remission), but my knuckles on my one hand were a little swollen when I woke up. It wasn't bad enough to take anything for it, etc. but it's wild how stress can affect us physically too.

I know what triggered the dream too. I am Power or Attorney for an Aunt who is having a horrible time in assisted living and in hospice with all her allergies and my one hour phone call with her (she lives six hours away from me), my thoughts about a mini trip to see her and what I am going to try to do for her, and the BIG to do list of things she wants me to do for her and her pain / anxiety really got to me, and I'm 99% sure that's what triggered this particular dream and the swollen knuckles. Crazy.

I've told myself again and again that her stress, misery, and anxiety while I try to have empathy and be compassionate is not going to affect my joy. And that being retired, I'm going to enjoy my other activities, exercise, and volunteer work (not have her stuff encroach on that) and just slowly work thru the list of things I have to do for her (prioritizing items) and methodically working her list down. I've made great progress too and am keeping up with her stuff.

Hey and I didn't have that stress dream last night and overall I think I've done a pretty good job at not letting her stuff affect me. The truth is though we are only human and for me I do care about others and as hard as I try sometimes their stress and anxiety does affect me from time to time. It's a fine balancing line between being empathetic and distancing yourself and having needed boundaries.

At work (I was in IT) and other times too (a seemingly overwhelming to do list, deadline pressures, people to keep happy who are hard to keep happy, etc.) is what would at times trigger a stress dream. They weren't regular dreams for me, but I would get them a few times a year when I was under a lot of pressure and I always felt like I knew exactly what triggered them and would laugh about that.

I had an odd mashup of my life in a stress dream last night.
I was a Security Guard (a job I had 50 years ago)
At a Little League Tournament (I was a Little League Tournament Director at my son's LL 25 years ago)
And asked to help with the TV coverage of the tournament ( TV being my career of 42+ years that I retired from 3 1/2 years ago)

 

[LuvMyEAR]

Another retired IT person here. I have been retired since early 2020, and yes, I still get the occasional dream. My role included being on call for emergency services dispatch and records systems. Definitely stressful! But, I have to admit that I almost enjoy the dreams when they happen. It is just such a rush of pleasure to wake up and know it is all behind me!

I did work with some incredibly great folks through the years, though, and treasure those memories.

 

[Stargazer65]

I still have very realistic dreams from my Navy Submarine days

Me too...former submariner. Occasionally still dream I'm in the navy going out to sea. Usually, I will be late getting to the boat, I will typically have forgotten something (like uniforms and poopy suits). Or I have to do an evolution for ORSE, and haven't prepared for it at all.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Me too...former submariner. Occasionally still dream I'm in the navy going out to sea. Usually, I will be late getting to the boat, I will typically have forgotten something (like uniforms and poopy suits). Or I have to do an evolution for ORSE, and haven't prepared for it at all.

I'm afraid to ask... what's a poopy suit?

 

[Stargazer65]

I'm afraid to ask... what's a poopy suit?

It's not as bad as it sounds.
It's just the nickname for the blue coveralls we wore underway. Quite comfortable actually. Here's a picture I found online of submariners wearing poopy suits:

 

[Donna M]

I remember it took about 10 years before I could feel a sense of relief on Sunday nights. I was a teacher and had to have the week's lesson plans ready.

 

[Pinnochio]

Anyone else still having them?

No, that would be a nightmare

 

[iwannabdduck]

I guess I'm the odd ball in this group. Retired, and have not had any work "stress" dreams. And I was in HR dealing with a union. My thoughts/memories/dreams are all of the good times we had. I just miss everyone, and wish I could relive some of those good old days again. Honest.

 

[tvguy]

I guess I'm the odd ball in this group. Retired, and have not had any work "stress" dreams. And I was in HR dealing with a union. My thoughts/memories/dreams are all of the good times we had. I just miss everyone, and wish I could relive some of those good old days again. Honest.

LOL. I think from my work experience, just keeping an HR job would be stressful enough. It was always the first position cut when the economy got dicey. Or outsourced to a third party. My last employer went with a hub for HR right before I retired. One person is HR for 4 locations in 3 different states and has to be on site of each location for a week every two months.
Actually, the biggest HR issue was dealing with out of state corporate owners determined to find ways around California labor law. The last HR director I worked with spent over a year fighting with corporate and corporate lawyers over their policy that vacation time is "use it or lose it". California law is pretty firm, vacation time is considered compensation and either you get the time off, or you get paid for it.
I would think Unions would be pretty easy to deal with as everything is negotiated in advance, and procedures in place to handle disputes.

 

[zdad59]

I have been retired for 11 years. Got to retire at 54. I have work dreams ALL THE TIME.

I worked a very high stress job and in dreams I'm back doing my job, but for some reason I'm working for free and I know I'm retired. I spend the time trying to get out of the office while people continually find me to help solve their problems. Weird I know but they persist.

I also still often have dreams that I'm back in college and its the last couple weeks of the semester when I realize I've been registered for a class I never attended. I spend my time scrambling to make up work and prepare for the final.

 

[gatordoc]

I also still often have dreams that I'm back in college and it’s the last couple weeks of the semester when I realize I've been registered for a class I never attended. I spend my time scrambling to make up work and prepare for the final.

That must be a common one - I have that one somewhat regularly

 

[barkley]

.

 

[barkley]

21 years retired (early retiree due to health) and mine are less dreams/more stuff rushing around in my brain/feeling the stress and emotion of experiences back then disturbing my sleep.

I know what triggered the dream too.

it's good to be able to reccognize the triggers so you can possibly avoid and if not-prepare. I know my triggers-any time I have to work with forms similar to the stuff I worked on committees to design, forms I had to help people fill out, forms I had to review, forms I had to audit....it's like being right back there in the middle of the civil service insanity. I can always count on 2x minimum per year when I will be on edge sleep wise-tax season and when I have to complete the volumes of paperwork required for my disabled adult son's guardianship. i'm sooooo glad I don't have to deal with FAFSA stuff anymore.

 

[steve_rob]

I do get dreams of my previous work, but thankfully they're not what I'd call "stress" dreams, rather they're just locations for where other weird dream stuff is happening. Quite commonly I'll get a dream where I'll be in a location from workplace A, but it will be filled with a mix of colleagues from workplaces B & C, while I'm trying to do tasks associated with the role I held at workplace D - all very confusing! But then usually I'll open a door to a side office and it'll be a completely different location (non-work) and the dream will radically shift from there and stop being a work dream entirely.

I will say however, I still had panicked dreams of failing to turn in a school project or being late for class or things like that well into my 30's though. Usually woke up in a cold sweat and it sometimes took me a few seconds to realise I was no longer a schoolkid and I didn't need to worry any more!

 

[tvguy]

. Quite commonly I'll get a dream where I'll be in a location from workplace A, but it will be filled with a mix of colleagues from workplaces B & C, while I'm trying to do tasks associated with the role I held at workplace D - all very confusing!

I had a dream like that this morning right before I woke up. Not a work stress dream, just a work dream involving a mix of people from the three places I worked at a place I never worked.

 

[Indio]

I also still have the "college" dream - realize you haven't been to class all semester but you're headed in to a final exam - or wandering around the halls wondering "where the h*** is my classroom"!!