You’ve come back home after a long day at work. You unwind, get into bed, start falling asleep, and you notice yourself dreaming about... your colleague.
Weird right? The last place you want to think about your work mate is in your subconscious mind - especially if the dream is a little bit spicy.
However, a fifth of employees dream about being in a relationship with their colleague, according to a recent study by Totaljobs.
The survey revealed that more than half of employees admit to dreaming about work regularly, with Brits dreaming about everything from about going to work without trousers on to sexy encounters with colleagues.
And according to a dream expert, work-related dreams can tell us how we really feel about our jobs.
CVApp.de teamed up with Dreams expert Inbaal Honigman to find the causes of the most common work dreams globally.
“Not all dreams that have the workplace as a setting could be work-related, however. It could just be the locations most associated with our everyday life,” Honigman says.
When it comes to stopping dreaming about work, Inbaal says generally, “the only way to change patterns in our sleep life, is to ensure patterns are changed in our wakeful life.”
As an example, she says setting boundaries, working fewer hours, or refusing to engage in ‘stressful work shenanigans’ can be ways to reduce anxieties about your job and therefore help tackle the work issues spilling over into your dreams. She says this could even go as far as leaving a toxic work environment.
With that in mind, let’s look at the most common dreams about work.
Dreams about being late for work
With about 2,400 searches a month globally, the most common work-related dream is about being late for work - so if you’ve dreamt about rushing to catch the tube or sleeping past your alarm, you’re not alone.
According to expert Inbaal Honigman, it is a really common anxiety dream and that people will experience this dream when they feel they’re not good enough at their job or no matter how much effort they put in, they still can’t fulfil the minimum expected standard.
This doesn’t mean that the person experiencing these dreams is really incapable of performing their work well, it is simply an expression of their worry that they might not be. Another reason for this can be if their work isn’t praised by their superiors, especially if they work hard on achieving results.
Dreams about getting into trouble at work
The second most searched work dream, with 1500 searches every month globally, is about getting into trouble at work. This is another anxiety dream, which, according to Inbaal Honigman, is there to vent your anger about how things are handled in the workplace.
Honigman explains that the brain is trying to play out arguments that would otherwise threaten our position or career, “in the safe environment of our dream.” The reason for this anxiety dream is most likely that you are not being heard at the workplace, which is important to tackle in real life.
Dream about promotion at work
As opposed to the two anxiety dreams mentioned above, the dream sliding into third place with nearly 1,000 searches a year is less of a nightmare – it’s about being promoted at work.
“A promotion dream could be a prophetic dream!” says dream expert Inbaal.
If you’re having this dream, it could mean that your subconscious has picked up positive signals, such as that you’re doing very well at your tasks, or that perhaps promotions were talked about at work. Whatever happens in the workplace, this dream is a sign that you’re doing great at your job, Inbaal maintains.
Dream about old work colleagues
This dream is not necessarily what you expect. Dreaming about workmates in days gone by can be either positive or negative. If you’re happy to see your old colleagues, Inbaal says, it’s probably a sign that you’re missing how you used to feel about yourself in the old job.
More specifically, Inbaal explains, “Work colleagues represent the way you used to solve problems, so if you’re excited to see those old workmates in your dream, you probably miss the way you used to deal with challenges.”
On the other hand, if you’re not very happy to see your old colleagues, you probably are more content in your current job than you were then.
Dream about going to work without trousers
“The no-trousers dream is an old trope that can pop up in many situations” our dream expert stresses. “Many people dream about having no trousers on at school, while giving a talk, or even at their own wedding” Inbaal says.
With 360 global searches, this anxiety dream ranks fifth among the most common work-related dreams worldwide. It is often a way for the brain to express how frightening your work situation is to you subconsciously. Like with other work-related nightmares, the best way to stop this is to address the problem in real life.
You probably really need a break from work or at least some reassurance from your colleagues that you’re doing well.
Dream about being replaced at work
If you’re dreaming about being replaced at work, this is probably due to the fact that some workplaces regularly remind their employees that they’re replaceable. These superiors or employers believe this to be motivating, when in fact, Inbaal says, it has the opposite effect.
The resulting insecurity, which your subconscious experiences and displays in a dream, more often motivates workers to find a different job before it’s too late. If you are repeatedly dreaming about being replaced, then your brain is probably right in telling you to do just that: replace the job before your employer replaces you.
Dream about getting robbed at work
This nightmare is of a more serious nature, our expert warns. She says, employees can be made to feel insecure or unsafe at work “if there’s a toxic culture of ‘banter’ for example, where it’s fair game to ridicule a colleague.”
This kind of toxic work environment will cause such nightmares as getting robbed at work, and it definitely needs addressing with HR. “There’s no excuse for a work environment that feels dangerous to some of the workers” Inbaal insists.