Why adults still dream about school • Hacker News Board

Re: Why adults still dream about school

#221

Post by schoen » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 6:20 AM UTC

byecomputer wrote: post #70

yamtaddle wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bingo, it's the trauma. High school in particular was by far the most stressful sustained period of time in my life—I've had the odd day or week that might measure up, here and there, but never months in a row (at least you get Summers off). I've very quickly quit jobs that turned out to be a small fraction as stressful as high school was—they're vastly worse than a decent work environment, but still not as bad as hi…

I enjoyed high school and college -- found them to be fun more than anything -- and I still have "I screwed up/didn't attend a whole class/have a crazy test in school" dreams. I think it has more to do with school being the first place you have those pseudo-professional experiences of "Ahhhh! I blew it! I didn't work hard enough!" So your brain is like, "I think I have this one in the archive somewhere."

Yeah, I find the stress/bad memory theory unsatisfying -- high school was one of the happiest times of my life and I rarely found it stressful, but I still have not-infrequent nightmares of being back in (my or another) high school and having skipped classes or not knowing where to find classrooms or whatever. These dreams are generally not similar to any actual events I experienced in high school.

Re: Why adults still dream about school

#222

Post by viksit » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 6:20 AM UTC

has anyone done research on whether people in the 1600s or something had recorded dreams like these and what those were?

i wonder if this is a consequence of the modern system or just inbuilt to us as a species.

Re: Why adults still dream about school

#223

Post by vasco » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 6:22 AM UTC

jimt1234 wrote: post #196

I cheated my way through high school. I had a scam for every class, every test, every homework assignment. So yeah, I had dreams about school, but mine were more about me feeling guilty. They typically went like this: Some bureaucrat did an audit of all the school work from my high school during the late-80s and somehow identified me as a cheater, so the school revoked my diploma. My college found out, so they revoke…

> I spent more time and effort on cheating than I would have if I just did the work as assigned

You likely didn't. I've heard this many times from people who cheated or people who take steroids. It's just a rationalization about your shitty past actions.

Re: Why adults still dream about school

#224

Post by Al-Khwarizmi » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 6:23 AM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #61

I feel like this is because school, especially college, and particularly exams, is about as high-stakes as most people's lives ever get, so they look back at that time as peak-anxiety. Think about it: you're being evaluated and the result of that evaluation shapes the next step in the pipeline, and ultimately the trajectory of the rest of your life! Well, at least that's what the university officials, professors, you…

Like other commenters, this doesn't fit my anecdotal evidence of sample size 1.

For me, both elementary and high school were easy. I would do a minimal amount of work, show up to the exam and get maximum marks. Exams weren't especially stressful.

As a stereotypical school nerd, PE was stressful though - I do remember lots of anxiety being asked to jump the vaulting horse, do somersaults, handstands, and that kind of things I wasn't able to do.

And yet, I regularly dream about not having passed some non-PE high-school subject and having to retake the exam and/or go to class (even when these subjects were easy for me) and don't dream about PE.

Re: Why adults still dream about school

#225

Post by damethos » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 6:26 AM UTC

Every now and then I have a nightmare; that I am back in class, writing a final exam which I haven't studied for and worrying that I will lose a year because I have failed. And then I wake up in anxiety and wonder what the hell did school do to me?? I had plenty of friends at school, never bullied and it was pretty much smooth sailing, so If I am having those dreams, I can't imagine what other people that were teased/bullied/extremely introvent during school are dreaming as adults. I am glad I am not the only one thought.

Re: Why adults still dream about school

#226

Post by DocTomoe » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 6:30 AM UTC

q7xvh97o2pDhNrh wrote: post #117

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #78

There isn't a week when I don't have a day where I feel like a total monster at 7:15am trying like crazy to motivate my frustrated and anxious teenager off to high school and asking her about her homework and the like... And then promptly waltz upstairs with my coffee, sit in front my computer, read the news and (mostly) happily write program on computers all day, while playing with my border collies and walking thro…

Naive question here: I've wondered about this. Non-parent here (so far), so I'm about to arrogantly over-simplify a lot of things... The science around teenagers needing more sleep, and doing better in life/school/everything if they start their day later, seems well-established at this point. Additionally, there's plenty of known-better ways to learn beyond the rote-memorization-and-standardized-test system that's st…

Part of the function of a school is to free parents time so they are able to go to work. Even high school essentially is in large parts teenage daycare. This function gets diminished when they start later in the day - meaning economically, you diminish the potential output of your population.

Schools that are up to date on this and follow advice exist, but are expensive and rare - which also attract parents who do not need to sit at a desk or stand in front of a CNC machine at 8:30am. Gordonstoun/Schloss Salem comes to mind.

Re: Why adults still dream about school

#227

Post by Doxin » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 6:31 AM UTC

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #224

ryandrake wrote: post #61

I feel like this is because school, especially college, and particularly exams, is about as high-stakes as most people's lives ever get, so they look back at that time as peak-anxiety. Think about it: you're being evaluated and the result of that evaluation shapes the next step in the pipeline, and ultimately the trajectory of the rest of your life! Well, at least that's what the university officials, professors, you…

Like other commenters, this doesn't fit my anecdotal evidence of sample size 1. For me, both elementary and high school were easy. I would do a minimal amount of work, show up to the exam and get maximum marks. Exams weren't especially stressful. As a stereotypical school nerd, PE was stressful though - I do remember lots of anxiety being asked to jump the vaulting horse, do somersaults, handstands, and that kind of…

Just because it's easy doesn't mean it didn't worry you. I recall significant amounts of stress about passing tests on subjects I never got lower than an 80% on. Just always expecting to do the test, thinking I did well, and then get slapped with a fail. Never happened, still worried me.

I'd honestly not be surprised if the whole "dreams about school" thing turns out to be world-wide low grade PTSD.

Re: Why adults still dream about school

#228

Post by journey_16162 » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 6:35 AM UTC

I'm in my late 20s, still dream about school. But it's not like in the article. I almost never stressed about exams much. I never have any nightmares about it. Just dream about being in class, hanging out with people. I attended 3 schools total (primary, mid, high) and all occur in the dreams. Sometimes the people get mixed up, i.e. the class consists of a mix of colleagues from mid and high, or more rarely, the primary pops up. That's kinda weird when I think about it.

Re: Why adults still dream about school

#229

Post by rzzzt » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 6:38 AM UTC

mvaliente2001 wrote: post #213

CydeWeys wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hell, I have dreams that I've forgotten to attend class all semester long in grad school and the final exam is tomorrow, and I never even went to grad school! It's like my brain subconsciously realized the undergrad panic dreams no longer make sense as that's too long ago, so now they've evolved to something more suitable for later in life, even though I never did that thing.

Mine was that I had forgotten to take a class or that the records were lost and I had to redo the last years of college. It was a nightmare I had even a decade after getting my degree.

Same here -- my classmates and I go back to high school for taking one history class, as due to administrative difficulties one requirement for the degree was not met, and noone noticed until now. I went there more than 20 years ago.

Re: Why adults still dream about school

#230

Post by Al-Khwarizmi » Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 6:44 AM UTC

I clicked because it's a naturally interesting topic because I (like many others) have this dream, and I usually find The Atlantic to be good quality.

But this doesn't give any meaningful answer to the question, just some speculation that anyone could make and which doesn't seem to be backed by any scientific evidence (of course, I'm aware there is probably no such evidence, but they could be more straightforward about the answer to the title question being "we have no idea").