Did you ever have that dream where you are in college, you haven’t gone to class all semester, but now is the day for the final, and you just know there is no way you can pass?
If you’ve had this dream more times than you can count, then you are just like me and Atlantic author Kelly Conaboy, who talked to some dream experts about why so many people keep having this dream well past college graduation. And if you’ve never had this dream, then I hope you found your perfect 4.0 college GPA rewarding.
According to Harvard University researcher Deidre Barrett, scenarios in which dreamers are convinced they are about to fail a college exam are “really common.” “It’s common not only for people who are still in school. … It’s very common theme for people who are far into adulthood, who have been out of school forever.”
Barrett also has a theory as to why these dreams are so common that draws on human evolutionary history. Humans are Earth’s most dominant species — but not because we are the smartest or the strongest or the fastest. Humans have mastered technology and settled on all seven continents because we are the world’s best social learners. The expression may go, “monkey see, monkey do,” but it is humans who are far better at copying the behavior of our most successful peers so that we too can be successful.
Barrett believes that this need to learn skills from authority figures is what drives our college exam nightmares. “Even though physical survival is not necessarily in question for many people,” Barrett told Conaboy, “certainly, what is taught in school are skills that are necessary to do well in life.” If a bad dream helps you redouble your efforts to study harder or put more work into the editorial you are writing, then that can help you survive in the modern world.
So, what to do when you are having these dreams? Barrett recommends “you revisualize a positive ending.” When you just awaken from such a dream, reimagine the scenario again, but this time with a successful outcome.
“Although that seems to be just changing the outcome of the dream, it will actually change your mindset, whatever the situation is in your life you’re responding too.”
Does this solution work? I don’t know. But I’m sure I’ll have another one of these dreams, and I’ll be sure to report back.
