I used to have this nightmare that I had enrolled in a math class - a really hard one like differential equations as I recall - and then forgotten that I had enrolled. The semester would trickle by and I would attend not a single class. The material and assignments would pile up and all the students would do the work but me, since I had obviously forgotten. I would, in the back of my mind, sometimes feel like I was missing something but couldn't quite figure out what it was. And then the end of the semester would arrive and I would receive a note from the teacher that the final exam was coming up and if I didn't ace it I would fail. "Where have you been all semester?" the note would say. And I felt hopeless about the test and stupid for having forgotten - "How could I have been so careless?" I would ask myself.

In yet another dream I used to have - it takes place when I'm in middle school I believe - I could not find my way to the right classrooms. The middle school I attended (in reality) was housed in a huge old building with three floors and quite honestly you could get lost in there if you were a first-timer. I wasn't a first-timer but in my dream I couldn't remember where my classrooms were to save my life. So as a result I would end up in the wrong class or miss class entirely because I was too busy wandering the halls. I recall I didn't know my locker combo either so going to class may have been moot - I didn't have access to my materials. All of it felt incredibly frustrating. And then at the end of the semester I would have missed a bunch of classes and would be penalized by the teachers and at the risk of failing if I didn't make up for all the missed time.

This next one is really weird. A third dream I had once was of me sitting alone on a toilet in the middle of the back parking lot of my elementary school which was the place we had recess and PE. I would sit there, cold and embarrassed and unable to do anything and all the kids were playing around me. They weren't making fun at all - me on a toilet at recess was normal in my dream I guess. But I just couldn't figure out how I got there or why I was there - I just was. And I had to make the best of it because that's all I could do. So I just looked around at the kids playing, unable to get up because getting up off a toilet in front of a bunch of people would obviously be embarrassing, not to mention inappropriate.

I'm sure each of these dreams has some psychological aspect that implies I'm really screwed up but it turns out dreams like this are pretty normal and represent the manifestation of things you experience as students. The website Dream Moods has some interesting takes on what such dreams might mean - according to the site my dreams seem to fit into the buckets of "I failed the test" and "I'm naked!"

Dreams that fall into the former category can mean you feel like you're being scrutinized or are experiencing feelings of anxiety. They may also mean you feel unaccepted, unprepared or not good enough. And when you think about it being in school can make you feel these things. If you're a busy grad student for example you're bound to be so busy with so many things that you'll be unprepared sometimes. You'll feel anxiety by virtue of being in a new place with new people or in a new class with a new professor. You'll feel not good enough when a professor cold calls you and you blank.

Dreams in the "I'm naked!" category can mean feelings of vulnerability. Or, again, that you're unprepared. Or that some flaw will be brought to public attention. But, as Dream Moods says, and as my dream was, if nobody notices then your fears are unfounded. It's just you noticing. You're making an issue of nothing! Harder to get your head around but probably true nonetheless.

You can react in at least one of two ways to what I've written. 1. I'm a nut who has crazy deams and wrote about them here, or 2. You may not have these same dreams but have experienced these feelings as a student. To the latter I say, embrace it. You're a student who's there to be challenged and learn. Insecurities and anxiety are bound to accompany you. And by embracing it you'll not only feel better but also achieve more at the same time.