Dreaming about being back in school: high school and college

Dreaming about being back in school: what it usually points to

Dream interpretation is not prediction and not diagnosis. This article separates what sleep research observes from what popular interpretation associates with the theme, always saying which is which.

Dreaming that you went back to school, that you are still in high school or that you never finished college is not a sign of failure, nor an order to enroll. The dream tends to show up in phases when a person feels evaluated all over again: a new position, a demanding boss, a civil service exam, the arrival of a child, a move to another city. School is the first place in life where we were measured, and the dream goes back there when that feeling repeats itself.

This article is about one specific variation: being back in the role of a student as an adult, or finding out that your studies were left halfway. The school setting in general is covered in dreaming about school; the exam scene, with being late or failing, has an article of its own.

Read also: Dreaming about being late or failing a test and Dreaming about graduation or college.

Why school comes back in adulthood

The continuity hypothesis, tested by Michael Schredl and Friedrich Hofmann in 2003, says that dreams follow what fills waking life. So it seems odd to dream about a school you left twenty years ago. But continuity also applies to worries: what comes back is not the school, it is the pressure. A meeting about targets, a driving test, the first month at a new job all have the same taste as the classroom.

The theme is part of typical dreams questionnaires. In the one that Tore Nielsen and colleagues gave to Canadian university students, in a study published in 2003, the profile of themes varied little across ages, sexes and regions. In 2014, Mathes, Schredl and Göritz published an online study on how often typical themes appear in people's most recent dreams, a sign that research keeps measuring how much of these classic plots shows up in everyday life, and not only in the memory of a whole lifetime.

There is also a very Brazilian reason. Many people in Brazil stopped studying early to work or to take care of the family, and the subject remains as unfinished business. For them, dreaming that they still have not finished school may be less a symbol and more a reminder of a real plan.

Sources: Schredl and Hofmann, Continuity between waking activities and dream activities, Consciousness and Cognition, 2003; Nielsen and colleagues, Dreaming, 2003; Mathes, Schredl and Göritz, Frequency of typical dream themes in most recent dreams, Dreaming, 2014.

Going back to school in a dream according to Freud, Jung and faith

In Freud's psychoanalysis. In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud notes that even doctors, university professors and office heads keep dreaming about the exams of their youth, and they protest while still asleep: but I already graduated! At first, he saw consolation in that protest. Later, he concluded that it also hides a reprimand, something like: you are old enough now and you still do foolish things. Freud described it as a blend of self-criticism and consolation. For anyone who dreams of being back in school, the useful question is: what am I demanding of myself right now?

In Jung's psychology. In Man and His Symbols, Marie-Louise von Franz describes the process of individuation, the slow growth of the personality over a lifetime. In a Jungian key, going back to school in a dream may point to a lesson left halfway that asks to be picked up again: learning to say no, to ask for help, to start over. It is a psychological reading, not an order to sign up for classes.

In symbols and faith. The book of Proverbs says that a wise person who receives instruction becomes wiser still (Proverbs 9:9): learning is a task for all of life, not just for youth. Ecclesiastes 12:12, for its part, admits frankly that much study wearies the body. For people of faith, the two passages balance the dream: the wish to learn is good, and tiredness deserves care too.

Bringing both readings together. Research explains why the classroom returns in times of pressure; Freud and Jung ask what was left unfinished; faith reminds us that learning has no age limit. None of these readings says you are going to fail.

Sources: Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900; Jung (ed.), Man and His Symbols.

Back-to-school scenes

If a teacher was at the center of the scene, read dreaming about a teacher; if you were carrying books, dreaming about books. When the school dream comes the night before a selection process, it often connects with dreaming about a job interview and dreaming about work or your boss. And if your classmates were the strongest part, see dreaming about someone you have not seen in years.

See also: Dreaming about an old job and Dreaming about cleaning the house.

When the school dream calls for attention

Most of the time, the dream goes away on its own. It deserves attention when it comes back many nights in a row, with strong distress, and the pressure continues while you are awake: a fear of making mistakes that holds up your work, insomnia before every new task. A psychologist can help separate today's demands from old ones. If it has become a frequent nightmare, see how to have fewer nightmares: they have treatment.

If the dream touched on a real wish, it can serve as a reminder to look at the subject during the day, calmly. People who stopped studying have formal paths in Brazil, such as Youth and Adult Education (EJA) and Encceja, a national exam that certifies elementary and high school completion; other countries have their own adult education and equivalency programs. The decision, however, comes from waking life, not from the dream.

Source: Morgenthaler and colleagues, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2018.

Dream books and going back to school

O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book by L. P. Baçan, has no entry for going back to school. The entry for study is encouraging: in life, good luck; in love, maturity. The idea of maturing fits, curiously, with Freud's reading about the blend of pressure and consolation.

Freud himself admitted the limits of these keys. About exam dreams, he wrote that what the dreamer tells is rarely enough to interpret them, and that only by gathering many examples can one get closer. If even he was cautious, a one-line entry deserves even more caution.

Sources: L. P. Baçan, O Livro dos Sonhos, 2014; Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900.

What folk tradition says about going back to school

In folk reading, dreaming that you went back to school is a sign of a lesson that life is teaching you; being in high school again, longing for your youth; not having finished your studies, unfinished business that asks to be closed; finishing the course in the dream, the end of a cycle. These are beliefs from tradition, to reflect on, and not predictions. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.