Why do I dream about an exam I didn’t study for?

“What happens from one day to the next is maybe your brain saying… ‘I know this worries you, I know there are things to do. I’m working on it,'” the Oxford professor says.

In mid-2025, Oluwatosin, 17, will take so-called A-levels, the tests that precede the final stage of the UK higher education selection process.

And he knows that as that moment approaches he will have the same recurring nightmare.

Oluwatosin finds himself in an exam room, his math test is in front of him, but he got confused while reviewing statistics and mechanics, and the test is full of questions he hadn’t prepared for.

He wakes up sweaty and with a headache, relieved to discover that it was all just a dream.

It is not possible to know how common it is to have these types of nightmares, since not everyone remembers them.

But why do we have these dreams? And is there a way to avoid them?

Colin Espie, professor of sleep medicine at the University of Oxford, UK, explains that our brain is awake even when we sleep. It is busy consolidating the things we have learned, building our memories, and processing our emotions.

But it will also generate situations, which will give rise to what we know as dreams.

“We usually get some signals that our brain is processing information,” says Espie.

Dreams about exams, therefore, should help to “reassure” us, since they mean that all this learning is being done, even without us knowing it.

“What happens from one day to the next is maybe your brain saying… ‘I know this worries you, I know there are things to do. I’m working on it,'” the professor says.

“That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t study during the day. The brain can only consolidate the things we’re trying to learn.”

We may have a lot going on in our lives, so why might exams take center stage in our dreams?

“It’s very common to dream about something that’s threatening,” Espie explains. Just because something is threatening doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, he says, but it can mean it’s challenging – and exams are, almost by definition, challenging.

“Many people don’t look forward to exams, do they?”

“They’re on your mind during the day, and it shouldn’t surprise us that they’re on our mind at night.”

Dreams about exams are quite common, according to Espie. “Almost everyone” has these dreams, even if they don’t remember them.

“For some people, these dreams will not manifest in consciousness, and therefore you will not be aware of them.”

“For some, it will flare up a little more and it will be occasional. And for others, it will be a nightly problem.”

Emotional dreams

Zuhal, 19, always dreams of being late.

“I wake up two or three times before the alarm goes off to check the time,” he says. “I think… ‘I need to sleep another hour,’ but I can’t.”

For Professor Colin Espie, of Oxford, the explanation is “simple”.

“You can tell the time even while you sleep,” he says, adding that in the past, humans didn’t have smartphones or even watches.

Nightmares, the professor says, are emotional dreams, a sign that our feelings are being processed while we sleep.

Some can persist for years, including during exams.

They can sometimes be “triggered” by similar emotions and “feelings of impasse,” Espie says, although they can also occur randomly.

“Our brain classifies things,” he says.

“When people are faced with other difficult situations, they will reflect and think: ‘yes, I had something similar when I was at school taking exams’. So these dreams about exams may not be related to an exam itself, but to being tested in some way.

Slowing down (and how to go back to sleep)

So what can we do to avoid distressing dreams about exams?

Well, if you have exams coming up, Professor Colin Espie recommends having a good study schedule with regular breaks so you can “reassure yourself that you have a plan and you’re putting it into practice”.

And avoid studying intensely late at night.

“If you fall into bed with math formulas endlessly running through your head, there’s a good chance you’ll end up waking up with them still in your head in the middle of the night,” Espie says. “Give yourself some time to relax.”

You can also try to be more “understanding” with yourself when you wake up from a bad dream.

“Anxiety, in general, both night and day, tends to take the same form, which is ‘what if?’” says Professor Espie, who is also an expert on the relationship between dreams and mental health.

This is why you may dream of situations such as being late for an exam or not knowing any of the answers.

“We need to think about our response to this,” he says.

“If we asked ourselves this question, we’d probably think, ‘Well, then you’re screwed, right?’ But you would never tell anyone else.”

Rose, 19, doesn’t dream about exams – or doesn’t remember them – but the exams continue to disturb her sleep. She often stays up until 2 am.

The only solution he’s found so far is to look Rick and Morty, one of his favorite TV shows. “It reassures me [e me ajuda] fall asleep more easily,” he says.

Professor Colin Espie explains that it is impossible to “make” yourself sleep – you can only really fall asleep.

If you find yourself staring at the ceiling at 4 a.m., he recommends changing the way you look at it. Try to be relieved that you can sleep for another three hours, rather than worrying about not getting enough sleep before the exam.

If you can’t, take 10 minutes (without looking at your phone or clock to count) to allow yourself to go back to sleep.

What if you still can’t do it?

“Get out of bed for a while, until you feel sleepy again. Go back to bed and allow yourself to fall asleep, telling yourself it’s OK if you wake up in the middle of the night,” Espie advises. .

“Just don’t get into the vicious cycle of trying too hard.”

He states that if it is early in the morning, you will probably still need to sleep and sleep will come.

“Don’t overreact to events that happen during the night. Trust your sleep.”

Source: Terra

Ben

Ben Stock is a lifestyle journalist and author at Gossipify. He writes about topics such as health, wellness, travel, food and home decor. He provides practical advice and inspiration to improve well-being, keeps readers up to date with latest lifestyle news and trends, known for his engaging writing style, in-depth analysis and unique perspectives.