You know that moment when you finally crawl into bed after a long day of emails, meetings, and trying to avoid Helen from HR? You’re ready for some well-earned sleep, so you pull up the duvet, close your eyes, and expect to be whisked away to dreamland.
But no... Instead of relaxing dreams of winning the lottery, or living in a cottage by the sea, your subconscious decides to put on a horror show that’s scarier than an unannounced meeting with your boss: the work-related nightmare. DUHN DUHN DUUUUUUUUHN!
These nocturnal terrors are more common than you’d think, with themes ranging from mild panic about missing deadlines, to full-blown office invasions involving evil PowerPoints and rogue printers. So, let’s dive into the absurd, the terrifying, and the downright ridiculous world of work-related nightmares, because, apparently, for some of us work isn’t content with ruining just our waking hours…
the "I forgot the deadline" panic attack
Ah, classic. You’re having a peaceful dream, perhaps you’re on a sunny beach, enjoying a piña colada without any rain whatsoever, when suddenly, a shadow looms over you. No, it’s not a seagull trying to nick your chips, it’s your boss. Except this time, they’re twelve feet tall, holding a massive calendar. They scowl down at you and scream, “WHERE IS THAT REPORT?!”
Cue instant panic.
Your brain does a series of backflips worthy of an Olympic gold, frantically trying to remember when the deadline was. Why you didn’t write the report?! Is it physically possible to draft a 30-page document using sand, a dead jellyfish, and a not inconsequential amount of sheer desperation? You wake up drenched in sweat, your heart pounding, absolutely convinced you’ve forgotten something crucial. It takes at least ten minutes before you remember that your actual deadline isn’t until next Tuesday. OR IS IT?!
Anyway… The seed of doubt has been planted, and now you’ll spend the next few days compulsively checking your calendar like a manic weatherman predicting Storm Shazza, or something.
In a recent survey, 12% of our 2,000 respondents admitted to having nightmares related to their worries about workloads or upcoming projects. So, while it might not prevent the resulting nightmares, it could help to know that you are not alone in this.
the meeting from hell (literally)
We all know meetings can be Dementor levels of soul-sucking sucky-ness, but in work-related nightmares, they go one step further, they literally drag you into hell. You find yourself in a boardroom, but instead of HR hero Helen, the people around the table are demons, grinning wickedly. The PowerPoint on the wall has 666 slides (a nice touch, we’re sure you’ll agree), and your presentation? Oh, it’s missing. Poof, vanished, never existed. Along with your soul… MWAHAHAHA!
Someone (probably Satan, maybe Sheila the cleaning lady, same difference) turns to you and says, “You’re up next, maggot.”
Panic sets in as you realise you’re about to present… nothing. You flip through blank slides, sweat pouring down your face as you try to blag your way through a presentation on "Synergy in Interdepartmental Workflow – An Analysis" a title so vague it’s practically meaningless. The demons around the table nod seriously, but you know. They know. You know they know. They know you know they know. This is your worst nightmare come to life. Which, if true, means you’ve probably lived quite a sheltered life. Moving on!
Eventually, you wake up, clutching your duvet like it’s the only lifeline to reality, realising you’ve just had a nightmare about PowerPoint. What have you become?
With a massive 23% of Brits who have suffered work-related nightmares centred around work failures or disasters, this nightmare scenario is one many of us have found ourselves in. Though the specifics might differ somewhat depending on your profession, the essence of the nightmare remains the same. Unfortunately!
the inescapable printer: a tale of terror
Few things in life are as frustrating as office printers. They’re notorious for breaking down at the worst possible moment, usually right before a big presentation. Now, imagine that printer, your old arch nemesis, invading your dreams.
In this nightmare, you’re standing in front of the office printer, which has suddenly grown arms, legs, and the unholy power of sentience. Every time you hit “print,” the machine lets out a mechanical laugh. The screen flashes “ERROR,” even though you’ve done everything right. You try to fix it. Is it a paper jam? No. Out of ink? No. Satan himself sabotaging it? Probably. Is it Sheila the cleaning lady again?! Definitely.
Desperation sets in. You beg the printer, offering up your lunch break, your soul, even the last biscuit in the tin, if it’ll just print one measly page. But no. The printer smirks at you, feeding on your misery, and then spits out an entire ream of paper with nothing but the word ‘HA.’ Written on it. It’s the stuff of nightmares. It really is.
You wake up in a cold sweat, swearing revenge on the office tech department, only to arrive at work and find that the printer is, in fact, out of order. Classic. You win Sheila… You always do.
the "I’m naked in the office" scenario
One of the most well-known types of nightmares, is the one where you suddenly find yourself naked in a public place. Now, take that scenario and move it to the office. Et voilà! Nightmare gold.
And trust us when we say this is not an uncommon nightmare to find yourself trapped in! 6% of our 2,000 survey respondents (that’s 120 people in total) admitted they’ve had this very nightmare!
In this charming work-related dream, you stroll into the office as usual. Everything is great, you found a parking space right near the front door, the weird carpet rug thing doesn’t curl up and trip you over when you walk in, you greet your colleagues, sit down at your desk, and suddenly realise, you’re as naked as the day you were born. Completely, gloriously unclothed, like some kind of corporate nudist. No one seems to notice at first, but then, slowly, people start looking. Helen from HR gasps dramatically, and Sheila the cleaning lady drops her mop. Nothing. I repeat, NOTHING makes Sheila drop her mop…
You desperately try to cover up with anything you can find, an A5 notepad, a half-used stack of novelty pastel shade post-it notes, a comedically small stapler, a pathetically withered juvenile spider plant, but it’s no use. The more you move, the more conspicuous you become. Your boss walks over and casually hands you a spreadsheet, saying, “I need this done by 5 PM.” You nod, mortified, trying to balance professionalism with the fact that you’re currently in your birthday suit.
Waking up from this one is always a relief, until you realise you have to actually go to work, fully clothed but emotionally scarred from the night before…
the infinite email loop
If you thought your inbox was bad during the day, wait until you experience it in nightmare form. In this dream, you’re sitting at your desk, staring at your inbox, which has reached an impossible number of unread emails, let’s say 10,000, just for fun. No matter how many emails you open and respond to, new ones flood in. It’s an endless wave of “as per my last email,” “just following up,” and “thank you in advance” messages that grow like weeds. But no amount of whacking will wither these wicked, worrisome things.
You try to delete a few, but double the number you erased come back. You attempt to file some into folders, but they rebel and return to the main inbox. Your colleagues keep CCing you into more and more conversations until you can’t breathe. Every email subject line feels like a new insult: “URGENT!!!,” “Quick Question (Not Really),” “Can you have this done by yesterday?” Eventually, the email chains start gaining sentience and begin replying to themselves, but always reply all… The torture is real.
You scream into the void, begging for help, but there’s no escape from this Sisyphean task. You wake up, rush to check your real inbox, and—of course—you’ve got actual emails waiting for you. The number is manageable, however. For now…
the never-ending commute
As if the actual commute isn’t bad enough, your brain decides to make it infinitely worse in your dreams. In this nightmare, you’re trying to get to work, but everything keeps going wrong. The train’s delayed, then it’s cancelled. Then the bus turns up, but it’s full and refuses to stop, but splashes a huge puddle that wasn’t there before, all over you. You attempt to walk, but suddenly you’re stuck in quicksand, or maybe you’re wading through knee-deep custard (dreams are weird yet delicious like that sometimes).
You keep looking at your watch, watching the time tick by, as your chances of arriving at work on time become more and more ludicrous. As you stare at the face of the watch, as each second ticks, your mind melts into the watch, expanding and dividing the space between the seconds into 60 more pieces each time. Every time you think you’re almost there, a new obstacle pops up; a detour, a freak tornado, a herd(?) of stampeding hedgehogs. Your feet are leaden, your stress levels are through the roof, and all you can think is, “I’m going to be late for the 9 AM meeting.”
Finally, you make it to the office, only to realise… you’re still in your pyjamas, you’ve forgotten to bring your laptop, and everyone is working from home today. Classic. Someone slowly drives past, the passenger rolls down the window, and plays sad trombone noises directly at you. Womp Womp…
Sound familiar? With 12% of Brits admitting to having nightmares about being late for work, this one will hit surprisingly close to home for some of you.
our conclusion: embrace the madness
Work-related nightmares are a cruel joke played by your brain—a reminder that not even your dreams are safe from the horrors of spreadsheets, email chains, and malfunctioning office equipment. But here’s the thing: if you can laugh at these absurd nocturnal scenarios, you might just make it through the day a little bit saner. Plus, sharing these with your colleagues is a great conversation starter, and hopefully they’ll share some of their work nightmares with you too!
So next time you wake up from a nightmare about accidentally forwarding a spam email offering escort services, to the entire company, just remember, it could be worse. At least you weren’t actually naked in the office.
Or were you? Until next time, eve Sleep.
