Disconnect From Your Work Worries

Dreaming About Your Work? Or, Are Your Work Worries Keeping You Awake?

Are you dreaming about your workplace during your sleep hours? Or, are your work worries giving you insomnia? You must have forgotten to shake off the "work-dust" before going to bed.

Dreaming isn't the best way to bring your work home with you. If you must bring your work home with you, keep it confined to paperwork tucked out of sight inside your briefcase. No one needs job-thoughts cluttering up his psyche. Everyone has probably dreamt about their work at one time or another. For me, it has always been frustrating to wake up from a "work-related" dream only to realize that it was time to get out of bed, get dressed, and head off to another day at my job. Where's the rest?

What Is Your Work-Anxiety Dream Telling You?

Dreaming about your job is far from restful. And unless you are one of those rare individuals who loves your job the dream is probably anxiety driven. Something upsetting must be going on at work that you were unable to "disconnect" from before entering your personal space. The dream is a message that it is time to bring a better balance into your living. It is important to have well defined boundaries between your personal life and your work life.

The worst on-the-job dream I ever had was when I was in my twenties. I was employed as a meat-wrapper at a meat counter in a supermarket. The pork ribs had been on sale that day and I had probably wrapped up at least fifty orders for customers. Each order had to be double-wrapped because the boney ribs would rip through the first layer of butcher paper. That night, in my exhaustion, I found myself double-wrapping pork ribs during my dream state (or rather in my nightmare).

I always envied the coworkers who could easily leave their work day behind them at the punch of the time card. Oh, I punched a time card just like everyone else did from that office. But the only thing that I left behind me was the card that got punched. I had a difficult time dumping from my mind any duties left unfinished on my desk that day that I would be facing the next morning at work. It took more that stepping outside of that building to get work off of my mind.

Disconnect: Shaking off the "Work-Dust"

I soon learned that the best way for me to shake off any work anxiousness after returning home would be to take a quick shower or indulge in a more-lingering bathtub soak. Afterwards, I would put on some comfortable clothing and head off to the kitchen to begin preparing supper for my family. I simply could not jump right from work into the home without that ritual of washing off the "work-dust."

On days when a bath or shower before supper were out of the question because of hectic family schedules I would sense a stressful tightness creeping into my neck and shoulders throughout the evening. Before retiring to bed each evening, I made certain that my delayed bath ritual would eventually take place to ease those tightened muscles. Having this alone time for myself helped me to unwind and release any lingering thoughts about things left undone at the office that would need my attention later.

Although a cleansing bath works for me, I realize that a bath or shower isn't the answer for shaking of the "work-dust" for everyone. I know of one man who rides the city bus to work each day. He makes it a habit of getting off the bus two stops earlier on his return ride home. This enables him to walk off his "work-dust." A few blocks of walking amidst the fresh air helps him transition from work to home.

Even though I no longer work at an office outside of my home, I will occasionally revisit my old workplace during my slumber. What a relief to wake up and realize that I haven't worked at that place in years. But it does make me wonder why that particular dream theme has surfaced. My best guess is that a message is being conveyed to me that my work/personal boundaries are getting blurred.