A nurse’s brain on sleep

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In a more perfect world, nurses would be exempt from any dreams that might cause discomfort. You know—given that a nurse’s waking life is so high-stress and all.

But, alas, nurses are visited by night terrors just as often as (if not more than) most.

So obviously, we figured we’d ask you to share.

And share you did, via our Funny Nurses Facebook page. Not surprisingly, just skimming the majority of your nightmares is enough to make anybody’s palms sweat. But don’t just take our written word for it—check out some real doozies we spotted below, and peace be with your subconscious minds!

1. “The patient you didn’t know was YOURS until you receive a call from the hospital asking what happened to him…literally my first dream after the first day I worked (40 years ago and I still remember it)!!!” —Corinne M.

2. “My nightmare I used to have frequently is that it wasn’t fair I had to bring one or two patients home with me!” —Brenda S.

3. “I used to dream that I REALIZED that I had double dosed the meds of ALL my patients!!!” —Mary B.

4. “I dream about being late to start medication rounds because there are obstacles in the way, and it gets quite stressful because I can see the end of my shift approaching and I’ve achieved nothing.” —Donna M. 

5. “Bed alarms…and I’m sprinting to them but I can’t reach them. Ever.” —Vanessa E.

6. “Several times I have woken up thinking I had fallen asleep in a patient’s bed, LOL. I wake up trying to sneak away in the dark and my husband is like, ‘What are you doing?'” —Melissa D.

7. “As a young nurse working in L&D, we had a real bad night where we just couldn’t get ahead of the babies. I went home and dreamed that all my patients were female gorillas and the babies were tiny Toyotas. After that dream I was actually glad to go back to work!” —Cathy D.

8. “Five Code Browns and the CNAs all called in to work.” —Allen

9. “How about hearing a partial obstructed airway and running in to suction, only to wake up hovering over your spouse—who is happily snoring away?” —Anne H. 

10. “I had a dream that the difficult wife of a very pleasant patient showed up at my apartment, walked right in the door as I was in the bathroom and said, ‘There’s something wrong with John!’ (She was at the nurses’ station every five minutes when we had her husband at our facility, LOL.)” —Nikki B.

11. “I don’t dream about work at all…LOL! I haven’t had a nightmare in a decade.” —Debbie D.

Have a horror story of your own? Share it with us in the comments section below!