Thread: Recurrent nightmares about leaving my bicycle behind and it being stolen

Hi, I'm Shane,
Before I describe my nightmare I should probably start with a little about myself...
I'm a 22 year old male and I'm no stranger to recurrent dreams; I had recurrent dreams very often as a teenager,
but not for at least three years - In fact I barely ever dream any more, which probably has something to do with
struggling to get to sleep until 4-5am and sleeping through until 2-3pm...An improvement considering I used to sleep from 7am - 6-7pm and being extremely difficult to wake up.

I don't work, Instead I care for my younger brothers while my mum goes to work as our fathers have been absent from a young age. I have no interest in working, as I feel that the government steals too much of a monthly wage, which is low enough as it is. I don't much care for myself, the only reason I maintain myself is to set as much of an example to my brothers as possible.

More in relation to the dream, six years ago I worked every sunday cash in hand at a night shop stacking shelves, watching CCTV and standing at the door to prevent shoplifters, earning £25 per 8 hour shift (Partly for the pocket money and partly as a favour for a friend). At first i'd blow the money on food, beers and general weekend party supplies (i've always been rubbish with money), but then mum found out and put her foot down and said I either stop drinking and...consuming party supplies...as I was underage, or stop working there as she wasn't happy with the job anyway. I chose the first option and instead saved £250 and bought a rockrider 5.0, my best bike at the time as I'd always put my bikes together out of broken/second hand bikes. I had the bike for 4 months before I had a pretty realistic dream a few nights in a row that my bike disappeared from outside my house. I thought nothing of it, as i'd had recurring dreams before and they were usually meaningless...the dreams stopped and i forgot about them.

About two weeks later I woke up, took the rubbish out and my chain was in three pieces in a line on the floor and my D-lock was in the road in two pieces with brick marks on it, the bike was gone. I even had CCTV footage of two people in hoods, faces covered, sawing at my chain for 20 minutes until it came apart, then sawing it again, probably to take the mick. They then lifted it over the fence and wheeled it away with the D-lock still on the front wheel. I went mad, grabbed a metal weight bar and stuffed it in my bag and stormed around the whole area asking people if they've seen it, looking over people's garden fences and, eventually, took out the metal bar and smashed a bin to pieces before giving up and going home. For the next couple of months i made myself ill watching the footage on repeat, desperately but fruitlessly trying to find anything identifiable about the hooded figures, constantly googling rockriders and mountain bikes for sale using any and every search term and spelling mistake possible...no joy. I put up internet ads, looked up known bike thieves in the area etc etc and became obsessed. I didn't get on a bike again for two years despite the fact that i've always been very sentimental about them, considering it a part of myself. When I eventually did I wouldn't spend more than £50 on it.

Last year, I broke that cycle (No pun intended) and with inheritance from my late grandad I bought a Carrera for £450.
I've grown pretty attached to it, I now have a bike shed with a padlock and a combi lock, and inside, the bike is secured to another frame and a couple of old wheels by two chains, a combi D-lock, an alarmed padlock and a longer wire lock to secure the wheels to the frame, i've also added two CCTV cameras focused on the shed. It's a pain in the -- to unlock and lock again but it puts me at ease.

Now to the dreams. They're very similar, but not the same dream like the others.

Just the other night I dreamt that I rode to my friend's house, we sat on a bench outside and talked with the bike leaned up against it, I don't recall what we spoke about. Suddenly i'm on the bus home, and after a very brief bus journey I arrive outside my house...I don't know why because the bus doesn't stop there. As I put my key in the door I see my bike key and remember my bike is leaned up against the bench. I try to ring my friend but my phone won't unlock, so i run, almost immediately arriving at the empty bench with no sign of the bike. It felt so real, the dropping feeling in my stomach, the anger at myself and whoever took the bike. I knock on my friend's door and he's just as shocked as I am that i left my bike behind, then I wake up, still angry, sweating and I shot straight to the bike shed to find it still securely locked with all the locks intact.

This morning, I went to sleep at 6am and was woken up at 7 by mum getting the kids ready for holiday school, but I managed to get back to sleep, probably within fifteen minutes.

The dream starts with a stranger knocking on the door, I get out of bed and open the door, it's a shabby looking man and a woman with a child standing behind him, asking why I stole his doctors appointment and saying he won't get another one for weeks now (I don't steal, haven't done, and I haven't been to the doctors since I was seventeen and they tried to give me hayfever tablets to help me sleep, let alone stolen a doctors appointment).

Confused, I tell him that, then the door is somehow closed, so I go to the kitchen and put the kettle on, for some reason I walk down the garden past the bike shed, before noticing the top latch has been snapped off, the padlock locks are nowhere to be seen and the door is slightly ajar, I don't open it but I can see through the gap that the bike isn't there. I feel the dropping feeling in my stomach and (thought) I woke up...this time I get up and go straight into the garden to check the shed. It's locked, but the bottom of the door has been smashed to pieces and the bike is gone again. I feel the dropping feeling, the anger and I kicked the garden table over before noticing the CCTV cameras are also gone, but the brackets that support them are still fixed to the wall. Then I (thought I) woke up again, this time it's 11pm but still broad daylight, i've not picked my brothers up from school. I pinched myself to ensure I was awake and I felt the pain, I check the bike shed and this time both locks are gone, the doors are wide open and the bike locks are on the floor of the shed, some broken and some still locked and intact, The bike is gone again but the cameras are still focused on the shed, this time I get the dropping feeling but no anger, I go inside and my mum's having a go at me, I notice my laptop is missing from the table and the dropping feeling and anger are back, I ask where it is, but she says she's using it at the moment (which she never does). I feel better about that. I then go back into the garden, the cameras are facing each other and just as I look into the empty bike shed once more, I actually wake up this time with a start, mixed emotions, sweating all over, slightly shaken.

I got up for real this time, at 11:30am (insanely early for me) and I felt like it was all real, ran straight into the garden to see the cameras were in their usual place, the bike shed was secured as i always leave it and the bike still inside all chained up. A massive wave of relief swept over me, I felt dizzy and had to sit down on the grass for a minute, (probably got up too fast) before going back inside and making a coffee.

I don't even think the dreams about my last bike were as intense as these ones, and as i said, these were all different unlike the other where the dream was the same every time. I've read up a bunch of pages on google, but there's nothing that specific and none of the results were relatable to me.

Apologies for the length of the post, I felt like each detail was important and i'm quite anxious to find out what it could mean, I haven't stressed about losing my bike in ages...on the very rare occasions that i've dreamt before these ones, I couldn't remember them when I woke up, only knew that I'd had a fairly short dream, but in this case I think i've remembered the whole damned thing. After last night's dream i'm actually considering doing an all nighter, I don't want to feel like that again, but obviously I have responsibilities, and as capable as I am of staying awake for days at a time, I don't want to risk falling back into a bad habit and i'm pretty clumsy & distant after being awake all night, so I'll definitely try to sleep.

If someone could interpret this dream, i'd be most grateful, I know it's a lot to read and probably a jumble as i've jumped between past & present tense quite a lot...I did check through but I was more focused on re reading to make sure i've included all the details...If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask, and if you don't want to go near this post I really don't blame you.