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.

dbl post.

Hi, Shane. I'd like to try to interpret your dreams, in a more general fashion.

You offered up a lot of useful information regarding your waking life, and I wanted to address some of that, because I feel that recurring dreams, or repeating similar dreams are often related to unresolved issues that we are struggling with in our daily lives.

You mentioned that you're 22 years old, you care for your siblings due to absent fathers but you don't practice self care with any intention other than setting an example for your siblings, you don't work because it isn't rewarding, you experience symptoms of insomnia such as falling asleep late, sleeping up to twelve hours at a time, and you don't recall your dreams very often. You also mentioned that when you got up after the last dream you described, that you had to sit down on the grass for a minute, because you felt dizzy. One other thing you mentioned that I think is important, is that you've always felt very sentimental to bikes, considering them to be a part of your self.

In general, I think that you are dreaming about your bike being stolen, because the bike represents your childhood, and you feel that it is being stolen from you as you have to care for your siblings, and set a good example for them in the wake of absent fathers. This is a huge responsibility for someone your age. I think it might be weighing on you, and that's why you are experiencing these dreams with similar themes, repeatedly. This issue remains unresolved.

As you describe your insomnia, lack of dream recall, lengthy sleep time, and general disinterest in self care and employment, I find myself suspecting that you're depressed. The lack of dream recall at your age is the main clue to depression. Most people experience a decline in dreaming as they age, but you're still pretty young, and yet rarely recall dreams. Further, the fact that you woke up sweating and had to sit on the grass for a minute after running outside because you felt dizzy, might not just be because you got up too fast.

Having depression (if you do) nightmares, night sweats, and feeling faint while in a fasting state are all signs of low blood sugar.

I don't mean to skip over all of the amazing details regarding the stolen bikes in your dreams, but we've been over the symbolism of that adequately, I think, and you can probably fill in the blanks yourself. To me the most interesting part is the opening of the final dream, where you greet a shabby man, woman, and child at the door. The man accuses you of stealing his doctor's appointment. You deny it, and the door (subject) is closed.

Shane, this family represents your future self, and life, I think. You actually have stolen a doctors appointment from your future self, since you have decided not to seek treatment for your sleep related issues.

The man and his family are shabby and neglected because you feel that you are neglecting your own health, and you're properly worried how that will affect your future.

For what it's worth, I think the moment in the final dream where your mother is "using" your laptop, represents her need to use you as a surrogate father figure for your siblings. The laptop represents your gateway to the outside world, and you may feel that your mother has hijacked that. You're maybe glad it's not completely vanished, you know you're useful to your mother, and she has a gateway to the outside world as she works and runs errands. But I think that you would feel even better than that if you could interact with the world more, and do less parenting type of activities; in other words, if you could use your own laptop.

If you think this interpretation sounds like it might be close to a description of your world and how you're feeling, I wonder if you might reconsider visiting the doctor, and talking to them about sleeping issues related to depression and low blood sugar. If you are struggling with low blood sugar, it can be difficult to sleep a normal amount of time due to lack of energy, but also dangerous to sleep for 12 hours. The nightmares and sweating could be the body's way of waking you before your blood sugar levels fall too low.

Best wishes.