When I was a kid, I used to get bouts of asthma, which kept me awake, or just on the edge of sleep for hours, gasping for breath. I would have terrible frustration dreams, I remenber one where I was buried under a mountain of pots and pans and couldn’t find my way out, and another where I was embedded in an enormous vat of spaghetti, and could find my way out.

The asthma eventually went away, it hasn’t bothered me in decades. I know its what killed my father, he was allergic to some kind of pollen that gave him terrible attacks. It eventually gave him cardiac arrest.

Whatever it was that he was allergic to only bothered him in Cuba and in Florida. He lived for years in New York City in perfect health, and served in the jungle in Burma in WWII and it never affected him there, either.

I don’t know Fortran so I guess my equivalent is to dream that I am doing simple to complex mathematical calculations in my head. This is my version of a frustration dream since I invariably lose track of the calculation and have to start over. When this happens my only salvation is to wake up, otherwise I am caught in a loop.

When I played computer games excessively a few years ago, a version of this dream was computer keystrokes instead of calculations.

Otherwise, like you my dreams are usually pleasant. They often involve work, either going back to work or as if I had never stopped.

When I was still working occasionally and I was involved with coaching football, I didn’t have these dreams so often and retirement was great. Not so much since my back problems ended my coaching and I am fully retired. It kind of sucks.

I also have bouts of insomnia and tend to get my nights and days messed up. I often stay awake until the wee hours and sleep late.

The “complex task” dreams you describe I call “frustration dreams”. They are the psychological equivalent of assembling a piece of furniture when the instructions are written in Danish, and one vital part not mentioned in the brochure is missing.

One interesting dream phenomenon I’ve noticed lately is that I will suddenly find myself in a place (a room, house, or geographical location) that I visited in a previous dream months earlier.

And no, It is not a real place in the real world. It is a location that exists only in dream space.

Most of my dreams involve some complex or difficult task I’m supposed to be doing.

Some dreams I remember clearly the whole day. Others vanish from my memory when I wake up. Interestingly, if I happen to recall one scene later on, the rest of them will often come cascading back into my memory.

I don’t know what dreams actually do, but I’ve always imagined it as the brain’s equivalent of de-fragmenting its hard drive, and what you’re seeing is the pieces going by as they’re rearranged.