Last week, we asked you to send us your election panic dreams. Many, many of you complied. But then dozens more came in, and we're now up to 139 panic dreams and counting.
A panic dream can be defined pretty broadly, from a specific nightmare to "the last year and a half of our lives." But most of you responded with simple, terrifying, dreams, of Trump, of Hillary, of nukes, egg babies, and post-apocalyptic scenarios. Below are more of them for your reading pleasure and also, possibly, as one last reminder to go vote.
Sadistic Trump
Dinner with Donald
Trump was my dinner date for some crazy reason. He kept scratching my arm with his fingernails and asking (hopefully) if it hurt.
"Wrong"
I'm diagnosed with PTSD. My dream was about an actual time when a man held a gun in my face, and when I escaped being held hostage, I was fired at and hunted. That part of the dream ended, and the rest was fictional but relevant to this survey. In flight, the police apprehended me and forced me to confess to raping a minor. Donald Trump interrupted me saying, "wrong," every time I tried to explain myself.
Murder
My dream was similar to It Follows, with a twist. I was in a group and a naked woman figure, not Clinton, but clearly demonic, was stalking us. Among the group was Trump who offered us safety in a secured penthouse. Once he realized that his act of kindness threatened his cache of food and supplies, he began to brutally murder members of the group, one by one. I don't remember my fate, but I probably opted for diving off the roof.
Metaphors
The Couple
I am with a couple, like my parents. It's a terrible situation - the man is an alcoholic, mean, has outbursts, threatens. I am an adult and I am trying to escape the horrible situation. I keep telling myself that either I'm leaving at nightfall when I can sneak out, or that if it happens one more time I'm leaving. I have to carefully plan my escape because he controls the money, and threatens me if I do anything against his ways. I'm determined to leave, and believe I'm smart enough and strong enough - but there are so many obstacles! The woman is trying to convince me that it's not so bad, we have to do what he says because he's right. I wake up feeling trapped, hopeless. The man represents Trump and the woman represents Republicans.
Puppets
It was like the tv show the walking dead except they were puppets and Donald Trump was pulling their strings
The Dog
I was sleeping on my living room couch due to back issues, and I dreamed that a big dog was behind a neighbor's fence-- really huge, sort of dark gray and white, built like a bulldog but as big as a real bull. It was growling and barking very loudly; there was a large poster of Trump's face on the fence it was behind, and I could see the dog's face every time it shoved at the gate-- the fence would wobble and the gate would shudder, and I was afraid the gate would break and the dog would come out.
Every time the dog made the fence move, the poster looked more and more like the dog (or vice versa, I don't know.) I jerked awake with a yelp, and it turned out that the "barking" was the sound of my apartment complex's maintenance guys working on my gas-meter right outside my front door-- they were digging, and the sounds of the shovel sounded like barking (I guess.) But man, I was sweating and my heart was beating hard!
The Hunt
I have been having recurring nightmares for the last three months about Donald Trump. In my dreams, I am in possession of information that will completely disqualify Donald Trump for becoming president. Somehow, he and his minions have learned I have this information and are pursuing me. Though the locations vary, I am always being chased, having to hide, trying to get away, etc.
I'm not sure why I'm having these nightmares other than the fact that the prospect of his presidency scares the absolute crap out of me. … Some days the nightmares haunt me all day long. Other days my unease passes before the morning, but I still dread the dreams and hope they cease after November 8th.
Trump in Cuffs
The other week, I had a dream where I was backstage watching Donald Trump deliver a speech on stage to his supporters. In the middle of the speech, a group of elite policemen (dressed in all black, face masks, no identification) rushed the stage to arrest Trump. He started yelling and cursing as they handcuffed him, his face getting orangier, and his supporters started rioting. A few people in the audience, including myself, started to laugh hysterically. When I woke up, I started checking the news to see if he had actually been arrested, and was deeply disappointed to find out he had not.
Double Trouble
Judgment
I had only one "election" dream of late, and both Clinton and Trump were in it. Clinton was chastising me for not being honest (not sure regarding what) and Trump look disapprovingly at me for listening to her berate me. All in all, this is one of my more tame dreams of recent weeks!
Family Vacation
First my mom's boss invited Donald Trump to stay with my family for a week to see how regular people lived. He insulted my mom's cooking so my dad decided we were going to be the grossest most unclean people ever. The more grossed out trump became the orange he turned until he finally blew up like the aunt in harry potter. Later I had to go to a banquet with hillary Clinton for extra credit but all she wanted to do was talk about her ugly grandson who was a stereotypical gray alien and also her new cape cod vacation home
Peeing and Farting
In real life I am an older woman with all the physical "frailties" that entails. My daughter teases me about my farting and having to wear "pee pads" for incontinence. I have been having a recurring dream that I can't decide who to vote for as all the candidates are dreadful. In my dream, I am in line at the polling station and have a brilliant idea. I decide that when I get to the booth that if I pee I will vote for Trump and if I fart I will vote for Clinton. I always wake up before finding out what my decision is.
Bernie!
The dream was candidates around a roasting pig, and Bernie was running through the woods.
Sad Hillary
It was very simple but very upsetting. It was Hillary Clinton in a room that looked like a library, and she was crying. There was nobody else there, not Bill, not Donald, not even me, it was just Hillary, crying alone in a library. I can see it very clearly still, her on a chair, at a table, wiping away the tears on her sleeve. She's always so composed, so to see her broken down, sobbing, it was so disturbing to see that it woke me up. And when I woke up I was crying, too.
Scary Hillary
Hillary KILLED everyone who didn't vote for her.
Hanging with Bill
I was hanging out in a small theater with the Clintons and an animal trainer was showing us all some large cats (small tiger, jaguars, leopards, etc). I enjoyed my time with Bill and the event died down and only Hillary and I were left. I thanked Hillary for the invite, and she told me I could stay over if I wanted, and that my wife said it was okay. I woke up and took a valium.
JFK
I had a dream that JFK was sitting on a couch in a cheap hotel room watching the election coverage. He looked tired... I think there was a dog there too.
Just Strange
I discovered a secret bank in the basement of my mother's old house. A teller (a man) informed me it was time to claim the inheritance my Arab ancestors left here for me ages ago. The teller lead me through a quaint wood-paneled room to a window. On the other side was a quaint Mediterranean oasis with a glistening pond and a litter of Swedish kittens romping around in verdant tufts of grass. The Swedish kittens, the teller told me, were my inheritance, and their names were Nelse, Else, Alfred and Gary.
I decided to just take Nelse and hand off the rest of the litter to family. Almost immediately after making the decision, Nelse started acting out of pocket pretending to drown in the pond. The basement oasis was quickly becoming a hellscape. Then, as I turned to the teller (now a woman) to ask her why sweet white Swedish kitten Nelse was being real extra, the teller pulled some deep shit from the darkest corners of my subconscious and laid it on me real thick: "Because she knows that now, she'll never have the perfect white life she was promised."
Egg Babies
I had a dream that the debate process in elections had been replaced with a sort of egg baby challenge, in which both candidates had to prove that they were responsible by caring for a weird, tiny, alien baby for a month. In the dream, I was an investigative reporter, and I published an article proving that Trump had eaten his original weird tiny baby, and that the baby he was carrying around at rallies was actually a replacement. In response, Trump gave a press conference, admitting to having eaten the original baby and saying he didn't care. He then ate his replacement baby live, on camera, while his supporters cheered.
Riots
The Bonfire
My family and I were waiting in line to at our polling location. There were large groups of white men and women standing around looking at the people in line to vote with suspicion clear on their faces. My husband whispered to me not to tell them who I was voting for. And to be as nice as possible to them.
Suddenly, in line ahead of us, I saw one of the women from the group grab an African American women that I know from the local YMCA and violently pull her out of line. I ran up to them and pulled the women off of my acquaintance and told her to leave in a very teacher-like way. But, that's when things went really bad and weird. Men from the group dragged the woman I know away into the crowd, which appeared to have gained a giant bonfire in the middle.
When I turned around, the mob had my husband on the ground and they were grabbing at my children. They knocked the stroller over with my baby still in it while they pulled my kicking preschooler out of his seat. I tried to run to them, but my whole body felt like it was being held back by a force, like running through a strong current in water. Over a blaring radio in the parking lot, I heard Hillary making her acceptance speech, she was cut off by the radio announcer, who immediately called for those listening to riot.
Then, everything went dark , but I knew the mob was still there. Out of the darkness around the mob, the face of an old friend leered at me and lunged toward my face. He appeared lit in a dark orange light. I woke up with a start and couldn't get back to sleep for a long time.
Polls on Fire
I was waiting in line to vote, and militia men set poll booths on fire, which then escalated to self immolation.
The Reaper
Everything is chaotic people everywhere are trying to leave or hide and Trump ambles among people cutting them down like blades of high grass destroying everything in his path... never actually seeing the visual destruction but knowing it is happening . Just knowing creepy…
Nukes
World War III
He wins. WWIII begins. Mushroom Clouds everywhere.
It all ends with the bomb
My panic dreams are usually about personal problems, but now every one of them ends with nuclear war. I had nuke nightmares for a couple of years after 9/11 and now they're back.
Demons
I dreamed Donald Trump won and it tore a hole in the fabric of the universe, and terrible evil demons came pouring out. They looked like a Breughel painting.
Post-apocalyptic
The Face on the Poster
Another dream: I live in a small state near the American border, so we have BP all over the place. In my dream, the agents take over the state and my neighbors and family become pawns of the state. The dream is vague, but there is a strong feeling of dystopia. We begin to rebel, and just as we start to fight I wake up. …. . In the background of the dream, I saw abstract posters of a man whose face resembled Donald Trump.
"Everything's fine"
I have been having absolutely non-stop apocalypse dreams. I tend to have nightmares most of the time (overactive imagination and I'm really into horror, so, y'know)—but these have been much more persistent, and marked by something different: everybody in these dreams is denying society is ending and trying to pretend like everything is normal. I'm pleading with people to notice what's happening, but everybody thinks it's not as big of a deal as I do, until it's too late.
Mad Max
I was scavenging a landfill in what appeared to be a post-apocalyptic scenario. My companions and I were ambushed by horribly rusted military robots, like Mad Max versions of the Boston Dynamics Big Dog, and it became apparent we'd been betrayed by one of our own. I confronted the traitor as we fled, and realized that he had Donald Trump's face. Infuriated, I pushed him to the ground and beat his clay-red face with my bare fists until it was unrecognizable, while the face jeered and laughed at me. What woke me up was the horror of hearing my grandfather's voice from behind me, crying and begging me to stop.
Real Consequences
Persecution
I had a dream where essentially gay rights were set back to the way they were pre-stonewall and that my husband and I were actually persecuted to the point we were having to defend our house against home invaders trying to hurt us.
Stay Out
I was trying to return to the US, Trump is president and there are photos of him everywhere. A white male border patrol agent is looking at my passport and back at me. I keep think he probably voted for Trump. He asks me why I left the US? I race through responses angry I've been asked this question. He keeps tapping on his computer and then tells me I can not enter the country because I could be threat. I'm desperate and panicked-- I don't belong anywhere.