I love dreams that scare you so much you wake up petrified, afraid to fall back asleep. I suppose that's why I almost never have them. In fact I can't recall experiencing one in years.
For too many years, mine tended to center on my final days in the military, my actual retirement day, or a day or two immediately afterward. What happened was that (in my dream) I realized I was about to retire (or had recently retired) but had not yet begun any sort of out-processing or packing, nor made arrangements for my future. The dream basically consisted of me thinking, "Oh no! What am I gonna do?!?!"
I hate those! Thankfully, they ceased some years ago.
But what I wanna relate is my best remembered dream. Not a favorite mind you, just one that has never left my mind. As best I recall, it occurred during my final years in the military, sometime between 1988 and 1992, certainly no earlier than 1985.
Details of the early portions of this dream are lost but consisted, as did many back then, of my squadron on tour, traveling by bus. At some point the bus parked. We disembarked. For whatever reason I entered a very large building and explored its many dimly lit corridors.
This went on some time. No one was seen, nor any sound heard. I eventually entered a very large, low ceilinged (standard 8'), room. Weak overhead florescent fixtures provided what little lighting was available. Walls, from what could be discerned in the dimness, were white or off-white, as was the linoleum-tiled floor. The room was barren save for one small utility desk with a chair at its side.
At this point my dream-self knew I wasn't feeling well and that this was some sort of medical facility I'd come to for treatment. I sat in the chair. A medical assistant in white coat entered. He asked me to tilt my head toward the ceiling. I did so. He dipped two cotton swabs in what I knew to be ether and shoved one up each of my nostrils. He instructed me not to move and left the room.
The next ten or more dream-minutes were spent alone in the large dimly lit room with my head tilted toward the ceiling and those swabs up my nose. The smell was overbearing. Absolutely nothing else occurred.
I heard the door open, glanced toward it with my eyes (keeping my head tilted up), and saw the assistant stick his head in the room. He then said, and this is an exact quote, "Would you hurry up?!?!?", closed the door, and was never seen again.
I spent another ten or so dream-minutes by myself in the large dimly lit room with my head titled toward the ceiling with those ether-soaked swabs up my nose. Absolute nothing else occurred.
I woke up.