In November of 2022, I disclosed that I had never recalled dreaming about tennis when sleeping. I was shocked into that revelation by the number of times that novelist Scarlett Thomas mentioned that she dreamed of tennis “as usual” in her memoir 41-Love, which I had reviewed the previous week. It was very strange since I typically have vivid dreams and generally remember something about them in the morning.
That situation has recently changed. Over a two-week stretch at the end of last month, I had a dream about tennis almost every single night. However, that sudden surge of subconscious energy toward tennis has abated once again. I am genuinely mystified that I don’t normally dream about the sport. I am similarly unable to pinpoint what precipitated and ended that anomalous surge.
There wasn’t any obvious stressor or change in my engagement with the sport that corresponded to that time period. The only possible trigger I have come up with is the unusual number of rain-outs in our local USTA League play when those dreams were occurring. However, since I am not captaining any teams at the moment, that is only a minor inconvenience. Additionally, none of the dreams had anything to do with rainouts.
My first thought the next morning after experiencing that first tennis dream was a desire to circle back to that original post. That also instilled a confident belief that I had not dreamed about tennis in the intervening time as my conscious brain was obviously primed to make note of it and remember.
As a side note, there was even a new recurring theme that popped up at least four times during that run of tennis-related dreams. I have decided not to disclose the details of that because it might be a window too deep into my psyche.
When I wrote the original “Dreaming of Tennis” post, I concluded by asking if other players thought it weird that I didn’t recall ever dreaming about tennis. I also inquired if other players dream about tennis all the time, similar to Scarlett Thomas. I was genuinely disappointed that it didn’t generate any conversation along those lines. My curiosity about the tennis-related dreams that other players experience remains.
I used to dream about tennis consistently when I was newer to the sport and soaking it up like a sponge. Now I only dream about it occasionally.
If you want to dream about tennis, just make sure you are thinking about tennis as the last thing before you fall asleep. This was actually a tip given to me by my math competition coach in jr high. He had us think about the competition before we went to sleep. Remarkably effective and I am not sure how well known this is. Cheers
I often dream about tennis in the same way I used to dream about school. In my dreams, I can’t find my court, I forgot to bring my racquet, I am totally naked on the court, etc… I sometimes wake myself up, as my body goes for an overhead or hit my sleeping husband as I execute a groundstroke. Is that not normal!?!
Tennis often creeps into my dreams, but usually in a very weird way. I may be playing with people from other facets of my life who don’t even play tennis, playing on a super oversized court, playing without a racket, etc. No telling what a therapist would say about all of that! In general, my sleep is not very restful and that’s a real problem!