As we sleep, our unconscious mind often reflects on the things which we are unable to or unwilling to face during the day. And since we spend a big chunk of our waking lives at work—and given that we are often unable to express our true emotions in professional settings—it should come as no surprise that work-related dreams are incredibly common.

While some of these dreams are just a way of mentally processing the events of the day, others may be warning that it’s time to take bold action to change our circumstances—or even our jobs. “A lot of our dreams, the root cause of them is not being able to make sense of our emotions in the workplace,” explains dream psychologist Ian Wallace. “We dream to process our emotions, and in the workplace we often are encouraged to—or feel we have to—wear emotional masks, so we can’t show how we really feel.”

Wallace, who published a book titled The Top 100 Dreams: The Dreams That We All Have and What They Really Mean, says that many of the most common dreams are related to work or career growth—even those that don’t feature the workplace or related symbols or characters. At the same time, those that do take place in an office or feature colleagues may have nothing to do with our professional lives.

Instead of being taken literally, he says dreams can often make us more aware of our ambitions, anxieties, fears and limitations, and help guide us toward addressing those uncomfortable questions we may be avoiding in our waking lives. Here are some of the most common dreams that can provide insight into our careers, and the difficult questions we may want to ask ourselves upon waking:

Being Chased

The most common dream identified in Wallace’s research is the feeling of being chased, which he says commonly occurs when we’re pursuing something in our careers, such as a promotion, a project, or even just the knowledge that our contributions are valued. “You feel like you’re chasing something, but in reality, you are being prevented from achieving something you’re pursuing in your work life,” he says. “For that dream I would ask what ambitions are you pursuing in your work or your career? What is preventing you from what you’d like to do?”

One variation of the being chased dream that is especially common among younger workers or those in lower level roles involves being chased by zombies. According to Wallace, the undead represent the mindlessness of a job that doesn’t spark their creativity, or utilize their true talents. “It often happens to someone who’s in a job that involves mind-numbing tasks that feel like they’re draining the life from you,” he says. “What you need to do with this dream is think about whether you need to move on and use your creativity someplace else, because what you’re doing now is soul-destroying.”

Losing your teeth

The second most common dream involves teeth, specifically having them fall out or rot away. Wallace says this dream harkens back to the shared experience of losing our teeth as children and is closely connected with the emotions that typically inspire us to show our teeth, namely happiness and aggression.

“When we dream that our teeth are falling out, there is a situation, often in the workplace, where we feel we don’t have the power or the confidence to achieve or decide what we want to do,” he says. “If you have this dream, you may need to be more confident or more powerful in the workplace, which is very easy to say, but what actions might we take? How might you show up more powerfully? Where can you assert yourself? Where can you be smiling and persuasive?”

Showing up to the office naked

One of the most common work-related dreams, according to Wallace, involves showing up to work naked, which he says relates back to the emotional cloaking that many feel is necessary in professional settings. “If we dream that we are naked in public—and it’s usually in a workplace environment—then we’re feeling vulnerable that people can see the real us, beyond that protective barrier that we have created,” he says. “The reality of it is if we want to get ahead in an organization, we really have to open up and show people who we really are, because sometimes we have to give people the naked truth, our authentic selves, as a way to build trust.”

Forgetting to study for an exam

It’s not uncommon to show up to a familiar classroom and feel overcome with dread at the realization that you’re unprepared for a big test, only to wake up and remember you graduated long ago. According to Wallace, the classic “forgot to study” dream is especially common among high achievers and perfectionists. “It has nothing to do with other people being critical of you, or examining you, or judging you—it’s all about you judging yourself, and being overly self-critical,” he says. “You’re probably trying to achieve perfection, and when you don’t, you give yourself a really hard time, so rather than being self-critical, what you really need to do is celebrate what you’ve accomplished so far, and understand what makes you most happy and fulfilled in life.”

Failure to Launch

One common theme that shows itself in many forms in dreams is an ability to physically ascend. That could take the form of an airplane that won’t take off, an elevator that can’t go up, or a chairlift that’s stuck dangling in place.

"Running late in dreams is really common for people who are up against deadlines at work, particularly if you’ve lost your car, or the car won’t start, these are usually about losing your motivation, your drive.” According to Wallace, such dreams often become more frequent with age and experience, especially among those that have had to give up a part of themselves in pursuit of their career goals. “Later on in life, and in careers, people dream that they can’t find their car, that they’ve parked it some place, and when they go back, the car is gone,” he says. “That suggests they parked some ambition in life and they’re trying to find their way back to it, to start it up again.”