I'm walking along the street in front of my house, and see a dead man in the street. There are some strangers in the street, and they see him also. Having never experienced this before (in real life as well as in the dream), I figure that I should probably report this to someone, and guess that I should call 999 (emergency). I'm not totally sure if this would count as an emergency, but then I convince myself that this would probably be considered an emergency, even though the person is already dead and there's nothing that can be done about it, because the police need to get to the scene as soon as possible. I go home and go to my phone, which is my office phone (in the dream I mix up my house and my office a bit), but is a tiny bit different than my regular office phone because in the dream I have gotten a new phone.

I dial 999, but I have trouble hearing the person on the other end. I can hear a few words, but not much. In waking life, I've had intermittent hearing problems and haven't been able to hear well through my office phone, which I've dealt with by turning on speaker phone. This time, in the dream, however, I decide to just try to figure out what the person is saying. I surmise that she is transferring me to another non-emergency number and I find myself being put through to another line.

The next thing I know, there is some kind of form in front of me that I have to fill out, and I'm surprised that finding dead bodies is considered so commonplace that there is some bureaucratic form you have to fill out. In real life, I live somewhere where the crime rate is pretty low. If this really happened, it would be on the front page of the local newspaper.

I've had nightmares like this where I'm trying to get through to report an emergency and put through a runaround. One was my mother and I were in a blizzard and went off the road. My mother was hurt and I made it to a phone booth (this was before cell phones were so common) and I called emergency and put on hold. Then a recording came on and started telling me the result winners of the Academy Awards. I'm yelling "No, I don't want that! We need help!" I try the number again and am told to deposit money, which I don't have...

I woke up frustrated and anxious.

I think dreams like this are a result of feeling overwhelmed and having no control, or trying to have control with no success.

"Dead body" could possibly be a metaphor for something that you, but not everyone, considers shocking or otherwise unusual. This is counteracted somewhat by the fact that the strangers you do not know also acknowledge the man lying there. But think again -- you are calling the emergency number yourself, and you are not even sure if it is a "true emergency" or not.

Not being able to communicate very well could be a refference to, as you say it happens in waking life, communication problems. In this case, in regards to authority/superiors (after all, do not we consider police to be an "authority" of sorts?). The fact that ultimately you have to fill a form could be you acknowledging that they do not consider your problem, whatever it may be, an issue of importance. Thus this dismiss it as an everyday task.

I like these explanations.To clarify, there was nothing scary about the dead body. It was just "a guy". I'm not even sure how I knew he was dead, but I did, and so did the other people.